Cinescore or ACID ?

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plainman007

Well-known member
Which would be better for music creation for trailers etc. Like more action packed, with peaking crescendos and sudden drops to mellowness. If you can catch my drift. Which of these 2 softwares would be a better choice for this kind of work ?
 
They're not the same thing. ACID is a looping program that doesn't create soundtracks for you; you need to create them yourself in a similar fashion as editing video, only instead of video, you're adding tracks of instruments, sounds, etc..

(You can do most of what you can do in ACID right in Vegas, BTW.)
 
Certainly ACID.

Cinescore would work well for underscores. The music that I've heard shipped with it lets you turn up and down the intensity and tempo, but it didn't really include big hits.

ACID, on the other hand, lets you stitch things together as you need. However, it requires more creativity from the user. Don't be put off though. Nine year olds can make music with ACID.

The key in both cases are to get the libraries that do what you need. In the case of Cinescore you buy compositions. In the case of ACID you buy loops. The loops libs are often sold by genre and include separate loops of various instruments (drums, bass, synth, orchestral hits, etc.)

I think ACID would also be better at letting you add and drop beats. Sometimes it's more musical to play in 4/4 for a while and then go to 5/4, 7/4 or whatever to get the hits lined up. I don't think Cinescore gives that much freedom.

Another nice thing about ACID Pro 6 is that it supports MIDI and comes with some Kontakt libs. You can then compose your own melodies. Eventually you can add on, say, GigaStudio and buy full-on orchestral libraries like the big boys do.

With ACID you can stitch together music as a mosaic, you can record your own hits and loops, and you can compose your own melodies as you wish. Use mosaics, if you're starting out. Compose if you're a musician. Record, if you want to sound unique.

With Cinescore you buy the work of other composers and "shape" it to fit your video. This would be fine for a corporate underscore, but a trailer? No way.
 
David Jimerson said:
(You can do most of what you can do in ACID right in Vegas, BTW.)
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True. You can buy loop libraries and drop the loops in Vegas.

The important features missing in Vegas are the tempo mapping and changable key signatures. That makes it hard to work musically, matching loops to your video. If you're recording live content to your video, Vegas is all you need though.

The other feature missing in Vegas is MIDI. However, ACID's MIDI is still a bit weak. Sonar and Cubase are stronger contenders for MIDI on the PC.

I'd rate things overall like this:

* Recording live music: Vegas

* Matching a pre-composed underscore: Cinescore

* Creating music from loops and lining them up with your video: ACID

* Composing music: Sonar or Cubase with GigaStudio or Kontakt

In all but the live music case, plan to budget for good libraries. They're critical.
 
What bugs me about the loop libraries out there is that they're overwhelmingly hip-hop based. Loops appropriate for cinematic scoring are disappointingly few.
 
David Jimerson said:
What bugs me about the loop libraries out there is that they're overwhelmingly hip-hop based. Loops appropriate for cinematic scoring are disappointingly few.
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this is true, techno or hip-hop are about 3/4 of the loops, but its getting better.

I will disagree with JonF re: Acid being weak with Midi. Yes in 5 it was weak but 6 came back strong. I use Garritan and EWQL Symphony Orchestra Gold as VSTi in Acid and they sounds incredible. In one project you can mix midi, audio and loops with a video preview.

Acid 6 was worth every penny :)
 
Yeah but ACID 6 might be too expensive for my set up. As i explained earlier i am setting up all this only for personal use. Which means i need to do professional cutting edge videos. But i will have only one customer. ME. We are a live stage show (illusion act). So can i do good stuff in ACID STUDIO or am i being silly. Because ACID 6 is as expensive as VEGAS 6 + DVD. Any ides what i should do for my end work. I need the music to look like one of those typical music videos kind of work. Like Peter Gabriel tracks etc. I mean in genre. Or is this just not possible ? I can use existing tracks but dont want copyright problems.
 
plainman007 said:
Yeah but ACID 6 might be too expensive for my set up.
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ACID comes in two flavors. You don’t have to buy the pro version. You can use ACID Music Studio ($69) and do a *lot* of what the Pro version does (loops, MIDI, VST/VSTi’s, recording, etc.) ACID Music Studio is extremely powerful.

As David said, these are two entirely different programs. Cinescore will write the music for you. If you have no musical talent, this is your only choice. ACID is a loop based music composition tool. If you have the ear and time to compose music using loops then give ACID a try.

Bottom line: Download the trial of both Cinescore and ACID Music Studio and decide for yourself. That’s the beauty of Sony’s software. You can try before you buy.

~jr
 
"Cinescore will write the music for you".....Do you mean it actually composes fresh music. I thought the other way around. I thought Cinescore was ready made music from composers. And ACID was for creating stuff completely afresh. But id like very customised control. Which means im looking for movie like soundtracks. Yes i do have a slight tangent for music so i dont mind using ACID. But for movie soundtrack styled music. Like i said i might need peak crescendos at a particular moment etc and then want the music to gently trickle down into a soft romantic melody. Which of these two softwares would be ideal for this kind of stuff ? Also i dont want the music to sound FLAT with no bass punch. Sometimes music generated from these digital pianos etc. Sounds like a clock chime beat. LOL. Can i get good bass beats etc to my exact need ?
 
JonFairhurst said:
True. You can buy loop libraries and drop the loops in Vegas.

The important features missing in Vegas are the tempo mapping and changable key signatures. That makes it hard to work musically, matching loops to your video. If you're recording live content to your video, Vegas is all you need though.

The other feature missing in Vegas is MIDI. However, ACID's MIDI is still a bit weak. Sonar and Cubase are stronger contenders for MIDI on the PC.

I'd rate things overall like this:

* Recording live music: Vegas

* Matching a pre-composed underscore: Cinescore

* Creating music from loops and lining them up with your video: ACID

* Composing music: Sonar or Cubase with GigaStudio or Kontakt

In all but the live music case, plan to budget for good libraries. They're critical.
Click to expand...

Correction: * Composing music: Sibelius 4 or Finale 2006.
 
plainman007 said:
"Cinescore will write the music for you".....Do you mean it actually composes fresh music. I thought the other way around. I thought Cinescore was ready made music from composers. And ACID was for creating stuff completely afresh. But id like very customised control.
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You are correct. Cinescore is not composing fresh music out of thin air, the musical parts and already there and it takes hints from you and composes a “fresh” piece from the theme of parts. No two compositions will be completely identical because of all the possibilities but, of course, they will all sound like the theme. I highly recommend you view the free Cinescore training videos on Sony’s web site to see what it is capable of. If it doesn’t do what you want, then buy ACID and do it yourself.

plainman007 said:
Like i said i might need peak crescendos at a particular moment etc and then want the music to gently trickle down into a soft romantic melody. Which of these two softwares would be ideal for this kind of stuff ?
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Both can do this. Cinescore uses hint markers that you place on the timeline to tell Cinescore the mood to change to. Obviously ACID can do this too, you just have to find a loop with the crescendo you want first. ACID will definitely be more flexible because you are doing the composing yourself instead of giving Cinescore hints.

plainman007 said:
Sometimes music generated from these digital pianos etc. Sounds like a clock chime beat. LOL. Can i get good bass beats etc to my exact need ?
Click to expand...
The generated music in Cinescore is actually from ACID loops so there doesn’t have to be any digital instruments involved. It can be from a real band or symphony orchestra.

~jr
 
Also does cinescore sound very "generic" i mean like all the creations sound like a particular genere of music or can you get different feels. Like romantic musical scores like those of peter gabriel style, if you get what i mean. And suddenly you need a jurrasic park styled theme. Can cinescore generate both these kind of generes ?
 
Yes, Cinescore comes with 20 themes. So that’s 20 different styles of music although some are similar. Then you can buy new themes as they become available. There are currently only 2 additional themes but more are on the way. Obvious Cinescore will be more useful as a larger variety of themes becomes available.

ACID has the advantage of a huge library of loops to choose from. I’m sure Cinescore will get there with its themes eventually.

~jr
 
Hi Johnny,

Thanks. Another sound based query that i had with reference to using Vegas 6. Since it has dolby 5.1. Does that authorize you to create and distribute commercial work in dolby 5.1 without legal hassles. I mean when we buy VEGAS 6 + DVD Suite. Do we legally posses the rights to produce our own orginal works in 5.1 and openly even state it on the DVD that the respective movie is in dolby 5.1. Im think thats what we pay for when we buy the software but id just like to make sure. Also music created in Cinescore or ACID would be royality free right ? Thanks for your help here.
 
When you buy Vegas+DVD it comes with a Dolby Digital AC3 5.1 Pro Encoder. I assume you are allowed to use it without any legal hassles because you purchased it. I don’t know what the legal requirement is to carry the Dolby Digital 5.1 logo on your work. That may be a totally different story.

As for ACID and Cinescore, yes whatever music you make with it is royalty free. If you buy non-Sony loops then you have to check any legal notices on those loops, but Sony loops are royalty free to use.

~jr
 
Yes Johnny, I even read on my other thread regarding this logo issue. And some suggested that to display the logo might need an agreement to be signed with dolby. But if theres no cost involved...why not sign it....or are there any strings attached ?
 
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