[Jan Maitland]

It’s a funny thing but I find this news bittersweet. I’ve spent so many of the past few months wrapping my head around a switch away from Mac Pros to PCs (b/c of the unknown future of the Mac Pro platform) that, now, I find myself less than thrilled by these rumors. I’d finally gotten comfortable with the idea and then this happens! LoL.

Moving my facility away from Apple computers was an easier pill to swallow when it was Apple making the decision for me. Now, not so much…

[Jan Maitland]

Argh! You beat me to it Tom 🙂

Downloading now, can’t wait to test-drive ’em.

[Jan Maitland]

I’ve had very good luck with G-Tech drives attached to a MBP via FireWire, however, the files I was editing with were ProRes 422 and their smaller file sizes (relative to their camera originals) contributed to my positive experience.

A little off-topic: I just spent a couple days working on a PC with an external USB 3.0 drive and that was a great experience. I was very impressed with the performance and found it comparable to my past experiments with Thunderbolt (on a 17′ MBP).

Hope this helps!

[Jan Maitland]

Steve

One other thing to note is that Avid’s Media Composer software is currently on-sale for $995, a sale price which will end on September 30th. Adobe is offering an equally competitive price for their product as well, though I’m less familiar with the time-frame of their sale.

Since you’re already using Adobe’s Creative Suite (which includes Premiere Pro) it may behoove you to buy the Media Composer software at its sale price since you’re unlikely to see it that low for quite some time (it’s typically $2,995).

I agree with Chris’ statements about the fundamentally shorter learning curve when jumping from FCP to PP and while what you’ve read about PP’s interface being somewhat cumbersome is true, I haven’t found it in any way disruptive to my FCP-style workflow.

Having said all that, I did, in the end, choose Avid’s Media Composer as my “new” editing system following the FCP-X apocalypse because it just feels so much more “solid” than either PP or even the recently deceased FCP-7.

While Media Composer is considerably less “sexy” than either FCP-7 or Premiere, after having just recently completed my third TVC project in it, I now can’t imagine going with any other software solution (i.e. PP or even the old FCP-7). It’s just that good…at editing. For graphics? Meh, not so much.

Best of luck with your decision and please let us know which route you take.

[Jan Maitland]

[Michael Phillips] “Actually…. if you really think hard enough, you see the finished piece in your head and there is no need to edit at all. 🙂
“

LoL! That was awesome 🙂

As the O.P.’s “boss” I just wanted to thank everyone for their input and guidance here. And Casey, you get extra credit for turning to Creative COW for help with this. The people here are fantastic and it’s great to see you in the forums.

[Jan Maitland]

You should be able to put drives in your MacPro that are larger than 500gb. As Michael pointed out, you have room to put three more 2TB drives in your system in a striped array. You can either stripe the drives to be one, big, 6TB drive or as a 3TB array giving you redundancy (in the event of a catastrophic drive failure). FWIW, I had a home editing system that had this exact set-up on a much older MacPro and it was rock solid.

The one piece of purchasing-advice I can offer you is this: make sure you buy, and install, drives that spin at 7,200 rpm. Drives running at 5,400 rpm will produce noticeable slow-downs when playing back material unless it’s super compressed.

I would heartily recommend Western Digital’s Caviar Black internal hard drives. I’ve used them in my systems for the last few years with absolutely stellar results. And, not only are they rock-solid (in my experience) but they’re very affordable at only $149 each.

Here’s a link to the drives on Newegg: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136830

Best of luck!

[Jan Maitland]

Lots of great answers here already, but I thought I’d add a quick response to your VO question:

When I switched over from FCP to Avid two weeks ago I had a very hard time getting Media Composer to recognize my USB mic. The work around I came to was an outside application called Audio Hijack Pro. It’s been fantastic in the role of recording scratch-VOs and will generate an aiff in whatever you folder you specify and from their it’s a quick import into MC. If you’re inclined you can also add audio “effects” to what you’re recording as you record it, which can be cool (eq, compression, etc…).

Just yesterday I got an Apogee ONE sent in from Sweetwater and am hoping that that will be recognized by MC (and thus allow me to Mc’s punch in tool), but that’s today’s after-client experiment so it’s tbd.

Lastly, I’m blown away by the RTAS plugin integration within the timeline: what a powerful toolset for those that need it.

[Jan Maitland]

Greg

I attempted to recreate the setup you’re wanting to achieve by setting up my KONA Lhi to display the Mac desktop, which in effect turns my 57″ Panasonic into a third Mac monitor. Unfortunately I’m not able to get AVID to display “full screen” video in a new, separate window. This is either because of the AVID software just not doing it OR it’s the result of me having both an AJA KONA Lhi and their i/o Express connected to my system at the same time.

I’m not in a position where I can disconnect anything, so I’m afraid this little test of mine is incomplete.

Sorry I couldn’t provide more of an answer for you 🙁

[Jan Maitland]

Greg

Are you wanting to increase your desktop workspace X4 computer monitors or are you wanting to increase the number of client monitors showing your program output?

[Jan Maitland]

I had the same experience(s) you did Bill, back in the day, and haven’t touched one of their products for quite a long time. To your question about the “new, user-focused AVID” I have to say they seem to be practicing what they’re preaching. I met Gary at a user-group event and he gave a very serious mea culpa to the assembled users, touching on pretty much every issue that both former, and current, users have had with the company as a whole. That was a good two years ago and, if version 5.5 is any indication, the company is clearly listening to its users, at least in so far as implementation of requested features is concerned. Also, as has been stated in other postings, their opening up to third-party hardware manufacturers (i.e. AJA and Matrox) is yet another sign of positive change.

As was suggested: I downloaded the free, 30-day trial and was so impressed by the changes to MC, that I purchased a cross-grade seat for our shop to try out on a couple jobs. There was an issue with the install disc and, due to the fourth of July holiday, I was unable to get AVID tech support on the phone. However, I’ll be placing that call today and that should serve as a good test for just how much they’ve changed in that way (old tech support from the late ’90’s = shivers…).

Should I have anything less than a 100% positive experience with their support, I’ll post here and share it.

So far though, so good. It’s the original, professional NLE (in terms of broad acceptance) and it feels every bit of it.