Opening a Project or File

From the File menu, choose Open to display the Open File dialog. From this dialog, you can select an Acid project, media file, or groove map to open. If you choose to open an Acid project without saving the current project, you will be prompted to save your changes first. If you choose a media file, the file will be added to the current Acid project as a new track. If you choose a groove map, the groove will be added to your project's Groove Pool.

TIP Before using large media files (such as one-shots or Beatmapped tracks) from CDs or network folders, copy the media to a local drive for the best possible performance.

  1. From the File menu, choose Open. The Open dialog is displayed.

  2. Choose the folder where the file you want to open is stored: from the Look in drop-down list or from the Recent drop-down list to quickly select a folder from which you have previously opened files.

  3. Select a file in the browse window or type a name in the File name box. Detailed information about the selected file is displayed at the bottom of the dialog box.

  4. Choose a file type from the Files of typeClosed drop-down list to limit the files displayed in the dialog.

    Item

    Description

    All Files

    Displays all files in the current folder, including files that are not supported in Acid.

    All Project, Groove, and Media Files

    Displays Acid project, supported media files, and groove files.

    Acid Project Files (*.acd, *.acd-bak)

    Displays only Acid project files. An Acid project file contains all of the information about a single project. Track layout, envelope settings, and effects parameters are saved in this project file. This type of file does not contain any audio, but only references to audio files.

    NOTE By default, backup project files are created when you open or save. Backup files are stored in the same folder as your project and use the extension .acd-bak. You can use these files to revert to a project's previous state.

    Acid Projects with Embedded Media (*.acd-zip)

    Displays only Acid Zip files. An Acid Zip file contains all of a project's media files and the project file in a compressed format.

    NOTE When you open an .acd-zip project, the project file and all media files are copied to a temporary folder. Any changes you make to the project will be saved to the files in this temporary folder until you save the .acd-zip file again. You can change the location of the temporary folder on the General tab of the Preferences dialog.

    Acid Groove (.groove)

    Displays only Acid groove file. A groove file is a file you can add to your project's Groove Pool to adjust the rhythmic timing of loops, one-shots, and MIDI tracks.

    MIDI (*.mid, *.smf, *.rmi)

    Displays only MIDI files.

    NOTE When you open a multitrack MIDI file, the file is displayed in a single track in your Acid project.

    CD Audio (*.cda)

    Displays only tracks from audio CDs. When you open a .cda file, audio is extracted from the CD and added as a new track.

    Acid software is not intended and should not be used for illegal or infringing purposes, such as the illegal copying or sharing of copyrighted materials. Using Acid software for such purposes is, among other things, against United States and international copyright laws and contrary to the terms and conditions of the End User License Agreement. Such activity may be punishable by law and may also subject you to the breach remedies set forth in the End User License Agreement.

    Audio Interchange File Format (*.aiff, *.aif, *.snd)

    Displays only AIFF files. AIFF files are a popular format on the Macintosh. 16- and 24-bit files of this format can be added as tracks into an Acid project.

    FLAC Audio (*.flac)

    Displays only FLAC Audio files. FLAC is the abbreviation for "Free Lossless Audio Codec". This is a freely savable format that can be used to compress your audio data to 50% of their original size. Unlike lossy compression methods like MP3 or OGG, the full sound quality is kept intact with FLAC.

    MP3 Audio(*.mp3)

    Displays only MPEG (Moving Picture Expert Group) Layer 3 files.

    NOTE Variable bit rate MP3 files typically loop more accurately than files encoded with a fixed bit rate.

    OggVorbis (*.ogg)

    Displays only files encoded with the OggVorbis codec.

    Video for Windows (*.avi)

    Displays only .avi files.

    You can add only one video track to a project. If your project already contains a video track, you will be prompted to replace the existing video if you open another video file.

    Wave (Microsoft) (*.wav)

    Displays only wave files.

    Sony Wave 64 (*.w64) Displays only files saved using Sony's Wave64 format. Files saved in this format can exceed the 2 GB file-size limit imposed by the standard Wave format (if your operating system supports files larger than 2 GB).

    Windows Media Audio V9 (*.wma)

    Displays only Windows Media Audio files.

    Windows Media Video V9 (*.wmv, *.asf)

    Displays only Windows Media Video files.

    TIP You can use wildcard characters to filter the files displayed in the dialog. For example, you can enter *guitar*.wav to display all wave files that include the word guitar in the file name.

  5. Click the Open button.

TIP If a media file cannot be located when you open an Acid project, you can choose to leave the media offline and continue to edit events on the track. The events will point to the location of the source media file. If you restore the source media file at a later time, the project will open normally.