Friday, January 06, 2012

Acid Pro 8 will be a dead duck

You may or may not like the fact that Apple bought Emagic, but the fact is, they did something with it. As a PC user, I'm angry at Apple for doing it and leaving us to a slow death, but I can't deny that Apple did their homework and made something out of Logic. It's living, it's growing, it gets somewhere. Again, you may or may not like WHAT they did with it, but they did something. Same with Roland and Sonar (Cakewalk), they do something with it.

Unlike Sony with Acid. Acid Pro 7 still as a GUI that looks likes it's still 1995. Plugins pop up in an horrible box, automation is laughable and the whole product is so far behind the competition, it makes me sick. After Apple announced Logic for Windows users were not invited to the party, I made some shopping around and bought Acid 5 thinking it was a good move.

Well it was at the moment, a good product, but then it all stopped. From Acid Pro 5 to Acid Pro 6 there were a few enhancements and so to Acid Pro 7, but that's it. A few enhancements. Enough to keep the product usable. And not enough to keep it competitive.Sony did not do their job like Apple did with Emagic's Logic. They just made a Studio version out of it and sell some more, and a Media Manager to push the sales of their sample libraries. That's it. All the rest of the features added up to version 7 are "catch up"features that were in the competition products long ago. No innovation. None. Beatmap? Chopper? Please, be serious.

Music industry magazines (Sound on Sound, Future Music, Computer Music, Electronic Musician, etc) barely mentions Acid as part of the current DAWs lineup, and non keep a column on it anymore. It's treated as a thing of the past. Because it is.

Thank God for Sony's weekly 8 packs, that's a real nice concept, but not the least bit "part" of the actual product. It doesn't make Acid any better.

I'm still using Acid Pro, it has some usefull features, but I wouldn't be using it as my only production software. I've added Catabile Solo and Ableton Live 8 along the way, so that I can feel like it's 2012, not 1995.

In the end, it looks like Apple bought Logic (or rather Emagic) to sell more computers. I'd say it worked. Sony bought Acid to sell more libraries. It probably worked, up to a point. My opinion is that where Apple continued to push the concept to make their whole brand better, Sony just stopped there and never had the vision to push Acid into new directions. Sample libraries are selling with or without Acid. They keep making them and the keep selling. So why would they bother with Acid Pro?

Now you might ask, why the heck am I still using Acid Pro if it's that bad? The answer is, it has still some very useful features that makes it valuable. I use it because I own it, but I wouldn't go has far as saying that those features are worth buying it.
  • Easy preview of WAVs synced with your current song, making selection fast and easy
  • Tempo curves
  • Easy to use "section" system for creating arrangements
  • Easy to use for putting together clips
  • Nice crossfade management
  • The clip pool is a nice touch and can be use to test different sounds
  • Beatmap can be useful
  • Groove tool is easy to use and useful

So, what is to expect of Acid Pro 8? My guess is: just a small upgrade that will still leave it outside of the current DAW world. If it ever sees the day.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Has Sony announced when 8 will drop?

Exsurdo said...

Nope, nothing so far. But delaying it beyond 2012 would be osbcene.

Juan Andreu said...

I used Cubase in the past, and i have used protools a couple of times. And what I really miss in Acid Pro 7 is Sidechain capabilities.. and in the same way more routing features and stuff..

I really like the windows 95's look and feel, cuz its like an app for hardwork, and no the others DAWs UI that just looks like a fancy n00b app, even if they r better than acid in some cases..

Thats just my opinion..

Regards..

Quest The Wordsmith said...

I have been with Sony Acid since version 1! It came with my first CD drive. I've been forced to look elswhere - and its been a blessing because I discovered Reaper.

I was at the last AES show in NY at the Javitz center, and Sony didn't even have a booth for Acid! Nothing! There was a small booth sony had for something else, I don't remember what, and I asked those guys about Acid. They said it was a different "department". Translation - dead.

Having moved to Reaper and re-learning a new DAW, I wont upgrade Acid anymore. It's a shame because I was die-hard Acid for the longest... even at the expense of much ridicule. O well. I wish Sonic Foundry never sold it to Sony. Sony killed such an innovative product.

Anonymous said...

I have encountered my first glitch in Acid due to it being left behind by technology. I recently upgraded my system to a HUGE hard drive array (since I'm doing a lot of video work). My current hard drive array is 16 TB. Acid, for some reason isn't able to figure this out and thinks the drive is out of space, and now refuses to save any of my work.

Come on, Sony. It's 2012.

Anonymous said...

Im starting to hate Acid pro 7. I have a quad core processor with plenty of ram. Im running an 8 track project with several vst effects on each. I cannot get a clean render. It drops audi from different tracks at exactly the same place each time. I solo render the problem track to a new file and the gap appears still. I have rebuilt the project converting all tracks to wave from the original garage band (ipad) aiff files. I dont like being told im using too many effects when my pc could run a space station.
Thoughts?

Anonymous said...

If you have the right VST plugins and creativity why bothering using Acid Pro? In fact all DAWs do the same work and depend on your input. Acid Pro 7 is stable and yes it's looking like 1995 but it's easy to use and the GUI is intuitive. Great for beginners!

So far,
SirPreiss

Unknown said...

I feel the same way about Acid pro 7 but where is it suppose to go next? Unless they add synths like Ableton or Reason, they exhausted their expansion. Hip hop and Techno still praises Sp 1200s, TR-808, TB-303 and TR-909 and they haven't upgraded those items since they stop making them. Maybe We should start making music with Acid that people will never forget.

Unknown said...

I feel the same way about Acid pro 7 but where is it suppose to go next? Unless they add synths like Ableton or Reason, they exhausted their expansion. Hip hop and Techno still praises Sp 1200s, TR-808, TB-303 and TR-909 and they haven't upgraded those items since they stop making them. Maybe We should start making music with Acid that people will never forget.

Anonymous said...

As long as they make 8 64 bit we'll be good. Been using Acid Pro for like 10+ years, if they don't up to 64 soon I'll have to switch to Sonar x2 or something.

Anonymous said...

I use Acid Pro 7 extensively as it's by far the best DAW for quickly and effectively putting together tracks using samples from sample libraries. However, after a track is done, I render the individual audio tracks at highest possible bitrate and with no effects on, and then import them into Cubase 7 to do all further production, vocal and instrument recordings, etc. For some unexplaned reason, the sound quality from Cubase is far far better than Acid Pro 7. Everything sounds so much better, even the exported audio from Acid Pro 7! Anyway, with this workflow I get the best from Acid Pro 7 using it for the only thing its really good at.