Author Topic: How To Mix 2 Songs Using Acid 6.0 Properly  (Read 3568 times)

Offline abhigames

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How To Mix 2 Songs Using Acid 6.0 Properly
« on: August 28, 2008, 10:08:51 AM »
Okay, here's my how to guide on how to mix 2 songs properly using Acid 6.0. Acid is a great program for a beginning mixer, and relatively powerful for its ease. The key things are beatmapping and pitch matching - without these two you are an avatar with no element bending capabilities.

1. Drag your first track into the software. It should automatically ask you if you would like to BeatMap this track or not. Click Yes.
2. To beatmap this track, you need to find out where the first beat starts and put your cursor line there exactly. Zoom in, to get even more precise. The beginning of the wave length is the best spot. You can even choose a beat further in the song if you feel that the true beat has not started yet. Remember you only want to start at the "TRUE BEAT".
3. Click next, now you need to set the loop. Drag the barrier cursors until you find the loop that will repeat throughout the song. trial and error work here, but make sure you try to be as exact as possible so that the beatmapper can find the right BPM (beats per minute). Click next once done.
4. Now the beatmapper will allow you to hear the metronome on the beat throughout the song...fast forward a bit to make sure the metronome stays consistent with the beat. If it falls off slightly, don't worry, we can fix this later, but if it falls off a lot go back to Step 2 and retry your loop.
5. Click next, and then finish. Now your track is beatmapped. Look closely at the BPM on the bottom of the screen (it will give you something like 105.XXX). You may want to adjust this so its near a whole number, most modern tracks are recorded computerized so if it says 105.234 its usually just 105 and you can adjust this in the Clip properties window and then under the stretch tab and choose the original BPM as 105.
6. Drag your second track in and repeats step 2 through 4.
7. Acid 6.0 will automatically attempt to layer the second track to match the BPM of the first track. usually this works pretty. IT WORKS BEST when your BPM's of the 2 tracks are similar (i..e 105 and 105 or 105 and 110 or 105 and 100). This way you don't have to speed up or slow down the song too much.
8. Finally, we need to work on pitch. This is where most mixers make their mistakes...they think pitch doesn't matter or don't know about it. It does matter if you want a high quality well sounding mix. You have to play around and it requires a bit of ear.
9. On the second (or first track, whichever you want to pitch shift), Go to clip properties and then the Stretch tab. Choose Root Note, and begin to go up and down the scale
10. Everytime you change the root note, listen to the mix and see if it sounds good. you may want to use a guitar or piano to see the key in which the original song lies. You have to mess around considerably with this until you get the perfect pitch matched.
11. Final edits...your beats may not match exactly...but this is okay. Just go find where you loop starts going off, cut it there and slide it to adjust it. You may have to do this several times throughout the mix, but the cuts should be small enough that it shouldn't make a significant difference.
12. Finally- EQing your tracks. If you click on one of your track's FX button (the little green lantern thingy) it will bring up the Track EQ effects. You'll see a 1, 2, 3, 4 buttons. Those are your Bass, Mids, and Highs respectively. To lower the bass, simply bring 1 down all the way. To raise the vocals, simply raise the 4 higher. You can mess around with these to get the perfect sound.

Okay, if you have questions, let me know and I'll gladly answer.


HERE IS AN EXAMPLE:
I'm mixing Batuaa (Original) with Lil Jon and Eastside Boyz "What u gona do" instrumental

1. Beatmap Batuaa - When I did it, it came out to around 82.0 BPM (Instruction 1)
2. Beatmap What u gona do - I got 74.697 or cloase to 75 BPM (Instruction 2)
3. I wanted the hip hop instrumental to be sped up to Batuaa, so i right clicked on Batuaa, then Paint clip, and then Use Original Tempo of 82.0 BPM. Now the hip hop song has sped up to match Batuaa (Instruction 3)
4. You thought you were done right? Not a chance - you need to check the pitch. I didn't want to change Batuaa's pitch, so I went to change the hip hop song's pitch. At this point I moved the hip hop song over batuaa, so that the hip hop song's melody lines came into play, thus allowing me to switch the pitch and hear what sounded good. To do this, I go to Clip properties of What u gonna do, go to stretch and then start messing with the root note so that the whistling sound matches the tumbi. I start at A and work my way up...until I find that it sounds good at root note E. Obviously this is totally up to you, as to what sounds good and what doesn't. (Instruction 4)
5. Finally cut it up and mix it how you like and ur done. In this case, I will do some Track Eqing, by lowering the bass on Batuaa, and lower the highs on the hip hop song so that they sound better together. Maybe even add some echoo echoo echoo echoo on batuaa for fun. (Instruction 5)
« Last Edit: August 29, 2008, 01:56:12 PM by abhigames »
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How To Mix 2 Songs Using Acid 6.0 Properly
« on: August 28, 2008, 10:08:51 AM »

Offline Basim

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Re: How To Mix 2 Songs Using Acid 6.0 Properly
« Reply #1 on: August 29, 2008, 12:55:15 AM »
Post of the year: abhigames ;D

Thanks for the awesome information. I'm not the best at mixing, so I'm sure this will become useful sometime or another.

If you had screenshots for these steps (using two small sample audio files) that would be superb! Keep up the great work abhigames.

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Offline Vijay

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Re: How To Mix 2 Songs Using Acid 6.0 Properly
« Reply #2 on: August 29, 2008, 04:00:58 AM »
abhinav, its earth olympics and ur still not in the mud. shame on you.







o well lets chuck the campers in. lol

Offline abhigames

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Re: How To Mix 2 Songs Using Acid 6.0 Properly
« Reply #3 on: August 29, 2008, 09:12:33 AM »
Vijay

long time no see. we may have enough camp people on here soon enough to start our own exclusive threads.
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Offline Jessie

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Re: How To Mix 2 Songs Using Acid 6.0 Properly
« Reply #4 on: August 29, 2008, 12:34:26 PM »
Crazy post respect

Offline abhigames

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Re: How To Mix 2 Songs Using Acid 6.0 Properly
« Reply #5 on: August 29, 2008, 02:15:27 PM »
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Offline Rahul3

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Re: How To Mix 2 Songs Using Acid 6.0 Properly
« Reply #6 on: September 05, 2008, 10:44:27 AM »
How did you add the echo effect to batuaa?

Offline Swi

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Re: How To Mix 2 Songs Using Acid 6.0 Properly
« Reply #7 on: September 05, 2008, 10:53:45 AM »
the 'true beat' abhigames speaks of is called the 'Down Beat' in Acid
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Offline abhigames

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Re: How To Mix 2 Songs Using Acid 6.0 Properly
« Reply #8 on: September 05, 2008, 01:44:22 PM »
How did you add the echo effect to batuaa?

Add Reverb in the FX menu
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Offline Karan923

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Re: How To Mix 2 Songs Using Acid 6.0 Properly
« Reply #9 on: September 06, 2008, 05:52:43 PM »
I have the lil green lantern symbol you're talking about, but I don't have any effects installed. I don't understand that because I have Acid Pro 6.0, which should already have effects installed. When I click the green lantern, I only see the track eq. This is what I see. I don't know if I'm doing it wrong, or I might have a different version then you or what. I also tried clicking on the configure FX automation, the green lantern on the upper most right, and that didn't have reverb in it either.

« Last Edit: September 06, 2008, 06:07:29 PM by Karan923 »
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Offline Nice Sandhu

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Re: How To Mix 2 Songs Using Acid 6.0 Properly
« Reply #10 on: September 07, 2008, 10:43:21 PM »
how do i slow down songs on ACid Pro

Offline Karan923

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Re: How To Mix 2 Songs Using Acid 6.0 Properly
« Reply #11 on: September 07, 2008, 11:05:12 PM »
Nice Sandhu. To slow down songs, right click on the track, click "clip properties," then click on the "stretch" tap, then where it shows the "original tempo," put ur cursor in the middle of the arrows, and you should be able to scroll with the BPM, the higher it goes, the slower the song will go, the lower it goes, the faster the song will go.
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Offline Nice Sandhu

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Re: How To Mix 2 Songs Using Acid 6.0 Properly
« Reply #12 on: September 07, 2008, 11:06:38 PM »
thanks mann

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Offline Manjot

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Re: How To Mix 2 Songs Using Acid 6.0 Properly
« Reply #13 on: September 08, 2008, 01:36:18 AM »
do you have any 2 songs that are easy to mix...i dno which 1s to use lol..can u upload them just incase i dont have em
thnx in advance!

Offline abhigames

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Re: How To Mix 2 Songs Using Acid 6.0 Properly
« Reply #14 on: September 08, 2008, 09:26:28 AM »
do you have any 2 songs that are easy to mix...i dno which 1s to use lol..can u upload them just incase i dont have em
thnx in advance!

check the tutorials/instruction loops i've uploaded...not hard to get those songs. As for the FX...dude you need to find a version of Acid that has those...most of them do, looks like you just got a bad one

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Offline Manjot

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Re: How To Mix 2 Songs Using Acid 6.0 Properly
« Reply #15 on: September 08, 2008, 06:23:56 PM »
do you have any 2 songs that are easy to mix...i dno which 1s to use lol..can u upload them just incase i dont have em
thnx in advance!

check the tutorials/instruction loops i've uploaded...not hard to get those songs. As for the FX...dude you need to find a version of Acid that has those...most of them do, looks like you just got a bad one


I think you don't have it because maybe you downloaded the crack version with torrents...try getting the trial version from the official site then use the crack for the full version..that shud get you everything...if u already did that then idno

Offline Nice Sandhu

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Re: How To Mix 2 Songs Using Acid 6.0 Properly
« Reply #16 on: September 21, 2008, 03:47:38 AM »
hey,
  how do you take off the background music to a certain song???

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Re: How To Mix 2 Songs Using Acid 6.0 Properly
« Reply #17 on: September 22, 2008, 09:21:40 AM »
you mean the creation of an acapella....its very difficult actually....theres a way to do it if you have the instrumental and the original song....in which u inverse the instrumental on top of the original song, and it gives u a rough acapella...very complicated


the best you can do in simple forms....is to reduce the lows (the bass and mids) and leave the highs. in Acid 6.0, you would click on Track FX (the green lantern) and add the Track EQ fx. You have 4 numbers, 1,2,3,4. You can reduce 1 so that the bass drops out....then mess around with 2 and 3 (either lower and higher) and make 4 a bit higher...this should give you more of the voice and less of the music. Thats about the best you can do.
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Re: How To Mix 2 Songs Using Acid 6.0 Properly
« Reply #18 on: September 22, 2008, 10:11:09 AM »
Abhigames, you snapped brother. this really helped me out. this is a really good way to start mixing..definently gonna throw my input in to my teams mixes..but honestly i really wanna hear one of your mixes!! if you dont mind can u post a past competition mixx or like a hall party performance mixx or something? thx in advace.

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Re: How To Mix 2 Songs Using Acid 6.0 Properly
« Reply #19 on: September 22, 2008, 07:19:31 PM »

7. Acid 6.0 will automatically attempt to layer the second track to match the BPM of the first track. usually this works pretty. IT WORKS BEST when your BPM's of the 2 tracks are similar (i..e 105 and 105 or 105 and 110 or 105 and 100). This way you don't have to speed up or slow down the song too much.


Just make something clear...the second will only auto beat match the first song, only if it was already beatmapped before.

And the pitch...make sure you click uncheck preserve pitch when stretching otherwise it will skip the measures and try to keep the faster pace but same pitch...which will make the track skip measures..doesn't sound nice. .If it goes too fast...usually over 10-15 BPM...then check preserve pitch when stretching and then go through the root notes...

Finally equalizing...what abhigames posted is a good way but another good way is to do it through GRAPHIC EQUALIZER...it gives you more control over your ranges...by default ...its Track Fx..but look on the top right and you will see 3 buttons..click the 1st left one...and go to graphic equalizer...once that opens..on the bottom you will see envelope...10 band...20 band...20 band is the best...10 is if your doing something really quick...envelope ..your choice...

anyone got other questions like how to rewire fruityloops so you can add your own drums and beats and such...dont ask me :)


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