Sonic Foundry's 'ACID' is a hip-hop Jungle & breakbeat dream, a remix Nirvana, a radio-mix-tape compilers paradise,... any music where you want to build it with samples... this includes being able to make beats yourself with original drum samples to use with loops and longer bits of audio...
In essence ACID like MAKING-WAVES is a non-destructive digital multi-track... tracks can be effected in many ways down to super-tight edits in many areas, and the addition of digital FX such as delay/echo & reverbs as well as many many others from valve-sound-bass-enhancers to de-clickers for old vinyl make them very versatile.
So for example... You take a most basic disco remix .... To get a basic start going, you record from cd the original track... take the sections you want to build the track.... Maybe the new track is a 2 bar loop from a disco instrumental verse, repeated, leading to the bridge (if any) and into the chorus with various new drum patterns over the top and a cross bassline loop that comes in at a certian point from another cd....The chorus is done as a full loop of the actual cd chorus... ok....
You can then put the 4/4 or whatever KIk-drum pattern over the verse loop... add a hi-hat pattern.... you can create that hat pattern if you like from maybe 3,4,5, or however many different hat samples.... just use a track for each sample.... once you have the beat, you can mix it down in the digital domain into a single new stereo or mono loop... close the drum or just the hat tracks, and open up the newly-created loop .. simple !!.... or leave the drums seperate... whatever... you can do stuff like fade up rolls with a drum sample or whatever... just put in a row of snare sample at 16th intervals and do a fade up with the fader.... there's even an auto fade up and out etc...
Again for hip-hop, ACID OR MAKING-WAVES is a wicked option over a sampler... You can record any amounts of vinyl into the pc from your dj mixer, chop 'em up in a simple editor like Cool-Edit Pro (see box), and save them to your hard drive to create a library of your loops and samples you want to use... add to this sample cd's or web samples or whatever, and you can have any mixes of original beats with any drum samples, loops, breakbeats, endless samples... you can get like 8 & 9 GB drives for 150 quid now, that will store literally hours & hours of loops & samples .... With the ACID programme, you can use Direct-X FX on the tracks... and... with ACID, You can put down vocals, it will record like a tape machine...
DECENT VOCAL MIC
Just get a decent mic...Then, all you gotta do is get a lttle mixer with decent eq and mic inputs... or, a rack mic-amp & eq unit... whatever... something to get a good mic level into the PC... You can record vocals over the backing you've created... yup... and then do backing Vocals (BV's).... and then mix 'em in with automated faders, pan, and effects.
KEYCHANGES, AUTOSTRETCH & AUDITION
One great thing it has for any styles is you can put markers along the track at wherever you like, (even at divisions of bars), and tell any Loop parts to change key... So you could have a great little hip-hip thing going with say a double-bass bassline loop... and you can make it change key... heh heh.. BUt... it stays the same length !... yup... it just auto-stretches it to keep it in with the tracks tempo.... perfect everytime as it plays along !!...
ACID also allows you to browse your hard-drive directories, clicking on sample loops and it will start to play that loop in perfect time with the running track so you can audition waves before loading them.
It's so pefect if you work with loops and samples... Just get a demo copy... It is more expensive than Making-Waves below, but the auto-stretch thing & key-changing is a killer app' for remixing, and loop based music cos it works very fast.... watching some-one doing time-stretch in a sampler after using this, is like watching some-one struggling with a square wheel !!... I swear.. just try the 'Lite' version even... mind-blowing.... you could easily make a loop based hip-hop or remix product on this...There are 2 versions... ACID LITE, which is about 130 , and Full ACID at about 300...
All in all ACID is a great s/w, but it cant play a melody such as a bassline with a single sample, like in a hardware sampler ... MAKING-WAVES does that well tho ... Also check out ACID-LITE... a cut down version... I think it is restricted to only 4 Direct-X FX, possibly with a lower track-count too.... but still for the money a great s/w... Check them both out....
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