ACID Xpress

If you’re looking to create music from audio loops in a simple, intuitive way, then ACID XPress is an application you should consider.

The first thing you notice about ACID XPress is the simplicity of its interface. It’s not clustered, its not confusing but it does take a couple of good minutes to get used to all the controls. Especially if you’re a first time user of this kind of software.

Once you get past the ABCs of functionality, creating the track itself is very easy. It’s all based on loop insertion and sampling. What this means is that you can choose to use already made loops and just put them together or you can cut out specific portions of one or more tracks and rearrange them to create your own sound. You can even sample the sample.

ACID XPress provides you with all the tools you need to keep the production “in house”. It offers you a large library of drum kits, strings, brass, piano and sound effects that you can use when something seems to be missing from the samples.

Arranging and editing the loops is as simple as it is adding them. Everything is done using drag and drop actions with keyboard combinations. All of which are fairly intuitive.

A feature that is important to consider and appreciate is that the waveforms for all the added samples is displayed. This allows you to have a visual idea of the beats layout and amplitude of the sounds.

The application provides brightness, vibrato, reverb, modulation and decay envelopes that you can use to bring all the samples in unison and being able to view the overall “shape” of the song will help you in figuring out the best way to adjust them.

Though the paragraphs above only capture the essence of what ACID XPress can do, its safe to say that if you’re looking for an “on the fly” music production application or you just want to learn the basics of sampling, it’s a good option.