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Should I switch to premiere? Questions about simplicity
Hey Guys, I used to cut in premiere back in CS6 but was not impressed with stability and quite frankly, didn’t know what I was doing.
When Adobe became subscription based I quit, switching to Lightworks Pro in the process.
However, due to a need to create custom transitions in AE, I am considering switching back. I did some editing and light CC in the current version of Premiere CC on a friend’s laptop and I was not particularly impressed by the shortcuts. It didn’t seem particularly easy to switch between panels, the dynamic trimming functions seemed particularly clunky.
There doesn’t seem to be a way to import a Lightworks keymap into Adobe but as long as I can maintain the same level of simplicity I don’t mind that too much.
Here’s the real question. Is it possible to configure Premiere to easily trim, cut, copy, paste, insert, replace, roll, slip, and slide using only single layer keyboard shortcuts? Which is to say, without using the mouse at any point, can I either select the timeline or a trim mode and switch between all those functions using single keystrokes? Without having to press ridiculous “shift+ctrl+d” key combinations?
Additional functions I want are single key timeline zoom in/zoom out while in trim mode, and single key video/audio track toggle.
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6 Replies
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[Sean Endres] “Without having to press ridiculous “shift+ctrl+d” key combinations?”
I don’t know about ‘no mouse use’, but you never use these modifiers for basic edit commands. Have you tried other keyboard presets? I use the FCP 7 keyboard layout and prefer it to the Premiere Pro default layout.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
You can easily change nearly any function in Premiere to any keyboard shortcut you want by going to the Keyboard Preferences menu. Like Oliver mentioned, there are also ready-made presets you can select for Avid or Final Cut in case you are more comfortable with either of those program’s shortcuts.
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I don’t know about Lightworks but I use both media composer and premere. You can easily configure keyboard shortcuts to map almost every function in premiere but I still find myself using the mouse more than I would like to do while I can easily trim, select tracks and do more stuffs keeping both my hand on the keyboard when using media composer.
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Premiere is fast and an excellent editor but, much like FCP7, does require much more mouse involvement.
As others have said the keyboard mapping is very customisable. I have rolled my own that is a .kys file that I copy to whatever system I work on. (You need to build one for Mac and one for pc)
Trim mode is best avoided but you can select edits / toggle trim sides / toggle ripple/roll / trim by frames or many etc all with keyboard shortcuts
Should you switch? Well if you get to choose then only you can answer (and FCPX is also interesting).
I mostly work at broadcasters/production companies/facility houses so use what is provided
Lately I’m suddenly seeing much more Adobe out there. I don’t think they’ll do an FCP style handbrake turn either…
1995 – 95% tape 5% avid
2000 – 50% avid 50% tape
2005 – 95% avid 5% tape
2010 – 60% avid 40% fcp7/others
2015 – 95% avid 5% adobe/fcp7/others
2020 guesstimate – 50-70% adobe, on current trends -
I’m messing around with the 1 month trial as we speak….Could you provide a bit more info on what functions you seem to be stuck with the mouse on?
Thanks!
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It’s not really about being stuck but I feel I use the mouse more on premiere than I do in media composer… For example I want to trim the right side of a clip… while in media composer it’s a single keystroke in premiere I have to cycle through trim modes = multiple keystrokes so it’ faster to use the mouse…
While in trim mode on v1 I want add to the trim operation a clip on v2… just a keystroke in media composer, shift click in premiere… I want to go back and trim only the clip on v1 just a keystroke in media composer, shift click in premiere…
I have a timeline with 12 audio tracks and I want to select track 1 to 8… shift click and drag track selectors from 1 to 8 in media composer shift click in premiere selects all tracks then shift click on each track I don’t need… and other small things that could work better in an editing system where you can really map almost everything to the keyboard….
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