Digital Media Network Review of Rudy's Acid Training DVD:

I got the new VASST ACID for Non-Linear Editors training DVD with Rudy Sarzo this week and I watched it twice. I am happy to report that this is an excellent tutorial for both its intended audience (non-linear editors) and also for those just wanting to use ACID with existing audio. Rudy gives you a solid foundation for using ACID with audio loops and the DVD is very appropriate for the beginner because it assumes you are a non-linear editor and have never used ACID or even made music before. I'm a musician (I play keyboards) so I realize that I easily understood the musical concepts Rudy was trying to get across but I think he did so in a very clear and concise manner that I’m sure non-musicians would understand.

This DVD will give you the basics and beyond of ACID: what the preferences and toolbars do, how to add loops, add effects to loops with and without automation, create your own loops from songs on CD and from other loops, process a loop in Sound Forge, changing keys/tempos, transposing loops, and it will teach you how to approach a mix (using buses) the same way we do in a recording studio This, IMHO is very valuable for non-musicians and musicians who have never worked in a recording studio to know.

Rudy teaches all of this in the context of a score he’s working on so you really get a feel for his workflow and approach to scoring. Actually, it really doesn’t matter if you’re scoring for video or just composing a song, all of the information on this DVD will be relevant. These are the things you can’t learn from reading the manual.

What it does not cover is MIDI or VSTi or even how to record your own audio (other than briefly explaining the options on the record dialog and, even at that it, only explains the audio options not the MIDI options) So its not going to teach you how to punch in and out and record MIDI and audio, use VSTi plugins, etc. But that's to be expected because this is not a generic "Everything you want to know about ACID" tutorial because of its focus on scoring for video. Honestly, that would have only been a couple of extra chapters out of this 23-chapter DVD anyway and most non-linear editors don’t need this information.

I think the insight that Rudy gives in the "Scoring with Emotion" chapter on both how to select the proper instruments and the proper effects to get the desired mood is invaluable. I feel the chapter could have been enhanced by showing some examples visually instead of just talking about them (the chapter is just Rudy talking), but lots of valuable information is there none the less. I also can't emphasize enough how important the insights that Rudy gives you on how to approach a mix are. Even though this was information I already knew from working in recording studios myself, it reminded me that everything I learned on a hardware console could be applied to ACID and to approach the problem the same way. It did not occur to me to do this at first (I’ve only been using ACID for a few weeks now), so the DVD was definitely worth it for me in organizing how I approach a project. I already saw a difference in how I organized a new project I started last night. It was very evident to me that I was influenced by this DVD. That was worth the price alone.

Thanks Rudy! (and thanks Spot for bringing this to us)

~jr