AVID MC 6 - CATCH THE MAGIC!

People (meaning me) are getting super excited about media composer 6!

I was able to play with it a bit last weekend at the Canon c300 unveiling.  Avid is really kicking ass right now, and I'm very excited about the new releases, and their real world impact on how fast I can work. The only hesitance on my end is that MC6 needs a 64 bit os, so it needs you to run on osx lion, which I've heard really sucks for final cut pro 7.

If you have MC5, you should upgrade to 5.5 now, as it's $150, and you get a free upgrade to six in two weeks.  Otherwise you're paying 250.  That's my coupon tip.

Anyway, this guy has a lot to say about it, as he was one of the beta testers for AVID.  Check it out.  Here's a great over view from little frog in high def, a great blog for all things editorial.

http://lfhd.net/2011/11/03/the-more-open-avid-media-composer-6-0/

One big thing that I need to point out is that Avid didn’t do any radical changes. Meaning that they didn’t re-arrange buttons on us. They didn’t change the interface as drastically as Apple did with FCP-X. They know, as they got constant feedback from us editors, that we rely heavily on muscle memory in order to edit quickly. Start moving things and things go haywire, and we get grumpy (note the Smart Tool). And if you don’t like where some, or ALL of the buttons are, you can open the Command Palette and put whatever you want, wherever you want. Avid has learned that make too many drastic changes, and you risk angering your base. And really, why fix what isn’t broken? The interface works. If you don’t think so…change it to your hearts delight. The tools are there.

 Alright, now let’s delve deeper into things, moving on to the 64-bit architecture that MC6 is built on. Now, what you won’t get with this is what you see with other 64-bit NLEs…like 8 layers of video with text and moving graphics and no need to render. Sorry, you won’t get that with this version of Media Composer. But what 64-bit does for this version of Media Composer is fix a lot of issues it had with previous versions. It enables the application to utilize more RAM, so that it can handle some of the routine tasks better. Like sluggish performance when you had multiple bins open, or bins with tons of footage. When scrolling on long, complex timelines. When keyframing or dealing with effects. 64-bit simply makes things faster…more responsive. Less waiting on our end. This means that I no longer press 15 keyboard combinations to complete a task and then 15-30 seconds later the Avid catches up with me. No, now it keeps pace with me. Scrolling on the timeline is quicker, zippier…no lag on long complex sequences. I can click on a clip, open the effects editor, make changes, and close the editor as quick as I can click. If you are new to Avid, this is something you won’t really notice. But if you are an old hand, you’ll see how 64-bit breathes new life into the application, making it able to work as fast as we can.

What 64-bit also opens the door for, hopefully, is background rendering and background transcoding. Those aren’t things available with this version of Media Composer. Those are just hopes that I have for future options. And I think they are possible.
I know what you are thinking…well, some of you anyway. Does 64-bit enhance Avid’s AMA? Meaning, can we now access footage via AMA in it’s native format, and edit that native format without loss of performance? Well, I did test this, and for many formats (like DVCPRO HD, XDCAM, AVCHD, ProRes and RED) direct AMA does work well. Far better than previous versions. So your edit times are greatly sped up because the need to transcode to Avid codecs isn’t always required. You can work natively with many professional formats, saving you hours of transcoding time. And even a few minutes of savings, multiplied by multiple edit bays, over a few days, adds up.

Really you should just READ HIS BLOG, but also check this out!

And remember when in July Avid announced that they’d be supporting third party hardware from AJA, Matrox, BlackMagic Design, MOTU and BlueFish? I tested the AJA Kona LHi with Media Composer 6…and the first time I captured video with it I did a happy dance. Yup, I got up and danced about in my bay/garage. Here I was, capturing video into my Avid using an AJA card…and it WORKED!

...When you choose the VIDEO TOOL, the AJA Control panel opens up. If you have used this card with FCP, the interface is exactly the same…all the tools you had before with the Kona cards, are available here. One feature I rely on a lot with the Kona is the great clean upconverts I get with it. Upconverting BetaSP and Digibeta to 1080i HD are commonplace in my world. And the card still does that beautifully. And I can capture as 1:1, or 2:1, or DNxHD, or ProRes HQ MXF.

This is a HUGE thing for Avid. This means that if you already own this hardware due to having a Final Cut Pro workstation…or several Final Cut Pro workstations, you can simply purchase Media Composer 6.0, install it, and run it on all the same hardware you did before. You heard me right…NO NEW HARDWARE. You can transition to Avid and still be able to capture tapes, output to tape, output to your broadcast and client monitors, without skipping a beat. So where Apple might have left you high and dry with the release of FCP-X, Avid throws you a line and lets you continue to work with the professional tools you need without major costs involved.

 Heck Yeah!!!