I have a program, and I don't know how to use it

[Sonarch]

I have ACID Music Studio 8, which I am now finding out is not quite as awesome as ACID Pro 7. From what i'm hearing from others, ACID is pretty much a full on DAW, capable of doing a ton of stuff for music production, just like Reason. I've been doing a lot of experimenting to figure out what everything does, and finding other things out from videos, but I am certain the program is capable of a lot more than what I have been doing. I was also having trouble getting past making anything more than a chorus or riff when attempting to make a song, so I decided to try dubstep because it has some structure to it as far as the beat and how the song progresses, and what is used. Since I didn't know what I was doing, I was directed to a set of video tutorials on making a dubstep song in which the guy (one who goes by BoyInABand) uses Reason. It's been very helpful so far, but he was doing all sorts of things with Combinators and Oscillators, and while it looked very complicated, there was a visual aspect of the program that seemed very easy to work with. What I want to know is, are the two programs, Reason and ACID 8, capable of the same things? And if so, where is all of this stuff in my ACID program?
I would really appreciate some guidance with this, I don't know any other place where I can find this kind of assistance.
The tutorial video is here, if anyone needs to see it to know what i'm talking about. The embed thing isn't working, so it's just the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTScf3WXNic&feature=plcp

[Sonarch]

Should I assume nobody so far uses ACID 8?

[Unlimited Mana]

I don't know anything about ACID but since no one else is posting I'll give it a shot.
Reason looks a lot different because it is designed to emulate a physical rack of hardware. Besides the recently introduced rack extensions, it can't use third party software, which usually comes in the VST, AU or RTAS formats. You get more powerful routing options and a lot of built-in high-quality devices in return though.
I didn't watch the video, but I'm pretty certain everything he does will be reproducible in ACID. Reason has a different workflow and appearance from other DAWs but every high-level DAW is basically capable of the same things.
Is there anything specific you don't know how to do in ACID?
(someone correct me if I'm spouting bullshit)

[Sonarch]

Well, i'm trying to figure out how to use the effects to make bass for dubstep, and I just figured out how to do a few things with the effects, none of it is sounding right. Would I need effect plugins to get a better quality bass sound as far as the wobble or the wub, or whatever the proper term is?

[Ed Viper]

Sorry, man. I'd love to help but I know literally nothing about ACID.

Posting this just so you know I didn't ignore it at least.

[Gray Ham]

I use ACID Music Studio 8.0, but if there's something I can say, if you haven't used ACID for that long (or DAWs in general), don't look at tutorials for a different DAW. You'll need to know stuff about what button does what and such.

If you haven't used DAWs that often before, I learnt most of my stuff from ACID by putting random samples together and seeing what everything does.

Also, for the record, from what I can tell ACID is fairly similar to FL, and VSTi's and plug-ins for FL will probably work with ACID.

[Freewave]

Learn your DAW first before you jump ship. ACID is great for samples but i can't tell you if it works grest with midi or effects, it might not. I certaintly would recommend it for using samples even if you are importing those into ACID first, structuring, and then importing into a more powerful DAW like FL. But you'll need to do the work and muckering about before you'll know if its a good fit for you and what you are aiming to do.

[Sonarch]

I think the thing i'm unsure of is whether other programs are simply easier, or that I haven't explored ACID enough, and I feel like it's the latter. I just have all kinds of ideas and inspiration, and I can't seem to make them a reality because I don't know how to do it with my software.

[Foxtrot89]

All DAW's are the "same." Of course by that I mean they're all capable of the same thing. The methods will be slightly different. Ie: reason has Thor and Thor has its own effects/filters/way of doing things that nothing else does exactly the same. Basically, if you understand your daw and the terms Dave uses in his tutorials, you can translate it over to any other daw.

That said, I'm unfamiliar with Acid and what it's capable of, but any daw requires a good long period of finding out how to do everything. Hell I started using FL studio somewhere around 2002-2004, and I'm still learning things about it every now and again.

My personal advice is to obtain a more well known/closer to industry standard daw and apply a great deal of time learning it. FL studio and Reason both have a ton of tutorials online, so they're probably your better choices. Last I recall, though, reason is good for only electronic music. Unless you buy another program (I think it's called record), you can't record real world instruments. It's been years since I used reason (lol) so this could have changed, but it's something to look out for if you're into more genres than anything EDM has to offer, or if you want guitars n' stuff IN your EDM tunes.

[Sonarch]

I'm looking around, and FL Studio is looking pretty good. It has a lot of online tutorials that could help with operating it, and on top of that it appears a lot of you on this site use it, so it would be easier to get help here as well. Also, I think I need to get something to use other than the stock digital instruments. Is something like Massive appropriate?

[Foxtrot89]

Massive is one of MANY vst's out there that would be worth having. I actually think there is a thread somewhere, probably in the "sharing is magic" sub-forum, on this site that has a list of free and paid VST plugins. I personally use primarily Massive, reFx Nexus, and Kontakt (with various libraries.) FL studio has a handful of synths that if you learn how to use them, they're quite nice. Sytrus being one of them.

You can also get decent drums samples from places like Vengeance-sound or prime loops.

Worth noting is that you can download the demo of FL studio, which is fully functioning (aside from saving) so it's worth downloading and seeing if it's you're cup of tea before dropping all sorts of money on it. (considering you're not a nasty little pirate, that is.)

I recommend FL studio to anyone getting into music. The stigma of it being an awful DAW seems to be slipping away what with artists like Porter Robinson who use it pretty much exclusively. The best part about it is that once you buy it, you don't have to buy newer versions when they come out. You don't even have to pay an upgrade price, they're just free. (something I wasn't aware other companies didn't do much until I went on a quest to find a different DAW.)

[CommandSpry]

You should look into Dr Drum

[Sonarch]

^With that avatar picture I can never be sure whether or not to take you seriously....

Foxtrot, I'll definitely check out the Demo for FL Studio and look into some of those VSTs you mentioned.