[John Watts]

It’s been months, and the Zoom H6 won’t give me that L/R thing, still. We’ve rewired the studio and it does not matter what the source of the audio is, I can only use the individual 1/2 channels. Any other sources I’ve tried out of the studio yield the same result.

So weird that it worked once great..and now, can’t ever duplicate it?

..so anyway.

John Watts
Premiere Pro Version 12.1.2 Build 69
2017 iMac (Retina 5K 27 inch) 1TB SSD
4GHZ Intel Core i7
32GB 1867 MHz DDR3
Graphics AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4096 MB
macOS Mojave 10.14

[John Watts]

I am looking at this SSD drive…can’t find but a couple of reviews for it. But, nobody who does editing.
Curious as to what anybody might think…it’s TB3, and I would have to use an adapter to TB2.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1294391-REG/lacie_stff2000400_2tb_bolt_3_thunderbolt.ht

The only issue I might see is it is marked down from $1999 to $599…might there be an unpopularity for some reason?

TIA

John Watts
Premiere Pro Version 12.1.2 Build 69
2017 iMac (Retina 5K 27 inch) 1TB SSD
4GHZ Intel Core i7
32GB 1867 MHz DDR3
Graphics AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4096 MB
macOS Mojave 10.14

[John Watts]

[Jeff Pulera] “Are you using MultiCam in Premiere, which then would have to “play” all the clips at once to preview them?
“

At this time, I am not using Premiere’s version of MultiCam. I have practiced it that way, and intend to edit with MultiCam in the future. The turnaround time is very tight, and I’m used to putting all the cams on the timeline, syncing with plural eyes, then just cutting cams by layer. One of those deals where I have refined my workflow and changing methods will hold me back until I get up to speed again.

[Jeff Pulera] “When you said you were converting to QuickTime, I thought maybe ProRes or DNxHD or something which could possibly balloon the files up 5-10x larger than originals.”

No, it’s just a rewrap for convenience. Instead of laying 6 separate .mts files w/2gb limit on one layer, EditReady will rewrap as one qt file while importing to drive. A little simplicity in workflow.

[Jeff Pulera] “Honestly, a fast single SATA drive with USB 3.0 ought to show no lag at all in that scenario, and a two-drive RAID 0 would be plenty fast. So I don’t know why you’d see lagging unless there is some other factor at play.
“

When first assigned this show, I thought one of the two single drives I already had would be sufficient. However, I tried them and they could not keep up, not even close. Another editor who had done this show said he could only get it to work on an SSD.
So, I followed suit, and didn’t argue about it.
Frankly, I dont’ know why the Sony RAID drive wouldn’t work either. Once I got to about 8 layers, it bogged down badly.

[Jeff Pulera] “Effects play big role of course – if you have a video denoiser such as Neat or RedGiant applied, that will bog down on any system. Lumetri Color can be kind of heavy as well. Warp Stabilizer is very bad. Any effects used?”

No third party effects are used. I will color correct two cameras all the way through, and others as needed. There is some DVE work done to adjust camera positions and do some zoom ins, but, nothing apparently intensive. In trying the Sony drive, I didn’t even get to the point of color correcting before the bog down starting happening.

Once, I color corrected all cameras before starting the edit…even the SSD couldn’t keep up with that!

Appreciate this much. I’m curious if using the multicam mode would put less stress on the drives? This show can have some real sync issues since there is no blackburst to help and the cameras are pretty low end. PluralEyes has been the magic wand to fix those issues.

John Watts
Premiere Pro Version 12.1.2 Build 69
2017 iMac (Retina 5K 27 inch) 1TB SSD
4GHZ Intel Core i7
32GB 1867 MHz DDR3
Graphics AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4096 MB
macOS Mojave 10.14

[John Watts]

[Jeff Pulera] “So when you say 10 layers, they’re not all showing at once right? I’m assuming you have 10 sources, then “switch” between them as needed? If that’s the case, really only “playing” one stream of video at a time then and the demands are far less than playing all 10 at once.”

That is essentially correct. At most maybe two layers of video, two layers of graphics and 2 layers of audio at the same time. I’m cutting a show with no switch master.

[Jeff Pulera] “Thunderbolt alone does not make a drive fast – the hard drive itself is the limiting factor since a single HDD can only push 180-240MB/s usually depending on the drive used inside.
“

The bit rate on each of the 10 video files are:
Quicktime 14.2 GiB, 1 hr 22mn
Video: AVC
Overall Bit Rate 24.9 Mbps, Overall bit rate mode: Variable,
Streams: 22.7 Mbps 1920×1080 16:9 at 29.970.
Audio: PCM
2 304 Kbps, 48 K, 24 bits, 2 channels.

What would be good rule of thumb drive read and write speed for my needs?

I know which drive I would like him to purchase, but, he keeps trying to slide me these underperforming drives. Hopefully I can show him someone else’s opinion and convince him to get an SSD.

Thanks very much for your assistance, BTW.

John Watts
Premiere Pro Version 12.1.2 Build 69
2017 iMac (Retina 5K 27 inch) 1TB SSD
4GHZ Intel Core i7
32GB 1867 MHz DDR3
Graphics AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4096 MB
macOS Mojave 10.14

[John Watts]

[Jeff Pulera] “You mention 10 layers of video, but not the format – for instance AVCHD files are going to use far less bandwidth than ProRes files. HD or 4K? And so on. What are you working with there?
“

AVCHD. 1080p 29.97. I take the separate .mts files through EditReady to convert to one quicktime file and place on timeline.
It’s a one hour show with 9 lockdown cams and 1 mobile cam. Plus audio from a zoom recorder and 2 layers of graphics.

[Jeff Pulera] “What interface/cable did you use to connect the Sony RAID?
“

Thunderbolt 2

A client is purchasing this drive for me, but, he keeps trying to find drives that are not likely to work. With the Sony drive the latency on the timeline was about 8 seconds between spacebar and video playing.
Now he wants to get this drive for me. I don’t think it’s going to work either, even with the SSD buffer upgrade.
I’ve tried to explain that for most video editing it will work, but, not for 10 layers of video.
He is a computer guy, but, not a video production guy.
https://www.amazon.com/LaCie-Thunderbolt-7200RPM-External-STEX4000400/dp/B074GLFCYZ?psc=1&SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-ffab-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B074GLFCYZ&fbclid=IwAR1DFIdF7yHAlfXFXMZ8gsvYBKnpiyM4-jRihBn0aTRVZl7APTdsOphwWPo

John Watts
Premiere Pro Version 12.1.2 Build 69
2017 iMac (Retina 5K 27 inch) 1TB SSD
4GHZ Intel Core i7
32GB 1867 MHz DDR3
Graphics AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4096 MB
macOS High Sierra Version 10.13.6

[John Watts]

I exported the layers as individual images and it worked fine. I thought the elegance of a multi-layer psd would shine through?!?

John Watts
Premiere Pro Version 12.1.2 Build 69
2017 iMac (Retina 5K 27 inch) 1TB SSD
4GHZ Intel Core i7
32GB 1867 MHz DDR3
Graphics AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4096 MB
macOS High Sierra Version 10.13.6

[John Watts]

It’s a beautiful thing! Love this much better. Thank you from the bottom of my brain!

John Watts
Premiere Pro Version 12.1.2 Build 69
2017 iMac (Retina 5K 27 inch) 1TB SSD
4GHZ Intel Core i7
32GB 1867 MHz DDR3
Graphics AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4096 MB
macOS High Sierra Version 10.13.6

[John Watts]

Here is an update concerning the Plural Eyes 4.

Audio drift is the biggest issue I get with these one hour plus long AVCHD files. Plus there is 10 cameras worth of these.

Someone advised using EditReady to rewrap these 7 or so .mts files per camera into one quicktime. And it is great advice!

EditReady will rewrap as it transfers the SD card to the media drive, adding no conversion time.

Now, the sequence has 10 single qt files and a master audio file. There is still some sync issues which vary show to show. Plural Eyes now works much better, I believe, because instead of trying to sync 70 or so individual files, it is now just working with 10 video and 1 master audio. The audio drift fix is the ticket and “knock on wood” the most solid solution to date. Plural Eyes can be flaky though, it hangs up, or error codes and I have to jump through some hoops to make it work.

Anyway, just sharing for those who are caring…

John Watts
Premiere Pro Version 12.1.2 Build 69
2017 iMac (Retina 5K 27 inch) 1TB SSD
4GHZ Intel Core i7
32GB 1867 MHz DDR3
Graphics AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4096 MB
macOS High Sierra Version 10.13.6

[John Watts]

Gigabit actually sounds much faster than TB2, upon googling. Again, not a computer guy, so, asking for a friend?!?

Arrays seem like an old way of doing things, but, cost effective and proven. Just looking at options before the investment.

John Watts
Premiere Pro Version 12.1.2 Build 69
2017 iMac (Retina 5K 27 inch) 1TB SSD
4GHZ Intel Core i7
32GB 1867 MHz DDR3
Graphics AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4096 MB
macOS High Sierra Version 10.13.6

[John Watts]

A little update to all of this. First, thanks for taking precious time to respond.

Does anyone have an array or SSD brought in through the gigabit ethernet connection?
One of my clients is a larger computer system guy, when I told him I needed an array, he asked me why I wanted antiquated technology for media drive space?

He’s wanting me to consider upgrading my system to 64gb ram and using the gigabit connection.
Would that work?

Am curious if anyone does their media drive this way, as my client claims he can get me a “great deal” on a SSD solution. FYI, he’s not really familiar with specs specific to video editing, and since I’m an editor and not an I.T. guy, I have to get feedback and advice…

Thx.

John Watts
Premiere Pro Version 12.1.2 Build 69
2017 iMac (Retina 5K 27 inch) 1TB SSD
4GHZ Intel Core i7
32GB 1867 MHz DDR3
Graphics AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4096 MB
macOS High Sierra Version 10.13.6