[Mark A. stuart]

thanks, John. Sorry it took so long to get back here-turns out on our CS3 I just needed to adjust “point of interest” instead of “position” like the 2 or 3 tutorials I watched told me to!

-Mark

Mark A. Stuart
Producer/Director/Editor
Madison, Wisconsin
USA

[Mark A. stuart]

Well, Mike, for me it’s a matter of wanting the quiet, which I rarely have. Our main edit suite is near the master control room, where basically 2 different people work in during my shifts. One is quiet, the other one is loud as hell. We just replaced the production room doors, which is nice, but they also removed another door that was between that door and MC. So, while having the door closed is usually helpful, if it’s loud enough in MC I hear muffled TV audio in the edit suite. If it’s open, depending on who’s in there, the fans in the racks are quite loud, but I like that white noise to drown out TV program audio.

Two of the most annoying sounds to me (besides keyless entry car horns which are the worst imho) are radio commercials and TV program audio that I’m not watching. The loud guy in Master Control will normally have 3 signals playing at once. To his credit, however, it’s been a little better lately, but can be extremely distracting when trying to edit, especially audio.

I usually have music on in my headphones at work as much as possible, especially when editing non-audio and creating graphics. However, I do this not so much because I’m a big music fan (which I am) but to eliminate the MC noise. I also often turn on the Beta deck for white noise as it helps mask out the MC noise.

That’s where I edit (which is a different room than what I’ve posted here before). Then, where my “office” is… first off, it’s not an office, well, it used to be ONE person’s office, which is now three people’s, including me. We have “cubies” which are just little (around 5′ x 4′) counter areas and a few drawers. Of course, we all have our own PCs which is good. There’s just so many people not only in the room but around it that quiet is basically non-existant. So, I have my headphones on in there plenty when writing scripts, making graphics, etc.

I’ve actually trained myself to do a lot of things I used to not be able to with music on. I personally find a constant flow of sound is much better than the random unforeseen kind such as an active office environment.

For me, there is no such thing as “too quiet”. What is this “window” you speak of with “sunlight”?!

Hope you’re well,

Mark

Mark A. Stuart
Video Producer/Editor

Art is completely subjective. It’s up to the viewer to judge whether or not it has merit. -Ken Danby

[Mark A. stuart]

Can I become a certified Creative Cow blogger? lol

-Mark
Mark A. Stuart
Producer/Director/Editor

Art is completely subjective. It’s up to the viewer to judge whether or not it has merit. -Ken Danby

[Mark A. stuart]

oh, how I wish. But, when I work for the man, my choice is “here’s your Avid”! lol

-Mark
Mark A. Stuart
Producer/Director/Editor

Art is completely subjective. It’s up to the viewer to judge whether or not it has merit. -Ken Danby

[Mark A. stuart]

Hi Aicha,

Just a couple thoughts to hopefully help get you started:

What is the capture and export capabilities like on Avid? It is easy or hard to function?
Personally, I don’t think it’s the easiest set up of all NLEs, but not too difficult, either. There’s a lot of versatility you have from various sources to capture from, depending on your box (adrenaline, mojo, etc.). If you’re working with SD cards/P2 media, it’s a matter of importing rather than capturing. Exporting isn’t difficult, but I find at least our particular system to be more limiting to the types of files and codecs we have available compared to say, Adobe Premiere.

Does it differ on both the Mac and PC?
No, not as far as I know. I’ve cut on both, but haven’t on a Mac for a few years, but I doubt it’s different now.

Are there specific formats for files to be captured or exported in?
Avid will create their own file formats to edit: MXF or OMFI files. You’ll want these on your “Avid Media Drives” or separate hard drive from your system drive.

What is the simplest way to capture and export using Avid?
This depends on what source you’re capturing from and what format you want to output to. Here at the station, to make a DVD disc is easiest to simply roll the deck hooked into our Adrenaline box via the composite output; to tape, roll the DVC Pro deck hooked into our box via SDI output; for a .wmv email-able approval copy, just go to File/Export and have your codec set up there the way you want it. This can be set and saved so you don’t have to reconfigure it every time.

How much is the camera involved in the capturing and exporting of files? What are the main uses of the camera during this process?
Bringing in media from a camera is basically just another input device. This depends on your set up whether or not you want to capture from a camera or a deck, disc, etc.

Here are a couple excellent tutorials for starting with Avid:

https://www.gaijin-eyes.com/tutorials/xyz/migrate00.htm

https://www.avid.com/US/resources/media-composer-5-getting-started-training

It pretty much comes down to personal preference. To me, you can do a whole lot on an Avid. Comparing Avid to iMovie is something like comparing a Cadillac to a skateboard! Different NLEs are easier/more difficult, depending on what you’re trying to accomplish. I work on Avid, Adobe Premiere and Sony Vegas, and all 3 have their strengths and weaknesses in addition to their individual ease of use depending on what you’re doing. Some of the advantages of Avid, IMHO, are you can do many advanced effects easily enough and the color correction is superb. It’s also set up nicely for multiple users and you can easily customize your workspace to have it the way you like it. Although we don’t do this here, I’ve read plenty of it’s networking advantages, too.

I wish you well!

-Mark
Mark A. Stuart
Producer/Director/Editor

Art is completely subjective. It’s up to the viewer to judge whether or not it has merit. -Ken Danby

[Mark A. stuart]

Hi Guy,

You mentioned it was part of the track. Do you have several clips on the track, and if so, be sure auto gain is off on them all. You might want to just hit “none” on the Audio Data option on the hamburger menu in the lower left. You also might try being sure you don’t have any in/out points on your timeline, and maybe even try deleting any key frames.

Hope this helps,

Mark

-Mark
Mark A. Stuart
Producer/Director/Editor

Art is completely subjective. It’s up to the viewer to judge whether or not it has merit. -Ken Danby

[Mark A. stuart]

yeah, really… isn’t much easier to hit “reply” much less actually FIND the phone number and call! Isn’t being on line the idea here? lol

-Mark

Art is completely subjective. It’s up to the viewer to judge whether or not it has merit. -Ken Danby

[Mark A. stuart]

thanks! I didn’t even know how to describe it, but those tuts look like what I’m looking for. : )

-Mark

Art is completely subjective. It’s up to the viewer to judge whether or not it has merit. -Ken Danby

[Mark A. stuart]

If it were me, it would be a matter of what else could I do with this time? From what I read here, sounds like you could make better, and more profitable use of it, and let the craiglisters find their own!

There also is the aspect of would you want to do it for other than profit reasons? For me, this is things like weddings for friends. I’d go to the wedding anyway, and this provides a nice present and I have fun doing it.

I also think there’s too many people cheapening our craft out there already.

Good luck,

Mark

Art is completely subjective. It’s up to the viewer to judge whether or not it has merit. -Ken Danby

[Mark A. stuart]

I also do this by setting up my workspace with shortcut keys, so I can hit a key for cc, editing, or audio editing that has my audio tools up. I also edit with “backwards default pc windows” with my timeline and monitors on the left instead of the right. I do this because of my migration to MC from Xpress, and I like having my toolbar there as well as my PC taskbar shortcuts below. The other editor here, however, uses the default timeline/monitors in the right pc monitor, so I have another workspace key shortcut for this arrangement. Otherwise, the bins are underneath my timeline/monitors.

The customization of Avids are definitely one of it’s advantages!

Good luck!

-Mark