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RedShark News: Opinion: Which are the best NLEs right now?
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[tony west] “I still have more to learn on this program but they have gone a long way to make it more user friendly than the earlier versions I used.”
One thing to remember is that RX4 installs the plug-ins for most of the host applications, if they read VST or AU. So the plug-ins work in FCP X but also others, like SoundForge or Audition. As a plug-in, they run in real-time within the host. This includes having a series of plug-ins on a single clip or track, depending on the limitations of the host.
If you use the RX4 standalone application, the same processes and plug-ins do not run in real-time, but require a “processing” (rendering) step for each filter that you apply. There is the Connect plug-in that allows you to send a clip from the host to the RX 4 application, but this does not work with all hosts. You have to check their support information to see what the recommendations are for each of the possible hosts, including FCP X. There is also a batch processing function.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Jeff Markgraf] “Bringing this back to the UI issue, EditBox came around at a time when I think UI options were being more creatively explored. I’ll point again to Henry and Hal, which were kinda in their own world. EditBox went its own way. Video Cube was pretty different from Avid. Even in the linear world, Sony’s edit controller was very different from the CMX/Grass Valley style. So was the Ampex Ace Micro, for that matter. “
I think we are in complete agreement. The 90s saw quite a bit more innovation in the linear and NLE space than we see now. EditBox was one of the first uncompressed NLEs, so Quantel was really the first company to challenge the dominance of the linear suites. The other manufacturers, like Avid and EMC2, were originally really challenging the film and 3/4″ offline edit bays of the time.
You could stand to be less uniform, because the standard exchange of those days was videotape, written film cut lists or EDLs. Even EDLs were not standard and required translations between GVG and CMX or others. Edit systems could afford to be more diverse, as long as they could deliver an EDL to an online house in one of a few formats.
There was originally very little need to interchange offline file formats between NLEs. Plus you almost never had to worry about a client walking in with a project that they had partially edited electronically on their own – expecting you to pick up from there. Most would walk in with source media and a hand-written “paper cut” EDL, derived from watching burn-in VHS or 3/4″ tapes. That’s an art most clients and producers have completely lost!
[Jeff Markgraf] “I think the NLE UI has pretty much calcified into the form seen in Avid, Fcp legacy, PPro and a host of others that have come and gone.”
I would agree in part, but you can also look at this a different way. Just as linear controllers worked in a very similar way, because that worked best for editor knowledge and workflow, so the NLE world has evolved into the same position. It’s essentially market forces that have driven a de facto standardization, for better or worse.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Daniel Frome] “If I were to adopt FCPX I would clearly quit fighting this and simply “do it that way.”
“Don’t get me wrong. I do think there are many ways to improve FCPX. An easy one, would be to add a simple keyboard shortcut that extends the heads/tails to a predetermined length, and adds a fade handle. After that you can adjust it to taste. This would allow the functionality of a crossfade, but keep the good parts of the X UI, as well.
[Daniel Frome] “I find that many of my secondary elements (as well as audio elements) end on the same frame as the primary story counterpart. This makes the trim functions frustrating because they don’t come with a way to choose whether I want the choose the primary, secondary, or other audio elements. Every trim command defaults to the primary story elements — often not what I want. Eventually you just habitually grab the mouse and click on the element that you want to invoke trim functions on. For a number of wrist and creative reasons, that is just not the way I choose to work. “
I hear you. It comes back to needing an easier way to choose the “layer” you want to work on. I think the little bouncing ball is going to be a good indicator of how that could be possible. Right now, it simply chooses the top most layer when the playhead stops. Also, if you select the “shelf” which is the grey bar at the top of secondary story lines, you have in effect selected that layer. You can overwrite, replace, insert, add to end, with all the same kb shortcuts as the primary. You can even select the edit point video or audio edge you’d like to work on (of course, the playhead has to be on the cut point). Also, using ‘c’ to select is a lot easier than pointing and clicking. But yes, for now, the way it works is the way it works, and there’s no doubt it is different and takes getting used to.
[Daniel Frome] “If I am to work in a way that is complimentary to FCPX’s design, should I be relying less on trimming? Or is mouse-driven interaction just designed into the process of complex trim’s via FCPX?”
I don’t think you have to rely less on trimming. I do more keyboard driven trimming in X than in did in 7 or Pr, and I can do it all in real time with playback (shift-/ will give you a bit of a preview playback). You do have to select what you want to work on first, but it’s not that bad. The mouse is certainly part of FCPX’s current selection process, but I find that X, in general, has way more functional commands and was designed to use the keyboard as well. I’m not sure if you will find an easier keyboard remapping system than FCPX. But as I mentioned, some of it still needs more work, and it took me a lot of practice to stop fighting it and learn to work with it to gain more efficiency. There were frustrating moments in the beginning, and the biggest part of learning the X timeline, is figuring out how to effectively manage linear time. I started on X, purposefully, with really really simple jobs, and I think that helped me to access the UI more, rather than try and do more complex projects with it.
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[Peter J. DeCrescenzo] “I understand that Finder tags can appear in FCPX after import, but they don’t appear in the FCPX import window itself. For example, the FCPX import window shows filenames, timecode values, etc., but not Finder tags.
As noted previously, the workaround is to drag & drop files directly from a Finder window (where of course Finder tags are visible) into FCPX, but Finder windows don’t display timecode values, etc.
At this late date that seems to me like a silly workaround.
“I guess drag and drop doesn’t seem like a workaround to me. I suppose it all depends on how you organize work in the Finder. X gives you multiple ways to import that information, and it is also smart about what has been imported, which means you can reimport a folder without any duplication. It will only import what is new.
If you know that the files have been tagged in the Finder, it seems like importing that folder or group of footage through the FCPX window and having the tags show up is pretty easy, but maybe you are trying to do something specific.
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[Oliver Peters] “You are completely ignoring developments and innovations in other NLEs that X doesn’t and can’t do, but are standard within others.”
Then Oliver, it would be absolutely great if you can share some of the stories coming out of the Premier or AVID world where there are new and exciting editorial options being developed or experimented with.
The threads here are an excellent example of how the magnetic timeline and aspects of X such as auditions and snapshots are CHANGING how specific editors are able to express their intent as they edit.
If there are equivalent aspects to the development of Premier or AVID – then by all means lets bring them to the table and let their stories be told.
Nobody here is putting up barriers to that that I’m aware of.
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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[Bill Davis] “Then Oliver, it would be absolutely great if you can share some of the stories coming out of the Premier or AVID world where there are new and exciting editorial options being developed or experimented with. “
You are assuming it has to be new. My point was that innovative things have been done for years with other NLEs, regardless of magnetic timelines. I only have to go back to something I did in 1999 for Walt Disney World Epcot. Do a search for “Illuminations Reflections of Earth” for the complete view (it’s a mix of music, fireworks, video, lasers and lights).
This video is someone zoomed in on the earth globe barge, which is a 360 degree set of LED panels as video displays.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qDv20DUxnE
I edited and composited this using Media Composer 7 (the first 7). There are places with well over 50 layers.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
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[Herb Sevush] “[James Ewart] “As for zero market penetration. No not zero. It’s certainly not zero. Not at the BBC anyway. Okay the BBC is tiny in context but over here people watch what they do. Like Walter Murch it’s seal of approval.”
Your right, I’m guilty of a “Bill Davis” — a factual exaggeration to make a point. Very limited penetration would be more accurate. “
Doubt I often exaggerated FACT. I’m usually pretty careful about that. Most often I employed the sharpened stick of hyperbole against what I saw as the dragons of stubbornness and intransigence.
It matters not. 4 year on, I feel like I’ve largely won all my early debates in my own 20/20 hindsight. X was never for edit kiddies. The changes in X WERE for professional advancement. And bottom line, I’m still actually cutting faster, delivering with less friction and generally WAY happier in my editing today than I was 4 years ago. That’s what I hoped for – and that’s what came true.
It’s also nice that I’ve got more company today than I did 4 years ago. Instead of chatting about X strategies with a couple of folks, I have dozens and sometimes hundreds of peers to chat with on-line. Whole websites to visit where nobody cares about the debate – but rather where everyone understands the value of the tool and so can happily focus on investigating it’s many faceted aspects of usefulness. All of which is, I must say, delightful.
I do wonder what NAB will bring this year. or 2015 in X development in general.
Exciting times.
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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[Aindreas Gallagher] “You’re all hopping around on one leg with tribal feathers in your hair constantly shouting that everything is ok here.
it’s not.”
So saith the eternal curmudgeon room-bound and watching the Carnival traipse by outside.
Imagine the sadness if it turns out that everything IS ok out here – and we leave the streets with new friends, laughing and re-energized for our work and our lives.
After all, Amigo, YOU were the guy who kept saying that X would NEVER be suitable for “real work.” Not just once in passing, but over and over and over and over and over again.
Yet, here we are, 2015. A banner year for X in real production environments in the post Libraries era.
These small explosions of X joy at the movies and on TV and around the world in the past year?
Well, perhaps again, the best strategy is to go back and return to what’s always worked before. Draw the drapes. Put something loud on the Victrola in your brain. And wait til the postman commeth. Hopefully, there won’t be a note from Adobe about an issue with your subscription.
Ever.
; )
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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[Walter Soyka] “[Charlie Austin] “In the case of Color, Apple probably decided that competing with great, free apps wasn’t worth it. But who knows…”
Though I’m not sure the timeline (ha!) supports this theory, the idea that Apple would not wish to compete against a lower-cost offering — after they themselves salted this particular field a couple years earlier — is a little horrifying, no?
“I don’t think so.
I think they just clearly saw that inside an NLE, the main necessity is color CORRECTION. Which they can handle with sublime ease with the color board. (and LUTS for the ever evolving field files)
And they stepped aside from the fools mission of engineering in color GRADING tools, because – well – maybe it’s like music, where the number of people who wish to perform is way less than the number of those who wish to compose?
The color board plus LUTS for the editors – trackballs and nodal workflows for the graders.
Put the correct tools in the correct hands – and let the complexity of the music making tools be scalable to the needs of the differing constituencies that wish to make the music?
Could it be as simple as that?
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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[Bill Davis] “Could it be as simple as that?”
As simple as Apple targeting people that, among other duties, need to do some color correction as opposed to targeting people that grade day in and day out for a living? Yes, I think it is entirely that simple. Like with Shake, Apple had a product that went too far down the rabbit hole for their comfort level so they killed it and pulled whatever scraps they found useful off the bones. Final Cut Server probably falls into this category as well.
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