2 Questions: SMPTE & Acid

[miller325]

Hello,

Question #1: Does Sonar, unlike Pro Audio 9, generate Midi Time Code?

Question #2: I use Acid Pro 3.0 and have about 30 GB in loops. What is it like to use Acid loops in the looping section of Sonar? Will each loop need to be "sonarized" somehow (sorry , I don't know the correct term) before I can use the loop in Sonar and have its tempo and key change? Would it be easier to just keep using Acid and link the two programs using the Sound Forge Virtual Midi Router?

I currently use Performer on a Mac and Acid on a PC. Acid slaves to Performer via SMPTE. I would like to use just one computer and am thinking of switching to Sonar. I am considering Sonar not only because of the great reviews it has received but also I thought it would be nice to be able to use my loop library directly in Sonar. But this may be more trouble than it's worth and perhaps it would be easier to use Sonar and Acid together. That's what I'm trying to ask in a roundabout way in question #2.

Thanks,
Philip

[AlChuck]

Using ACID loops in SONAR is much the same as using ACID. The interface is different, but essentially you can do the same thing as you can with ACID. It uses markers inside the WAV files just like ACID.

Not sure about question #1.

[miller325]

AlChuck,

Thanks for the reply. I've read everything about Sonar at the Cakewalk site and all of the reviews and they say the same thing that you say: that Sonar can make tempo and pitch changes to audio in real time just like Acid. I'm just trying to verify that this means Sonar can do this to an acidized loop without any further modification or processing to the acidized loop. I remember reading somehwere (can no longer find it) where they also stated that Sonar can do the same things that Acid does. They then, however, went on to describe the process they took the loop through so that it could do these things. What they did to turn it into a Groove Clip (I believe that's the name). They may have been talking about a wav loop that had not been acidized. That's what scares me. I'm afraid I will get Sonar, pop an acidized wav into it and then find out I must first go through some "sonarization" process before the loop has the same abilities to change tempo and key that acid loops have in Acid. If that's the case I would just use the two programs--Acid and Sonar and sync them using something like Sonic Foundry's Virtual Midi Router. That would be two programs/one computer which is better that two programs/two computers. But one program only would be nice. But life is too short to have to re-process my library of Acid Loops.

Philip

[miller325]

AlChuck,

I think I have a better way to describe what I'm trying to find out. If I had Sonar on this computer and one acidized loop I could find out in under three minutes. I would first define the Sonar song I'm working on as being in the key of A with a tempo of 110. I would then go to the Sonar "Loop Construction " page which resembles Acid's main page with the loop tracks at the top and the Explorer Tree to the bottom left and the open file names to the bottom right. I would select an acidized loop with a tempo of 100 and in the key of F. I would go "click, click" or, if needed, manually place the acidized loop into one of the Sonar tracks. What happens? Does it automatically play the loop in the key of A at a tempo 110? It should. Or do I first have to do something/anything? If so, forget it, I would sync the two programs together.

Thanks,
Philip