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Chapter 6
Saving and Rendering Projects
Saving a project
Though ACID® Music Studio™ software provides you with the tools to quickly build impressive musical projects, you
may find yourself building elaborate projects over a period of weeks or even months. While you are working on a
project, you should save it in the software’s native format, the ACID project file (.acd).
Important: If you use this version of ACID Music Studio software to save a project originally created in an earlier
version of ACID software, it will be unusable in earlier versions of ACID software. Use the Save As dialog to save the
project with a new name after editing it.
When you are finished building a project, you can render projects in a variety of formats. You should determine the
project’s final format (or formats) based on how you will deliver the media. For example, you would render to a
streaming media format if you plan to publish your project to the Internet.
Note: Be aware that projects containing MIDI files that are routed to external MIDI ports must be rerouted to internal
DLS soft synths to be included in the rendered mix.
An ACID project file (.acd) is the default file format for saving a new project and should be used for saving unfinished
projects. There are two ACID project file types.
Format Extension Description
ACID Project File .acd Contains all information regarding the project including
track layout, envelope settings, and effects parameters.
However, this type of file does not contain actual audio,
only references to the audio files.
Embedded Media .acd-zip Contains all information regarding the project including
track layout, envelope settings, and effects parameters.
In addition, all audio files used in the project are
embedded into the project file.
If you save a project in .acd-zip format, the project file
and all media files are copied to a temporary files folder.
If you continue to work on your project after saving the
.acd-zip file, your changes are saved to the files in this
temporary folder.
1. To save a file, display the Save As dialog using any of the following options:
• Click the Save button (
) on the toolbar.
• From the File menu, choose Save.
• Press Ctrl+S.
2. From the Save in drop-down list, choose the drive and folder where the file will be saved.
3. Enter a name for the project in the File name box.
4. From the Save as type drop-down list, choose the desired ACID project file type.
5. If you want to save a copy of each of the project’s media files to the same location as your project file, select the
Copy all media with project check box. This is available when saving as an ACID project file.
6. Click Save. The project is saved.
Note: Once the project is saved, you can use the Save As command from the File menu to create a copy of the
project with a new name or save to a different ACID project file format.
Specifying locations for saved media files
You can use the Folders tab on the Preferences dialog to specify locations for saving your project media files, such as
MIDI or extracted CD data. Once you set these locations, ACID Music Studio software automatically defaults to the
specified folders when saving project media. To set folder preferences, choose Preferences from the File menu and
click the Folders tab.
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