Sony Acid Pro 6 review

Acid Pro was the first music-production software to play to computers' strengths rather than merely emulating a hardware recording studio.

Its ability to stretch samples to fit projects automatically has since been copied by nearly all its rivals, but Acid Pro has continued to keep ahead, regularly finding inspiring new ways to push sounds into uncharted territory. In this respect, Acid Pro 6 is a break from tradition. It seems that the program has grown up, got a sensible haircut and begun looking for work in more traditional recording environments.

Although Acid Pro has always excelled at sample manipulation and remixing, various limitations have made it less suitable for multi-track recording projects. However, most of these limitations have been resolved. It now records from multiple simultaneous sources when used in conjunction with an ASIO sound card with multiple inputs. It's also possible to combine more than one recording per audio or MIDI track, which is an essential feature when compiling multiple takes for a best-of performance, and helpful when using lots of one-off sounds, too.

MIDI editing is more accessible, with a new editor that appears directly on the timeline, plus drum maps, MIDI data filtering and real-time quantisation. Mix automation is improved, too, with the ability to record effects setting changes either by dragging the controls in real time or by drawing envelopes. However, auxiliary effect automation lacks envelope control so the only way to edit data is to re-record it. Acid Pro's mix architecture still has room for improvement, too. There's no way to add an aux effect to a software instrument, which is a fairly basic requirement. Still, the bundled Kompakt software instrument has built-in effects to complement its usable - if uninspiring - set of sounds.

With the various new recording and arranging options, it's reassuring to see that simply hitting the main record button automatically generates a new track to record to, just as it always has done. Similarly, samples dragged to the Arrange panel are still given a dedicated track, ready for the sample to be 'painted' into place. The only difference is that you now need to drop it at the bottom of the panel. Sony has been careful to ensure that Acid's ease of use isn't compromised, so existing users won't have to learn any new techniques.

It's great to see Acid Pro broadening its scope for general-purpose production, but it hasn't gone far enough to topple Sonar's dominance. Acid lacks workflow niceties such as stacked recording, which makes it easier to record and compile multiple takes, and its instrument and effect plug-in bundle can't compete with Sonar Producer Edition's. However, Acid Pro's greatest strength is its ease and speed of use. You can knock a track together in a quarter of the time it takes in other software. With its improved recording, MIDI editing and mixing features, it now makes more sense to stay with Acid Pro for the final mix, too.