Ableton Vs Sony Acid

[backplay]

Hello all,

I'm using Ableton now for live performances, but getting a bit tired about those negative things in Ableton.
-It can be a CPU hog and if i get past 40% it start clicking and popping.
-Timestretch algo's aren't that good.
-The sound that comes out of the 2 buss sounds dull and lifeless.

Now my question:
Has anyone got some experience with Acid (Sony )?
Does it has a better sound engine than Ableton?
Can you get 80% CPU usage without the clicking and popping?
Is the automatisation as good as Ableton?
Timetrecht algo's?

Thanx

[jje]

I can't answer your question, but I can chime in that I have Ableton and can hit 80% (and even 90%) without clicking or popping. I usually have my stuff set to a 10 or 20ms delay and I do NOT have a new computer by any stretch of the imagination. Are you using the disc caching? That lets you go over a little bit and still be ok (I've actually hit 200% because of disc caching and that's when I got delays and popping before the spike went away).

[Stevil]

i use an older sonic foundry version of acid. it's great but i wouldnt use it live.

[Dysanfel]

Both have their ups and downs. Neither is better or worse than the other, just different.

[backplay]

Originally Posted by jje

I can't answer your question, but I can chime in that I have Ableton and can hit 80% (and even 90%) without clicking or popping. I usually have my stuff set to a 10 or 20ms delay and I do NOT have a new computer by any stretch of the imagination. Are you using the disc caching? That lets you go over a little bit and still be ok (I've actually hit 200% because of disc caching and that's when I got delays and popping before the spike went away).

I usually have my buffer set at 512, cant get it higher because the latency is to big then, and i have 2 controllers hooked to control all kinds of plugin parameters.
I used the disc caché, but that doesn't help either...
I'm usually using between 700MB and 1500MB of audio, so with 512MB of RAM on the laptop it can't go all in the RAM. The audio is stored on a FW drive.
I know a thing or 2 about configuring pc's for audio, so that ain't the problem, windows only uses between 64 and 80MB of RAM depending on the configuration i use.

What version are u using?

I've tried this on 2 different laptops and 2 different pc's and i can't get past 40%

Cheers & thanx

[Stevil]

512MB?

sounds like a serious RAM upgrade is in order.

[jje]

I'm on an XP Home (SP2) desktop built from parts. My best recollection tells me I have an AMD 1.25Ghz Athlon XP, I forget the mobo, and 512 RAM. I put it together about three-four years ago. I record to a separate internal drive (I've got four that I switch back and forth on as they fill up and backup on the C drive - they all run at 7200rpm). I don't have XP optimized for audio - just the opposite, I have it maxed out with it set for best visuals and not best performance.

What sample rate are you using? If I'm at 24/88 things do get hairy. If I back it up to 24/48 I'm moving smooth and if I go to 16/44 I can get away with damn near anything.

[theother]

Hey I'm an expert in the Ableton/ACID field!

ACID sounds so much better it's ridiculous!

You can't stretch a solo instrument like acoustic guitar or bass properly in Ableton. You have so tweak many parameters and it never sounds right.

In ACID it sounds always right. Without tweaking anything. It's magic!

Now I wanted to use ACID with Cubase/Nuendo and for many many years you couldn't sync them properly and ACID had no Re-Wire/slave option.

For this reason alone I had to work with Ableton but the results were really frustrating.

Now that ACID Pro is Re-Wire Slave capable I'm very happy with it!

[AMIEL]

Nobody beat the streching capabilities , sound and precision of ACID PRO....and also worksflow is great.....but the MIDI kind of sucks!

I wish any other software would have the ease of manipulating and previewing loops as Acid....all the other programs are just begginers on that field!! Acid makes look Pro tools like a primitive program in the Looping field...and Ableton a ok pretender!!

Acid is king on this Loop and time strenching audio field!

[backplay]

Thanx TheOther & Amiel!

Those are the aswers i wanted to hear actually.
I couldn't believe there was nothing better than Ableton for streching.
For instruments or non electronic music Ableton sucked sooooooo much.

What about midi control? Can you easely control plugins and faders with a midi controller?

Cheers