Shawn Pelton

Shawn Pelton is a drummer extraordinaire. When he's not playing with the Saturday Night Live band (a gig he's held for the past eleven years), he's in demand as one of the industry's top session players. He's, recorded with Elton John, Billy Joel, and Bruce Springsteen among many others, and has been part of Grammy^® winning recordings with the Brecker Brothers, Shawn Colvin, Buddy Guy, Fito Peaz, and Bob Dylan. His list of credits reads like a Who's Who of the music industry. He's in constant demand, and relies on ACID to help deliver killer licks.

Why ACID? "ACID is an amazing tool that allows you to get right into the music," Shawn says. "The ability to audition tracks in real time cuts out a lot of guess work. ACID lets you instantly hear what works." You can hear Shawn put ACID through its paces in the media samples to the right. While in the studio with Sheryl Crow recording "c'mon 'cmon," Shawn used ACID on "Safe and Sound" and "Hole In My Pocket." The accompanying screen shot shows the ACID session from "Hole In My Pocket." Listen closely to the intro: that ACID session is part of it!

ACID drops into Peter Wolf's "Sleepless" of his cd of the same name. Shawn used ACID loops on David Byrne's "Desconocido Soy" from his "Look Into the Eyeball" cd (listen for the jawharp from Ethnicity). Shawn really gave ACID and Loops for ACID a workout on Joan Osborne's critically-acclaimed "How Sweet It Is" disk. The ACID family makes an appearance on "Think," "Love's In Need Of Love Today," "Only You Know And I Know," "War," and "Why Can't We Live Together." Give the tracks a good listen to see if you can determine how Shawn used ACID to fill out these incredible cuts.

"In the studio, artists love that they can feel and hear what their tracks sound like at different tempos," continues Shawn. "ACID makes tempo changes an instant adjustment. The spontaneity and ease of ACID's interface, combined with its ability to instantly time-stretch tempos is magic. ACID is an invaluable tool I use all the time.

"ACID lets you instantly hear what works, and import the loops into the session with a simple doubleclick of your mouse. ACID makes programming a very intuitive and musical experience. You don't get bogged down in tedious command and submenus that can freeze up your ideas in an overly complex maze of computer programming."

ACID's versatility as composition tool and demo device keeps ACID in Shawn Pelton's gig bag. No matter what instrument you play or your role in the studio, make ACID a part of your creative process, too.