Acid versus Vegas as a Multitrack? If all you need is a few
or 12 tracks and have a fast processor and hard drive, Acid
may be a sufficient multitrack. However, if you yearn to
have FX routing be pre OR post fader assignable, and this is
a big deal, Vegas is essential. Acid treats FX more or less
like a reverb aux-send situation by design and blends this
with the dry signal summing FX with the Volume of the track.
If you wish to pump your whole track thru a compressor or
other process where it should saturate the track, you must
take the Volume to nil and only send to the FX.
This makes balancing volumes between multiple tracks a mess
if you have made this decision after carefully constructing
a mix with "dry" tracks. Vegas lets you send to the FX
BEFORE the fader which allows EQs and Compressors to really
work as intended. Plus if you want to chain effects or
processes, Vegas makes that easy. Much more elegant.

Another biggie is Real Estate on the screen. Vegas allows
any audio files to exist on each track and crossfade nicely
with each other if desired. Easier to see what you are doing
and get that crossfade exactly right when combining
multiple takes.

These are just a few of my preferences, based on the way I
work. Maybe not that relevant to everyone. I recently had
the pleasure of submixing my 40+ track Acid monstrosity down
to 12 tracks to really fine tune it in Vegas-what a
pleasure! Acid doing the Time stretch and Pitch
transposition and Vegas for the EQ, Compression, Reverb and
mix-down. Amazing amount of creative potential waiting to be
exploited! I doubt if I will ever use MIDI again! And I no
longer covet a flying fader digital mixer. It's (almost) all
there in these 2 programs and some good plug-ins.

P.S. Just so you know I am a bit biased, since do work for
Sonic Foundry (although not as a Developer). Taking a
little time out from my extra-curricular activities to join
in the discussion here. I hope this post helps clarify the
Acid vs Vegas issue.

Aubrey Hodges wrote:
>>Why use Vegas if I already own Acid? They are so similar
>>it's scary. While it's true that Acid is designed as a
loop
>>based music tool...it can also be used as a multitrack in
>>many of the same ways that Vegas is designed. Enlighten me
>>someone.