Research shows the more ways we reach our audience — through sight and sound, for example — the more opportunities we have to make them understand our message. Simple observation proves that people enjoy presentations that take advantage of the unique aspects of multimedia. Naturally, people enjoy the visual and audio stimulation — and this means they pay more attention!

Of course, we all understand how important the visual world is — and that's why every presentation software package makes it relatively easy to create good visual aids (slides and more). But what about that other sensory experience — sound? The opportunity for audio in multimedia presentations is extraordinary. You can insert short sound clips in presentation slides to add punch, drama, or humor. You can add music to self-running presentations in kiosks or insert narration in training presentations. The possibilities are endless.

But no matter what the use, one challenge remains. How do you get your hands on good audio? Do you make sound clips yourself? Do you resort to using the boring beeps and transitions that come packaged with standard presentation applications? Perhaps you've tried to find more unique, interesting sound clips on your own? If so, you probably know how laborious it is to search the Internet for high quality sounds. You probably also know many sound solutions are simply not professional enough for most situations. Nevertheless, there is good news: ACID PRO 3.0 by Sonic Foundry.

ACID PRO 3.0

ACID PRO 3.0 is an award-winning music creation tool that allows you to produce original, royalty-free music. You can use ACID to create songs, remix tracks, develop music beds, score videos, and develop music for web sites, interactive presentations, and Flash™ animations. You can save files to a number of audio and video file formats, including WAV, WMA, RM, AVI, and MP3.
[Following image courtesy of sonicfoundry.com]

ACID PRO 3.0 is actually a new version of an older application — with a lot more bells and whistles. This full-featured application is quite simple to use — once you get the hang of simply having SO many options. You can do all this and more:

• Create your own music
  You can create original, royalty-free music in minutes. Simply choose the sound loops you like, paint them on a track, play your results, and enjoy the music. It's that easy!



• Edit as you like
  You can use as many loops as desired. You can adjust the volume and panning for each track, apply fades, and transitions. You can even combine music loops with existing songs.



• Add special effects
  ACID PRO comes with many effects, including Amplitude Modulation, Chorus, Delay, Distortion, Flange, Noise Gate, Reverb and more. Probably a lot more than most of us will ever need to use!



• Choose from hundreds of loops
  ACID PRO includes a music content CD that contains more than 600 music loops and dozens of projects from Sonic Foundry's Loops for ACID™ collection. This music assortment contains everything from Dance, Hip-Hop, Techno, and Industrial to Pop, Rock, and Jazz.

ACID PRO 3.0 also comes with two other applications: Vegas® Audio LE and Sound Forge® XP Studio.

Vegas Audio LE

This streamlined version of Vegas Audio (a professional multitrack editor) allows you to quickly and easily record, edit, and mix audio on your PC. Vegas Audio LE is perfect for recording bands, remixing songs, and creating audio commercials. For the presenter — this tool is ideal for creating narration.
[Following image courtesy of sonicfoundry.com]

Sound Forge XP Studio

Sound Forge XP Studio is a streamlined version of the award-winning digital audio editor, Sound Forge. It's the perfect program for home studio recording and for people who are just getting started with audio editing. This application contains an easy-to-use interface and is designed for the everyday user. Sound Forge also contains audio effects and tools for converting audio files into different formats. It even includes over 1,000 free sound effects.
[Following image courtesy of sonicfoundry.com]

Note SoundForge lets you create MP3, WMA, and WAV files. PowerPoint users would ordinarily create/insert WAV files.

Check It Out!

ACID PRO 3.0 includes everything you need to quickly create, edit, and deliver exceptional audio for great sounding presentations. For more information, visit www.sonicfoundry.com.

System Requirements

300 MHz processor(400 MHz processor and Windows 98SE, Me, or 2000 for video scoring)(98SE, Me, or 2000 for Vegas Audio LE) Windows-compatible sound card CD-ROM drive Supported CD-recordable drive (for CD burning only) 64 MB RAM (128 MB recommended) 60 MB hard-disk space for program installation Microsoft® Windows® 98SE, Me, 2000, or XP Microsoft DirectX® 8 or later (included on CD-ROM) Internet Explorer 5.0 or later (included on CD-ROM)