What are your NLE non-negotiable must-haves?

[Doug Perry]

I want an easy and effective way to apply easy-ease/smooth to my keyframes.

An AVID Animatte equivalent would be nice as well.

X/Y position keyframing would be cool… sometimes I like to use sliders. The ‘center’ function is not good. Plus maybe my AAF transfers from AVID projects might work better.

No more trashing preferences when FCP goes haywire.

[Walter Soyka]

In addition to Alan’s comments, I’d add that Autodesk has marketed Smoke on Mac very heavily as an addition to an FCP workflow, not a direct FCP replacement. Many of their demos begin with Smoke importing an FCP XML, and working natively with FCP’s media.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Simon Ubsdell]

I’d absolutely agree that Smoke is a great finishing tool and I’ve used it quite a bit for that purpose – but that’s what it is, not a basic editing tool, and it’s much too expensive, and in a way over-featured for what I need to do which is to eb able to cut sound and pictures very, very fast and flexibly. With my must-haves!

I don’t really need to grade as I edit, or even do fancy sound work, and I’m much happier skipping out to a dedicated app if I need either of these. I’m always going to be happier creating motion graphics in a dedicated application and I can’t see that ever changing, and the same holds true for VFX work. Which is not to say that other people don’t absolutely need all of these fully integrated into their editing app in order to meet their clients’ needs. Again, everybody’s needs are different, sometimes very different indeed. The world of pro editing is not in any way uniform or homogeneous.

My point is, I think, if you’re designing an NLE from scratch, how are you going to correctly assess all the potential very specific ways that many, many different editors will need to go about their very varied editing tasks?

There are going to be NLE’s that just so happen to specifically and precisely address the specific editing needs of the very, very lucky few (!), and there are going to be others that give you a sufficiently wide range of editing strategies that you’re going to be able to find your always less than ideal workflow in there somewhere. For better or worse, in my world, because of the need to interchange projects in very specific ways, there are only two options currently in use – MC and FCP (as currently incarnated).

Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com

[Aindreas Gallagher]

I do broadcast promos, corporate stuff and some music cut stuff for design houses, a wee bit of long form..

for me:

*OMF and XML (for me the xml is automatic duck to AE on the cheap) no OMF is a bit of a dealbreaker..
*numbered tracks that are lockable, deactivatable(?) for GFX etc
*A dedicated clip viewer so that I can..
*Operate the multiclip for the 2 camera IV’s in corporate things and well frankly, set decent in out points..
for me the multi clip is a real live absolute necessity.
*and same as you – I need to be able to swap stuff quickly between multiple versions/durations – I guess i’m saying preferably tabs, but it looks like we have the discreet edit version of that, which looks like a bit of an intermediate bus station…

..I’m the same on post – I wouldn’t likely do it in the app, I’ll generally XML my way to AE, and do shot to shot with masks dodge and burn, probably some class of magic bullet crunching the shots together globally with post design elements being fed to me with all then toddling back out to FCP as a baked out final picture master – that then meets the stereo mix down from the audiopost house, and then I go to the pub…

http://www.ogallchoir.net
promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics

[John Heagy]

Sequence XML in and out! Just give me the picture lock version minus all the spinning plates.

We link to media that FCP never “sees”. Having to run every frame of video through FCP to be “blessed” would bring our productivity to a crawl! We need to work outside the box.

Aside from the price, the openness of FCP’s XML is want kicked Avid’s butt.

[Misha Aranyshev]

[Simon Ubsdell] “I don’t mean the things you like or would like to have, but rather that things that you absolutely must have or else you can’t deliver what your clients require of you.”

My clients require speed. That means:
– 3-point edit;
– match frame master to source, source to master, source or master to bin;
– replace edit;
– extend edit;
– roll, ripple, slip and slide;
– cut and paste on the timeline, both straight and ripple;
– gang source to master;

If those are present, accessible from the keyboard and not require calling specific interface modes I can deliver

[David Burch]

Agreed. If FCX doesn’t have this, it’s a no-go, regardless of how much I may like the interface (and I do).