Premiere as NLE of choice, catching flak from peers?

[Scot Sheely]

I use both PC’s and Macs in my studio. I have used PC’s for over 25+ years, and Macs since 1985.

Although I enjoy using FCP, PPRO CS3 has many advantages over Final Cut. One of the most compelling reasons to use Premiere is its ability to render video extremely fast compared to FCP, especially if you have a Matrox card like the Axio or the RT.X2 installed.

Another distinct advantage that FCP cannot claim is that the entire CS3 catalogue is seamlessly integrated with every single application. Well beyond just the video elements, the print, web and other programs are tightly knitted together in a way that makes Apple very, very envious and jealous. It CANNOT do that at this time, and you will find that a LOT of FCP users still rely heavily on Illustrator, Photoshop and After Effects, even if they have Motion and Shake in their arsenal.

Now, all of that being said, FCP still has many redeeming qualities. It is a fast, lean and mean NLE that has a great set of filters, some unique that PPRO does not have (and vice versa, of course). Apple has dedicated a serious amount of resources into upgrading and future R&D of their suite.

The truly odd thing is, if you trace the roots of both FCP and PPRO, the exact same company created them both, and sold FCP to Macromedia, and PPRO to Adobe. As most everyone knows, Adobe bought out Macromedia a couple of years ago, so it is sort of an odd twist of fate type of thing (cue the Twilight Zone music!).

Avid has had so many problems in the last several years that they have lost their edge in the broadcast market, although so many TV stations, movie productions, studios et al are so firmly entrenched that they will probably still be using them for years to come. I suppose that the initial investment in that platform makes them a bit nervous to switch at this time, although I have spoken to several friends at major market stations across the USA who have told me that they have a five or ten year integration / migration plan and are switching over to FCP very slowly.

Just to bring another item to the table, back in the mid 1990’s, Media 100 was all the rage, with far more TV stations using that than Avid at that time. Flash forward 13 years and Media 100 has declined so significantly that almost noone uses it anymore, which is a real shame. It was / is an excellent NLE that offered a lot of unique attributes that now have been integrated into FCP and PPRO, amongst others in the current marketplace.

[Mike Cohen]

About the only time I hear the word AVID or Final Cut is when someone from an ad agency or a PR person is talking the talk. That’s fine.

“So, do you use Avid?” they ask.
“We use Premiere,” I reply.
“Oh,” they reply.

or

“Is this like an Avid?” they ask.
“Yep, it’s like an Avid,” I reply.
“Cool, we used these when I worked at WXYZ News back in the late 90’s” they say.

The end of the story is, can you give the clients what they want. If the client wants a finished DVD, and they don’t care how it gets from your camera to their hands, then use what you want to get there.

If your client says at the outset “I need the Avid project file and assets because…” then you should know this ahead of time, and take your projects accordingly.

Now if you have a client who says “The DVD is great. Can I have the Avid files on a DVD?” having never said this during the whole project, and you don’t have Avid files, just say “we don’t work on Avids. If you tell me what you need to do with the project in the future, I can get you what you need.”

Etc.

Mike

[Alex Udell]

I will add one other note…

As 32 bit OS’s…

Under Windows XP and Vista standard, memory does seem a bit of a limitation on the Windows platform and Premiere is a bit of a RAM glutton.

Apple has already gone thru the growing pains of moving to a 64 bit OS, so I can’t remember the last time I heard someone complaining about running out of RAM in FCP.

I expect this to change significatnly after everyone (Adobe and Matrox in my case) gets 64 bit compliant, which I don’t expect to be to much longer.

That’s the one knock I’d give Premiere Pro right now.

Alex

[Jared Flynn]

Thanks Scot! I had no idea that Premiere and FCP were sisters; looking at it now, it definitely makes lots of sense, considering the similarities in both their workflows. Great insight, I really appreciate it!

-Jared

[Jared Flynn]

Thanks Mike. Yes, the growing consensus seems to surround the resource-sharing issue, which is most certainly an important factor. And it’s been mentioned elsewhere in this thread that, for full-service situations where editing/color/graphics/authoring all happens under the same roof, Adobe’s solid integration really shines. A tough balance to strike, but all the more reason to have experience with many different platforms, I suppose. I appreciate your input! Thanks again.

-Jared

[Jared Flynn]

Great call, Alex. It’s the one thing about my current hardware setup that’s irked me. My workstation is equipped with 4GB of very quick RAM, my motherboard can support up to 8GB, but 32-bit Windows only copes with the first 3.5GB. Such a drag. Still, I feel like XP’s resource management, and Premiere’s further organization on the back end (making for quick render times) splits the difference a little.

Thanks for the input!

-Jared

[Alex Udell]

Hi Jared…

“Yet, from every angle I can see, Premiere and FCP are more or less equivalent, with FCP’s interface design obviously favoring Apple users, and Premiere’s design/organization taking more cues from the Windows roots of Photoshop and Illustrator. ”

I find this amusing as I can remember when Adobe was a Mac only company.

Prior to Windows NT in late 90’s Adobe made no software for Windows.

Avid, too, started as a Mac only product. This, and the domination of the Mac early on in the Music industry with the early implementations of Midi Sequencing and Digial audio recording, and the Mac’s domination of the Desktop publishing (yes I’m talking about paper… ;^) ) are why so many people today still will speak of the Mac as the artists computer….which seems pretty irellevant at this point.

But it is very interesting how the history of our industry lacks permanance…

Alex

Alex Udell
Editing, Motion Graphics, and Visual FX
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