09: Avid 3.5 - 30 days later
Monday, May 4, 2009 at 4:59PM We've had a chance to kick the tires on Avid Media Composer 3.5 for about a month, so in this followup episode we discuss our likes and dislikes of the new release and how it fits into Avid's overall image makeover.
Moderated by: John Flowers
With co-hosts:
Bob Russo - Avid Post Production Product Specialist (youtube.com/user/AvidEvangelistBob)
Michael Phillips - Solutions Manager for Post Production (24p.com)
Steve Cohen (splicehere.wordpress.com, imdb)
Scott Simmons (studiodaily.com/blog, twitter.com/editblog)
Norman Hollyn (normanhollyn.com, twitter.com/schnittman)
Jason Diamond (mbsproductions.com, twitter.com/jasondiamond)
Show notes by Jeremy Schulz (jeremyschulz.com, twitter.com/jeremyschulz)
This episode clocks in at around 90 minutes.
Topics include:
Avid Media Access (AMA) vs. QuickTime
Avid's efficiency and reliance on host machines
Running Avid and Pro Tools simultaneously
Becoming one with the machine - NLE's vs. Moviola
The death of the dongle and the subsequent, incomprehensible backlash
Avid's new import options - Lower audio gain on imported CD audio
Digitranslator = Olde Avid?
Various speculation on Avid's future features
Miscellany:
Avid Media Composer 14 Day Trial, Pro Tools, Sony PMW-EX3, Philip Hodgetts, DNxHD (Avid's product page, white paper,wikipedia article), AVCi, Wil Shipley on Piracy, Moviola, KEM, Jerry Greenberg, JVC GY-HM700, Image Scaling - nearest neighbor vs. bilinear vs. bicubic scaling, DigiTranslator, Open Media Framework (OMF), Save the Dongle, Loudness War
Norman Hollyn: The Lean Forward Moment: Create Compelling Stories for Film, TV, and the Web
Scott Simmons: Keyboard Manifesto - Change your default FCP (or any other) keyboard for more efficient editing
Reader Comments (4)
Would be great to get a link to somewhere on the Avid web site that has info on the free academic upgrade from 3.0x to 3.5.x. The only thing I could find is a mention of a $124 option.
HI Frank....
Actually there was a grace period for customers that bought MC 3.0 after February 1 2009. They were entitled to a free copy of the MC 3.0 to MC 3.5 upgrade of the editor only from the Avid download center. Note this did not come with any 3rd party applications. If you wanted them, you needed to ourchase the 3rd party bundle offered at $195. The grace period for those entitled to the MC 3.0 to 3.5 upgrade ended on April 7th 2009. Did you purchase your MC 3.0 product after Feb 1 2009? Happy to assist you if that is the case and get you the software you are entitled too.
If you didnt purchase during that grace period then the upgrade would be a paid upgrade. Feel free to email me.
Marianna
marianna.montague@avid.com
Hey John,
I challenge you on the comment that you always have to use the Mouse in FCP. I can edit completely with the Keyboard in FCP. I could not do this until around version 5.1.4 when you could switch tabs with a keyboard shortcut. This was the last thing that needed to be implemented for full keyboard editing. Now, I never touch the mouse.
Good show, though. Keep up the good work.
About why Adobe does Suites and makes it expensive to buy the apps individually.
This is the same strategy as Microsoft with Office. You may not need all the apps in the suite, for example a spreadsheet, but you have them already, so you'll tend to use them and therefore stick with Office. It prevents competitors from easily coming in and not only sell you one app, but also eventually tempt you with another. In the case of Microsoft, it helped chip away at Lotus 1-2-3. Lotus could have wooed you away to a word processor, mail client, etc. But now you're not even a client.
For Adobe, let's say you bought the production suite for After Effects and Photoshop. You'll be more likely to use Illustrator for vector graphic, encore for DVD, Premiere for editing, because you already paid for them.
For FCP Studio, I assume you're more likely to use Soundtrack even though it may not be great.
so it doesn't really make more money on an individual sales basis, it helps keeping the middle-of-the-pack user that does a lot of one app and a little of the other. And as mentioned on the podcast, people tend to spend more than they need with suites - I sure have, so it raises the average.
What's discouraging to me is how any new company could compete with Adobe or FCP Studio with the low price they have for that full suite. Autodesk for example gave up with Combustion, because it's simply not viable to sell a compositor for 1000$ when you can buy production suite from Adobe with so much more - and the market is too niche to survive at a lower price.