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Your Ultimate FCP System
Hey Guys
If you had the chance to put together the hands down Ultimate Final Cut Pro System designed for a P2 workflow, what would it consist of (software, hardware, hardrives aja’s…..everything)?
P.S. It must be available either now or with in a month
Thanks Bobby
Chief Editor/Cinematographer
P2 University Grad.
Holbrook Multi-Media -
11 Replies
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Bobby,
The best FCP edit system is the one that is “Paid For” Then all the work you do with it is Profit minus labor….. Or if your clients are like mine, the “free” edits wont cost you so much.
It is just not hardware. It is a business. Do a spread sheet and the math to understand just what your financial “pain” tolerance will be over the next couple years. Sometimes longer renders on slower less expensive Macs is not as “painful” as the large monthly payments for the latest and greatest.
I am Updating my SD betacam SP Cinewave Dual gig Mac G4 system this summer. But I will buy the best Mac stripped. Add my own Hard drives and ram. I will get a new 23 Apple Monitor (3 year warranty) an MXO to turn the 23″ into HD broadcast, a cheaper 24″ monitor of the month special, and build my own sata array. P2 is firewire ingest, so I do not need a Kona card right now. I can still use my old G4 for tape mastering and capture of SD material.
And with a Blue ray burner, I can deliver HD.My best quess on total anticipated cost about $ 9K plus tax and freight.
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Designed for P2 specifically? Wouldn’t you rather cover all of your HD bases?
Latest Mac Pro, 4GB RAM.
Use internal bays to fill with bare SATA drives for P2 archiving. Replace when full. Mirror the footage on two drives.
Two Dell 2408 24″ LCDs
Raid 5 external storage. SO many choices there…CalDigit, Maxx Digital, Sonnet, Dulce, G-Tech…and many of us here use those drives with great success.
Final Cut Studio 2.
AJA Kona 3 or AJA I/O HD…or Decklink Multibridge Pro or Eclipse. I recommend AJA over Decklink only because they have slightly better capabilities than the Decklink products. BUT, if you ONLY want a card for monitoring and output, Decklink is fine.
HD LCD – TVLOGIC LVM-240D – $7995 or JVC DT-V24L1DU – $4695. Whichever fits your budget. TV Logic is the clear winner here. Or you can spend $10k and get a good 24″ eCinema HD LCD.
M-Audio BX5a speakers
Tascam or Mackie or Behringer mixer.Other accessories based on what your final outputs need to be.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD now for sale!
http://www.LFHD.net
Read my blog! -
All of this is available now.
Fastest MacPro with 8GB RAM
Standard ATI 2600 card
AJA Kona 3
AJA HD10AVA Component to SDI converter for Analog sources.
Dual Dell WFP 2804 monitors
TV Logic 24″ HD LCD Display (Best LCD display I’ve seen for both HD and SD)
MaxxDigial EVO HD SAS/SATA Array (we run the 8TB models) or
Ciprico SATA/Fibre Channel High Speed array.Wacom 6×11 Intuos 3 tablet
Bella FCP Pro Keyboard with shuttle/jog
Boris Continuum Complete filter set.
Nattress Big Box of Tricks filter set.
Nattress Color Plug Ins
Anthro Fit Console (we have two of these and they’re awesome)
Anthro Standard Display Arms for the displays. Allows you to move the monitors around, especially nice when working standing up.
If you need to lay off your P2 DVCPro HD material to a VTR, then the Panasonic AJ-HD1400 is a great machine. we have two of these.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
Read my Blog!
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Walter,
At risk of asking a dumb question here, is it standard practice to put your Browser on one monitor and your Viewer, Canvas, and Timeline on the other? Since switching to FCP I’ve suffered from tiny bins on my one Dell 24″ monitor. Do you have any other tips about laying out FCP’s various tools within the ‘real estate’ of your two Dells? Thanks.
-TomFinal Cut Studio 2, FCP 6.0.2, Mac OS-X 10.4.11, Quicktime 7.4, After Effects 6.5 Pro, G5 Quad 2.5, Kona-LHe V5.1, 4.5GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 7800-GT 256MB, G-RAID 2x1TB FW800, 6TB RAID-5 (Enhance E8-ML, Highpoint 2322), Panasonic HVX-200P P2.
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Walter,
I am trying to plug in a dollar “ballpark” to your list (and a yummy one it is)
With out the Panny 1400, would you say you have $ 45k on your list?
Your Anthro desk with monitor arms I have no estimate on their range. I have seen their ads.
Shane’s and your gear list are great. Your list (minus the desk) is my 12 month goal,, that I will have to build towards.
You have mentioned that for HDcam Masters, you have a shop in Atlanta you go to? Do you take them a Hard drive or the master off the 1400? HD editing I am learning fast. HD deliverables is still my unanswered budget line item.
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[Tom Brooks] “is it standard practice to put your Browser on one monitor and your Viewer, Canvas, and Timeline on the other?”
From what I have seen, yes. Coming from my Avid background that is how we did it on that platform.
You only have ONE Dell? You are crippling yourself…
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD now for sale!
http://www.LFHD.net
Read my blog! -
[Shane Ross] “You only have ONE Dell? You are crippling yourself…”
Not for long! You’re right, all that scrolling and searching in the Browser…it’s nuts. I chuckle when I hear people raving about how they can put together a Final Cut system for $5K or less. Fantasy, I say.
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[Tom Brooks] “At risk of asking a dumb question here, is it standard practice to put your Browser on one monitor and your Viewer, Canvas, and Timeline on the other?”
There is no standard practice quite honestly. I’ve seen as many window layouts as I’ve met editors.
The key is to create multiple layouts tailored to the task at hand. For just straight editing, I keep all the editing controls on one screen and all the bins on the second screen. For sound mixing I have just the timeline full screen on one screen and everything else on the other. For color correction, I have the Vector, Waveform and Parade scopes open on one screen, a very tall Viewer window and everything else just put whereever. Probably have about a dozen screen presets for just about any task.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
Read my Blog!
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[Nate Stephens] “With out the Panny 1400, would you say you have $ 45k on your list?”
Not sure if it’s that high, but it might be.
[Nate Stephens] “Your Anthro desk with monitor arms I have no estimate on their range. I have seen their ads.”
Yeah, it’s all listed on their website. The Fit Console is around $1,000 standard price, but they usually run 35% off sales around NAB and in October. The Swing Arms are about $250 each.
You can see a picture of the desks at my website in the Facility Tour. Just click on Wally World.
https://www.biscardicreative.com/tour.htm
[Nate Stephens] “You have mentioned that for HDcam Masters, you have a shop in Atlanta you go to? Do you take them a Hard drive or the master off the 1400?”
I send them a DVCPro HD Master. Company is CineFilm Lab here in Atlanta and just some of the nicest guys you’ll ever work with. They can also accept hard drives as they are fully FCP compatible. They will even digitize material to a hard drive and ship the drive back to you for edit.
I’ve been using them for about 3 years now and I’m not even close to what it would have cost me to purchase a new HDCAM deck. And they’re an extra set of eyes and ears for all of our masters, kind of a “pre-QC” QC.
The only thing they cannot do is 1080i/50 to 1080i/60 and vice versa. For that we ship our masters to PostWorks in New York. Again, really great guys to work with.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
Read my Blog!
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Forgot to add these to my list for sound:
Mackie 1202 mixing board.
AJA ADA4 for converting Digital to Analog or vice versa (if needed)
KRK Rokit5 audio monitors
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
Read my Blog!
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