RE: looping software?

[Leonardo Cavallo <cavallo@dada.it>]

At 16.42 19/05/98 -0400, you wrote:
>What would be fantastic is to find some software (I use a PC) that one
could load a number of samples into, then play them back in a
User-controlled order.  Ie. (since that doesn't even make sense to me) you
have 4 samples;  you start the program looping sample #1; this continues
until you tell the program to loop sample #2; it does this without a break
in the music/sound.  Ideally, the new loop/sample wouldn't necessarily 
start
until the end point of the previous loop/sample.  This would gear the
program more towards a performance-type result, although you wouldn't be
able to record loops live (they would be prerecorded samples).  If there's
software that does that, I would be very pleased.
>
>               Jon Grant
>               Tian Music
>               www.aracnet.net/~tianmus
>
>

I've had the chance to try one of the first betas of Acid by Sonic Foundry.
Last night I donloaded the demo too. as someone already said this prog 
could
be your perfect choice. It's really oriented to loop music. Clearly they
thought to dance stuff mainly but Acid could be used to fit every other 
need.

the main thing of Acid is its time strech/expand capability, all in real
time, all without a glitch. No surprise if this thing will be used by Djs
along turntables. It could be really interesting.
The interface is amazingly intuitive and simple. I think you have X tracks
depending on your RAM and the lenghts of the samples you import. On every
track you can program volume, pan changes and FX amount on the 2 FX send. 
No
FX included but Direct X compatible. 

This is its basic funtioning: you import a pre edited 1 bar groove on track
n.1. The groove will fit immediatly the time that you have selected in 
Acid,
with no pitch variation. The you import a bass line in track 2, recorded at
a different tempo, and it will adjust tha phrase in real time to fit the
exact bpm. And so on.

Altough there are a lot of other progs that can stretch audio files with
good results, I don't know any other that can do this in real time and in a
non destructive way. 

For looping purposes this could be a great thing to edit loop compositions.
There's a record function too (on th beta was not perfectly functioning, on
the demo I've not tried yet) so you can use it also as a multitrack
recorder. The only thing that I was disappointed with were the music demos
dwonloadable from their site. They don't make justice to the potentialities
of the prog. It's simply shit. I've just tweaked the prog and came with 
some
incredible results respect the demos. 

Hey, I don't work for Sonic Foundry. :)

ciao
leo