As we have talked about before: Jamstudio Music Factory [
http://jamstudio.com ] is made up from over 250,000 acidized loops. Each loops is 2 seconds in length and in wave format.
What does "acidized" mean, and can I use these acid loops in other programs besides ACID?
Acid loops are an advanced form of sound loops or music loops. Acid loops are music loops that contain small bits of extra information within the file that allow the programs to utilize the "acidized" loop more fully. The information that tells the program the key that the phrase is being played in, and the number of beats to the phrase are the most important.
If a song is in the key of "A" but the acid loop was originally played in a different key, the program will be able to transpose the key of the acidized loop to the key of the song automatically, as long as the program has the information stating the key that the phrase was played in. Which program you use to do the transposing and the material being transposed will determine the range of notes you can transpose without sounding weird. A few semitones in either direction almost always works OK. Some material can be transposed an octave or so without any weirdness at all.
Including the information that tells the program the number of beats in the phrase is what tells the program how to synchronize the timing of the acid loop with the timing of the song. If the song is being played at 120.7 beats per minute, and the loop was originally played ay 103.1 beats per minute, the acid loop will immediately synchronize with the timing of the song. The acid loops may have been one bar, two bars, six beats, nine beats, or any number of beats long, but as long as the information specifying the number of beats is included in the file, the acid loops will automatically sync with the song. The song can also change tempo in parts, and the synchronization will remain intact. Usually the first time a person sees this happen (particularly seasoned musicians), there's usually a dropping of the jaw and a widening of the distance between the eyelids. Its ease and usefulness is astounding.
"Acidizing" the file has become the industry's standard method of including this very basic practical information about the acid loop in the file. Most of the mainstream programs that use loops are able to utilize this information to expand the usefulness of the loops, and the practicality their program. More and more programs are conforming to this standard as time goes on. Acid was the first program to utilize this information, so this is how the term "acid loop" came about.
