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My major beef
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[Bob Woodhead] “I thought that when you 1st expand audio, then apply trans, collapse audio, it doesn’t effect audio.
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You’re correct, if you expand the clips then it is a video only dissolve
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[David Mathis] “…aggravates the (censored word of choice) out of me. Why does a cross dissolve affect both audio and video? Yes, there is a way to make a cross dissolve for audio only. Why can’t there be one for video only? It irritates me big time to split the audio from the video to do so. Then you have to trim the two separately to get them back together. Why must this be? I am ready to jump ship to Resolve, right now”
For a video-only cross dissolve, you just do CTRL-S to expand the audio and video, apply the video-only transition, then CTRL-S again to collapse them. You can do multiple clips at once — just select them, CTRL-S to expand, CTRL-T to apply video-only default cross-dissolve to all clips, then CTRL-S to collapse them. You can add a video-only cross dissolve to 20 clips at once, and it only takes a single keystroke to expand the clips, then a single keystroke to collapse them.
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Thanks for taking this seriously, Herb. Your perspective helped me expand my thinking about the topic in a way the other responses here did not.
I suspect I question this more because I don’t just edit, I shoot regularly. And deciding whether to capture double system or to capture muxed audio and video for me today is made on a constantly shifting case by case basis. I can tell you that properly recorded field audio of any speaking human where the signal to noise ratio is well managed and the sync sound file is usable “as is” is a HUGE productivity boost for me as an X editor. I can treat it as a single entity until and unless *I* elect to treat it separately. J and L cuts against my story linel elements are literally a breeze in the X “connected clip and secondary” paradigm.
I posed the question partially because I saw another vastly complex X timeline coming out of a huge national European Broadcast shop – and the first thing that struck me is that just like most of our timelines, all the video was UP and all the audio was DOWN – and they had thousands of audio clips in play for the hour-long episodic TV show.
There might have been PERFECTLY good reasons for that. But it’s also possible that it’s a remnant of traditional NLE thinking in that some extra visual clarity MIGHT have been obtained by simply moving countless sound SFX shots that were clearly referencing on screen action, adjacent to the clips they were associated with.
In X, that’s perfectly possible. Not so in other NLEs.
It’s also common for me now NOT to have to break apart or otherwise manipulate clips that are already properly recorded. If I do proper field recording, I can often get by with simply setting a global level for a long scene in the browser – and know that that will become the level for any use thereafter. It’s a way to take steps OUT of my checklist.
Just worth discussing. That’s all.
Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.
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To the extent that Herb and I were able to engage on it and presumably sharpen our thinking, rather than just go once again to the “that’s the way it’s SUPPOSED to be, MOVE ON” mindset – then yes.
I’m fine knowing that I phrased it in a way that seems to have annoyed so many.
I think it’s Mitch Ives who’s signature notes something along the lines that Friction – and it’s accompanying squeaks – draw attention to things we often take for granted.
And so it goes.
Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.
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[David Mathis] “Bill does raise an interesting question but have to disagree with him there.”
Excellent.
Disagreement is a precursor to betterment in many cases.
Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.
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It is a shitty design, but I am trying to remember the last time I dissolved directly between two audio tracks. Maybe a quick ramp up or out, but I can do those faster with the little fader button on the audio track itself. Expand the tracks, pull one audio under another to your liking and use the “little fader button” on each side. When I think about it, yes, the software should include that. But in a practical sense, I have never missed it (of course, now that I know, I will miss it!).
Scott Witthaus
Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
1708 Inc./Editorial
Professor, VCU Brandcenter -
[Scott Witthaus] “Expand the tracks, pull one audio under another to your liking and use the “little fader button” on each side. When I think about it, yes, the software should include that. But in a practical sense, I have never missed it (of course, now that I know, I will miss it!).”
I actually prefer this method to adding a straight dissolve transition
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[Steve Connor] “[Scott Witthaus] “Expand the tracks, pull one audio under another to your liking and use the “little fader button” on each side. When I think about it, yes, the software should include that. But in a practical sense, I have never missed it (of course, now that I know, I will miss it!).”
I actually prefer this method to adding a straight dissolve transition”
2nd
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Thank you to all for your posts, including the one from Bill Davis, being very sincere here. I never thought about expand, transition and collapse approach. I did make that cross fade transition for the audio. On the other hand expanding the audio and video is a better approach. To some this might not be as efficient but it does give more flexibility, especially when you have a straight cut for the video. I revert a statement I made earlier and agree with Bill in his first post. I now like X again.
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