10 YEARS OF ACID

In 1998, Sonic Foundry introduced the first automatic audio loop-based music software ever: Acid Pro. It soon became a defacto standard for creating loop based music, and its approach towards looping technique has since been adopted by the majority of other music software makers. Anyone invoved in creating electronic music will run into the term 'Acidized loop files' sooner or later.

Lacking behind with other music software such as Ableton, which immediately started making waves as a full blast loop based performance and arranger tool when first introduced 2001, Sonic Foundry sold the Acid line of products to Sony in 2003 - including the Acidplanet website.

Sony, rooted deep in the music industry through their own record labels, saw the opportunity for the remixing site which had already built quite a reputation with remix contests featuring artists such as Madonna. And it didn't take long before Acidplanet had remix contests up with more superstars such as David Bowie and the Chemical Brothers. Combined with a free 10 track Acid Express version, anyone could give remixing a go at Acidplanet. Web based remixing opportunities have exploded ever since, but just a glance at Acidplanet's impressive past contest list learns that, to date, there's no place on the web that can compare with them.

It took Sony three years to get on track with Acid Pro to become a full featured Digital Audio Workstation. In 2006, Sony introduced Acid Pro 6 which also included MIDI and multitrack audio recording with full support for ASIO and VST plugins - followed by version 7 one year later.

So that is 10 years of musical revolution. To coincide with the 10th aniversary of the Acid software family, Sony updated the free version to Acid Xpress 7 adding advanced features to the free software.

You can now add as many loops or one-shots as desired to a track, so far more complex musical compositions can be created. Automatic crossfades between events will allow users to seamlessly tie together different loops and songs. With Acid Xpress 7 software you can quickly create soundtracks for videos by frame-accurately synchronizing music alongside the newly introduced video track. Inline editing makes MIDI data easier to edit and provides quicker access to MIDI events.

Other than a remix site, Acidplanet is a good source for free loops as well, offering weekly updated free 8-packs.

  beta.acidplanet.com