AcidPro4 - a short review -ACID Product Family - MAGIX Community Forums Archive

Subject:AcidPro4 - a short review Posted by: Spirit Date:8/22/2002 9:23:31 AM A short review because I've only had the full version for an hour, but I've got to write something immediately. Here's what I've tried and what happened (oh, and I was far too impatient to read the manual yet of course): - installed (flawless) - selected ASIO drivers with a click and no further action required. My PulsarII soundcard is now running AcidPro at 5ms latency :) - started a new project, right-clicked in the track area and selected "insert MIDI track" - double-click on the coloured icon, selected the "piano roll editor" icon and started painting in MIDI events. So, time to start hearing things. Hmmm... no sound. - back to the Options > preferences > VST instruments and browse for my VSTis. With the top level folder selected I now activate the Delta-III VSTi. Then another problem: I kept trying to access the synth from the track properties rather than the mixer/bus area. Eventually I got up to seven DLS instances and five Delta-III instances (with digital crackling starting to get fierce) before I realised what was happening. Oops. - Back to one Delta-III. Did a part over four measures, then looking at the track. Acid is very neatly displaying the length. So I paint a few "loops" worth of the MIDI track. - Render to new track. Easy, done. Now I have the MIDI track and the rendered audio track. Interesting. Change a few MIDI notes and adjust a few settings. Nice again. - Select the new rendered track in the chopper, define a new section, then right click in the defined area and choose "chop to new track". Mmmmm. - Now I've got three tracks: the MIDI original, the rendered version, and a new chopped version of the rendered track. A bit more fiddling and I'm starting to get something from a test-only nothing. - Time for some effects. What the hell, do it all while the thing's playing. A few stutters, but I want to see how twitchy it is.... but nothing bad happens :) Assign some effects to a bus, etc etc, all the usual stuff working fine. - So I go back the original MIDI track and add another four measures of data. And the obliging Acidpro adjusts it's length accordingly. Now that is nice. - But how about changing the sound that the original MIDI track is triggering ? easy. I click on the little piano icon and a drop down list of those seven DLS synths (that I forget to delete) appears. So I choose one, and now a new sounds plays. - Now I'm getting ambitious: another new MIDI track, and add Absynth. Damn Absynth wants me to insert the original CD yawn. That done I'm painting notes in my new Absynth MIDI track. - After a few minutes and a lot of blind fiddling (always a good way to cause problems), Acid did crash. XP gave me it's polite offer to send an error report, then goodbye. - On relaunch I had to scan for my VSTis again and my ASIO driver was lost. OK, maybe the problem was Absynth, version 1.3.3 has just come out becuase it crashes Sonar and SX. So I've updated that - and see what happens... - Still can't figure out how to actually "play" a MIDI track. I can select a synth, arm a MIDI track, hit the notes and MIDI note data is recorded. only problem is I can't hear it :( - something simple I'm sure. But all up, this is pretty easy. And as soon as we get VSTi tempo sync to host (my only gripe) then this is going to be one sweet, sweet app. I'm already in love. And that's as far as I've got in the first hour - speak to me again in a week !
Subject:RE: AcidPro4 - a short review Reply by: Studio_de_Lara Date:8/22/2002 5:52:22 PM Hmm, You lost your ASIO driver (Pulsar) as well? I lost the ASIO (Delta R-Bus) after a crash too. Sonic Foundry says it is a M-Audio (driver) issue, not ACID. But, since you lost your ASIO, maybe it IS an ACID problem. Or ACID is part of the problem. Peter, your thoughts on this? If you guys can help nail this ASIO bug, this would really open up 4.0. I was playing some VST Instruments last night (albiet with crackles and pops)but latency was a non-issue. Hope this is fixed, and not passed around between SoFo and sound card manufacturers. Regards, Rich
Subject:RE: AcidPro4 - a short review Reply by: Spirit Date:8/22/2002 6:39:06 PM I just lost it when the app crashed. After a PC reboot it came back - that's what usually happens with ASIO after a crash. I also got the real-time MIDI triggering to work - of course it was just one little button. :)
Subject:RE: AcidPro4 - a short review Reply by: pwppch Date:8/22/2002 7:30:16 PM Anytime, regardless of the cause of a crash, it is likely that the ASIO driver will be unusable when relaunching the app. Why? Because ASIO drivers are not managed by Windows. Normally when an app talks to audio hardware through Wave drivers, the system allocates them as resources. If an app crashes, the system can clean up after the errant app. Since ASIO drivers circumvent the OS completely, there is no such ability to restore the drivers to a usable state and a reboot is almost mandatory. From Spirit's post, it is not apparent that the crash he experianced was due to an ASIO problem. We are looking at all ASIO problem reports, but the Delta crashing is the only known issue we have with ASIO and a specific card. Peter
Subject:RE: AcidPro4 - a short review Reply by: Studio_de_Lara Date:8/22/2002 10:03:23 PM I think what is confusing (frustrating, because ASIO is one of the main reasons I paid for the upgrade), is this M-Audio / ASIO card maker is the problem. I use M-Audio ASIO exclusively with Logic 5.2. Never, ever, ever crashes. No pops, crackles or noise, ever. I did have a crash when using Cubase (many moons ago) and never had to restart the computer. For what it's worth. I really hope this is fixed soon. Rich

Subject:AcidPro4 - a short review

Posted by: Spirit

Date:8/22/2002 9:23:31 AM

A short review because I've only had the full version for an hour, but I've got to write something immediately.

Here's what I've tried and what happened (oh, and I was far too impatient to read the manual yet of course):

- installed (flawless)
- selected ASIO drivers with a click and no further action required. My PulsarII soundcard is now running AcidPro at 5ms latency :)
- started a new project, right-clicked in the track area and selected "insert MIDI track"
- double-click on the coloured icon, selected the "piano roll editor" icon and started painting in MIDI events. So, time to start hearing things. Hmmm... no sound.
- back to the Options > preferences > VST instruments and browse for my VSTis. With the top level folder selected I now activate the Delta-III VSTi. Then another problem: I kept trying to access the synth from the track properties rather than the mixer/bus area. Eventually I got up to seven DLS instances and five Delta-III instances (with digital crackling starting to get fierce) before I realised what was happening. Oops.
- Back to one Delta-III. Did a part over four measures, then looking at the track. Acid is very neatly displaying the length. So I paint a few "loops" worth of the MIDI track.
- Render to new track. Easy, done. Now I have the MIDI track and the rendered audio track. Interesting. Change a few MIDI notes and adjust a few settings. Nice again.
- Select the new rendered track in the chopper, define a new section, then right click in the defined area and choose "chop to new track". Mmmmm.
- Now I've got three tracks: the MIDI original, the rendered version, and a new chopped version of the rendered track. A bit more fiddling and I'm starting to get something from a test-only nothing.
- Time for some effects. What the hell, do it all while the thing's playing. A few stutters, but I want to see how twitchy it is.... but nothing bad happens :) Assign some effects to a bus, etc etc, all the usual stuff working fine.
- So I go back the original MIDI track and add another four measures of data. And the obliging Acidpro adjusts it's length accordingly. Now that is nice.
- But how about changing the sound that the original MIDI track is triggering ? easy. I click on the little piano icon and a drop down list of those seven DLS synths (that I forget to delete) appears. So I choose one, and now a new sounds plays.
- Now I'm getting ambitious: another new MIDI track, and add Absynth. Damn Absynth wants me to insert the original CD *yawn*. That done I'm painting notes in my new Absynth MIDI track.
- After a few minutes and a lot of blind fiddling (always a good way to cause problems), Acid did crash. XP gave me it's polite offer to send an error report, then goodbye.
- On relaunch I had to scan for my VSTis again and my ASIO driver was lost. OK, maybe the problem was Absynth, version 1.3.3 has just come out becuase it crashes Sonar and SX. So I've updated that - and see what happens...
- Still can't figure out how to actually "play" a MIDI track. I can select a synth, arm a MIDI track, hit the notes and MIDI note data is recorded. only problem is I can't hear it :( - something simple I'm sure.

But all up, this is pretty easy. And as soon as we get VSTi tempo sync to host (my only gripe) then this is going to be one sweet, sweet app. I'm already in love.

And that's as far as I've got in the first hour - speak to me again in a week !

Subject:RE: AcidPro4 - a short review

Reply by: Studio_de_Lara

Date:8/22/2002 5:52:22 PM

Hmm,
You lost your ASIO driver (Pulsar) as well? I lost the ASIO (Delta R-Bus) after a crash too. Sonic Foundry says it is a M-Audio (driver) issue, not ACID. But, since you lost your ASIO, maybe it IS an ACID problem. Or ACID is part of the problem.
Peter, your thoughts on this?
If you guys can help nail this ASIO bug, this would really open up 4.0. I was playing some VST Instruments last night (albiet with crackles and pops)but latency was a non-issue.
Hope this is fixed, and not passed around between SoFo and sound card manufacturers.
Regards,
Rich

Subject:RE: AcidPro4 - a short review

Reply by: Spirit

Date:8/22/2002 6:39:06 PM

I just lost it when the app crashed. After a PC reboot it came back - that's what usually happens with ASIO after a crash.

I also got the real-time MIDI triggering to work - of course it was just one little button.

:)

Subject:RE: AcidPro4 - a short review

Reply by: pwppch

Date:8/22/2002 7:30:16 PM

Anytime, regardless of the cause of a crash, it is likely that the ASIO driver will be unusable when relaunching the app.

Why? Because ASIO drivers are not managed by Windows. Normally when an app talks to audio hardware through Wave drivers, the system allocates them as resources. If an app crashes, the system can clean up after the errant app. Since ASIO drivers circumvent the OS completely, there is no such ability to restore the drivers to a usable state and a reboot is almost mandatory.

From Spirit's post, it is not apparent that the crash he experianced was due to an ASIO problem. We are looking at all ASIO problem reports, but the Delta crashing is the only known issue we have with ASIO and a specific card.

Peter

Subject:RE: AcidPro4 - a short review

Reply by: Studio_de_Lara

Date:8/22/2002 10:03:23 PM

I think what is confusing (frustrating, because ASIO is one of the main reasons I paid for the upgrade), is this M-Audio / ASIO card maker is the problem. I use M-Audio ASIO exclusively with Logic 5.2. Never, ever, ever crashes. No pops, crackles or noise, ever.
I did have a crash when using Cubase (many moons ago) and never had to restart the computer.
For what it's worth.
I really hope this is fixed soon.
Rich