-
FCPX = Ampex Ace
For those who remember editing in the pre-NLE days, I wondered if you agree with this simple analogy. The Ampex Ace was a powerful editing system, that was a bit quirky when compared with CMX, Sony, or Grass Valley systems. Some would even call it bassackwards. Though I was just getting into the industry as these systems were in their final days (pre-read systems were all the rage), I remember thinking to myself how Ampex seemed to be on another planet with their system. Many argued that it was a better planet, but at the end of the day, it was just too “out of this world” for most.
So I ask for the opinions of those who edited in the years B.A. (Before Avid), if they think this is a fit analogy.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
18 Replies
-
Only if they sold it for 300 bucks. 🙂
Best,
Geoff -
I worked with the Ace only a few times but the biggest adjustment from my perspective was
just being so used to working with a cmx style qwerty keyboard. Other than that I remember
being able to make it do what I wanted it to. Certainly I worked slower (though I think I covered
it well) but generally I didn’t feel it was that much of a departure conceptually, so I’m not sure
it’s equivalent to X in that way. I remember the display taking a while to get used to. I guess if
you’re saying Ace didn’t quite catch on because it was too far outside what people were used to working with then you’re probably right.bigpine
-
-
I started out on ace as well, just as it was disappearing. You really could bash the keys on that and fly along.
You know it A(ctually) C(ould) E(dit) 😉
Cheers,
Brendan
-
Ahhh. My first edit system… aside from tape to tape. But to be honest, I didn’t even know that it was different, which is probably true for new FCPX users. The fundamentals of editing are all there.
But since the world is different now and no one is an island of post production, having a different tool that doesn’t share nicely isn’t a good way to learn.
Brian Mulligan
Senior Editor – Autodesk Smoke
WTHR-TV Indianapolis,IN, USA
Twitter: @bkmeditor -
Having edited on CMX for years, and having significant experience on GVG and Accom systems, i found the few times I edited on an ACE, as being a challenging but not impossible experience. The big difference is that ACE offered 2 varieties of UI’s: a touch screen, or a non-qwerty keyboard, thereby not forcing people into their way of doing things. Crawford Communications in Atlanta, (the market I worked in from 1986 to 2005) was the only major facility I was aware of that used the touchscreen interface, and nobody else that i worked for either full time or freelance, paid much attention to the ACE. Ampex made other much more significant products, ADO, the Century Series switchers (so much better than the GVG 300 btw), and of course legendary tape machines. (if you ever saw a VPR-3 in action you were amazed)
The real game changer in linear post came about with Accom Axial editor; a truly revolutionalry editor that through it’s use of Digital Disk recorders and it’s abilty to cache shots, bridged the gap, between linear and non-linear systems. But alas, by the early ’90s the hand writing was on the wall, linear systems were on their way out, the cost factor being just to big.
Ampex offered the ACE, as a side product to compliment their other big buck devices, maintaining the status quo of the million dollar edit suite.. Apple is saying, we have a better way of doing things (Our Way!) which will bring “professional editing” to the masses, and sell billions of dollars of our products in the process.
My first non linear edit experience, was on a Immix Video Cube, which to this day, had the best control panel of any non-linear editor.
don walker
texarkana, texasJohn 3:16
-
No I don’t think the analogy works for FCPx is much too young (beta) for that. Now, in those days a manufacturer would probably not survive if launching a product so unfinished as this one.
I would agree that the ACE was a different proposition form the others but not that different. I worked on CMX 340 and 3400, then ACE (both touchscreen and keyboard), Sony 9100 and Axial, and the level of integration offered by the ACE when hooked to an Ampex switcher (AVC Century), ADO and VPR3’s was second only to what Sony did later with their combination of 9100, DVS switcher and DME7000 dve.
Maybe a better comparison, if I may, would be between what Quantel did with the Encore DVE when most others were more or less following the path started by the ADO. But then the world of DVE’s was always one without much rule…
BTW Brian, that picture is of the ACE 25 which I hated for all its limitations…
patrice
-
I went from a Sony BVE-900 to an ACE 25. I didn’t have any major problems switching editors.
-
Started way back on the CMX340x (think that was it) & quads, moved along the VTR timeline & eventually had a suite with the ACE. But the keyboard sure wasn’t the one pictured above…. was QUERTY, I think, with the 8 soft keys along the top.
CMX editors usually dissed it because it wasn’t the same (!), but never took the time to see what it could really do (!).
I had an all-Ampex VTR suite, with GPIs on all the outboard gear, and with the nested edits you could do, it was amazing what 1 editor could control at a time. Had one series where, with the touch of one ACE softkey, an edit would be performed with: 4 VTRs, Chyron (with anim), digi audio cart, ADO trigger, DESAM audio board triggers, D2 speed ramps – and being triggered at discreet times. CMX couldn’t do that (at the time). Even had the video output system on the D2s controlled via hexadecimal in nested softkeys, so I could control levels, etc, on the joystick, without an outboard interface.
Point is, when you dug deep, it was pretty kick-ass.
Which sounds like a nod to FCPX. But, ACE didn’t attempt to change the underlying way we thought about editing. It was more of a different feature-set on top.
Gimmie 64-bit FCP, thank you.
“Constituo, ergo sum”
Bob Woodhead / Atlanta
Quantel-Avid-FCP-3D-AFX-Crayola
Panasonic HPX500/AF100 -
As a producer I posted a project at Crawford in the late 80’s. The editor was using ACE and wasn’t thrilled with the touch screen. Prior to the online we did an offline using a PC program called Edit Lister (remember the 8-inch RT-11 floppy disk) so it was a lot of auto assembly and clean up.
Lee Berger
http://www.leebergermedia.com
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up