Sonic Foundry Acid Pro 2.0 The Acid Experience Paul Jones
Acid Pro Features
Editing — Sonic Foundry Sound Forge® XP 4.5 included
Onboard effects — Sonic Foundry XFX 1 included
Track at once CD burning
DirectX Audio Plug-In support
Non-Looping audio support
Automatic matching of loop tempo and pitch
Unlimited tracks
Generate and chase MIDI Time Code
Volume, pan, and effects envelopes for each track
Multiple time stretching algorithms
Hundreds of instrument and style loops included
Many more
Acid Pro 2.0 comes with all the great features of version 1, as well as hundreds of quality royalty-free loops to get you started making music right away. Additional loop library CDs are available from Sonic Foundry's Web site. They run the gamut of sounds, from techno to ethnic. The library we sampled was Universal Groove Elements, a solid collection of varied sounds including drums, guitars, keyboards, sound effects and movie clips.
With Acid Pro 2.0 and the provided loops I was able to whip out a song in literally minutes. It wasn't a musical masterpiece but it sounded pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. And it was easy—too easy. I can almost sympathize with all the whining the music industry did over Acid Pro 1.0. Almost.
For those who don't need the full Pro version, Acid comes in different flavors, all cheaper than Pro. Here's the breakdown:
ACID PRO 2.0
$399.00
ACID Music 2.0
$99.95
ACID DJ 2.0
$59.95
ACID Hip-Hop 2.0
$59.95
ACID Rock 2.0
$59.95
Sonic Foundry also offers tutorials for beginning and advanced users:
Those thinking about upgrading from 1.0 should weigh their options and decide if they need the new features or not. Those into digital music who don't have Acid should go get it. Those who don't have anything to do with music but think it would be fun should go get it. Even those who hate music but have $400 lying around should go get it. Chances are none of them will be disappointed.
