Michael Hancock
Forum Replies Created
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Download the trial of Avid and run it for 30 days to see if it chokes your system or runs. It might run ok, even though your system doesn’t meet the recommended specs. Plus, the $295 cost includes 4 years of free upgrades since you’re a student. It’s hands down the best deal on any NLE for a student.
Otherwise, go with Adobe. You’ll be hard pressed to find FCP7 anymore and I highly doubt it will be less than $300, and since it’s a dead product you’ll just be learning software that’s being phased out everywhere.
I learned on Avid and used it on my first three jobs, been on FCP for the last 8 months at my current job and in January we’re transitioning completely to Adobe. It’s worth it to know Avid, and if you know FCP7 then you pretty much know Premiere Pro. They’re very, very similar.
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Michael Hancock
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If you want to consolidate your sequence (make new media with handles of just the footage used in the sequence), do this:
1. Duplicate your sequence and drop it into its own bin.
2. Select the sequence and choose Consolidate. The Consolidate command maybe available with a right click – if not, search the menus. It’s in one of them. I’m not at an Avid right now.
3. Pick a drive to consolidate to and let it go to work.That’s the gist of it. Search the Help files if you need more detail.
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Michael Hancock
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[Ed Cilley] “You can also Decompose a sequence. This will create new media (maybe something you want to do, maybe not) and reduce the length of clips to the duration used. “
Decompose doesn’t create new media. Consolidate does. If you consolidate a sequence it creates new media based on what you used in your sequence, plus the length of handles you specify. It’s great when moving a sequence to another drive or system, or to backup the master cut.
Decompose just creates new master clips based on what you use in the sequence (with handles, I believe), but those master clips are offline. Then you recapture. It’s basically for offline/online workflows.
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Michael Hancock
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Bouke – do you have to strip the audio off the Quicktime first? I can’t remember if Avid ignores the audio and import only the video, or if you have to make the QT file video only or the console trick doesn’t work.
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Michael Hancock
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[Danielle Warren] “When you say locaters, is that the same as ‘markers’ in FCP? Or is it the equivalent? I just want something easy to mark frames as I go along watching the footage that I can then easily jump to later as I am scanning for visuals. Does that make sense?”
Locators are the markers of Avid. Use them to put little yellow or green or red or whatever color dots on your video or audio tracks as you watch it so you can mark important bits. You can add notes to them like you do with markers, and even export the list of locators. So yes, locators = markers for the most part.
[Danielle Warren] “And it’s not the audio on the timeline I want to see, but in the source monitor so I can play it and cut it as needed, then add it to the timeline. For example, when FCP has footage in the viewer window, there are tabs at the top to switch from video to audio, as well as filters and motion. You can easily tap the audio tab and see the audio of the clip that’s in there. Does that make sense?”
Read my answer again – there’s a toggle switch on your timeline that switches from showing your sequence to showing a timeline type view of your source. You switch it to source, enable waveforms, and find the bit of audio you need. Mark In/Out or both, toggle back to the record side view and cut it in. It’s different from FCP but accomplishes the same goal. I prefer Avid’s method because it’s much, much easier to navigate a long clip when it’s presented as a timeline than forcing it fit it into the source monitor window.
[Danielle Warren] “Also, while I’m at it, another question popped up. When I’m going through the cut in my timeline in FCP and I need to jump back to the original footage (or audio) that’s there, I use the shortcut command option+command+F and it brings up whatever clip is highlighted into the viewer as it’s original source clip. How is that done in Avid? “
Match frame. Map it to your keyboard to add it to your button bar in the timeline. It will load the footage on the highest activated track in the source monitior. If it’s a subclip, hit matchframe again and it matches back to the original clip. If you want to find the bin it’s in map Find Bin (I think that’s what it’s called) to your keyboard or add it to your tool button bar in your source monitor.
Also, I read that you can right clip the track number and chose Match Frame from there to avoid having to deactivate tracks (since Avid will match frame the first activated track with media under your playhead).
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Michael Hancock
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I hope it’s a bug. If it’s hardwired into the code it may be incredibly difficult to fix. EDIT: By hardwired I mean, if that’s how it’s supposed to work. Seems like an incredible oversight. How was it not caught during beta testing?
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Michael Hancock
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[Bill Davis] “As I understand it, the main problem with “project bloat” in X is people who are doing something they think works one way – only to come to the understanding that the “bloat” is the natural result of their failure to understand how the software functions under the hood.”
Like using markers? https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/344/5732
If the guy in that thread is just holding it wrong, how does he get around the problem? Markers can be very valuable – best practice to just not use them, I suppose?
And if it is just a case of people holding it wrong then Apple really needs to step up and explain how their software should be used and practices to best avoid so you don’t lose your work and have your project file bloat out of control. They’re pretty mum on the whole subject, considering.
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Michael Hancock
Editor -
[Bill Davis] “I know I’ve stretched into new work areas and even have a few completely new clients based on the fact that this particular tool is AMAZING for producing certain types of content.”
So this is the only NLE on the market that allows you to have moved into these new areas, and it’s the only software that is well suited for producing that “certain types of content”? And for clarity, what types of content is it, and what is the metric you measure FCPX against?
I say, if your metric is FCP7 then it’s a false comparison, for FCP7 – at its death – was woefully behind the other major players both in features and speed.
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Michael Hancock
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[Danielle Warren] “- Mark parts of a clip. NOT mark in/out, but put a mark on a frame. I do this when I put clips into a sequence for visual selects or when I’m marking parts of songs.”
Look up Locators in the help. You can map different colored locators to your keyboard, or add them to your toolbar on your timeline. If you have them on your keyboard I believe you can add them while Avid plays and playback won’t be stopped. Then you can use the Locator window to add notes and go directly to them.
[Danielle Warren] “- How to see just the audio when I put a clip into the source/record area”
You want to see just the audio on your timeline? Select the video tracks then go to your Fast Menu in the lower left of your timeline and hide the video video tracks. In your source monitor? There’s a button at the bottom of your timeline that will switch the timeline from showing your sequence to showing your source. You view your audio there – you can turn on waveforms, make the tracks bigger, etc… Then you can switch the view back to the record side and cut it in. Very, very useful and the switch can be mapped to your keyboard.
This is a great forum for when you have questions, and Avid has tutorials you can watch on their forums and a forum specifically for people new to Avid. https://community.avid.com/forums/299.aspx
Have fun!
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Michael Hancock
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You can chose to have your projects Shared, User, or External. If you choose User, I believe it puts them in your Documents folder under whatever name you log into your Mac with. Shared goes to the Shared documents folder. External allows you to choose where to put your project files.
Media? We have G-Raid drives that we use for backup and occasionally to edit off of (our main storage is an EditShare), and they’ve been reliable and fast. Caldigit makes nice drives, and Pegasus makes a Thunderbolt RAID but it’s pricier than the other options. In Avid, when you import/capture/render you choose the drive you want it to go to – just select the external drive and you’ll be set. It will handle where the files go and tracking them (unlike FCP, where you can choose a particular folder, etc…).
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Michael Hancock
Editor