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Which video NLE editor do you use?
- Thread starter ustein
- Start date
W
wbrandsma
Guest
For the Mac platform Final Cut Pro is still one of the best, but the development of this Apple pro app slowed down in the last few years. Adobe is quickly catching up again with Premiere Pro and works beautiful with Photoshop and After Effects, because of the dynamic link integration.
Avid almost disappeared, dropped their "cheaper" applications and improved Media Composer. Strong and reliable editor, but their user interface never changed.
Sony Vegas is a gorgeous editor. Very intuitive, fully committed to the Microsoft default user interface so first timers will feel quickly familiar with the interface. It is however a slow renderer, but that has to do with the used codec that is purely optimized for image quality.
Avid almost disappeared, dropped their "cheaper" applications and improved Media Composer. Strong and reliable editor, but their user interface never changed.
Sony Vegas is a gorgeous editor. Very intuitive, fully committed to the Microsoft default user interface so first timers will feel quickly familiar with the interface. It is however a slow renderer, but that has to do with the used codec that is purely optimized for image quality.
kevinparis
Member
OK... so I am a bit biased... having helped launch every version of Final Cut across Europe when I worked for Apple. But Final Cut Studio is still probably the best value for money in that you not only get a editing app that will handle almost any format you care to name, but also a very powerful motion graphics app, all the audio tools you could ever want, a top level colour correction grading app, as well as compression and DVD authoring .
Mastering it all is probably beyond mere mortals but it is a pretty powerful set of tools.
Final Cut Express is also worth checking out if you just need the editing
K
Mastering it all is probably beyond mere mortals but it is a pretty powerful set of tools.
Final Cut Express is also worth checking out if you just need the editing
K
S
syndony
Guest
I am using Sony Vegas Pro 9 - it is costly, I was going to go for Vegas Platinum, I am lucky I had it given me as a company I do work for purchased too many copies.
I had decided on Vegas because it had good revues, it was generally regarded as stable especially in rendering (although people will always moan about problems in every NLE when it comes to rendering) and there are many free tutorials on Youtube! which are good.
I have never been an Adobe fan, all their software is unnecessarily expensive and can be complicated to perform even the most straight-forward of tasks.
I used to use Pinnacle Studio11 which was fine, a little basic in places but adequate so thought I would try the Avid Liquid package (same company) but didn't quite get along with that - a huge learning curve from Studio to Liquid.
I had decided on Vegas because it had good revues, it was generally regarded as stable especially in rendering (although people will always moan about problems in every NLE when it comes to rendering) and there are many free tutorials on Youtube! which are good.
I have never been an Adobe fan, all their software is unnecessarily expensive and can be complicated to perform even the most straight-forward of tasks.
I used to use Pinnacle Studio11 which was fine, a little basic in places but adequate so thought I would try the Avid Liquid package (same company) but didn't quite get along with that - a huge learning curve from Studio to Liquid.
Ben Rubinstein
New member
Question:
If I want to take still frames and make a video out of them with backing music, titles, etc and the ability to control timing between frames, etc, etc. What program am I looking for on a PC?
I've got an idea for a project, shooting high fps and making it into a stop motion type gritty video.
If I want to take still frames and make a video out of them with backing music, titles, etc and the ability to control timing between frames, etc, etc. What program am I looking for on a PC?
I've got an idea for a project, shooting high fps and making it into a stop motion type gritty video.
A
aprillove20
Guest
Well, I used to Sony Vegas Pro 9.
O.K>, a bit late to this party, but I have been testing, researching, and trying to do my homework on this. After several weeks/months of fiddling around, great discussions with many colleagues (Kevin, kevinparis, having very good insights and perspectives), etc., I finally settled on Adobe CS5 Production Premium suite that has Premiere Pro, After Effects, and others. This was not a hasty choice, as I was already using Final Cut Express 4 as my NLE, but I decided to make the switch.
Several reasons why: Adobe's CS5 is pretty much working in 64-bit, while Final Cut Pro/Studio, my other top choice contender is still lagging there a bit. Adobe PPRO handles most of the newer DSLRs (like my 7D) in their native format (Canon wrapped .mov file) for editing, rather than doing the transcoding in advance (FCP for its ProRes codec use), or constant re-rendering (as in FCE) for really seeing effects and transitions while you are building your movie. (That constant re-rendering was too much a PITA for me, and all the transcoding for AIC turned 1080/30p files into 1080/60i files just to work...stepping backwards to me.)
Another reason was the much tighter integration of the various apps from Photoshop, to After Effects, to Sound Booth, to Encore, etc. They all play nicely together, and one can easily toggle to and from them with excellent Dynamic Linking to display what you just did. Speeds up that entire process tremendously, in my opinion. Please do not get me wrong, one can do most/all of the same things in Final Cut Studio, but the Adobe suite just seems so much easier and is faster, from what I can tell.
Honestly, all of this stuff takes some serious time to understand, let alone become "sufficiently proficient" (say that quickly 10 times before your morning coffee!), and one will quickly appreciate why some of these are "pro apps", which may be way more than most folks want for quick video clip viewing. I actually started this journey with just wanting to incorporate short video clips into Aperture slide shows. One thing led to another, and deciding that to do thing properly and have a professional look to match my still work, there was just all this other "stuff" that I wanted/needed to do also. (Good example is being able to prepare output for all sorts of use....Web DVDs, Bluray, iPhone, iPad, Vimeo, etc., as clients want to see things in different ways sometimes, or use them on different types of players. Rather than start turning over entire project work to them in a format which the probably were unfamiliar with using, or may screw things up, it is easier to provide some things already "finished and sized" correctly for them to use. At least that is my present thinking, and time will tell.
But back to the main topic of which NLE, plus my added "why".... I am a Mac user for my hardware, but found that Adobe has really got out ahead on some of this stuff to take advantage of the power and platform to speed up workflow, make stuff really cross compatible, and produce a suite of things that actually work well, and I am doing most of this on a MacBook Pro 15", i7 core machine with 8GB of RAM. It all runs very nicely, and amazingly faster than I thought it would. Yes, a big fire-breathing Mac Pro would be a better choice, but I need to spread the budget to other things too ;-)
As for cost....I got the entire Production Premium CS5 suite as the "upgrade" from an older CS3 Web Premium suite for the same price as Final Cut Studio. The kicker is that the Adobe suite includes PS CS5 Extended, which I also needed to upgrade, so it was a very good choice.
How does it handle?....well, if you have already learned any of the Final Cut stuff, it is essentially the same thing. I was pleasantly surprised at just how intuitive some (not all) of the stuff is. You can download a demo, but it will not have the DSLR file handling stuff working, so you may be frustrated there, but hey, at least the Adobe stuff is handling the DSLR files natively.
Sorry for the ramble, and not trying to push nor sell the Adobe suite over Final Cut or something else, as I have no affiliation. I just was very happy to find just how powerful and capable this PPRO CS5 suite is. I am still very new to all of this NLE stuff, but certainly not afraid to dive in deeper now.
LJ
Several reasons why: Adobe's CS5 is pretty much working in 64-bit, while Final Cut Pro/Studio, my other top choice contender is still lagging there a bit. Adobe PPRO handles most of the newer DSLRs (like my 7D) in their native format (Canon wrapped .mov file) for editing, rather than doing the transcoding in advance (FCP for its ProRes codec use), or constant re-rendering (as in FCE) for really seeing effects and transitions while you are building your movie. (That constant re-rendering was too much a PITA for me, and all the transcoding for AIC turned 1080/30p files into 1080/60i files just to work...stepping backwards to me.)
Another reason was the much tighter integration of the various apps from Photoshop, to After Effects, to Sound Booth, to Encore, etc. They all play nicely together, and one can easily toggle to and from them with excellent Dynamic Linking to display what you just did. Speeds up that entire process tremendously, in my opinion. Please do not get me wrong, one can do most/all of the same things in Final Cut Studio, but the Adobe suite just seems so much easier and is faster, from what I can tell.
Honestly, all of this stuff takes some serious time to understand, let alone become "sufficiently proficient" (say that quickly 10 times before your morning coffee!), and one will quickly appreciate why some of these are "pro apps", which may be way more than most folks want for quick video clip viewing. I actually started this journey with just wanting to incorporate short video clips into Aperture slide shows. One thing led to another, and deciding that to do thing properly and have a professional look to match my still work, there was just all this other "stuff" that I wanted/needed to do also. (Good example is being able to prepare output for all sorts of use....Web DVDs, Bluray, iPhone, iPad, Vimeo, etc., as clients want to see things in different ways sometimes, or use them on different types of players. Rather than start turning over entire project work to them in a format which the probably were unfamiliar with using, or may screw things up, it is easier to provide some things already "finished and sized" correctly for them to use. At least that is my present thinking, and time will tell.
But back to the main topic of which NLE, plus my added "why".... I am a Mac user for my hardware, but found that Adobe has really got out ahead on some of this stuff to take advantage of the power and platform to speed up workflow, make stuff really cross compatible, and produce a suite of things that actually work well, and I am doing most of this on a MacBook Pro 15", i7 core machine with 8GB of RAM. It all runs very nicely, and amazingly faster than I thought it would. Yes, a big fire-breathing Mac Pro would be a better choice, but I need to spread the budget to other things too ;-)
As for cost....I got the entire Production Premium CS5 suite as the "upgrade" from an older CS3 Web Premium suite for the same price as Final Cut Studio. The kicker is that the Adobe suite includes PS CS5 Extended, which I also needed to upgrade, so it was a very good choice.
How does it handle?....well, if you have already learned any of the Final Cut stuff, it is essentially the same thing. I was pleasantly surprised at just how intuitive some (not all) of the stuff is. You can download a demo, but it will not have the DSLR file handling stuff working, so you may be frustrated there, but hey, at least the Adobe stuff is handling the DSLR files natively.
Sorry for the ramble, and not trying to push nor sell the Adobe suite over Final Cut or something else, as I have no affiliation. I just was very happy to find just how powerful and capable this PPRO CS5 suite is. I am still very new to all of this NLE stuff, but certainly not afraid to dive in deeper now.
LJ
Last edited:
Uwe,
I understand the preference, but have a question for you....Do you transcode ALL or your DSLR video before working on any of it? (A process thing, sort of like making your "selects" of RAW images and then processing only those, or just processing all of it and seeing what you have to work with. What I discovered was that while FCE could load in the DSLR files for viewing things, it was almost more efficient to transcode with something like MPEG Streamclip first, then working on things. FCP seemed the same way....need to transcode stuff to ProRes first, before you really can see if what you have works or not for your intended purposes.)
That may be worth a separate topic, or offline exchanges, rather than take this survey off track a bit, but the process thing has been a bigger part of choices for some, like mine in this case. Just wondering how others handle things if they are using DSLRs for video captures.
LJ
I understand the preference, but have a question for you....Do you transcode ALL or your DSLR video before working on any of it? (A process thing, sort of like making your "selects" of RAW images and then processing only those, or just processing all of it and seeing what you have to work with. What I discovered was that while FCE could load in the DSLR files for viewing things, it was almost more efficient to transcode with something like MPEG Streamclip first, then working on things. FCP seemed the same way....need to transcode stuff to ProRes first, before you really can see if what you have works or not for your intended purposes.)
That may be worth a separate topic, or offline exchanges, rather than take this survey off track a bit, but the process thing has been a bigger part of choices for some, like mine in this case. Just wondering how others handle things if they are using DSLRs for video captures.
LJ
Well, this does not look like good new for folks waiting on the next Final Cut upgrades:
http://www.macrumors.com/2010/09/30/final-cut-studio-update-scaled-back-and-delayed/
LJ
http://www.macrumors.com/2010/09/30/final-cut-studio-update-scaled-back-and-delayed/
LJ
Jan Brittenson
Senior Subscriber Member
I do very little video, mostly just holiday type snaps. So for me it's hard to justify more than FCE...
G
GASC
Guest
Hi, I'm new in the forum and this is my very first post. I'm french so apologies for my english.
About video editors, I come from Premiere and used Final cut that I personaly do not feel comfortable with, specially the render engine.
Recently, I was directed by some professional advices to the Grass Valley product Edius 5. (canopus).
To be short: it has the most powerfull workflow I've seen so far. Consume less memory than F.C and really stable. I strongly recommend you give a try to Edius 5 or 6 if you run a PC, specially if you have big productions.
Here is a link that shows some capabilities: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE-DZA9zQsk
Cheers
Fred
About video editors, I come from Premiere and used Final cut that I personaly do not feel comfortable with, specially the render engine.
Recently, I was directed by some professional advices to the Grass Valley product Edius 5. (canopus).
To be short: it has the most powerfull workflow I've seen so far. Consume less memory than F.C and really stable. I strongly recommend you give a try to Edius 5 or 6 if you run a PC, specially if you have big productions.
Here is a link that shows some capabilities: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE-DZA9zQsk
Cheers
Fred
Last edited: