ACID Pro 7

by Sony

Product Features

• The new Audio and MIDI mixing console allow users to visually represent audio signals in a project and provides additional routing options,
• Allowing for a much more flexible and efficient in-studio recording environment.
• Input busses control routing of input signals, including the ability to record from external devices with effects,
• Including ACID Pro Effects Rack powered by iZotope, Garritan Aria for ACID Pro player, Submersible Music KitCore, & Native Instruments Guitar Combos

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.9 x 2.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B001HXII80
• Item model number: SAC7000
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 2, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,836 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)

Product Description

Sony ACID Pro 7 software is a DAW (digital audio workstation) powerhouse that combines full multitrack recording and mixing, complete MIDI sequencing, and legendary loop manipulation for seamless music creation and post production. Get up and running quickly with new interactive tutorials. Other new features include a dedicated mixing console, MIDI track freeze, input busses, tempo curves, and enhanced format support. ACID Pro 7 software includes over 3,000 loops and 1,000 MIDI files for music creation, as well as the Garritan ARIA for ACID Pro player, the ACID Pro Effects Rack powerered by iZotope, Native Instruments Guitar Combos, and Submersible Music KitCore.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Impressive update to the venerable Acid, October 1, 2009

By 

savage_brainchild "savage_brainchild" - See all my reviews

This review is from: ACID Pro 7 (DVD-ROM)

I am very impressed by Acid Pro7.0. For the price [...] Direct Box) I believe that Acid Pro 7 is a must have upgrade that makes it a worthy competitor in the DAW market. Its simplicity and ease of use, and at the same time overall robustness are a reminder that a no frills design can increase productivity as I found myself happily zipping along and having everything on the same screen only a click away.

Pros
Uncluttered interface
Best loop stretching in the biz!
Tempo Curves
Real time rendering
Plug In bundle with Garritan, iZotope, etc.
Can use any 3rd party audio editor
Price


Cons
Midi editing not very intuitive
No dedicated audio editor








As a long time Acid user (since ver. 2) I was very interested to see what the software had in terms of updates and improvements. Acid's time stretching and looping tools have always been flawless and in version 6 Sony added multi-tracking capabilities, thus making Acid Pro 6 a recording workstation.

According to Sony, version Acid Pro 7 offers improvement of the midi and tracking sections of the software as well as some welcome additions in terms of plugins such as Garritan Aria, Acid Pro Effects Rack by iZotope, Native Instruments Guitar Combos and Submersible Music KitCore. Sony have added an audio and midi mixing console, input busses, real time rendering and midi track freeze, features that a lot of users were hoping to see in version 6. There are also a few features under the hood that enhance the user experience as well and we'll get into these details later.

Installation

Acid Pro 7 requires the user to register online and to obtain a key code via a challenge and response system. Fairly straightforward and after registering I got my codes and was good to go in under 5 minutes. The software plugins take a bit longer to load, especially the Garritan Aria for Acid since it has quite a few sample files. Overall the installation was pretty forward and streamlined, no surprises there and I was good to go in almost no time.

Features

Sony has kept the standard features of the older versions, so right away it feels familiar. The standard Acid layout is still there, the looping portions are also still there with Beatmapper and the Chopper. They come with some new enhanced capabilities such as elastique time stretching and pitch shifting, which adds some extra level of detail and quality to tracks that require that treatment. The Beatmapper also has some new enhanced features which allow users to edit clip properties and Beatmap songs with varying tempos and time signatures.

Acid has also introduced a new feature called Tempo Curves which allows users to set the type of transition between two tempo changes, for example slow buildup to the new tempo. These features are controlled by fade types. As earlier Acid Pro users were complaining of the lack of metronome, Sony has added a robust metronome feature in version 7, with multiple configurations and countoff settings.

On the audio side Sony have added the much needed signal level meters missing from previous versions, track/clip/event switches including Normalize, Invert Phase, Mute and Lock. A much needed Mixer window has been added with customizable views.

There has also been some improvement to the Plug-In management window, allowing for customizable categories, also displaying by brand and a few other views, thus making it easier to navigate.

Acid Pro 7 has added support for additional file formats such as FLAC, AAC, AC-3 Studio and MPEG-2.

Acid 7 is Windows Vista certified so it is guaranteed to work on Vista.

The package comes with vast assortment of loop content, MIDI samples with over 3,000 ACIDized music loops, over 1000 MIDI files, 90 DLS instruments and 25 DLS-based projects. The bundled software includes the Garritan Aria player sample library which alone retails for about $250, an iZotope Effects Rack with plugins such as flanger, phaser, analog delay and dynamics, Native Instruments guitar emulation software valued at about $100, and Submersible Music KitCore drums for beat creation.

In Use

To test Acid I loaded a few raw .wav tracks of unmixed material, lined it up in the software and gave it a spin. The mixing process was already familiar since I've worked in Acid before. Version 7 of the software comes with a dedicated mixer, which in previous versions the user had to create from scratch and it took some time. Acid felt natural to use for mixing and in no time I had good working mixes of the material. Compared to some other DAWs I felt that Acid was more immediate and its layout was no-nonsense crisp and utilitarian, no cheesy color gimmicks like some of its competition, everything on one screen in front of the user all the time. Everything that I needed was there at a touch of a button. Tracking was also a breeze as now the software has tracking meters and several options when it comes to monitoring with effects and without effects. In some cases I used Amplitube 2 VST guitar plugin which ran without a glitch in real time, thus allowing me to record a clean DI guitar track and reamp later if needed. The built-in plugins performed well with little CPU overhead and the new additions to the bundle by iZotope and Garritan also added some needed depth to the package. I felt that Acid could use a better reverb plugin but that was easily supplemented in my case with 3rd party reverb plugins and my outboard effect which integrated nicely with the real-time rendering function. Real-time rendering can mix external sound modules in real time with your DAW's tracks and add that input into your finished mixdown files. So far I can't think of any other DAW that has this feature, so big kudos to Sony!

I enjoyed using the Tempo Curves feature and it did create a far more pleasant transitions and buildups than me having to program them in real time or in small chunks of tempo changes like I did in the past. In this case the tempo changes became smoother and more refined, and let's not forget - less time consuming!

When I had questions regarding some of the new capabilities of the DAW, Sony's tech support forum turned to be an invaluable asset. All my queries were solved rather quickly by tech. support and unlike some other software forums that are abandoned to the mercy of the user, Sony's techs were there helping users with a very impressive response time.

There were some minor things that seemed to be missing in comparison to other DAW software. For example the midi support could be better. I could get my job done with MIDI in Acid, but compared to the ease and effortlessness of Cubase and Digital Performer's midi editing it felt very backward. It has definitely improved from previous versions but still it is not very pleasant to work with. Compared to other DAW's there isn't a dedicated file editor so if you want to draw and alter the track audio files directly like in Sonar and Cubase - it can't be done in Acid but it isn't hard to open the file in a 3rd party audio editor or Sony's Sound Forge, which for some users could also be a blessing in disguise as you can use your audio editor of choice. A little quirk that I found annoying was the fact that I couldn't get the tracks to scroll with cursor when playing and recording as I was forced to keep the screen smaller sometimes than what I would've liked.

Sony have managed to improve on the file saving algorithm. Whereas old versions of Acid will jump mass dump files in one directory now the user has the option to do per project file folders, this saving file when you need to back up and no need to bundle files as in previous sessions.

I am particularly impressed by the wide media support in Acid. I didn't have a problem getting any possible file format imported or exported. A nice touch is the bundled mp3 encoder, something that one has to pay in order to get in other DAWs. I didn't need to render files for surround projects at this time but it is good to know that this capability is also available at no extra cost to the user.

I am very impressed by ACID Pro 7.0. For the price [...] Direct Box) I believe that Acid Pro 7 is a must have upgrade that makes it a worthy competitor in the DAW market. Its simplicity and ease of use, and at the same time overall robustness are a reminder that a no frills design can increase productivity as I found myself happily zipping along and having everything on the same screen only a click away.


[...]

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ACID PRO IS THE BEST, January 27, 2010

By 

K. Hons - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: ACID Pro 7 (DVD-ROM)

I love making music. Acid pro is one [actually, my favorite] music making software.
It's easy to use, and there's nothing wrong with it.
You just drag and drop loops from the program and then eventually - BAM! - you've got a song!
Another good thing is that you can make songs as long as you want and you can save them into Mp3.
I highly recommend this if anyone is interested about making music!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm a beginner with this..., November 6, 2010

By 

Hawaiian Eye (Maui) - See all my reviews

This review is from: ACID Pro 7 (DVD-ROM)

Are you a creative musician, who also is a Home recordist? (is there such a word?)
Acid Pro is all you need in my book.
It records audio like an old school multitrack tape recorder.
It inputs midi-files. Wave files, mp3 files, and much more. You can mix them all together!
And it comes with a huge library of Drum, bass, ambient, sound effects, voices, ethnic instruments, loops!
These are in many musical genres.
So you can make a backup band, with real recorded instruments, or any wierd combination you like.

I bought Acid 6 awhile ago, and upgraded to 7.
My experience is from the fostex 4 track days of the 80's.
Those days everything was pretty intuitive.
I then "graduated" to a Roland digi 8track recorder. Brain freeze!
Drum machine, roland keyboard. I had to learn how to play basic chords on the keys, or bass lines etc.
Too much to figure out for my brain. More time figuring out instead of creative juices.

Then a friend emailed me a recording he made. It blew me away!
He revealed Acid Pro to me.
Learning to lay down drums, bass, synth pads... Then change keys. All of this is fairly EZ.
Learn as you go. I ask myself "how do I do this?" Then look it up in "Help" files.
In a couple of minutes, Boom, I got it, and it makes so much sense, I remember next time.
Even the most simple stuff you experimentaly produce, can sound pro compared to before.
Creative juices are flowing along with a simple learning curve as I create.
This program is as simple as you want, and gets deeper than I'll ever care to go.

Let's say I want to record my guitar backwards. I learned how to do that in 2 mins. It takes 5 seconds to do.
How about modifying a nice midifile? I've enhanced semi cheesy ones into deep and rich sounding files.
Added a guitar and Vocals. The average Joe thinks I'm talented. I feel "tricky" I feel cheap!

Put it this way, this is to home music recording, as Photo-shop is to Digital photography.
Compared to film cameras and the processing you had to pay for...

So, if you are new to this computer recording gig, the over-all flexibleness of Acid Pro 7 is all I need.
I sold my synth, drum machine, and plethora of patch cables! More room in the house.
Your music studio is basically handled on your computer screen.
Put headphones on, and you're in you're own little private musical world!
You probably will need to keep your recording mic, headphones, and purchase an input device for plugging in your guitar, mics etc. into your computer.

This review is for all you thinking about getting this.
I recommend you forget it, and keep struggling.
If you get this, you'll make me look like the 2 bit musician I am.
As for now, this gives me a HUGE sonic edge. LOL!