FCPX = Ampex Ace

[Patrice Freymond]

Remembering all this makes clear once more what I’ve always missed since we went all NLE: the ability to make several changes to a picture at the same time, i.e. adjusting effects in real time whilst rolling the edit; turning two knobs would not only be possible but it also wasn’t stopping the machine. And sometimes the accidents that were produced this way became part of the creative process of that pre-plugin era.

Computers have taken most of this away with their “one command at a time” restriction, and it is only now, with more powerful machinces and software, that there is a hope that we may regain the capability to make adjustments on the fly within the editing tool.

patrice

[Chris Jacek]

[Bob Woodhead] “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.”

I also suspect that most FCPX editors will probably think this sentence is in a foreign language.

Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee

[Rob Mcgreevy]

Ahhh… ye olde Ampex ACE! That brings back some fond and not so fond memories of long days switching and setting up tapes on the 1″ and Beta decks. Heck, we even had the Ampex ADO and the Ampex Vista switcher that went with it!

I would agree somewhat with the analogy in that it was different than a lot of editors. (I came to it after editing on Sony’s BVE-900 for a number of years) but after a while I got used to it and adjusted to its way of thinking.

[Tom Matthies]

Ah, I remember edit 4 at Optimus in Chicago.
Ampex ACE, Century 330 switcher, Beta BVW75’s and VPR3’s for decks, Chyron Scribe and a couple of channels of ADO. A day of renting that room for editing would cost more than a new MacPro computer and FCS3 software, hard drives and plugs-ins would cost today. The glory days of on-line editing! What a difference.

E=MC2+/-2db

[Herb Sevush]

I loved “Edit Lister.” My favorite piece of editing software, all-time. A CMX emulator that cost peanuts, ran on any PC, worked frame accurately with 3/4, VHS, or Beta decks with incredibly good list cleaning software including list tracing so you could use edit masters as new sources. Lon McQuillin wrote it and you could call him directly for update requests. I’ve once walked into a PBS station with one of those lists, had 5 machines loaded with 1″ masters, and soon the whole edit staff came by to see a 1 hour show create itself on the fly. When it finished they applauded.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Lee Berger]

Unfortunately for us it was a bit farther off line. We edited cuts only 3/4 window dubs and then entered the in and out points for each edit into Edit Lister. We used two BVU-800’s with Timecode record so we could verify the accuracy of our lists via the record in times. Put that to RT 11 disc and off to post we went. It was an improvement over the pen and paper edl’s that were used when I got there. In 1996 I purchased a PC based CMX emulator from Editing Technologies Corp. For about the same price as a BVE-910 you got QWERTY keyboard, 10,000 events (ten bins), five machine and switcher control, GPIs, and auto list clean if desired. Direct connection to each machine, no VLAN or other interface required. Controlled 3/4inch then moved up to DVCPro. Don’t miss linear editing.

Lee Berger
http://www.leebergermedia.com

[Herb Sevush]

Your jogging my memory. Edit Lister was as you described, Edit Master was the version that actually controlled the machines. I came from film and hated linear video editing, though I do miss using software where I knew the developer by name and could request improvements with a phone call.

RT11 discs,now there’s a memory jolt.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[C. Park seward]

You should give credit for the photos you steal

https://videopark.com/oldbroadcast.htm

I used 141 and 151 GVG editors, Ampex ACE 25 and Accom Axial as linear editors. I have restored a 25.

The dedicated ACE keyboard was great, you could really fly. It does have a Qwerty keyboard that is used for text input. It controlled the Ampex decks great.

Here is a shot of a small linear bay

https://videopark.com/images/VPI1990/Daveedits.jpg

Best,
Park