WTF Acid?

[sephi]

Editing (other peoples') tracks so that they no longer have lengthy intros and outros. I have no idea how to do this in any program except Audacity, and want to speed up the workflow since I have a lot of music. Acid seems like it would rock at this - if only I could figure out its idiosyncracies!

First off, why can't I just type the known BPM into the Beatmapper? I know it's exactly 180. I don't need it to guess 179.999 or 180.022. It's exactly 180. WTF?
http://i.imgur.com/WJDwf.jpg

Trying to cut a 48-bar intro down to a 32-bar by cutting out the 16-bar section from the end of 30 to the start of 47, then splicing 30 and 47 together.

Trying to go from
[1.......9.......17.......25....30][31.........41....46][47+rest-of-track]
to
[1............................30][47+rest-of-track]

http://i.imgur.com/LTUsT.jpg

I can't for the life of me figure out how to just drop the track into the main screen, tell the Beatmapper what's what, then cut out the section I want to get rid of and drag the two remaining sections back together. In Audacity, it's stupid-simple: select the offending section from one end to the other, then press Delete. If someone can explain how this process works in Acid, that's most of my trouble dealt with right there.

OK, so I figure I can select in the Chopper the two sections I want pasted together, toss them into the main screen as a pair of tracks, and just line them up and flatten them into a single file when saving. Nope!

My 30-bar selection in the Chopper, when "drawn" in as its own track, is inexplicably 20 bars long. It plays at a psychotic tempo of (30/20)*180 BPM. The original track was 180 BPM and the project tempo is set at 180 BPM. What exactly is going on here?
http://i.imgur.com/79KFy.jpg

Hope that all makes sense. I am a noob to DAWs despite spending the better part of a decade DJing, so please bear with me. I may simply be using the wrong tool for the job, and I am sure that I fail at the terminology. However...

I am so frustrated after several hours mucking about and watching/reading tutorials, that I will Paypal a few quid (in addition to rep) to anyone who can figure this out and get me on the track to churning out simple edits like this one.

[Badger]

If I understand correctly... then you are making it a lot more difficult than it needs to be.

Try this:

Skip the Beatmapper.
Press F8 in the editing window to turn off snap-to-grid (or snap-to-anything).
Select the points at which you want to "break" the track and press "S" (Split).
Delete the parts you don't want and slide together the parts you do want.
Polish and export as you see fit.

Any further questions? Feel free to ask!

:badger:

[sephi]

"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Badger again."

Haha, it looks like I figured out the "split" thing as you were posting! Thanks for confirming that that's how I should go about it. Wow, I really was making that far too complicated. This'll be a lesson to me about assumptions. ;)

As far as repeating/inserting a loop - I'm trying to get everything to where I have 16 or 32 bars in and out, and some tracks have like 4 bars before the drop/breakdown/vocal - what's the best way to do that?

[Badger]

Now, that is where the Beatmapper really comes in handy. There is a way to override the BPM of a track, I think... I'm almost positive I've done it before.

But, if you're skipping the Beatmapper:

Use "S" to isolate those four beats.
Click the four beats to isolate that section.
Use "Ctrl-C" and "Ctrl-V" to cut and paste. Obviously, you can use "Ctrl-V" multiple times in a row. The pieces will automatically be placed adjacent to one another.

:badger:

[sephi]

Crude but effective. Thanks again!

[sephi]

I'm also running into an issue with the exported files being significantly lower in volume than the original. Do I just need to set the tracks' Volume back to 0.0?

[Badger]

Sorry about my delayed response!

That's a good question. I have that issue too... I just try to raise the overall volume as high as I can without clipping, and go from there. :shrug:

:badger: