Sony Acid 7 Manual
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2 CHP. 2WHAT’S NEW? CHAPTER29 What’s New? This chapter is intended for experienced ACID users. It simply addresses the question on everyone’s mind: “What’s new in this version of ACID?” Mixing Plug-in effects automation In ACID 4.0, you can automate the parameters of plug-ins, provided that the plug-ins support automation. Effect automation relies on track envelopes, a tool you may already be familiar with from creating volume, pan, bus send, or assignable effect send envelopes. You can choose which parameters of a given effect to automate and then add points to a track envelope for the different parameter settings. By viewing bus tracks, you can automate effects not only for tracks, but for busses, assignable effects, and soft synth controls. For more information, see Bus tracks on page 30. ACID 4.0 includes new Sonic Foundry automatable effects such as Flange/Wah-wah, Resonant Filter, and Tr a c k E Q . For more information, see Adding effect automation envelopes on page 98. 5.1 surround mixing and surround pan automation ACID 4.0 introduces 5.1 surround mixing capability and surround panning automation. In a surround project, you pan tracks or busses using the Surround Panner window. For even greater control, you can add keyframes to automate panning changes over time. Note: ACID mixes 5.1-channel audio only. Authoring software such as the Sonic Foundry 5.1 Surround Plug-In Pack is required to encode final output in AC-3™ format. For more information, see Working with 5.1 Surround on page 157. Alternate time signatures ACID 4.0 breaks free from the 4/4 model and allows you to see (and snap to) measures of any time signature from 1/1 to 99/32. You can choose a custom time signature for the project, as well as change time signatures along the timeline by adding time signature change markers. For more information, see Changing tempo, time signature, and key on page 79. 2
30 WHAT’S NEW?CHP. 2 ASIO driver support In addition to supporting Microsoft Mapper, Windows Classic Wave, and WDM drivers, ACID 4.0 now supports ASIO™ drivers. With its more direct data delivery to the sound card, the ASIO driver model provides professional users with faster audible responses. You can choose which driver model ACID uses on the Audio tab in the Preferences dialog. For more information, see Using the Audio tab on page 181. Loop Cloning in the Chopper ACID 4.0 provides the option to create new loops using the Chopper. Simply open a track in the Chopper, make a selection for the new loop, and drag the selection to the track list. ACID saves the selection as a new file and adds it to the project as a new track. For more information, see Saving Chopper selections as new files on page 90. Bus tracks You can now view any mixer control (bus, assignable effect, or soft synth) on a track at the bottom of the track view. This allows you to add envelopes to any of these controls. Want to pan several tracks as a group? Route the tracks to a bus and pan the bus using a pan envelope on the bus track. Want your assignable effect parameters to change over time? Add an effect automation envelope to the bus track for the assignable effect. For more information, see Automating mixer controls in track view on page 125. Enhanced time stretching for Beatmapped tracks In ACID 4.0, you can time-stretch a Beatmapped track with less stuttering and improved playback. New audio panning types Whether you’re using standard stereo panning or 5.1 surround panning, you can choose from among five types of panning for ACID tracks and busses. For more information, see Choosing stereo pan types on page 103. New envelope fade types ACID 4.0 provides three new fade types: smooth, sharp, and hold. Fade types determine the interpolation between two envelope points. For more information, see Changing envelope fade curves on page 100. ReWire support ACID is now a ReWire mixer (host) application. For more information, see Using soft synth controls on page 115. MIDI MIDI piano roll editing ACID 4.0 introduces a piano roll editor that you can use to create, edit, and quantize MIDI data. The piano roll editor is one of two OPT (Open Plug-in Technology) plug-ins included in ACID 4.0. For more information, see Using the piano roll editor on page 134. MIDI step recording The new list editor OPT plug-in allows you to step record MIDI from within ACID. For more information, see Step recording events on page 145.
CHP. 2WHAT’S NEW? 31 MIDI event list editing ACID 4.0 includes a list editor OPT plug-in that gives you direct access to all MIDI data for a track. You can use the list editor to add, edit, quantize, and delete MIDI events or to step record new MIDI material. For more information, see Using the list editor on page 140. VSTi support You can route MIDI tracks in an ACID 4.0 project to a VST® instrument (VSTi) using the new soft synth controls in the Mixer window. For more information, see Using soft synth controls on page 115. Yamaha OPT support ACID 4.0 is an early adopter for Yamahas new Open Plug-in Technology (OPT) specification. You can choose any OPT plug-in (including a piano roll editor and a list editor included with ACID) to edit a MIDI track. This expands ACIDs MIDI capabilities to allow plug-ins for MIDI edit views, MIDI effect processors and filters, arpeggiators, and real-time panel automation. For more information, see Working with MIDI on page 131. Optimized DLS and VSTi soft synth controls With this release, you can route MIDI tracks to a soft synth control in the Mixer window. The soft synth control acts as a sound module, allowing you to choose a DLS set or VST instrument to which you can route MIDI tracks or external MIDI input devices. For more information, see Using soft synth controls on page 115. Workspace Multiple media file previewing and Explorer enhancements The Explorer allows you to select multiple files and preview them in sequence. For more information, see Previewing multiple media files on page 35. You can also rename media files from within the Explorer window. Simply right-click a file, choose Rename from the shortcut menu, and enter a new name for the file. Hotkey commands for track muting and soloing Press to solo or to mute selected tracks or busses in your ACID 4.0 project. Optimized ACID playback The new ACID audio engine is designed to take advantage of the latest processing power, allowing you to enjoy significant performance increases during playback. Autosave crash recovery ACID automatically saves your work for you so that you can recover your work if your system crashes. For more information, see Using the General tab on page 179. Customizable default track properties You can choose the default volume, pan type, height, track effects, and MIDI editors for all new tracks you create in ACID. For more information, see Setting default track properties on page 178. XZ
32 WHAT’S NEW?CHP. 2 Video Windows Media Audio and Video import You can now add Windows Media Audio (WMA) and Windows Media Video (WMV) files to an ACID project. Enhanced video handling ACID 4.0 provides two new options for rendering projects containing video: Stretch video to fill output frame (do not letterbox) and Fast video resizing. For more information, see Rendering projects on page 54. In addition, the Video window now provides an option to display square pixels to compensate for any spatial distortions due to non-square pixel aspect ratios. For more information, see Using the Video window on page 155.
3 CHP. 3GETTING STARTED CHAPTER33 Getting Started Now that you have an understanding of ACID’s interface and controls, you are ready to begin learning the techniques needed to pick, paint, and play ACID projects. In this chapter you will learn the skills that will allow you to create music in ACID, from locating media files to writing the finished project to CD. Starting projects Double-clicking the ACID icon on the desktop starts ACID. You can immediately begin building your ACID project using the application’s default project properties. However, you may prefer to customize the project properties prior to beginning the project. Setting project properties ACID allows you to configure project properties and add summary information prior to beginning a project. Choosing New from the File menu displays the New Project dialog. This dialog contains two tabs: Summary and Audio. Selecting the Start all new projects with these settings check box configures ACID to use the parameters and information in both tabs as defaults when starting all subsequent projects. Note: You can edit project audio properties and summary information at any time. Choose Properties from the File menu to display the Project Properties dialog, which contains the identical tabs and parameters as the New Project dialog. Using the Summary tab This tab allows you to enter information about the project. These boxes may be left blank or if information exists, you may change it at any time. Item Description TitleEnter the name or title of the project. Artist Enter the name of the narrator, band, or artist(s) being recorded into the project. EngineerEnter the name(s) of the people who mixed and edited the project. Copyright Enter the date and ownership rights of the project. CommentsEnter information that identifies and describes the project. Start all new projects with these settingsSelect this check box if your projects’ requirements do not change or you want consistent settings for future projects. 3
34 GETTING STARTEDCHP. 3 Using the Audio tab This tab allows you to set different characteristics the project uses to handle the audio. Opening existing projects 1.From the File menu, choose Open. The Open dialog appears. 2.Choose a drive and folder from the Look in drop-down list. 3.Select a file in the browse window or type a name in the File name box. Detailed information about the selected file appears at the bottom of the dialog box. 4.Choose a file type from the Files of type drop-down list to limit the files displayed in the dialog box. 5.Click Open. Note: If ACID is unable to locate one of the media files when you open an ACID project, you can choose to leave the media offline and continue to edit events on the track. The events point to the location of the source media file. If you restore the source media file at a later time, the project opens normally. Opening ACID projects with embedded media When you open an .acd-zip project, the project file and all media files are copied to the temporary files folder. Note: You can customize the location of the temporary files folder. For more information, see Using the General tab on page 179. Any changes you make to the project are saved to the files in this temporary folder until you save the .acd-zip file again. For more information, see Saving projects on page 53. Item Description Master bus modeChoose either Stereo for a standard audio project or 5.1 Surround for a surround project. Number of additional stereo busses Enter the number of stereo busses that you want in your project. You may add up to 26 busses. The busses appear in the Mixer window. For more information, see Using busses on page 111. Sample rateChoose a sample rate from the drop-down list or enter your own rate. The sample rate range is 2,000 Hz to 192,000 Hz. Higher sample rates result in better quality sound, but also mean larger audio files. Bit depth Choose a bit depth from the drop-down list. A higher bit depth results in better quality sound, but also means larger audio files. Enable low-pass filter on LFESelect this check box to limit the audio sent to the LFE channel in a 5.1 surround project. For more information, see Working with 5.1 Surround on page 157. Cutoff frequency for low-pass filter Enter a low-pass cutoff frequency value for 5.1 surround projects. ACID limits audio sent to the LFE channel to frequencies lower than the value you enter. Applying a low-pass filter approximates the bass-management system in a 5.1 decoder and ensures that you’re sending only low-frequency audio to the LFE channel. Low-pass filter qualityChoose a setting from the drop-down list to determine the sharpness of the low-pass filter’s rolloff curve. Best produces the sharpest curve. Start all new projects with these settingsSelect this check box if your project requirements do not change or you want consistent settings for future projects.
CHP. 3GETTING STARTED 35 Getting media files Now that you’ve created a new project or opened an existing project, the next step is to add media to the project. You can use the Explorer window to locate, preview and add media to your project. You can also extract audio from a CD or download media from the Web. Previewing media from the Explorer window The Explorer window allows you to preview files in looped playback at the current project tempo before adding them to your project. You can also preview files in the Explorer in conjunction with playing your project, thereby allowing you to preview how a file will sound in the project. To preview files, use the Start Preview ( ), Stop Preview ( ), and Auto Preview ( ) buttons at the top of the Explorer window. Previewing a media file 1. Select the media file in the Explorer window that you want to preview. 2.Click the Start Preview button ( ). The media file begins looped playback. You can monitor its levels on the preview bus. 3.Click the Stop Preview button ( ) to end playback. Previewing multiple media files You can use the Explorer’s multiple-selection preview feature to preview a group of files in the order that you select them. 1.From the Options menu, choose Preferences, and on the Other tab of the Preferences dialog, select the Enable multiple-selection preview in Explorer window check box. If you want, you can enter values in the Number of times to repeat each Loop box, Seconds of each One-Shot to play box, and Number of Beatmapped measures to play box to specify how ACID previews different file types. 2.Click OK to close the Preferences dialog. 3.In the Explorer, select the media you want to preview. Hold while clicking to select multiple, adjacent files or hold while clicking to select multiple, nonadjacent files. 4.Click the Start Preview button ( ). ACID previews the first selected file in the list and continues through the list of selected files. ACID changes a file’s icon to a Play icon ( ) to indicate which file is currently previewing. Note: To add the currently previewing file to your project, press +. Press to add all selected files to your project. Using Auto Preview The Auto Preview button ( ) sets ACID to automatically play back media files when you select them in the Explorer. If your project is currently playing when you select a new file, the new file plays back along with your project. This feature allows you to listen to the media file in the context of your project. Click the Auto Preview button ( ) to toggle auto preview on or off. Shift Ctrl CtrlEnterEnter
36 GETTING STARTEDCHP. 3 Adding media to the project You must add media files to a project before you can paint, arrange, and process them. When you add a file to a project, ACID creates a new track to accommodate it. ACID adds new tracks at the current volume of the Preview fader in the Mixer window, unless you have set a default track volume level. For more information, see Setting default track properties on page 178. There are several methods of adding media files to a project. Note: ACID may create proxy files for media whose compression scheme may cause working with them to be inefficient and slow. For more information, see Proxy File on page 201. Note: Before using long Beatmapped or long one-shot files from CDs or shared network folders, copy the media to your local drive for the best possible performance. ACID temporary files When you add a media file to a project from a removable device, ACID stores a copy of the media file in the temporary files folder. This keeps the media file available for use even if the source of the media is no longer accessible. Note: You can customize the location of the temporary files folder. For more information, see Using the General tab on page 179. Be aware that the temporary files folder is cleared when you close ACID. However, files are not cleared from the folder if ACID closes inappropriately. Adding media files from the Explorer window The Explorer window will likely be your primary means of locating media files used in projects. Display the Explorer, if needed, by choosing Explorer from the View menu, or by pressing . There are three ways to add media files from the Explorer window: Double-click the desired file. Drag the file from the Explorer to the track view or track list. Dragging a file from the Explorer to the track name of an existing track allows you to replace the original file with the new file, while all events remain in place. Right-click and drag a file to the track view or track list to specify the type of track to be created. When you drop the file, a shortcut menu appears that allows you to choose whether to treat the file as a loop, one-shot, Beatmapped track, or as an autodetected type. Adding media files from the Open dialog There are three ways to add media files from the Open dialog: Select the desired file and click Open. Right-click the selected file and choose Select from the shortcut menu. Double-click the selected file. Alt + 1
CHP. 3GETTING STARTED 37 Adding media files from outside the application You can also add a media file to a project by dragging it from Windows Explorer to the track view. Adding multiple media files simultaneously To add multiple media files to the project, +click (or +click) to select the files and drag them to the track view or the track list. Extracting media files from CD ACID allows you to extract 44,100 Hz, 16-bit, stereo data from CDs. ACID adds extracted CD tracks to new tracks in your ACID project. 1.Insert a CD in the CD-ROM drive. 2.From the File menu, choose Extract Audio from CD. The Extract Audio from CD dialog appears. 3.If you have more than one CD drive, choose the CD drive that contains the audio you want to extract from the Drive drop-down list. 4.From the Action drop-down list, choose how you want to extract audio: Choose Read by track and select each track you want to extract. ACID extracts each track to a new track in your project. Choose Read entire disc to extract the current CD to a single file. Choose Read by range and enter a starting time and ending time (or a starting time and length). ACID extracts the time range to a new track in your project. Click Play to preview your selection. In order to preview, your CD drive’s audio output must be connected to your sound card, or you can connect headphones to the front of the CD drive. 5.From the Speed drop-down list, choose the speed at which you want to extract audio. 6.Click OK. The Save As dialog appears. 7.Enter a file name and choose a location for the new file(s). Note: ACID can automatically name extracted tracks for you. From the Options menu, choose Preferences, and on the General tab, select the Autoname extracted CD tracks check box. For more information, see Using the General tab on page 179. 8.Click Save to start extracting audio. ACID begins extracting data from the CD and displays a progress meter. If the file is longer than 30 seconds, the Beatmapper™ Wizard appears. 9.Use the Beatmapper Wizard or choose to open the file as a one-shot. ACID adds the extracted file to a track. For more information, see Using the Beatmapper on page 103. CtrlShift
38 GETTING STARTEDCHP. 3 You can also double-click a CDA file in the Explorer window (or drag it to the track view) to extract a CD track without opening the Extract Audio from CD dialog. Note: When adding media from multiple CDs, you may need to press to refresh the Explorer window to view the new CD’s contents. Downloading media files from the Web The Get Media from the Web command allows you to view and download various audio and video files available on the Internet. 1.From the File menu, choose Get Media from the Web. 2.Choose an icon from the left frame to specify the media provider from which you want to download files. 3.Preview the file, select the file you want to open and click Download. The Browse for Folder dialog appears. 4.Select a folder for the download. The selected file is downloaded to the folder specified in the Destination box. 5.When you are done downloading, close the Get Media from the Web dialog. ACID adds the file(s) to your project. Click Show Details to display additional information about your download. In this mode, you can add files to a download queue, specify where the downloaded files should be stored, and monitor the progress of your downloads. Click Start to begin downloading queued files, or click Hide Details to return to basic mode. Understanding track types When you add media to a project, ACID creates a new track for the file. Depending on the type of media you add, ACID creates one of four track types to accommodate it: loop, one-shot, Beatmapped, or MIDI. You can identify a track’s type by looking at the track number/type icon in the track header. Loops Loops are small chunks of audio that are designed to create a continuous beat or pattern when played repeatedly. They are usually one to four measures long. Loops are the type of file that you will use most frequently. One-shots One-shots are chunks of audio that are not designed to loop, and they are streamed from the hard disk rather than stored in RAM if they are longer than three seconds. Things such as cymbal crashes and sound bites could be considered one-shots. Unlike loops, one-shots do not change pitch or tempo with the rest of a project. Beatmapped When you add a file that is longer than thirty seconds to a project, the Beatmapper Wizard starts, allowing you to add tempo information to the file. As a result, these tracks respond to tempo and key changes just like loops. For more information, see Using the Beatmapper on page 103. F5