Comments on: Final Cut Pro or Avid Media Composer?

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:17:21 +0000

Do not blame the tools.use your own creativity and finally come out with a quality output. Avid of FCP just a tools to create a motion picture. Each have its own specialty. I'm just write down my opinion only.

By: Ravi

Ravi — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:45 +0000

I have answer for your this statement.
One really neat thing that Avid should copy from FCP is that when you load an audio file in the source monitor, the audio waveform is displayed instead of useless black.

Avid gives you even better solution for this. Switch to source mode and you can have sample plot on, to see wave form and if you have a video clip with audio in it than it makes so much easy to find in point of dialog by looking wave form ( I don't think you can do that in FCP).

Yes I do think avid should have zoom in and out during playback and also a hand tool to pan time line.

By: Ravi

Ravi — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:00:45 +0000

By: Mitch Morrison

Mitch Morrison — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:34:49 +0000

I find Final Cut Pro to be a pain to use. The system I worked on had After Effects. I had to export/import and render between the two programs. I am currently on Premiere Pro, and most of the effects from After Effects are contained in the Premiere Pro program. It has a quicker render time as well. I have also used Media 100. It had the same problem with the export/import and render of files. Avid is not common in my market. That's a shame. I like what I see in your blogs.

By: rseemueller

rseemueller — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:54:52 +0000

I'm not sure this article is saying that FCP is a poor product. It's simply pointing out features that, in the author's mind, make Avid his editor of choice.

By: euchrow

euchrow — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:09:38 +0000

I'm a long time Avid editor, but I have quite a few years of FCP experience aswell. I like FCP for commercials and other simple edits, but wouldn't want to cut a feature with it. Honestly, the choice between these two depends more on what you want to do with it. If you need a cheap software package that 's a jack of all trades but a master of none, by all means go FCP. But if you need a rock solid editing tool that allows you to edit really fast, where you can at least trim a cut in a decent way without touching the mouse, Avid is the way to go. And honestly, isn't trimming what editing is basically all about... I really find it so annoying having to constantly use the mouse in FCP. Also, on the FX side, Avid allows you to do things like stabilization, tracking, rotoscoping (Animatte) and so on without leaving the software. I hate to export sequences to Motion to do a simple stabilized splitscreen in FCP. Best of all, Avid keeps its renders :-D and doesn't exactly cost an arm and a leg anymore.

What I do like about FCP is the instant import of files. It's really a pain having to wait while Avid converts a WAV file to a WAV file :-), and it's much worse with video. Also, I love FCP 's timeline. Zooming in and out while playing, hi res audio waveforms, instant copying of segments in the timeline while option-clicking and so on. One really neat thing that Avid should copy from FCP is that when you load an audio file in the source monitor, the audio waveform is displayed instead of useless black.

BTW, at the moment I'm using the latest version of Lightworks on a feature film. Hated it the first 3 days, but honestly, Lightworks might be the best editing tool on the planet at the moment. Love the interface, you're so in control of the footage, it allows you to work extremely fast. And it also has a node based FX interface, really cool, looks like Shake or Nuke. Sadly, they 're still having the same prices Avid had 5-6 years ago...

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:46:45 +0000

If FCP is such a poor product why does Avid Unity now support it as a client? Don't get me wrong I think Avid is a fine product I use them both. They are two sets of tools. Keep in mind to edit a 200 million dollar budget film you need to buy a few hundred thousand dollar Avid.

By: J

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:38:06 +0000

You are forgetting final cut server. http://www.apple.com/finalcutserver/features/

By: Guardian Studios

Guardian Studios — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:29:42 +0000

Many people (and institutions, as well) share your thoughts. Avid has not let that fact go unnoticed. With their recent price reductions and continuing efforts toward integration with the Avid timeline, there is now more “in the box” than ever before. And the price isn't quite as scary as it used to be!

By: Guardian Studios

Guardian Studios — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:57:45 +0000

We never really deal with Avid's CS, so I can't comment on that. However, with the recent price reduction from Avid, the financial scales are finally beginning to level out.