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Appendix
C
ACID Tips and Tricks
The following sections contain some time-saving tips and creative suggestions for building ACID® projects.
Adding long media files quickly
You can paint an entire CD track or MIDI file on an ACID track with a single click.
1.
Add a long file such as a CD track or MIDI file to your ACID project. For more information, see Adding media to the
project on page 31.
2.
Click the Paint Tool button ( ). The Paint tool is selected.
3.
Press Ctrl and click in the track. The entire file is painted onto the track at the position you clicked.
Note:
In a Beatmapped track, the file is painted starting from the location you identified as the downbeat. If the file
contains pick-up notes, drag the left edge of the event to reveal audio before the downbeat.
Playing with duplicate tracks
You can duplicate a track in your ACID project and then use the new track to create some interesting effects.
Detuning paired tracks
Detuning a paired track is a quick and easy way to thicken an audio track without adding the additional processing of
effects. This trick works extremely well with synths, pads, strings and ambient sounds, but you can also experiment with it
to add body to drums, basses, and horns.
1.
Right-click a track and choose Duplicate Track from the shortcut menu. A copy of the track is added to the track list.
The new track is the currently selected track.
2.
Use the + (plus) and - (minus) keys on your numeric keypad to change the pitch of the duplicated track.
Octave intervals (e.g., +12, -12, -24) typically sound best when working with pitched audio; however, experimenting
with other, less ordinary intervals may produce surprising results. When working with non-pitched audio, intervals
do not matter, thereby allowing you to freely experiment with radical pitch shifting.
This technique typically works best when tuning the duplicate track to a lower octave than the original track, but
you can also experiment with raising the pitch of the duplicate track.
Panning in conjunction with detuning
Few things are as uninteresting as a series of tracks panned down the middle of a stereo image. Particularly after
detuning a paired track, you should experiment with spatially positioning the tracks using the panning control (on the
multipurpose slider) or a pan envelope. Panning each track to a specific channel produces a nice, wide aural effect. If you
are looking for something a little more dynamic, position the original track anywhere in the stereo image and use a pan
envelope to sweep the duplicate track from the left channel to the right channel of the mix. For more information, see
Using track automation envelopes on page 112.
APPENDIX C | 297