Although Acid Pro's many options can seem overwhelming at first, the main interface is fairly simple. At the top of the screen you will find the track list, which identifies the separate tracks that you're working with. The track list lets you easily alter the volume, musical effects, or other settings for individual tracks.
Next to the track list is the track view, which lays out the separate audio tracks on a timeline. The track view will help you visualize your song, and allow you to edit the tracks themselves. You will use the track view to decide when a track starts and stops, and which parts of a particular track you'd like use.
At the bottom of the screen is the window docking area, a customizable area designed to hold whatever windows you find most useful. Some commonly-used windows are the audio mixer, which allows you to change the master audio settings for your project; the Explorer window, which allows you to easily find, load, and rename files; and the Chopper, which lets you edit and reassemble different parts of an individual track.
Start a new project by opening the "File" menu in Acid Pro 4.0 and clicking "New." Although advanced users can choose custom audio settings when creating a new project, the default settings should be fine for most projects.
Once you've created a new project, you can start importing audio files, whether they're original recordings or pre-recorded music. Importing tracks into your new project is as simple as finding the files in the Explorer window and dragging them onto the track view.
If you want to use an audio track from a CD, insert the CD, open the "File" menu and click "Extract Audio from CD." Acid Pro will extract the tracks you've selected so that you can use them in your project.
Once you have imported the audio tracks you want to use for your project, you'll still need to arrange and edit them, so that your project will sound just the way you want it to.
You can make individual tracks longer or shorter by selecting the "Draw" tool, clicking the edge of the track, and dragging it. This can be useful if you only want to use a small portion of a longer track, or if you want a short track, such as a single drum-beat, to loop.
Moving tracks is a simple matter of selecting the "Draw" tool and dragging the track to a new location. Copying and pasting tracks is as easy as selecting a track and going to the "Edit" menu. From there, you can copy, cut and paste a track. This can be useful when shuffling around different tracks, and also lets you use the same audio file in more than one place in your song.
While you're working on your project, you'll want to save it as an Acid project file, or acd file. This file doesn't actually contain the audio files themselves, but rather keeps track of your arrangement. While this format is ideal for editing, you'll want to convert your project into a standard audio file once you have completed it.
Acid Pro 4.0 has a number of different file formats you can choose from, including popular formats such as MP3 and WMA. To convert your project into a finished song,open the "File" menu, click "Render As," and select a name and file type for your new file.