Far OT... Video edit software? What's in your wallet?

[Bob L]

I'm not looking for magic here. The project(s) at hand are 2-3 minute YouTubes interviews. Two "talent", simple cuts, ID titles. Some music (that I'm apparently making) underneath. Free is good. That's what I expect to recoup from the project(s).

Several hours ago, I started looking into Media Composer|First at Avid.com. As confused as I expected to be, I thought I'd read some MC Forum posts to see if anyone had any advice as to whether my MP would be up to the task. After an hour, I wanted to rip out my eyeballs; that is one UGLY display (made me thankful for this one!).

So who has knowledge? What will work with this system -
PT 2018.1 on a Cheesegrater MP4.1>5.1, 2x3.33 six cores, 32 GB 1333 RAM, macOS 12.6 Sierra. Boot drive 850 EVO on a PCIe card, 3 other 7200 rpm spinners in the case, USB 3.0 Newertech Voyager for other drives as required. My guess is that the stock GT 120 will be the first challenge, but that's solvable.


I have some video experience. 30 years in videotape editing/management and as little NLE as I could manage. I have never attempted any video workflows on this rig.

Bring it on...

[conleec]

I would get Black Magic Resolve. It's free and will do everything you could ever want. It's as simple or as complex as you wanna make it. The only thing is, you'll have to watch the OS system requirements. If you're not current on your OS, you'll have to dig into the archives for a version that's appropriate.

[Wizzoboy]

+1 for DaVinci Resolve. I run the free version in Win 10 with no problems. Lots of good tutorials on YT as well. https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/sup...lve-and-fusion

[Bob L]

Chris and Charles,

Thank you both. I'm prepping as I type to d/l and try Resolve.

After watching one 28 minute tutorial, I'm hopeful that I can make it go if my gear allows. Testing that is my next step.

[Bob L]

That THUD you just heard was my test crashing and burning.

It wants CUDA. It doesn't appear that CUDA is a thing for the GT 120. Short of buying a new GPU, I'm not sure how to proceed....

[conleec]

Geeze, bummer. Didn't even think of that.

Well, don't know much about it, but just found this:
https://www.cinema5d.com/media-100-n...c-is-now-free/

And Lightworks is free too.
https://www.lwks.com/

They're both a bit unique, but i'm sure either one will do what you need to have done. And the price is right. I also think they won't have that GPU problem.

C

[BScout]

If you can get over the price ("free"), Final Cut Pro X will probably be the simplest thing to learn and get working on. If you put any value on your time or stress, the $299 will be worth it.

My preference is Media Composer but it does have a legacy interface. Those who are used to it love it for that reason -- there's a lot of powerful and customisable stuff under the hood. Just not friendly to new users. FCPX is friendly to new users; pretty much corrects you when things get out of place. Easy to do titling. Doesn't really depend on JKL editing so you can treat things more like objects in the timeline. In essence, it's pretty divorced from how editing film works whereas Media Composer still keeps those concepts alive.

Outside of that, Premier Pro is/can be subscription based so it can be a cheap thing if you only need to use an editor once in a while. FCPX and Premiere Pro are a lot alike.

I can edit comfortably in MC, FCP7, FCPX, and PPro. I hate Resolve for editing though -- colour correcting, great. Editing it frustrates me. And yes, CUDA is required. Though colour correcting in MC is really good these days since the Symphony option and FCPX (merged the Color software) and PPro are pretty friendly too; there's something to be said about staying in one NLE unless you are working with different people/groups.

[Wizzoboy]

A GT 120 GPU will not work at all for Resolve. I get away with a GTX 750ti for basic editing and colour grading in HD. For 4k you would need a GTX 1080 or higher. Resolve requires plenty of RAM and a GPU with plenty of VRAM.

[Righty27]

I second BScout re. FCPX as long as the cost is not a barrier, in which case, Adobe’s subscription for Premiere might be better if only for one job e.g. a month or two.

A colleague (experienced designer/photograper with many years of day-to-day Photoshop under his belt) has just completed around a year of solid video/NLE quick-learning ... lots of Youtube/Facebook projects. He started out with Premiere as a natural progression from PS (+ it was already in our Creative Cloud subscription) and moved on to (free) Davinci Resolve, as his interest in pro workflows and colour in particular developed.

I have used several of these (as well as Vegas) myself previously for occasional projects and found that he was working around what are basically gaps in functionality that I now take for granted in the full-featured FCPX. Whilst I appreciate that DVR might be a better tool for colour, it is still lacking many of the features that a typical one-man-band would probably use more regularly for fast-turnaround Youtube stuff. The coolest feature of (free) DVR that FCPX is missing is the tracking (masks, etc.) but this can be added with 3P plugins e.g. from Coremelt in future (as can lots of other stuff, a bit like Pro Tools ... and there are many free plugins available).

Anyway, he’s decided to give FCPX a go (free 1 month trial available BTW, so this might also be an option for Bob) for our latest project and has taken to it like a duck to water ... and the new version (10.4) improves colour and adds native LUT support (lots of free LUTs out there too) :)

[Bob L]

Thanks all for your thoughts.

As background, I actually looked at Premiere a couple years ago and just hated the look. Also, there's the whole subscription thing which doesn't work for me. Non-starter for me.

More background -- in the later 1980s, I was sent to Avid to evaluate Media Composer. Early days. Offices were defined by Macintosh shipping boxes stacked. Demo was conducted by Tom Ohanian. Resolution was so bad that they kept the jumbo size Excedrin bottle next to the monitors. Dissolves were a work in progress; to their credit, they predicted that enhancement in a couple months, which they did. My employer did invest in a Media Composer system (offline only in those days). I hated it. Fast forward to this evening - I tried again to make it through a MC|First tutorial and I just couldn't hang. It appears that AppMan is required. Oy!

Even more background -- in the late 90s, I managed a network post facility. We bought half a dozen FCP seats. I have the most familiarity with FCP of any NLE, although without any real seat time. Watched tutorials on FCPX today and found it usable, though it sure seems like there's a lot of ancillary clicking of menus and such. I can sure see the common parentage of FCPX and Logic (which I find ironically named, but that's just me). I've checked SW/HW compatibilities and it appears that it'll work. I'll probably be a buyer following the 30 day freebie trial, as its' the least objectionable option at this point, but I'm not excited by it.

Honestly, based only on watching tutorials I am excited by Resolve. The only problem with it is that it won't work for me (barring an affordable GPU upgrade). The GUI make the most sense to me. The grading is obviously top-notch, which one would expect from DaVinci. The post facility that sent me to Boston in the 80s eventually ended up with a Rank/DaVinci room in the 90s and it was the Kat's Azz!

BScout - what are the issues you find editorially? I understand that you don't get the bad stuff from a demo....

I've been researching GPU options to make Resolve happen. I haven't found anything suitably featured and priced. I had had myself talked into the notion that a GPU investment was something I could justify, but took that off my mental table, at least for now. Anybody have a lead on a 4-8 GB Nvidia card around $300? Didn't think so.

Looked at Lightworks. It's best feature is price. Looked at Media 100. Meh.

The only thing I haven't spent any recent time with is iMovie. Maybe I should revisit....

Again thanks for your thoughts everybody.