14 DAY TRIAL // What do you think of when you hear the name "Sony"? For me, Sony means bad optical drives (this is just my experience, I don't know about the overall statistics), excellent CD and DVD discs and the best CRT technology ever, Trinitron. This was all about hardware, but Sony is also involved in producing specialized computer software.
Most Sony software products are useful for the owners of Sony Ericsson cell phones, but there are also a few powerful programs available for the rest of us. Unfortunately, they are not free, but their quality makes up for the price.
If some of the programs that I reviewed so far were large, the one I will introduce to you now is huge. Sony Acid Pro, our client today, is a loop-based music creation tool with tons of features.
The download is a bit large, almost 100MB in size, so those of you with slower connections will have to wait some time. Don't worry and think positive, this way you'll be able to finish reading this review before installing the application!
The setup software will ask you to register your trial copy in order to use it. Don't worry, you won't be charged for this, so go ahead and enter your information. Try to use a valid email address if you don't want to waste your time...
Once the program is installed and the activation of your trial copy is complete, you have a month available to test it. Before we start checking out the features of this program, I must say that I had the chance to use it once, a few years ago, and I don't remember much.
I have to admit that I am a music lover like most of you out there but I am not at all a specialist when it comes to music creation programs. I will review this program and see the good and the bad at first site with little introspection. I am sure that in the long trial period you will have all the time in the world to get most out of Sony Acid Pro and decide if you want to spend over 350$ for it or not.
There are a lot of stories to be told about multi track recording and editing. Basically, the idea is that you can record different instruments on separate tracks and edit them separately in order to achieve the best results when they will be heard by the listener as "music". Most of us enjoy music, but only few are aware about the amount of work needed from recording to the final delivery on CD or DVD.
Those that used a multi track editing program like Cakewalk SONAR or Steinberg Cubase will find Acid's interface easy enough to work with, but for the others a bit of explaining is needed.
Acid starts loading a demo song that you can play with. There are some areas of the interface easy to distinguish, but before getting to them I will say that if you want your interface to look and feel different, this is no problem. All panels are easy to resize, move or hide. To see what items can be shown or hidden, you can go ahead and check the View menu.
The main program window is divided into four areas. These are the toolbar, the track list, the timeline and the window docking area. Only the toolbar has a fixed size and position, the others can be moved around and resized as you wish. If you need information about any item that can be found in Acid, press Shift-F1 and click on that item.
The toolbar contains buttons enabling you to access most used commands faster. It can be customized as you want by adding, removing or reordering them.
The track list area has the master controls for each track from your musical project. It can help you adjust the mix, select playback devices and reorder tracks. The audio track controls allow you to adjust volume, panning, assignable effects, send levels and bus send levels. Just a small tip before we move on - when moving sliders, holding down the CTRL key will allow accurate adjustments.
Most of the track view is made up of the timeline where you will draw events on each track. Above and below the track view you can notice the beat ruler and the time ruler. In order to have a better control over your view, you can use the zoom controls and the scroll bars. Finally, the transport controls enable you to record tracks and control play back.
Since I just reminded about the recording, I have to say a few words about recording vocals. This is a funny thing that can be done with the trial version and you don't have to be a pro to do it. You only need a microphone and a few clicks. When you press the Record button from the Transport Control window recording starts automatically and you can sing along with the music. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?
Now, back to business - the last main area of the program, the window docking area. In the lower area of the interface you can keep frequently used windows available but out of the way while you are working on a project. For example, you can detach windows from this area and keep them floating on your secondary monitor (of course, if you own a secondary monitor...). Large programs like Acid need to take advantage of every pixel on the screen in order to keep as many functions available for the user at any time. I can say that in this case, the ergonomics of the interface is not a problem.
There are a lot of windows that can be placed into the docking area. I will name only some of them, leaving the others for you to discover.
The Explorer window allows you to browse for media files, view and include them into your project without leaving the workspace, while the Chopper enables selecting portions of media that can be placed into tracks as events or used for loops creation. Other windows that can be placed here can be used for video preview, media management, audio mixing or plugin management.
This was, in a few words, the interface of the program. Next I'll point out the most useful features, before drawing the conclusions.
If you need to create a video clip, there's no problem. Just add the video track to your musical project and render the result into a video file! No matter where you drag the media file from the Explorer window, the video track will always be placed on top of all the other tracks.
Did I say "plugins" a bit earlier? Sony Acid Pro supports VST and Direct-X plugins without any problem, so take advantage of this! I am sure that there are enough free plugins out there just dying to be tried out...
If you need to grab music from one of your favorite CDs in order to create loops, don't worry, Acid can extract audio without any problem. If you were wondering... yes, it can be also done with this trial version, I know it's unbelievable (for me at least, it is), but this is a full featured trial version.
MIDI? Anynody who needs MIDI? Usually, beginners won't have to interfere with the MIDI features of this program, but experienced people will enjoy them. You can import MIDI files, record input from an external MIDI device or use the Piano Roll and List Editor in order to program your notes one at a time.
Once your audio tracks have been laid down, you can edit volume envelopes easily using the Envelope Tool. Another useful instrument is the Groove Tool. You can use it to adjust the timing of media in your project by applying grooves to events on the timeline.
I have to say that creating 5.1 music projects is a child's play; you just have to set this option when creating a new project and be careful when assigning your tracks to different channels.
You can add different effects to a track. This isn't something out of this world at all, but what about adding chains of effects? Also something that isn't the last innovation in the field, but a very good thing to have in the software you are using.
About Sony Acid Pro could be written hundreds of pages without too much effort, but unfortunately I can't spend weeks on it and, anyways, I am sure nobody would enjoy such a long review. The purpose of this review is to open your eyes and make you eager to try out this program. I hope this goal has been achieved and you will enjoy using Sony Acid Pro as much as I enjoyed reviewing it!
The Good
The trial version of Sony Acid Pro allows you to enjoy all the features of the full program, has an extremely well detailed Help system and lots of features. You can even record vocal tracks using a microphone and then export your work into any audio format you wish!
The Bad
The only bad facts are that Sony Acid Pro is not a "click and go" software, needing some time to be mastered and it has a nag screen that will be visible each time you exit the program.
The Truth
Playing with this program is like being able to drive a Formula 1 car for 30 laps for free, just signing an autograph... it is fun for a beginner, excitement for an intermediate and ecstasy for the professional!
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
