Avid Media Composer 7 out – anyone excited?

[Michael Hancock]

Just downloaded it. Will be testing it next week on a project (specifically to test the LUT and FrameFlex additions). Interested to see how well the background consolidating/transcoding/copying works, as well as the media managed AMA improvements.

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Michael Hancock
Editor

[Neil Goodman]

Im excited. Avid is my main NLE both at home and at work (although were still rocking 5.5 at work) Just waiting till the weekend to try it out. Not a huge rewrite or anything but some very welcome features, mainly REAL background transcode, not transcode that stops when you start to work ala FCPX. Cant wait to see that work in the real world. Also the built in LUT and frame flex thats keyframeable is gonna be sweet.

FWIW, going into FX mode can be made with one key command (mine is shift-y) where in FCP 7 you have to double click and tab over.

Actually more steps the FCP 7 way.

Neil Goodman: Editor of New Media Production – The Esquire Network – NBC/Uni

[Oliver Peters]

I have my own love-hate feelings about any given NLE. While MC7 is far from revolutionary or innovative in today’s post world, it does address many of the day-to-day needs editors have on real projects today. Like dealing with large-frame video for HD output. Sure, 4K output has some buzz, but it simply isn’t a reality with most paying gigs. If you are talking about features, they are using advanced tools anyway, not desktop NLEs.

I started nonlinear with Avid in the early 90s, moved to FCP at 1.25 and have lived in a mixed-NLE world ever since. I find MC a bit clunky today compared to FCP “legacy” and I haven’t completely warmed to X. Nevertheless, I have yet to find any other NLE that will stand up to the editorial punishment I can put MC through. Just this past week, I’ve been working a corporate gig that involved a show open. Flying photos over a background. The comp was 15 layers of DNxHD, largely running in real-time (yellow-green mode), which made it very easy to do the creative edit. You can’t do that in After Effects and any other NLE would choke in my experience.

So I’m not sure MC will ever be something people will get excited about except those who regularly use it. Sure it’s clunky at times. Modes – as fast as switching them is – are not to everyone’s liking. Nevertheless, it’s the reliable beast that lets you get work out the door.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Chris Harlan]

Yes! I’m looking forward to it. Audio improvements, especially. The mode to mode thing used to bug me, too; but when I got a little more simpatico with the software, it disappeared as an issue. You begin to understand that it is there so that you can operate more efficiently in the mode you happen to be in. It also has become so easy to cross between them, mouse-wise, that I don’t think about it much.

[Oliver Peters]

The easiest way to deal with modes and workspaces is simply map these to keyboard shortcuts. MC switches so quickly between them that it’s inconsequential. In fact in my experience, MC jumps into the trim mode faster than FCP X takes to let you latch onto the edge of a clip to engage trimming.

Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Chris Harlan]

[Oliver Peters] “The easiest way to deal with modes and workspaces is simply map these to keyboard shortcuts. MC switches so quickly between them that it’s inconsequential. In fact in my experience, MC jumps into the trim mode faster than FCP X takes to let you latch onto the edge of a clip to engage trimming.
“

Oh, yes. Agreed! Its one of the joys of Media Composer. I was just pointing out how easy the Smart Tools have become.

[Andrew Kimery]

I’m very interested in the changes in MC 7 too. Both the little things (like a Master Fader in the audio mixer) and the bigger things (like background transcoding/consolidating). I’ve been so busy recently that I haven’t had much time to really read up on all the changes.

W/regards to the Smart Tools, to me they still feel very clunky compared to performing similar actions in FCP’s timeline. I’m hoping back and forth between Avid 6.5 and FCP 7 right now and while on FCP I keep performing my Avid keyboard command to switch modes and wondering why the cursor in FCP isn’t changing. A split second later I realize what I’m doing and go, “Oh, that’s right. In FCP you don’t have to switch modes.”

I’ve obviously committed my Avid ‘switch mode’ keys to muscle memory but it’s still not as seamless as FCP’s timeline.

[Charlie Austin]

So, I posted this on the Avid forum… no response, so I thought thought I’d try here on the “whatever you want to babble about” forum… Been running MC at home with local storage, but I want to mess with it at work now, so…

So… I’ve got FCP X, FCP 7, and Pr CC all running at work using shared media. Media is on plain old GB enet OS X server shared drives. Mount the drives, everyone works and is happy. Now i’d like to get MC to use the same media (I use MC at home but the media is locally connected) So uh… can i do this without jumping through hoops? I don’t want to move or do anything to the shared media to break our workflow… TIA!

I’ve got a project imported as from an AAF, sequence opens fine but media is offline. Set the “alldrives” command in the console and the relink pane sees the drives, but it won’t relink. I don’t get the whole AMA thing, so maybe someone can step through it? Or will it not work with what I’m trying to do? And when I import a file it still wants to copy it to my local drive. I thought this wasn’t necessary anymore…

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~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Dan Stewart]

Import as AMA. Shouldn’t make a proxy. Dnx36 is pretty slick as a lightweight offline codec tho.. looking forward to having the system, program & 100 hours of rushes all on the new mac Pro flash memory. (If I can persuade anyone else here to buy one which isn’t looking good)

My main issue with MC tho is playing nice with Resolve/Smoke.. and I know Avid aren’t interested in making the competition more attractive. I play with the grade in 2 secs (yes BTW easy: F8 CC mode – bosh the curve – F6 SR mode – 5 secs tops)- if I’m bouncing to other progs its got to compete..

Starting to think the baselight plugin might be the way forward but haven’t compared it to resolve yet – trackers and such and all the good shit its worth bouncing for..

To conclude – if I can bounce around easy I’m excited. If not I’m not – but I’ll still use it.. Until the ONE RING appears..

[Charlie Austin]

[Dan Stewart] “Import as AMA. Shouldn’t make a proxy. “

Yep, that works fine… the issue I’m having is… I’ve imported an AAF sequence from FCP 7. MC imports fine, and puts the master clips and sequence in my bin. Sequence/clips look to be all there but offline. I’d just like to relink it, to the existing shared media, but can’t figure out how to make it work… It should work right?

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~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~