RedShark News: Opinion: Which are the best NLEs right now?

[Walter Soyka]

[Jonny Elwyn, via RedShark News] “Moving forward, for my money, the most interesting piece of software out there is Final Cut Pro X. Pretty much anyone who is doing something interesting or innovative is doing it in connection with FCPX. “

I don’t understand this statement at all.

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

[Jeremy Garchow]

Both AJA and Blackmagic have deck control apps. You can even send clips from AJA Control Room to an X Event.

While it’s not direct tape capture, it’s close. You can then use the same software to assemble/insert to tape.

[Tony West]

[Steve Connor] “Apologies, should have added the caveat “for experienced Editors”
“

Should have added your definition of experienced editors.

20 years, 25? Emmy’s ?

[Steve Connor]

[tony west] “20 years, 25? Emmy’s ?”

Absolute minimum 🙂

[Lance Bachelder]

Welcome to the world after Vegas 🙂 It’s not just the mixer and busses etc. it’s the SPEED! Sound Designing as I cut in Vegas is so fast and so good. Problem is Sony is WAY behind in realtime playback and the stability and bugs have gotten worse with every version since Vegas 9!

It was at a Vegas premiere that I resolved to become an avid FCPX user.

Lance Bachelder
Writer, Editor, Director
Downtown Long Beach, California
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1680680/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

[James Ewart]

I’ve kind of given up with this.

I find Avid counter intuitive but the vast majority of broadcast and high end commercials, features and drama work in the UK is done with Avid and most of the top editors in the UK would probably pick Avid as their favourite tool. Most of the best work is being cut with Avid still.

Who am I to tell them they are wrong?

Sure we read about the exceptions.

Is the story in the USA so different?

Of course it’s a big world.

Is the story so different worldwide for the best work?

… this time next year perhaps?

[Bill Davis]

[Herb Sevush] “[Bill Davis] “Just to keep the record clear, I don’t remember anyone on the pro-X side ever actually calling those who don’t like it “dinosaurs.””

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/335/10927

“there is no room for the old farts that are set in their ways..they are the dinosaurs of the post industry…period!””

Thanks for posting the entire quote in context. That I missed a single post in 2011 SHOCKS me. Clearly this is evidence of widespread “dinosaur bashing” (not)

Plus after reading the exchange, it appears to me that the OP was being pretty specific applying that term to someone still using a telecine workflow in 2011! (Specifically a Rank Cintel film to tape transfer, which, BTW, I used to fly to Burbank from Phoenix do myself – whilst waiting in the only coffee shop I ever saw that had telephones installed in every booth to accommodate all the folk waiting for their film transfers in the days long before cel phones!)

That one use must have STUNG some folks so hard that it became a persistent meme.

And it’s fair to ask if that’s more about what the OP actually posted – or about the remarkably emotional thin skinned nature of the others in that particular thread?

Funny that so few thought “Hey, he can’t be talking about ME cuz I don’t DO rank transfers – but instead felt he MUST mean ME when he used the term dinosaur. Excuse me while I work up a righteous froth about it.

Sigh.

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.

[Herb Sevush]

[Bill Davis] “Thanks for posting the entire quote in context. That I missed a single post in 2011 SHOCKS me.”

Bill, you were merely quoting Jeremy in your original statement and even he acknowledges his mistake. Your absolutest quote being “i don’t remember anyone …” – not most people, just pure hyperbole based on someone else’s research. That you still deal in exaggeration and absolutes to make a point is an almost endearing matter of style by now, but don’t blame me when you get caught out on it.

I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
— Your winnings, sir.
Oh, thank you very much.

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

[Bill Davis]

[Michael Gissing] “I guess I should clarify that track and group behaviours in NLEs have always looked inferior to me to the way DAWs like Fairlight work. I hate cutting sound in NLEs for so many reasons. But track based overwrite is high on the list.”

Michael,

The thing you’re missing is that audio is essentially single stream digital content. Which is to say that at the core, you have a consistent digital description of one type of waveforms. That stays consistent across all DAW approaches.

In video editing, the original clip is expected to be a layered composite. It will, by default, at least have video and audio muxed together. So file handling in an NLE (audio and video mixed clips) has a different fundamental structure compared to file handling in an audio only DAW.

The classic approach is to break apart video and audio on timeline import and separate the audio and video components. X does not do this.

X is the only NLE that by default, preserves the muxed nature of the original content during editing operations. To break apart these files requires editor action. It succeeds because the default describes something that is extremely valuable to a video editor. Video that preserves SYNC sound.

Eseentially, the default operating style mirrors the default shooting style of most video content. The exception is double system, and with that, X allows the user to CREATE sync content early, to enjoy the benefits of locking originally separate audio to video through the editorial process.

So to suggest that an NLE (double stream content) needs to be informed by a system designed for sound (single stream content) is to misunderstand the fundamental nature of the differences between video and audio work.

Yes, generations of editors have been “conditioned” to expect separate audio and video from stage one. But that does not mean it’s the best way. The designers in X figured out that it was quite possible to maintain sync clip throughout the entire editorial process and allow the EDITOR to determine whether or when to separate them – rather than the software demanding separation upon import as a condition of editing.

That’s one of many of the very smart changes that Apple made in X when they re-conceived it.

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.

[Andrew Kimery]

[Walter Soyka] “I don’t understand this statement at all.”

Since he later says this, “If you want to work in TV and film, you need to know Avid. I wish I knew it better, as the people who use it are consistently creating amazing films” I assume the “interesting or innovative” comment has to do with plugins, workflow, etc., being such virgin territory compared PPro or Avid. Kinda like how a gear head might find an Android phone or a jailbroken iPhone more interesting and innovative than just using a regular iPhone.

I mean, Avid has been successful in demanding, high-profile workflows for so long that no one really talks about it anymore, but when FCP Legend, PPro or X get used in similar fashion it generates a lot of chatter.