AVID 3.0-REAL WORLD EDIT-DAYS 4 & 5
I really have gotten back into the swing of things. Back into my Avid mind and trim editing. Finding a few features that I really like.
-Source audio mapping. What I mean by this is no longer to I have to click on A1 and A2 from the SOURCE window and drag the arrow to the track I want to patch them to. Nope, I simply highlight the two tracks, and ONLY those two tracks and they automatically patch themselves. LOVE that. Cannot tell you how much of a time saver that is. I wonder when this was implemented?
-New timecode burn. This I know is new with 3.0. Making an output for the producer now has lots more information, and that is VERY handy. Source TC, source CLIP NAME (this really helps as the clip name includes the camera, A or B camera) sequence code. great when you have two camera angles with the same code, now the producer can see which camera angle was used.
-Footage says MEDIA OFFLINE, but you know it is there? Simply trash the MSM files in the Avid Media Files folder and Avid automatically rebuilds the database, and reconnects the media instantly. This has been around since the dawn of Avid I believe.
-Recording VO is EASY. Capture tool and VO bin are all you need. Makes me tired of having a sequence with slug on it like I have to do in FCP.
- Title tool that shows you the image your playhead is on. GREAT for placing the text just right. Again, been with Avid for as long as I can remember. I just miss it.
But, there are a couple small drawbacks too. Like pressing PLAY to scan through the footage quickly. Avid still chokes here...even at 15:1 on the new Avid 3.0. Get past 4 clicks and stutter city. Drag scanning works fine still. And since I am working on a show with super slow motion cameras, I need this scan ability. Also when I want to move clips I have to click on the SELECT arrows and move them. An added step that I don't like. ANd while I enjoy the 3.0.5 update at home, they only have 3.0.1 at work, so no SELECT ALL TO THE RIGHT for me at the office.
Which brings me to a big thing...interoperability. Taking a project file and using it in a variety of versions of FCP. The project was created in 3.0.1, but I can open it in 3.0.5, make changes, and then open it in 3.0.1. I even tested opening it with Avid 2.8...worked fine. BIG checkmark in Avid's corner. With FCP you need to export XMLs, and that starts getting old, fast.
That's it for now. Just glad that I am finally back into the swing of things.
11 comments:
Shane,
Interesting post, but I'm a little confused by your assertion that you can't record VO in FCP as easily with just the capture tool and a bin. That is exactly the process we've been using on our documentary. Just record live off of your audio source directly to your VO bin, no? If you don't already have a sequence built to insert the VO into, no one forces you to use the FCP VO tool. Am I missing something?
If I understand you right, the patching you're seeing with your audio has been there since the Meridien days.
Under your Timeline settings, turn on Auto Patching. Then, when you deselect a track on your record side and select another one it automatically patches your Source Audio or Video.
Most people miss this because the default for this was Off, and Auto Monitoring was defaulted on--which changes the monitor only, but doesn't automatically patch the source tracks. I believe, with 3.0, Auto Patching defaults to On.
OK...I will admit that I don't know EVERYTHING about FCP. I cannot use the CAPTURE tool to record VO...I haven't figured that out yet. I tried a while back to no avail. So I use the VO tool which requires a timeline, so I have a VO Timeline.
How do you do it? SHARE!
Michael...well, I did work on the Meridians and didn't notice this. So it is one of those buried and undocumented (or documented but who reads manuals?) cool things that, if any other editor knew about it (the only way we editors figure things out...other guys TELLING us), they didn't share that info with me. Well, I like it.
I've been using auto patching for years, I wish FCP would implement a similar feature.
As for the segment modes, just map them to your keyboard and you won't have to click anymore. I have them mapped to shift-v and shift-b. You can also lasso clips to enter segment mode. The options are to drag left to right from above the top track, or if you don't want to include some tracks on the top, opt-drag left to right from an inside track. Just make sure to completely lasso around a clip otherwise you enter trim mode if you only lasso an edit point.
Thanks Dan. I always lasso (lasso the other way for trim modes), but just today wondered if those were mappable. Thanks for confirming. I will do that.
Thanks again.
pretty much everything is mappable, you just have to know where to look for commands
The way we've been doing VO in FCP is, from what I gather, probably roughly the same thing you're doing in Avid. We just open up the capture tool, change device control to Non-Controllable Device, Capture/Input to DV NTSC 48kHZ. Create a separate VO bin, set it as the logging bin. Back to capture tool, name your clip, deselect the video input, and then just use capture now to grab the VO takes as you see fit. Perhaps the difference is we've been patching our mics through a prosumer camera, but I believe (read: guessing) you would just have to adjust the inputs for whatever audio source you're using.
Yeah, the thing is that my KONA 3 card doesn't have analog video in, it is all AES audio or SDI from the video stream. So I have my mic attached to my mixer, then out to a Griffin iMic...USB adapter. At home I have the SnowBall USB mic. The capture tool does not recognize the USB connections, so that doesn't work. Thus the VO Tool...it sees the USB connection just fine.
Hey Shane,
Good to see you're enjoying your change.
The audio patching thing is the Auto Patching behavior - I've come to rely on it a lot. The main thing is that the default setting seems to change around between version - I always enable Auto Patching, and disable Auto Monitoring.
I also love the new Timecode Burn thing, it's brilliant. Makes me want more though - would like it to display the text from Locators on the clip for 2-seconds after the locator.
The Avid Media Management is probably the thing I miss most in FCP. Given that I've been predominantly an online editor for the last 6 years it is absolutely vital for me. Getting a new cut from the offline editor once I've digitised all the footage is no problem in Avid, select sequence, choose Relink. In FCP it's a whole different issue.
The inflexibilty of the FCP titling tools amazes me. The basic titler is horrible. The plugin one (I forget) is better, but still doesn't feel as good. Title Tool is simply but actually pretty decent. Marque is pretty great, but slow and hard to learn.
Oh, and the chunking-up while playing fast through clips is something I've noticed in MC3 also, I thought it was a unity thing, but using News Cutter 2.8 on the same unity had no problems. Hopefully something that will be sorted soon?
audio patching was on the Avid since version 7 or 7.2
I too wish FCP had it, though the keyboard shortcuts work for the single digit numbered tracks.
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