PPro offers what BIG advantages over X?

[David Powell]

I won’t repeat what has already been mentioned but these are important to me.

Superior Markers
Flexible relinking
Ability to save customized effects and use later
Flexible proxy and full res mixing on the timeline
Multi-timeline stacked editing
Superior color tools
FAR superior audio sweetening tools with send to audition
Better trim options. I’ve said it before but FCP’s extend edit really sucks compared to everything else.

Of course there are things that are superior in FCPX but you already know the software and pricing so its not worth mentioning. I will say that tracks do suck in PP vs FCPX in a way that they don’t suck in say Avid, because the patching system isn’t that well thought out and is clunky like FCP 7 as is the multi-edit trim selection. But if you’re used to FCP 7 it won’t feel so bad.

[Andy Field]

If you set up new project with those audio rules and import xml it should still work

[Bob Woodhead]

Thanks, everyone! I realized that in my OP I didn’t specify that I’m certainly a fan of, if not exactly an advocate for, FCPX. I say that because I do feel strongly that everyone has their own workflow, criteria, imposed requirements that have more impact in which is the “best” NLE for them, more so than a line-item checklist of all features/limitations combined. And I think that most of the forum would agree.

Excellent points made so far. Anyone else, please chime in. John & David M, yeah, you got me laughing. Very creative answer, JD!

Shane, your PC/Mac point… all it would take is for Apple to piss me off hugely one more time, and that might be a crux argument.

Charlie…. Dynamic Linking, yeah, always liked it, wasn’t a big diff. back when Send to Motion worked. 🙁 Mixer – this surprised me the most about moving to X… I *thought* I was gonna hate not having a mixer, but turns out I don’t. Lots of room for improvement, but not a deal breaker thought it was gonna be.

David P, if you read this, if you’d elaborate just a bit on flexible relinking? Send to Audition. yeah. Me want Send to Logic.

Very interesting so far! Please, if anyone has more, speak up. Not too much interested in the “file exchange” aspects, due to the joy of keeping it all in house. Love hearing about in-the-trenches sort of stuff that makes up 90% of editing. I honestly was expecting more vocal support for “this is SO much better in PPro” kind of reply, but other than a couple of things it’s been more potAto / pohTAHto to my ears.

[Walter Soyka]

First, a note on my perspective. My use case is different than a lot of folks here. I use an NLE a couple times a week, but I’m not a creative editor anymore and I don’t live in my NLE at work. I’m a designer, and After Effects is my primary application.

For me, using Premiere Pro isn’t just about Premiere; it’s about how Premiere works with the rest of the Creative Cloud tools.

Dynamic link is cool (and you can hijack it to get template rigging with Ae/Pr [link]), but there are other lesser-publicized integration features like source-side metadata, project link metadata (knowing what project a media file was rendered from), copy and paste across applications, and SpeedGrade direct link.

There are common UI conventions across apps, and across platforms. The software works on my Macs, and it works on my HP workstations, and it works on my Surface.

I look at Premiere as part of a package that includes a lot of other creative tools: Ae, Pr, Il, Au, Sg. Nearly all of my editorial work now is finishing, creative in look but technical in nature. Premiere is a strong application in its own right, but it’s also the NLE that best fits with the other creative tools I want to use to get my work done.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Bob Woodhead]

Absolutely a strong feature of the suite approach. Always has been. Project link metadata sounds cool & useful when in the thick of making GFX revs.

[Oliver Peters]

Both apps have their pros and cons, but I’ll frame this post in a PPro-centric way. I would add to some of the things already mentioned. Media support isn’t just import and edit, but also export. A wider range of exported formats are supported via AME. Intermediate codecs include ProRes (Mac), DNxHD, AVC-Intra, uncompressed, CineForm, various legacy QT codecs (like Animation) and MPEG-2 I-frame. This makes for better cross-platform and cross-application interchange.

My experience working the FCP X timeline and PPro timelines is that in PPro, the UI response is much more instant than in X. When you trim a clip using the contextual cursor, in PPro the tool immediate switches modes. With X, there’s always a lag as the UI has to “think”. Pro has a lot of great right-click contextual menus. For example “Replace” is substantially faster and better for thinks like swapping out clips and graphics.

The tabbed timeline window is superior to X’s timeline history. I can’t get any version of X to hold a lot of sequences in the history. It seems to always forget a few as I go back and forth. If you work between sequences, PPro allows you to have multiple sequence windows open instead of tabbed, making it easier to go back and forth. these can be stacked for easy back and forth for comparison and drag-and-drop.

Needless to say, Adobe’s tools are cross platform, allowing you to build a faster, more powerful, custom machine on the PC, if you are willing to consider Windows.

That’s not to say that PPro doesn’t have its quirks, too. Working with multiple projects/session/productions/libraries/whatever is better in X than in PPro. PPro has to write a bunch of cache and XMP files that often have to be rewritten when moving around in a SAN environment. Load times with large projects can be slow.

– Oliver

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

[Steve Connor]

[Oliver Peters] “The tabbed timeline window is superior to X’s timeline history. I can’t get any version of X to hold a lot of sequences in the history. It seems to always forget a few as I go back and forth”

One of its most annoying “features”

[David Mathis]

I prefer organizing in FCP X over anything else. Tags can be created on the finder level and transition over. Also, metadata from the BMCC goes in as well. As long as the footage is in ProRes, raw not yet.

While never having used Speedgrade, I find Resolve very good. Much rather trim in Resolve, never been on a strong point of any version of Final Cut, same goes for keyframing. Sure you have to add on some extra stuff for FCP X, but in some instances you get to choose tools you want, even need. Much prefer this approach over rental only to avoid paying for things that are not necessary. Everyone is different.

As for After Effects, never cared for pre-comps as groups in Motion seem a better approach. They can act as both a pre-comp (minus the headaches) and as an adjustment layer, only affecting layers inside that group. Just beware any groups in there are affected as well.

Keeping an eye on Fusion, no pun intended. Looking at that to replaceAE and Photoshop for more complex work. Of course node based approach can present a challenge but not having to think in layers can be very liberating. Flowcharts are fun to look at. 🙂

Enough of my ranting, carry on!

Less clicking, more editing — the power of X!

[Herb Sevush]

Not being an X editor I will say the biggest plus for me working in Ppro over Legacy is audio. There is a full fledged track mixer with sends that allow for adding effects on a track basis as well as creating final mixes, for instance my specs for PBS are stereo on 1 & 2 and mono mix on 3&4. With the track mixer it’s very simple using sends and a submix.

Also the ability to send audio to Audition for repair using the spectral analysis tool is amazing. Example – during interview cell phone goes off in background – isolate just that part of the track with cuts, right click and send to audition, immediately see the phone rings in the spectral analyzer, paint them out, save and then switch back to PPro and the ringing is gone. Some sounds are harder to fix then others, but with practice you can either remove or improve anything. I use it on popped plosives all the time, it’s incredibly quick and the results are perfect.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Herb Sevush]

[Shane Ross] ” Also, FCX Multicam is superior to Premiere.”

I started a thread about this subject a short while ago and I’d like to hear why you think this is so? Not doubting you, I was under this impression till recently myself, just would like to hear your reasoning on this.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf