editing software

[LloydC]

What is the best editing software? Final cut, adobe, vegas...?

[Neil Rowe]

..the answer is completely subjective. dowload the trials and see which one you like, and will fit your intended workfow the best . they are all equal in equal hands.

[David Jimerson]

One of the most-asked questions on this board. And that answer is the best answer possible.

[BLUESPIDER]

Go with Adobe because its cheaper if you get the student discount price. YOu can get the Production bundle for 500 bucks and it inlcudes Premiere,Encore,After effects, Audition. Student price $500. You can't beat that price. Are you a student?

BS

[J_Barnes]

I vote that we stop answering this question.

[mediamogul]

hey j_barnes I've heard of green screen but green man? ;D

[J_Barnes]

Ahh..forgot...that was my halloween picture. Now I need a new one.

I'll see what I can scare up.

[Collink]

As far as editing platforms, I think you should use the same one I do. So that in some small way, my choice of NLE will be validated. After all, I chose this NLE for reasons that are important to me, and I'm a seriously opinionated MF'er. If you choose your NLE for reasons other than mine, or if by some chance your opinions are different than mine then you must just suck, and I'll somehow feel less of you and not give you any respect, regardless of how beautiful you camera work is, how breathtaking your posted framegrabs are, how adept you become at editing, or how compelling your demo reel is.



Sorry for the sarcasm, I couldn't resist.
All NLE's these days can do alot, all of them pretty much do the same things in different ways. Most of them do certian things well, most have some drawbacks and short comings. That's why it is subjective, it's such a personal decision because it depends on who you are, what you shoot, how you edit, and what your final product needs to be.

[thienchuongsae]

i think any sofware is useful to own, important thing is which one is easy for you. You know editing have 6 elements:motivation, information,composition,sound,camera angal, continuity.and 3 form cut, mix, fade. if you understand clearly bfore you do in sofware, i think it will be easier for u.

[grinner]

discreet Fire*

[wabbit]

Forgot Avid on that list of NLE's ;D

[bodaphoto]

It depends mainly on the purpose of your projects, shooting formats, time schedule, final outputs, etc.

If it is just simple family stuff, there simple programs such as Pinnacle Studio 9 plus for $99 that output high quality DVDs. I use Studio 9 for transfers from various formats to DVD, it is real easy program to use. Sony has a $99 program as well as Adobe's Premiere Elements.

For Professional uses there are several great programs that would your needs. Final Cut Pro and Vegas are top choices if you are shooting 24p. Avid is popular as well with 24p. Adobe Premiere has been improved greatly.

If 24p is not a concern, for example if you are doing weddings, Pinnacle Liquid Edition 6.0 is an extremely powerful program that has many advantages over the other programs. Background rendering, WaveLab audio program, and DVD authoring from the timeline. Liquid is an extremely user friendly program and is easy to use and organize your work. However the only downfall with Liquid you cannot import 24p from the DVX. It will edit 24p but not import.

[Mr._Lint]

I recommend FCP. It will be the wave of the future in editing. Avid is king at this moment because everyone is so afraid to change. Cold Mountain won an Oscar for best editing and it was done on FCP. The only issue is that is it expensive, since you would need to get a mac if you don't already have one.

[ronik15]

I got the Apple Production Suite (DVD Studio Pro 3, Final Cut Pro HD, Motion and Soundtrack) for 680$ canadian (around 525$ US)! That's because I'm a student and Apple has good student discounts for high school students! If you have a son or a daughter or if you know someone in high school just ask them their students ID! When my father called, they didn't ask him any ID or anything!!!

[RWM]

discreet edit*

[Taylor Moore]

discreet edit*

man I haven't heard of this for along time.
i used to own a great system at the time called Dvision...which was bought by Discreet and eventual became edit* at the time it put out more acurate EDL's than Avid did.

There is no one system that is really better than another, but there are systems that will help you move up the professional chain of editing systems. For instance, if you learn Avid DV Express...it is not to far a leap when you step up to use a Avid Media Film Composer.

Just as Discreet's Combustion is the baby brother of Flame and Inferno.
The basic GUI is similar and makes it easier to learn upwards...

I have used alot of different systems, my favourite and most flexible is FCP...but i still have made an effort to know as many systems as possible.
Because you never know when a client will ask if you can edit on...

[RWM]

Well, edit* (v.6.0) is nice. I work with edit on full Matrox Digisuite Hardware. If you only have to edit something with hard cuts or simple transitions, it’s one of the best. It is extreme quick and I love to work RT and uncompressed. Not perfect but very nice is the integration of combustion* and 3dMax.

BUT, edit* is now a little older and if you have to change something, maybe a (quick and dirty) CC, a blur transition or something else, edit* is a little piece of sh**. You have to do it in another application. Modern Software like PP or FCP laughing about that. :-/

I think I HAVE TO work with edit the next 1-3 years because I buy the software for a lot of money. And if I say a lot of money, believe me, it was REALLY a lot!!! :-/

[amoildani]

i'll be getting the Production Suite by Apple for US$500. it brings Final Cut Pro HD (with soundtrack [like Audition]), DVD Studio Pro, and Motion (like After Effects, just real time). I think its an amazing deal, especially since I like these programs more than any other.

However, thats just an opinion, my second choice is Vegas Video, althouigh I primarily use Premiere Pro on my PC.

[bilgami]

i love my axp hd myself!!!

[HartStudio]

Vegas is the only way to fly.

Go Sony or they will assimilate you! ;D

Plus it handles the DVX formats natively as well as HD.
Can't capture HD though.

Vegas is the future!

[wabbit]

Vegas is the future!

The future is competition. With Premiere, FCP, Avid, Discreet, Edition, Media100, AND Vegas there is no one that you can say is the only contender. Competion will drive each one of them to outdue each other and eventually there will be 2 maybe 3 left in the long run.

I doubt Apple will quit and they are definately leading the pack on many fronts so they are a safe bet.

Avid has and continues to be the professional standard. They have been limping behind FCP for about 3 years now but will probably get their stuff in order before Apple takes too big a bite out of them. They have the market and rep to keep them in the long game.

So what is the third NLE that will be around in 10 years? I think of the rest they all have plus's and minus's but they need to carve out a specific niche instead of going head to head with the big boys.

Sony definately has the financial backing to make Vegas work but they have made many mistakes with their past editing systems (XPRI?) Vegas is still a pretty surprising bargin, interested to see what Sony does with it. :D

[HartStudio]

Probly screw it up! ;D

I moved from adobe Premiere because of crashing and BSODs on large projects.

I will continue with Vegas until the wheels fall off!! ;D ;D

It will be 2032 and I will still have my Vintage DVX100A and Vegas 5 on Xp, while everyone else will have there new Panasonic 3DHV cameras. 3D Holographic Video that is scratch and Sniff.

;D 8) ;D 8) ;D

[wabbit]

LMAO, that's pretty good.

So are we gonna need another crew dept to capture the smells or is it all done in post? ;D

[pptphoto]

Just a quick reminder to everyone. Not that I'm the software police or anything, but there are usually certain stipulations on buying most software with student discounts. I've noticed that alot of people on here have warned people about using the same version of software on more than one computer at a time, and that copying or pirating is wrong, and rightfully so. Most software companies stipulate that student versions are NOT to be used for professional purposes, and are for higher learning and actual student use only. I know it's attractive to get The Apple Production Suite for $550 instead of $1300, but if you actually use it for paying jobs, I would assume it's as illegal as if you walked out of the store with it under your coat. Am I right?