3. Learning about ACE Studio

3.1 Setting up Preference

In the preferences window, you can set the interface language, set flipping animation, set audio I/O options, and check for updates.

In the [General] category, you can:

• Set the interface language of ACE Studio. After setting the language, you need to restart the software to take effect.
• Set the animation style for the automatic page flipping of the arrangement view and clip view in playback mode.
• (Mac system only) Check the installation status of ACE Bridge.

• Set the device driver type, audio I/O ports, and manage the channels of audio output.
• Decide whether to show the audio device changing dialog when new device change detected.
• Set the sample rate for playback.

3.2 The Main ACE Studio Screen

[1] Title Bar and Main Control

Transport

Panel Display Switch

[2] Arrangement View

Track List

Blank Track: The initial state of a track. You can drag MIDI content onto it to turn it into a Singer Track, or drag audio content onto it to turn it into an Audio Track.

Singer Track: A track for hosting and singing MIDI clips. It uses MIDI content. Learn more about it, please refer to [3.3-Using AI Singers] and [3.4-Creating and Importing MIDI or Audio]. When dragging audio content, you can use the [Converting Acapella to MIDI & Lyrics] function to recognize it as MIDI content. Learn more about it, please refer to [3.7-Converting Acapella to MIDI & Lyrics].

Audio Track: A track for hosting and playing audio clips. Learn more about it, please refer to [3.4-Creating and Importing MIDI or Audio].

Add Track: Click the Cross Button to create a new blank track at the bottom of the track list. Right click on any track and select the "Create New Blank Track" option to create a new blank track below the track selected. Short cut [Ctrl]+[T](Windows) / [Command]+[T](Mac).

Mute and Solo:

• Mute Button: The small triangle button at the top left of each track is the Mute button. Click it to control whether the track outputs sound or not.
• Solo Button: When the mixer is collapsed, hover your mouse over the bottom right of a track to make the Solo button pop up. Click it to control whether the track outputs sound exclusively. To solo multiple tracks together, hold down [Ctrl] (Windows) / [Command] (Mac) while clicking mutilple Solo buttons. Solo takes priority over Mute. If the track is soloed, sound will be outputed regardless of whether Mute is enabled or not.

Track Color: The color of a track will be reflected in the Mute triangle and the content on the track. You can change the color in the right-click menu on the track.

[3] Singer Library

[4] Track Control Panel

[5] Clip View

• Click [Open] / [Close], the Clip View will be restored to the last manually adjusted size, and the shortcut key to control this is [Shift+Tab].
• Click [Max] / [Fix], You can also maximize or restore the Clip View to its previous size.

Singing Editor

• When the marker-line is positioned on a clip, the piano roll view displays that clip.
• When dragging a selection on the arrangement view, the Singing Editor displays the last clip entered in the selection.
• When holding down [Shift] to select multiple clips and creating a selection on the arrangement view, the Singing Editor displays the first clip selected or the first clip in the first track of the selection.

• Similar to the arrangement view, time progresses in beat-time from left to right in the Singing Editor.
• The TimeRuler in the Singing Editor also carries tempo tags and loop brace. For details, please refer to [3.9 - TimeRuler].

• There is only one timeline globally, which is displayed simultaneously in the arrangement view and the singing editor during playback.
• The marker-line in the singing editor is independent of the arrangement view and indicates the position for operating notes and the next playback. Click anywhere on the grid to make it jump. And it is snapped to the grid by default. Press [Ctrl] (Windows) / [Command] (Mac) to release the snap.
• The selection in the singing editor indicates the range for operating notes and parameters. Drag to create a selection on the grid, and it is snapped to the grid by default. Press [Ctrl] (Windows system)/[Command] (Mac system) to release the snap. After a selection is created, the marker-line will locate on the left boundary of the selection.
• When you are editing in the singing editor and [Space] is pressed, it will start playing from the marker-line position in the singing editor. After pressing [Shift] + [Space], the timeline continues playing from the last paused position.Learn more about editing in the singing editor, please refer to [3.6 - Editing and Tuning].

• You can modify the volume of each audio clip in Audio View.
• There are two AI tools on the left side of Audio View
  • For dry acapella clips: Click [Convert] to convert this audio into MIDI and lyrics in a new singer track below
  • For instrument clips: Click [Analyze] to analyze the tempo of this audio

3.3 Using AI Singers

• If the track name is unnamed, it will default to the same name as the singer.

  If inserted on an empty track, the track's default language will apply with the [Default Singing Language] setting on [Preference]:
  • [In Interface Language] (This is the default option)
  • [In Singer's Native Language]
  • [In English]/[In Chinese]/[In Japanese]
• If replacing a singer on an existing track, the track's default language will not synchronize with the new singer.
• All clips on the track need to be re-synthsised before playback.

• Voice Seed: You can drag them to rearrange them in order. When selected, press [Delete] or [Backspace] to remove the seed from the blend.
• Timbre blend ratio: Controls the percentage of participation of this voice seed in the timbre dimension. You can drag the slider to adjust it or double-click the number to input a value.
• Style blend ratio: Controls the percentage of participation of this voice seed in the singing style dimension. You can drag the slider to adjust it or double-click the number to input a value.
• Ratio binding: Click to turn on/off. When turned on, it automatically synchronizes the singing style blend ratio with the timbre blend ratio. When turned off, you can adjust the participation percentage of the two dimensions exclusively.
• MixRecipe: There are three selectable icons from top to bottom:
  • The "VoiceMix" icon represents the complete blend recipe of the VoiceMix Panel. When it is selected, you can use the shortcut key to copy it. Then select the "VoiceMix" icon in another track's VoiceMix Panel and use the shortcut key to paste it. Therefore, this replaces the entire recipe. When replaced, the original blend recipe of the second track will be cleared.
  • The "Timbre" icon represents the timbre blend recipe of the VoiceMix Panel. You can copy only the timbre recipe to another track in the same way as above. When pasted, the original timbre recipe of the second track will be cleared.
  • The "Style" icon represents the singing style blend recipe of the VoiceMix Panel. You can copy only the singing style recipe to another track in the same way as above. When pasted, the original singing style recipe of the second track will be cleared.
• Custom singer name: Double-click to edit the name of the custom singer.
• Custom singer avatar: Click the avatar to change.

3.4 Creating and Importing MIDI or Audio

3.4.1 Importing MIDI clips

3.4.2 Creating MIDI clips

3.4.3 Importing Audio Clips

3.4.4 Recording Audio

• While recording, you will hear the count-in click for 1 bar by default (You can change the count-in duration or turn it off in the [Preference]-[Audio]). The playback starts after the count-in. In the meantime, the track with [Recording Switch] on will record the inputted signal into a new clip, and the new clip will overwrite the clips that are already on the track.
• You can also start recording during playback. The count-in won't be activated in this case.
• Click the [Record] button in the Main Control (Shortcut Key [R]) again during recording to stop recording, but the playback will keep going.
• The recording ends when the playback stops (Shortcut Key [Space])
• Nothing can be edited on the track which is on recording.
• The audio you record each time will be saved in the project folder/Sample/Record.

3.5 Arrangement

• Dragging the title bar of a clip within the selection will move the entire selection (including the clips and blank spaces within the selection);
• Dragging the title bar of a clip outside the selection will reset the selection to the full range of the corresponding clip.

Copy/Duplicate Clips

You can copy a selection (including the clips and blank spaces within the selection), and paste it at the marker-line position. The pasted clips will overwrite any overlapping clips after the paste.If the selection contains clips from multiple tracks and the track types are incompatible with the clip type, the paste operation will be canceled.You can clone the selection (including the clips and blank spaces within the selection) at its end point by using the duplicate function in the right-click menu or the keyboard shortcut [Ctrl]+[D] (Windows) / [Command]+[D] (Mac). The duplicate operation follows the same overwrite rules as the paste operation.You can also duplicate a clip by dragging its title bar while holding down the [Alt] key (Windows) / [Option] key (Mac).

To trim or extend a clip, hover the mouse cursor on the left or right boundary of the clip title bar. When the mouse pointer changes to "[" or "]", drag horizontally to trim or extend the clip. The trimmed area of the clip will not be played (All notes in the trimmed area will not be synthesised or played even if they have already been synthesized).

Notice:

• Audio clips can only be trimmed inward, not extended outward.

Split Clips

To split a clip into two independent clips, place the marker-line where you want to split and choose "Split" from the right-click menu or use the shortcut keys [Ctrl]+[E] (Windows) or [Command]+[E] (Mac). You can expand the clip to restore the original content after splitting.If a selection is present, the split operation will apply to both the start and end points of the selection.

• Vertical Scrolling: Scroll with your mouse wheel or drag with your mouse middle button.
• Horizontal Scrolling: Scroll horizontally with [Shift] + mouse wheel or mouse middle button; drag horizontally on the time ruler; drag the outlined rectangle on the arrangement overview.
• Horizontal Zooming: Zoom horizontally with [Ctrl] (Windows) / [Command] + mouse wheel (Mac), or drag vertically on the time ruler.
• Auto Flipping: Once Flipping is turned on during playback, the visible area will automatically flip when the timeline reaches the end of the window. You can set the animation style and timing of Auto flipping in the "General" category of the Preferences.

What are Vocal Doubles？

In vocal producing, we usually like to record two more takes on the sides panned anywhere from 50%-100% with a lead vocal or harmony vocal for a wider dimension and fullness.

Right click anywhere on your prepared singer track, and select the [Create vocal doubles for this track] option to open the Vocal Doubles dialog. In this dialog, you can set:

• The similarity with that original clip(s) from 70%-95%
  • The default humanization process includes the duration and position of notes and the duration of consonants
• Check box for activate/deactivate the humanization process on user pitch
• Check box for activate/deactivate the humanization process on VoiceMix

3.6 Editing and Tuning

3.6.1 Note Edit

• Double-click in a blank space in the grid of the singing editor to create a note with a default duration of 1/2 grid. Drag horizontally to adjust the note duration before releasing the mouse button.
• Double-click in a blank space within the duration of a note to create a tenuto note.
• Click on a note to select it and create a selection range within the duration of the note. The selection range expands to all consonants of this note if there are any consonants.
• Click on a note and hold down [Ctrl] (Windows) / [Command] (Mac) while clicking on multiple notes to select them discontinuously and create a selection.
• Click on a note and hold down [Shift], then click on another note or blank space to select a group of consecutive notes and create a selection.
• Drag a selected note to move it to a different position.
• Hover the mouse over the left/right boundary of a note. When the mouse pointer changes to "[" or "]", drag horizontally to adjust the starting position or duration of the note.
• Selected notes can be copied, pasted, duplicated, or deleted; use arrow keys to move notes, with 1 pitch shift per step and 1/2 grid left/right per step; use [Shift] + left/right arrow keys to adjust the duration with 1/2 grid per step; use [Shift] + up/down arrow keys to shift 1 oct up/down per step.
• When performing paste, duplicate, or delete operations, the pitch and AI parameters of the selection range will be processed together.
• When a note is selected, the center of the clip view title bar displays the language of the selected note. You can click any language button to switch.

• Click on a blank space in the grid of the singing editor to create a note with a default duration of 1/2 grid. Drag horizontally before releasing to adjust the duration of the note to be created.
• Click on a blank space within the duration of an existing note to create a tenuto note.
• Click on a note to select it and create a selection range within the duration of the note. The selection range expands to all consonants of this note if there are any consonants.
• Click on a note and hold down [Ctrl] (Windows) / [Command] (Mac) while clicking on multiple notes to select them discontinuously and create a selection.
• Click on a note and hold down [Shift], then click on another note to select a group of notes and create a selection.
• Drag selected notes to move them.
• Hover the mouse over the left/right boundary of a note. When the mouse pointer changes to "[" or "]", drag horizontally to adjust the starting position or duration of the note.
• When using this tool, you can perform various editing operations on selected notes similar to the note-select tool.

Since the human voice can not sing multiple pitches simultaneously, notes can not overlap in time. When notes are moved or stretched, resulting in overlap, the principle of note-start-priority will be followed. Therefore, the duration of the preceding note will be automatically trimmed.

After selecting the note splitting tool, clicking on any position of a note will split it into two, resulting in the right proportion becoming a tenuto. The note splitting tool is snapped to the grid by default, and the snap can be detached by holding down the [Ctrl] (Windows) / [Command] (Mac) key.

When the piano keyboard is clicked, or when a note is clicked, moved, or created, the corresponding pitch will be played in the piano key sound by default. You can click on the speaker icon on the upper left of the piano keys to turn off the presound.When editing a melody with a specific scale, you can open the scale mode to light up the scale on the piano keys and grid with colors or to fold unnecessary keys. After opening, click the small arrow on the right of the scale button to set the key signature and scale type, and click the fold button to hide keys outside the scale.

3.6.2 Editing Navigation

• Vertical scrolling: Use the mouse wheel to scroll vertically, or drag with the middle mouse button.
• Vertical zooming: Use [Ctrl]+[Shift]+mouse wheel (Windows) / [Option]+mouse wheel (Mac), or drag horizontally in the note display area to the left of the piano keyboard.
• Horizontal scrolling: Use [Shift]+mouse wheel to scroll horizontally, or drag with the middle mouse button, or drag horizontally on the time ruler of the singing editor.
• Horizontal zooming: Use [Ctrl] (Windows) / [Command]+mouse wheel (Mac) to zoom horizontally, or drag vertically on the time ruler of the singing editor.
• Auto Flipping: When Flipping is turned on, during playback, the visible area will automatically flip when the timeline reaches the end of the window. You can set the animation style and timing of Auto flipping in the "General" category of the Preferences.

3.6.3 Lyrics Edit

Double-click on any note to bring up the lyrics input box. After inputting, press [Enter] to fill in the lyrics, press [Tab] to switch to the next note, press [Esc] to cancel editing and end the lyrics input.

You can input Chinese characters or pinyin on notes in Chinese. When inputting pinyin, please separate them with a space. When the input text is not Chinese characters or pinyin, the note will be marked as abnormal.

You can input an English word or multiple consecutive English words on notes in English. Multi-syllable words will be automatically split into [split words] ending in "#" and a number based on the actual number of syllables. You can also manually input [split words] separately. When inputting text that is not English words, the note will be marked as abnormal.

You can input kana or romaji on notes in Japanese. When inputting romaji, please separate them with a space. When inputting text that is not kana or romaji, the note will be marked as abnormal.

Input "-" in the lyrics to indicate that the note is a tenuto note.

• "Skip Tenuto Notes" option, which is not checked by default. When checked, it will clear the "-" in the current lyrics panel and skip the tenuto notes when filling in the lyrics.
• "Fill the rest lyrics" option, which is checked by default when entering the lyrics panel from the lyrics input box or selecting a single note. It is not checked by default when selecting multiple notes. When checked, it will fill in the remaining split lyrics one by one on the following notes when filling in the lyrics. If not checked, the split lyrics will not be filled in.

Right-click on a note to bring up the "Move Lyrics Forward" and "Move Lyrics Backward" options in the menu.When selecting a single note,

• Clicking "Move Lyrics Forward" will refill all lyrics after this note starting from this note, and the last note will be missing lyrics and will be filled with the default lyrics in the current language.
• Clicking "Move Lyrics Backward" will refill all lyrics before this note starting from the second note, and the first note will be missing lyrics and will be filled with the default lyrics in the current language.

• Clicking "Move Lyrics Forward" will remove the first lyric of the selected notes, and then refill all lyrics from the first note, and the last note will be missing lyrics and will be filled with the default lyrics in the current language.
• Clicking "Move Lyrics Backward" will remove the last lyric of the selected notes, and then refill all lyrics starting from the second note, and the first note will be missing lyrics and will be filled with the default lyrics in the current language.

3.6.4 Parameters Request

3.6.5 Consonant Duration

3.6.6 Phoneme Edit

• The phoneme must exist in the phoneme dictionary of the current note language. For the phoneme dictionary, please refer to ACE Studio Phoneme List .
• One and only one vowel phoneme exists in each note.

3.6.7 Pitch Tune

• Use the left mouse button or digital pen on the singing editor grid to draw continuous User Pitches. Use the right mouse button to erase User Pitches.
• Overlapping pitch anchor points and segments will be erased simultaneously when drawn.
• User pitch drawn in areas without AI Pitch will appear as dashed lines, indicating that the pitch segment is not effective.

• After selecting the Pitch brush, click again to select the Pitch Anchor tool from the drop-down menu.
• Double-click to create an anchor point in the singing editor grid to enter connection mode. Click the left mouse button continuously to create multiple anchor points, which will automatically connect into a User Pitch line. Double-click again or use the right mouse button or [Esc] to exit connection mode and complete the drawing of a pitch line.
• During drawing, the anchor point line segment will overlay the User Pitch drawn by the Pitch brush.
• If User Pitch is connected in an area without AI Pitch, the Pitch line segment will also become a dashed line, indicating that the Pitch line segment is not effective.

• Drag horizontally to adjust the range of the vibrato
• Drag vertically to adjust the amplitude of the vibrato

• Drag the left boundary to adjust the range of the vibrato
• Drag the upper left corner to adjust the amplitude of the vibrato
• Drag the lower left corner to adjust the phase of the vibrato
• Drag the lower right corner to adjust the frequency of the vibrato
• Drag the middle circles to adjust the envelope for the attack and decay of the vibrato

3.6.8 AI Parameters Edit

• Brush: draw continuous envelope lines
• Eraser: erase the drawn envelope line and restore it to the default value of 1
• Straight Line: drag to draw a straight envelope line

• Brush: draw continuous real parameter lines (referred to as "user real parameters") to overwrit the default AI-generated real parameters for the current singing segment
• Eraser: erase the user real parameters to activate the overlaid AI-generated real parameter
• Fixed Brush: similar to pitch, changes within a synthesized segment will affect the real parameter performance of the entire segment. You can replace the AI-generated real parameter from a previous synthesis with the user real parameter using the fixed brush to avoid the impact of re-synthesis
• Straight Line: drag to draw a straight real parameter line

• Air: the amount of breath during singing
• Falsetto: the amount of falsetto during singing
• Tension: the degree of tension/relaxation of the vocal cords during singing
• Energy: the energy and strength of singing

3.7 Converting Acapella to MIDI & Phonemes(Beta)

• "Acapella Converting" only supports one language at one time. If there is more than one language in your vocal clip, please split it into different clips by language.
• Please make sure the source audio clip is pure acapella. Otherwise, it may come out undesirable.
• "Acapella Converting" can recognize phonemes but lyrics. Therefore, the lyrics will be displayed as "?" on the note.
• As for now, this feature is for beta testing.

3.8 Transport

3.9 Time Ruler

• Right-click at any position on the time ruler to add a new tempo tag at the clicked position from the menu.
• Double-click on a tempo tag to enter a numerical value to modify the tempo of that range.
• Hold down [Shift] and select two adjacent tempo tags, right-click, and create a linear tempo change between the two tempo tags from the menu. Right-click again to release the tempo change.

3.10 AI Parameters and Synthesis

• Stuttering in the middle of a sentence, you can check if the pieces are split here and adjust the note gap to change the segmentation result.
• Unstable vocals between two sentences, you can also check if the pieces are split at the point of change and adjust the note gap to merge these two pieces.

3.11 Exporting and Saving

• Project file *.acep
• "Autosave" folder containing automatic backups during project startup and the last 10 historical manually saved backups

3.12 Use VST3/AU: ACE Bridge

• The playback behavior of the host will synchronize with ACE Studio exclusively. When the host is not playing, you can independently control playback in ACE Studio for vocal tuning work.
• When the host saves its project, ACE Bridge will retain the ACEP project loaded in ACE Studio in the host's project. When you restart the host's project, ACE Bridge will automatically launch ACE Studio and reload this ACEP project. Of course, you can switch to load other ACEP projects at any time in ACE Studio.

Special Settings in DAW

 For Studio One users on Windows

For Reaper users