From Avid to FCP, any advice?

[Mark Raudonis]

John,

One year ago we made the decision to upgrade from AVID to FCP. (Notice I used the word “Upgrade”) We now have 45 FCP systems on an X-SAN system doing both off-line, on-line and story department work. For what we do (reality TV) FCP is the right tool for the job.

Be aware that there’s much misinformation out there about comparing Avid to FCP. Do your own homework. This list is a great place to start, but their’s no substitute for just setting up a system and seeing for yourself.

I can tell you that we’ve completed close to a hundred hours of primetime programming from off-line to online. FCP works!

Mark

[Michael Alberts]

[Rastus Washington] “The ONLY item that keeps me using Avid is the fact that I can lasso a transition on the timeline and trim while seeing the A and B side from layered video tracks. If Final Cut Pro had this functionality I’d have been gone from Avid many years ago.”

You mean the FCP trim window which pops up when you double click on an edit point. You can lasso it if you want by hitting the G key and then lasso the cut. Both methods pop up the trim window where you see your A and B sides of the cut. The FCP trim window works much like the Avid trim window, although not as elegant and fluid.

I demoed the Avid running on a MacII fx at MacWorld 1992 but held out buying one until the Quadra versions were shipping. Those Quadra boxes just lasted forever. I couldn’t agree more with Mark’s sentiment in the response below.

Michael Alberts
Ambidextrous Productions, Inc.

[Mel Matsuoka]

[Michael Alberts] “[Rastus Washington] “The ONLY item that keeps me using Avid is the fact that I can lasso a transition on the timeline and trim while seeing the A and B side from layered video tracks. If Final Cut Pro had this functionality I’d have been gone from Avid many years ago.”

You mean the FCP trim window which pops up when you double click on an edit point. You can lasso it if you want by hitting the G key and then lasso the cut. Both methods pop up the trim window where you see your A and B sides of the cut”

Yes, but I believe he is talking about FCP’s inability to allow you to see the clips that lie *underneath* the track which you are trimming. This is a subtle, but very annoying limitation of FCP, which makes it difficult to precisely edit composited layers together using the trim window or 2-up viewer. For example, If you need to align a clip on V2 that you want to superimpose based on the occurrence of a specific frame on V1, FCP will only show you a black frame in the trim window(s) if you trime the head/tail of the V2 clip. What it *should* do is show you whats going on *under* (or above) the track which you are trimming.

[Martin Baker]

Absolutely right Mel. It’s one of those annoying things that must have been designed by a software engineer rather than an editor. Let’s hope that this is fixed in v5.

Martin
Digital Heaven, London UK
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Ten Final Cut Plug-ins for just $10 each

[Rastus Washington]

Mel:

That’s exactly what I’m talking about.

Maybe someday

Rastus

[John Schell]

Hi John,
When you are ready to make the move to FCP with uncompressed, take a look at the Convergent Design SD-Connect. It is a transcoder box that offers uncompressed 8 bit or 10 bit over 1394 as well as DV over 1394. It has SDI with embedded audio, component, composite, s-video, 4 channels of balanced analog and AES/EBU I/O and RS-422 tape deck control. Check out our website for more information:
https://www.convergent-design.com
We offer a 15 day free evaluation.
Regards,
John Schell
Convergent Design Inc.