Thinking of Avid Xpress Pro and ditching Final Cut Pro.

[Charley King]

Not knowing anything about FCP really, it is hard for me to answer that part of the quesion, other than high end users seem to prefer Avid, as is reported in a shootout and survey recently between several NLE’s.
I would call Express Pro a low end professional NLE, quite a ways above consumer, maybe even a little above prosumer, but obviously well below the High End Avid systems.
If yoiu are happy with the FCP, for your client base you would probably be fine sticking with it, you might try to get a good demo of an Avid to get a good comparison. If you prefer MAC, I would probably stick with FCP, the newer Avids are not as versatile on a MAC as on a PC. (I’ll probably be chastised for these answers, but it is my opinion.)

Charlie

[Bill Stephan]

If you can learn the Xpress Pro interface well, you will have 90% of what you need to operate a Media Composer or Adrenaline. Those systems give you intraframe editing (painting/masking/garbage matting), and 3D Warp (high-end DVE, similar to the a Grass Valley Krystal unit), plus more real-time effects and the ability to play more streams in real time. You can learn these as you become more proficient on the high-end systems.

Nitris, on the other hand, is a totally different animal with a steep learning curve. Avid has attempted to make it more Media Composer-like.

For the type of work you are doing, I see no compelling reason to switch programs unless you are longing for a position in the Motion Picture Editor’s Guild.

As Charlie pointed out, I think the current generation of Avid products works much better on PC.

Bill Stephan
Senior Editor/DVD Author
USA Studios
New York City

[Nigel]

I double posted this topic. Sorry. Continue in the Final Cut Pro section here:

https://www.creativecow.net/forum/read_post.php?postid=111778719266415&forumid=8

Thanks guys for your comments.

[Charlie Steiner]

you should ask on the avid xpres pro hd mac forum at avid.com

[Pristine Pictures]

I am a recovering Final Cut user. I left at version 4.5. I use Avid regularly- daily and also consider myself a fluent Final Cut user. I originally began using Final Cut as an inexpensive way to get HD projects done.

On a professional level, I would not consider Final Cut, unless I have an extremely low budget and lots of free time. Final Cut is typically more frustrating than Avid (it’s just not as mature a product as Avid) and from editors I speak with, Final Cut is typically 30% slower on a project, than an Avid.

The major hangup… Final cut needs to render everything… shift something in the timeline-render; move something a frame and put it back-render, add a key-render, add a dissolve-render… you grow old waiting for the software to keep up with you…

I’d be happy to go on, but it appears you’ve made your choice… I just had to vent a bit… No, I don’t believe for a moment that you will be disappointed with Xpress Pro. If you tolerated Final Cut, you’ll enjoy Avid…

[Alessandro]

[Pristine Pictures] “also consider myself a fluent Final Cut user. I originally began using Final Cut as an inexpensive way to get HD projects done.
On a professional level, I would not consider Final Cut, unless I have an extremely low budget and lots of free time. Final Cut is typically more frustrating than Avid (it’s just not as mature a product as Avid) and from editors I speak with, Final Cut is typically 30% slower on a project, than an Avid. “

Geez! Are you sure you are a fluent FCP user? Baah!

Alessandro