Comments

chaboud wrote on 6/7/2001, 1:31 AM
Being on the Vegas team, I'd love to tell you that Vegas will do everything you need, but it won't.

What you want is Acid 3.0. New to 3.0 is a feature called the Beatmapper. When a long file is dragged in, the Beatmapper launches a small wizard. In the wizard, you drop the downbeat and the length of the first measure. The Beatmapper then lets you adjust extrapolated measures later in the song to more accurately define the tempo.

What you get is the ability to cut up a song and treat the song like a loop (or multiple loops). Everything that happens with loops (time stretching, pitch shifting) happens with beatmapped tracks. It's hard to describe how cool it is without just doing it. You might miss touching the turntables, but I think that, after one try, you'll be pretty convinced.

Simply, ACID 3.0 is the way to go for DJ mixes.

Have fun,
mc
Avene wrote on 6/9/2001, 2:40 AM
Except if there's a tempo change, or a bar in the song which has been edited a fraction shorter or longer, it won't work :( Although I only just bought Acid 3.0 the other day. Something else I noticed, the beat splicer isn't as effective as using the trimmer in Vegas, and dragging regions onto the timeline.
Chris_L wrote on 6/9/2001, 3:57 PM
For mixing one full record into another full record, like you would on decks, I prefer Vegas. The time stretching is still versatile, you can speed up in different ways, with or without affecting pitch.

I use DJ Mix Pro to calc all my BPMs first then when embarking on a mix I do it pretty much in BPM order to avoid having to speed up stuff too much.

I just look at the drum beats in Vegas and match them up by hand with the track below.

To get the hang of it, drag two copies of the same record onto two separate audio tracks, try setting one a beat or a bar behind the other.
chaboud wrote on 6/11/2001, 1:49 PM
I'm glad to hear that Vegas is working well for everyone here, but I'd have to say that the Beatmapper may not be being used to its full potential.

If a tempo change occurs in a song, just drag the song in again and re-Beatmap it from the new downbeat. It wouldn't work for say, Miles Davis, but most pop/techno/electric/kennyg music is pretty close to a click track.

Acid can also time-stretch without changing pitch. At the end of the Beatmapper wizard, just check "Preserve pitch of the Beatmapped track when tempo changes" and you'll be home free. For current projects, check "Preserve pitch when stretching" under Track Properties->General.

Honestly, it is very worth the extra effort of inspecting later measures in step 3. You'll find that the Beatmapper is as accurate (generally more so) than the best that can be done when lining up peaks in Vegas.

Around the Foundry, we've used Vegas for mixing tracks before, but ACID 3.0 and the Beatmapper in particular were built around making mixing easy and quick. I think that the ACID team hit the mark.