Previewing a media file

1.Select the media file in the Explorer window that you want to preview.

2.Click the Start Preview button ( ). The media file begins looped playback. You can monitor its levels on the preview bus.

3.Click the Stop Preview button ( ) to end playback.

Previewing multiple media files

You can use the Explorer’s multiple-selection preview feature to preview a group of files in the order that you select them.

1.From the Options menu, choose Preferences.

In ACID, click the Other tab of the Preferences dialog and select the Enable multiple-selection preview in Explorer window check box.

If you want, you can enter values in the Number of times to repeat each Loop box, Seconds of each One-Shot to play box, and Number of Beatmapped measures to play box to specify how different file types are previewed.

2.Click OK to close the Preferences dialog.

3.In the Explorer, select the media you want to preview. Hold Shift while clicking to select multiple, adjacent files or hold Ctrl while clicking to select multiple, nonadjacent files.

4.Click the Start Preview button ( ). The first selected file in the list is previewed, followed by each file in the list. A file’s icon changes to a Play icon ( ) to indicate which file is currently previewing.

Note: To add the currently previewing file to your project, press Ctrl+Enter. Press Enter to add all selected files to your project.

Using Auto Preview

Click the Auto Preview button ( ) to toggle automatic playback of media files when you select them in the Explorer. If your project is currently playing when you select a new file, the new file plays back along with your project. This feature allows you to listen to the media file in the context of your project.

Adding media to the project

You must add media files to a project before you can paint, arrange, and process them. When you add a file to a project, a new track is created to accommodate it. New tracks are added at the current volume of the Preview fader in the Mixing Console window, unless you have set a default track volume level. For more information, see Setting default track properties on page 252.

There are several methods of adding media files to a project.

Notes:

•Proxy files may be created for media whose compression scheme may cause working with them to be inefficient and slow. For more information, see Proxy File on page 315.

•Before using long Beatmapped or long one-shot files from CDs or shared network folders, copy the media to your local drive for the best possible performance.

ACID temporary files

When you add a media file to a project from a removable device, a copy of the media file is stored in the temporary files folder. This keeps the media file available for use even if the source of the media is no longer accessible.

Be aware that the temporary files folder is cleared when you close the ACID application. However, files are not cleared from the folder if the software closes inappropriately.

Note: You can customize the location of the temporary files folder. For more information, see From the Options menu, choose Preferences to display the Preferences dialog. on page 253.

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