Thinking of changing to Avid

mdslammer

mdslammer

Well-known member
I've used Sony's Vegas for years and just recently I moved to Premiere Pro CS3 for the last project I just finished. The resolution
in Vegas's project window vs. Premiere Pro's was substandard. Just looked less sharp and lacking color defintion. Premiere's was really quite stunning in HD.

Anyway, before I continue to learn and use P.P. I was contemplating on moving to Avid / Media Composer.

I've heard it's not the easiest program to use but I'm not afraid of putting the time into learning it. I know it is one of (if not THEE)
standard of the film industry for editing.

Anyone have any thougts, suggestions or advice re: Avid would be greatly appreciated.

Regards.

Mark Dalzell
 
What kind of stuff do you cut? Full resolution? What formats? Lots of graphics involved?

What kind of stuff do you want to end up cutting? Where do you want to end up working?

You have to look at what your workflow needs are and get the NLE that matches those needs. Avid is primarily an offline/online machine, although it does great at full resolution. The images you see in the Program and Preview monitors are decent, but those windows are meant as workspaces only. If you want proper monitoring then you need to invest in the hardware, and the cheapest Avid hardware is the Mojo that runs $8000. (Bear in mind that 5 years ago the price for an Avid on the LOW end was like $45,000....$65,000 to $95,000 for one you could finish on.)

Don't get me wrong, I think it is a fantastic application. I am using it now (I also use FCP). But there isn't one NLE that is the end-all-be-all of editing applications. They all fulfill certain workflow needs. Figure out what those needs are and get the NLE that best works for you.
 
Shane,

All excellent points. I've been studying film here locally in Las Vegas, NV at CSN for 3 years. I'm buying a Panasonic HPX-170
in the next few weeks. Moving up from my DVX100A.

I'm a professional musician. Film is my creative outlet. My needs would be for indie films eventually. I had a PC built for my by VisionDAW
in L.A. It serves dual purpose. One drive (removable) is strictly audio, the other video. Therefore, FCP isn't an option (although that's the standard at CSN).

I also use After Effects for compositing. I do not plan on looking for professional editing work (at this time at least). I just thought if I'm
going to move over to another NLE and spend time learning it, why not at least investigate AVID.

I qualify for an academic discount for AVID and Mojo so the price would be affordable at least. What do you recommend for Mojo as far as a monitor?

Any other points would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Mark
 
If you're happy viewing HD material in Draft Quality HD, you can get a Mojo SDI. They're $2,500, but cheaper if you're a student.

If you want HD out, the cheapest option is to go with the Mojo DX. If you already own Media Composer you can get it for $4,500 (Avid just reduced prices on it until 12/30). See videoguys.com for that pricing, and it's probably cheaper too if you're a student. You'd need to contact them to see if the MojoDX qualifies for academic discounts, though.

The software for a student is only $295, so if anything it's worth getting to learn it. If you know Avid and FCP you'll open up a world of opportunities in the editing world.

If you decide to go with Avid, make sure you check your system against the system requirements. AMD chips are out, and ATI graphics cards are out. See here for full details:

http://www.avid.com/products/Media-Composer-Software/system-requirements.asp

Otherwise, Avid is a very capable editor. I've been using it almost exclusively for the last 4 years doing TV spots, corporate video, and 2 years doing TV promotions (effects and graphic heavy spots). I've had very, very few issues with it.


Michael.
 
Don't even need a MOJO if you want to just have the image on a monitor in full screen DRAFT mode. Just assign a monitor for full screen playback. I have a Matrox TripleHead2GO attached to my system to span one DVI connection to two monitors, then the another monitor connected to the other DVI port and so I have two working monitors and one client monitor. Since I am working at low res anyway, it works fine.
 
Yeah, I think a lot of people get hung up on wanting to see their image at full-res all the time, and while it's nice if you can do it, it's hardly necessary. You need to judge final FX, etc., but most of the time, you don't -- and full MOTION is the more important thing.
 
Driving blind creates a matter of time for badness. ;)
Comparing NLEs based on how they display video within the application is comedic.
Truth is, of the three, Vegas, FCP and Avid (excluding DS), Avid is the one with sunstandard image quality. Even setting effects aside, you'll see a difference. Add effects and there is no way to get around introducing After Effects with Avid to compair with the other two.
 
grinner said:
Driving blind creates a matter of time for badness. ;)
Click to expand...

That is true, and there are times you need full-res. You just don't need it all the time.

Sure, it's great if you can have it, and if you can, then you should do it. But like old film cutters who worked on negatives, it doesn't have to be WYSIWYG all the time.
 
I've used Avid for a long time, and once I got away from PCs and into MACs I had no problems running at full resolution.

As for the issue of the learning curve, the basic interface of source and monitor windows over a timeline is really all you need to get started in Avid MC. Also, I don't know what a Mojo would do for you; I've never used one and I don't have problems. On the other hand, I don't do a lot of effects driven work.

One thing I've found is that trimming and transitions are easier to perform in Avid than in FCP.
 
mdslammer said:
I've used Sony's Vegas for years and just recently I moved to Premiere Pro CS3 for the last project I just finished. The resolution
in Vegas's project window vs. Premiere Pro's was substandard. Just looked less sharp and lacking color defintion. Premiere's was really quite stunning in HD.

Anyway, before I continue to learn and use P.P. I was contemplating on moving to Avid / Media Composer.

I've heard it's not the easiest program to use but I'm not afraid of putting the time into learning it. I know it is one of (if not THEE)
standard of the film industry for editing.

Anyone have any thougts, suggestions or advice re: Avid would be greatly appreciated.

Regards.

Mark Dalzell
Click to expand...


I agree. Premiere Pro 3 and 4 have excelent RT previews on an HD monitor if you make use of the HDMI port of your video card. Awesome!
 
I agree- learn both.

I just moved back to Avid and I have been using my Avid Media Composer Software in Full screen mode and the quality setting is high (full green)- the image on the client monitor looks excellent. Even though I'm set at high quality- Am I looking at a DRAFT quality image?
 
Unless you have the MOJO or NITRIS or other Avid hardware and are connected to an external production monitor, you will be seeing a low res proxie image.
 
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