ACID sound quality

[semitone]

What do you think of Sonic Foundry's Acid sound quality?Am i the only one that hear a quite obvious phasing effect on all the files stated as "loop files" in the properties window?Here's a test for you to do:Pick one of your favorite drum loops,let's say at 90bpm(original loop tempo).Open Acid ,put the tempo at 90 bpm(or at your loop's original tempo).Now insert the loop in two tracks.Go into the properties window,and change the second track from "loop" to "single shot".Now create an arrangement where the each track plays for 2 or 4 bars,to clearly A/B the sound quality(you may have to fine-tune the tempo if the single shot track doesn't fit excactly).Tell me what you think.Also worthy of mention is the fact that when you play a bit with the subdivisions in the looping properties,the phasing effect becomes lighter,but never goes away completely.

[murph]

It was a crazy enough that I had to try it. I tried it with a couple of different samples, and I heard the exact same thing with both tracks. You didn't overlap the tracks, right? Other tan that, I can't think of what might have happened...

[Submersible]

I have absolutely noticed something goofy with the sound quality in Acid. I've found that the phasing problem can be mostly elimated, but a "thinness" to the tone still remains.

 

Here's a variation on your experiment. Draw a few bars of a drum loop at original tempo and export as a wav. Play the wav back in Sound Forge or equivilent and compare to how it sounds playing in Acid. The difference is not subtle.

 

I think having the time compression expansion capability online and available for instant real time adjustment may be causing the problem.

[Anderton]

If you're playing the loop back at its original tempo, then you shouldn't use the stretch algorithms. Go into properties and select pitch shift segments instead of looping or non-looping segments.

 

Also, disk-based sounds are a special case. You want to uncheck stretch from tempo if tempo-stretching isn't needed. This will trip you up if you record a hard disk track as tempo stretch will be checked by default. You only need this checked if you change tempo after recording the hard disk part.

 

Of course, changing pitch and tempo on the fly is going to affect fidelity, so if you don't need it, don't use it!!

[Anderton]

One more thing...

 

Bass parts are particularly prone to being messed with during the pitch change process. A lot of times it's better to use pitch shift segments, then transpose the bass note to hit the desired pitch rather than use the on-the-fly stretching.