Song Key Changes

Add a simple tonal loop (not a drum loop) to the timeline and paint a brief section across the key change to hear the results of the change. Key Change markers can be dragged with the mouse to reposition them. 

The simplest and fastest way to insert a key change is to move the timeline cursor to the position where you want to have the key change occur and press the K key on your keyboard, followed by the key that you want to change to— for example, press K and then G to change the key to G. 

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Set the loop bar to encompass the first four measures and draw an event from a simple bass line in a track in the project. The more simple the bass line is, the easier it is to hear the key changes. At this point, if you also add a basic beat and a piano, the song sounds nearly complete, if a bit boring. Even at tbis very simple level, you can already hear the familiar pop pattern. The project ends up looking like the one illustrated in Figure 3.23. 

Changing the tempo does not alter the pitch or key of a song or loops, within reason. There are limits to this technology, and some distortion may occur if the project tempo is radically different from the original tempo of the loop. This can be heard most easily in vocal loops. The original tempo of a loop from Sonic Foundry in beats per minute is displayed in the information bar along the bottom of the Explorer window (see Figure 3.11). 

It is important to note that the key of a song and the key of a loop do not necessarily need to match in order to sound good together. While ACID automatically tries to change the key of a loop to match a project, this can be manually controlled and over-ridden. See Chapter 9 for more information. 

Changing the fundamental key of the project can be done at any time, but it is best to plan your song out as much as possible at the start. The default key for any new project in ACID is A, but this is easily changed (see Figure 3.19). To change the key of a project, click the Key button at the bottom of the Track Header and, from the context menu, select the key you would like to use. 

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