Understanding Avid products

[Richard Sanchez]

Media Composer is offline editorial. Symphony is a finishing system, as is DS. The DS is a product that was acquired by Avid, and is less common than Symphony. Symphony being solid finishing solution, and DS being a more high end solution. Pro Tools is audio recording and mixing.

The Avid software package is quite different from Final Cut Studio. For one, Avid DVD only comes with the PC version of Avid, not the Mac. Also, Soundtrack Pro was a tool that editors would use as a quick solution for noise reduction and the SFX library, but it is not the audio mixing standard that Pro Tools is. There are entire schools devoted to Pro Tools. Avid Motion Graphics is a very new product, but it looks like it is more geared towards on-air graphics, where After Effects seems to mid-range graphics and composting tool. Avid comes packaged with Sorenson Squeeze for compression, however now that you can buy Compressor separately, it’s not a bad companion to use with Mac based Avids.

Richard Sanchez
Los Angeles, CA

“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks

[Andrew Mckee]

Media Composer does come with Marquee for motion graphics (which I would rate somewhere between Boris Title 3D and Motion) which launches from within the programme. As mentioned by Richard, AvidDVD only comes with the PC version, but to be honest it isn’t that great anyway. Sorenson is really good, however.

I think the problem your having is that Media Composer doesn’t really market itself for lone gunman. Its really a niche product for people who use it to just edit and don’t tend to worry about the rest of the stuff. Unfortunately, if you wanat to use it for post from start to finish, you really have to combine it with another suite of products. As I have FCP7, I use Avid to edit and then grade in Color and use DVDStudioPro to author. Others use the Adobe Production Premium suite (I use After Effects, which Avid integrates pretty easily with, for compositing or motion graphics). For basic sound I quite like the tools in Avid and they have recently got alot better. For complex stuff, ProTools is amazing, but best handled by someone who knows the programme. This makes it all pretty expensive if your a hired gun, who’s expected to do everything from start to finish and its one of the reasons so many people went the FCP Studio route.

I have heard mostly good things about DS, but never used it myself. Its a pretty high end sytstem. Symphony I have used, and I cannont honestly understand why people buy it. For the cost, you could get Media Composer, DaVinci Resolve, After Effects and probably a DVD Authoring package.

Andrew McKee
Editor/Colourist
Avid Certified Instructor – MC5.5
Apple Certified Trainer – FCP7
Pixelwizard.net

[Tom Galli]

[Andrew McKee] “I think the problem your having is that Media Composer doesn’t really market itself for lone gunman. Its really a niche product for people who use it to just edit and don’t tend to worry about the rest of the stuff. Unfortunately, if you wanat to use it for post from start to finish, you really have to combine it with another suite of products.”

That is truly disappointing news. And probably, from a cost-of-crossing-over perspective, will end up being a deal-breaker. Dangnabit!

The difference between theory and reality is that, in theory, there is no difference between theory and reality.

[Richard Sanchez]

From the perspective of what to incorporate into your curriculum, it would probably be worth examining the goal in your editing course. If it’s about the lone gunman sense, which lend itself more towards corporate videos and such, then the CS5 Production is a good option to consider. If the aim is broadcast and film, Media Composer is absolutely worth learning, despite it being a considerably more focused product than the CS5 Production Package or Final Cut Studio.

Richard Sanchez
Los Angeles, CA

“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks

[Tom Galli]

Richard, that is an excellent point.

Honestly, my “concept-to-completion” desire is based on what I do with the systems besides teach classes. But, curriculum-wise, my goal is to prepare students for the professional workplace.

My dream, actually, would be to teach 4 semesters of editing, each one on a different platform. See me in 20 years for a status update on that dream. But for now…

Our students get a total of 3 semesters’ worth of ENG classes: beginning, intermediate, and advanced. The focus is on the “tripod” of preproduction, production, and postproduction with increasingly complex tools and elevating expectations. DVD authoring isn’t even featured, just acknowledged as a way to provide a demo reel.

So, with that realization, I’m back on the “maybe Avid” wagon.

The difference between theory and reality is that, in theory, there is no difference between theory and reality.

[Richard Sanchez]

What’s funny is, I got my career started on Final Cut Studio, and prior to that I was the most hard nosed PC guy you ever met. I originally learned to edit on FCP version 2, but continued my editing education on Premiere. Nobody took me seriously as an editor on premiere so I learned Avid, and funny enough about that time I started getting Final Cut jobs so that shaped my career path. Then Final Cut X came out, and filled me with a massive sense of urgency to get my Avid chops up, and fast. That said, the best thing that Final Cut X has done for the world of post is it’s making people give a second look at Adobe Premiere. Back in the days of Premiere Pro 2, the only valid arguments against Premiere were lack of OMF support, and fairly limited hardware support. Now Premiere has OMF support and full support of AJA hardware. Premiere is really a pretty damn good NLE. That said, Avid really is the big dog in the world of broadcast and film, and their education versions would also probably help you in the way of price point.

Richard Sanchez
Los Angeles, CA

“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks

[Oliver Peters]

I think it’s incorrect to characterize Media Composer as only an editor. I’ve done plenty of finishing on MC, complete with complex keys and effects, such as custom, traveling mattes. The color corrector is vastly superior to the tools inside FCP7 (not counting Color). You have exactly the same tools as in Symphony, except that the Symphony color corrector can do more. This can easily be augmented by adding DaVinci Resolve Lite for free.

The MC bundle includes Avid FX, which is really Boris RED hosted inside MC. So that’s like having After Effects embedded inside the NLE. You can do uncompressed, native RED and more. Built-in effects tools include animatte, tracking, stabilization and more. The audio mixing can be clip and track-based with a healthy set of filters picked up from ProTools. MC 6 opens up to all the third-party hardware. So for most lab environments MC is a dynamite package.

Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Andrew Mckee]

Very true Oliver, they do bundle alot into the Media Composer package that makes it more dynamic in terms of colour correction, effects, motion graphics and audio. But it’s still difficult to characterise it as a suite in the same way that Prouction Premium and Final Cut Studio are/were.

Andrew McKee
Editor/Colourist
Avid Certified Instructor – MC5.5
Apple Certified Trainer – FCP7
Pixelwizard.net

[Scott Cumbo]

Tom,
If your teaching kids editing, do them a favor and teach them Avid MC. Besides FCP, Avid is really the only editor used in broadcast and film. Sure their are plenty of shops and independent places that use premier and the other editing apps (too many to list) and they will all argue that they are great apps, which I’m sure they are. And maybe on day hey will be a part of the major markets.

But in pro TV and Film editing it’s pretty much a 2 dog race, Avid media composer (which symphony is the same thing with a few extra features) and FCP (though who knows what FCP future is with the whole FCPX release) Using NYC as an example, no one is looking for a kid who knows premie or vegas video.

Scott Cumbo
Editor
Broadway Video, NYC

[Andrew Mckee]

TV and Film production is not “the major market”. Of all the people who produce audiovisual content, it is a small fraction and as time goes on, it will become a tiny fraction. I’m all for giving students the ambition to reach for working in those markets, but you have to be realistic. There are simply way too many media students and way too few jobs in the TV&Film industry.

Andrew McKee
Editor/Colourist
Avid Certified Instructor – MC5.5
Apple Certified Trainer – FCP7
Pixelwizard.net