Sonic Foundry have also been busy during this time, and a number of cut‑down versions of Acid have appeared, each bundled with a themed collection of loops and at a price that almost anyone could afford.

These include Cakewalk's Club Tracks and, more recently, Sonar (although this is also a fully featured MIDI and audio sequencer), Making Waves (reviewed in SOS December 2000), eJay's Dance and Techno software, and Bitheadz's Phrazer for the Mac (SOS April 2001). Three years down the line, a number of other products are now available. Sonic Foundry's Acid has been at the forefront of this mini‑revolution, and when Martin Walker reviewed the first version in November 1998, there was little in the way of competition.

Armed with the right software and a few suitable loops, even a musical novice can produce creditable results. Whatever your views on the 'paint by numbers' approach to music creation offered by loop‑based audio sequencing, there is no doubting its popularity. More than three years on it's more popular than ever, and the latest version includes MIDI and video support among other new features. Sonic Foundry were the pioneers of loop‑based PC sequencing with the initial release of Acid.

Sonic foundry sound forge