software for using acid loops plus live midi

[chichikov]

I am a beginner looking for way to play acid loops with key information, like bass and keyboard loops. The goal is a Windo0ws XP environment where I can play live midi guitar and keyboards through a vst instrument like proteus X with the loops in the background. I have tried three options that don't work:

1)Ableton Live Lite. So far the best, but

a) no information about the key of the acid loops, so can only use perc and drums.

b)when I load up proteus, system becomes very slow, poor response, despite fast processor and ample memory (bottleneck seems to be processor, which then runs continuously at 100% of capacity).

2)Sony Acid demo. Proteus does not appear to slow the program down, but the live midi sounds all come out sounding like a piano, even when bass is selected

3)CuBase lite: pretty much like acid, but:

 

a)horrible latency with the live midi

b)no key information.

 

I realize that all three of these programs are highly thought of, so probably I am missing some obvious solutions in each case. Can you advise me, or tell me your preferred ways to do this? How can you use bass loops wihtout key info?

 

Thanks

John

[Alndln2]

On Windows, your only option left that deals with Acid Loops/Midi and VSTi is Sonar. Try the demo.

[Rabid]

 

1)Ableton Live Lite. So far the best, but a) no information about the key of the acid loops, so can only use perc and drums. b)when I load up proteus, system becomes very slow, poor response, despite fast processor and ample memory (bottleneck seems to be processor, which then runs continuously at 100% of capacity).

 

 

You set the key at the song level. It does not matter what key the loops are in, Live will transpose the the key you specify for the song.

 

 

 

2)Sony Acid demo. Proteus does not appear to slow the program down, but the live midi sounds all come out sounding like a piano, even when bass is selected

 

 

It sounds like you are not selecting a program to use within the VSTi. In many hosts there are two ways to select the patch. Try bringing up the VSTi and selecting the patch from it rather than from a drop down box in the track information.

 

 

3)CuBase lite: pretty much like acid, but: a)horrible latency with the live midi b)no key information.

 

 

You have not told us what computer and sound card you are using. That may be the problem with latency. I'm not sure how Cubase handles Acid loops. I use them in Sonar and like Acid and Live, you set the key at the song level.

[Anderton]

 

I am a beginner looking for way to play acid loops with key information, like bass and keyboard loops. The goal is a Windo0ws XP environment where I can play live midi guitar and keyboards through a vst instrument like proteus X with the loops in the background. I have tried three options that don't work: 1)Ableton Live Lite. So far the best, but a) no information about the key of the acid loops, so can only use perc and drums. b)when I load up proteus, system becomes very slow, poor response, despite fast processor and ample memory (bottleneck seems to be processor, which then runs continuously at 100% of capacity).

 

 

You can transpose loops in Ableton Live, although you have to do it manually. As to slow response, do you have enough memory? If so, try converting some Live clips into RAM clips. Perhaps Proteus is streaming samples from hard disk, and so are the clips, and that's causing the problem?

 

 

2)Sony Acid demo. Proteus does not appear to slow the program down, but the live midi sounds all come out sounding like a piano, even when bass is selected

 

 

What I think is happening is that Acid has a default General MIDI-type module that's probably being loaded for your MIDI tracks. Changing MIDI assignments is what you need to investigate here. You may need to change channels or drive a different instrument.

 

 

3)CuBase lite: pretty much like acid, but: a)horrible latency with the live midi b)no key information.

 

 

I'm not sure what kind of looping options Cubase Lite has. The full version has a lot of stretching options for both pitch and time.

 

I find Sony Acid and Sonar the most facile way to work with loops, although I use Ableton Live for live use because of its responsiveness.

[chichikov]

Thanks so much for all the information. In the end I got both Sonar and Acid Studio to work with my VST without causing undue strain on the CPU. Both trasnspose loops easily and show key information.

Craig can you tell me how transpose to a given key in Live? Or Rabid, can you tell me how to set the key at the song level in Live? The only transpose control I found gives increments in semitones and cents, but suppose I want to play in the key of C, dont I have to know the root of the loop to begin with?

Memory was not the issue with Live, it was really CPU. I was using the default windows soundcard (sigmatel), so for Sonar I had to switch to MME.

 

Finally one post suggested I use my ear. I really wish I was that good.