Avid Community Blogs

Media Composer Makes Nice with Snow Leopard

SpliceHere.wordpress.com — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:59:56 GMT

Avid released Media Composer version 4.0.4 this afternoon. The big news is that the new release is certified to work with Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6.2). The bad news is that Avid recommends a clean install of Snow Leopard, not an upgrade. Here’s the relevant section from the ReadMe (page 4): This release has been qualified with [...] Read More......(read more)

Student Profile: Marquis Wilson

GeniusDV.com — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:01:01 GMT

This week's student profile features a past Avid Media Composer student, who was recently excited to tell us about one of his latest success stories. Meet Marquis Wilson. Marquis is from Alvarado, Texas, and completed his training with GeniusDV back in 2008. Marquis has a passion for video production in terms of helping individuals and companies market their products and services. He wanted to share one of the greatest tools he learned from taking certified training at GeniusDV. As a producer of...(read more)

Remember film?

DIGITALFILMS.wordpress.com — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:49:12 GMT

With all the buzz about various digital cameras like RED and the latest HDSLRs, it’s easy to forget that most national commercial campaigns, dramatic television shows, feature films and many local and regional spots are still filmed with ACTUAL 16mm and 35mm motion picture film. As an editor, you need to have a good understanding [...] Read More......(read more)

Avid at the FCP User Group

SpliceHere.wordpress.com — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:20:31 GMT

I spoke at a very interesting meeting of the LA Final Cut Pro User Group last night, along with Walter Murch and Shane Ross. Walter talked about moving back to MC after years with FCP and described in fascinating detail the relative merits of each application. Shane went over Avid Media Access, which makes it [...] Read More......(read more)

NumPad 2.0 for iPhone has dedicated Sibelius mode

Daniel Spreadbury — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:29:46 GMT

I received an email from Luc Vandal of iPhone developer edovia about the release of NumPad 2.0 for iPhone and iPod touch. I’ve blogged about another numeric keypad application before, BALMUDA Design’s Number Key, but NumPad 2.0 takes the concept of an external numeric keypad a whole extra step further by having a dedicated Sibelius [...] Read More......(read more)

Software for De-interlacing Video

GeniusDV.com — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:01:01 GMT

The term ' interlaced video' may cause chills to the seasoned video editor. There are a variety of ways to 'deinterlace' video, but depending how you go about the process may lead to inferior results. Today, you'll mostly likely encounter an 'interlacing' problem when viewing 'standard defination' mini-dv video on the web, or viewing a QuickTime file playing SD media on a computer screen. I stumbled upon a free program called 'Deinterlacer' by JES Schotsman. So, I ran through a quick test using it...(read more)

Final Cut User Group on MC v4 – Wednesday

SpliceHere.wordpress.com — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:43:49 GMT

This month the Media Composer will take center stage at the Los Angeles Final Cut Pro User Group (lafcpug). I’ll be making a presentation, along with Shane Ross and Walter Murch. I plan to cover some of the new editorial features in Version 4, namely Transition Preservation, and I’ll also do a quick overview of [...] Read More......(read more)

The annual Editors Retreat is coming

DIGITALFILMS.wordpress.com — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:50:06 GMT

If winter is the time for a bit of R&R in Florida, then it’s time to consider the annual Editors Retreat, now in its fifth year. This is an opportunity to spend a few days with a select group of editors for professional training, an exchange of ideas and just plain fun. The Editors Retreat [...] Read More......(read more)

Sound on Sound: “Sibelius 6 once again raises the bar”

Daniel Spreadbury — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 22:35:06 GMT

After we release a new version of Sibelius, the review I most look forward to seeing is the one in Sound on Sound magazine. Their reviews are always comprehensive, fair and balanced, which is why it’s customary to wait several months after the release for the review to appear: Sound on Sound’s editorial team want [...] Read More......(read more)

Collapse the Composer Window

SpliceHere.wordpress.com — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:27:08 GMT

I explained in the last post how you can hide the Source Monitor, but you can also collapse the Composer window, hiding video entirely and showing only buttons, menus and tracking information. This can expand your screen real estate mightily, making room for a much enlarged timeline with plenty of room to manipulate audio keyframes [...] Read More......(read more)

LAFCPUG Presents Walter Murch 'Back on Avid' + MC Sessions by Steve Cohen, Shane Ross

TUnruh — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:45:00 GMT

The next LAFCPUG is jam-packed with - AVID - sessions. Yes, you read that correctly.

Founder and head of lafcpug, Michael Horton, says, "Avid Media Composer is still firmly entrenched in Hollywood feature films and broadcast television. In order for you to compete in Hollywood it's important to know both tools."

So, attention all Final Cut Pro (and Media Composer) users - you won't want to miss this evening and its compelling look at Avid in the industry! The agenda includes:

Walter Murch - "What it's like going from Avid to FCP and back to Avid"

Shane Ross (of Little Frog in High Def) - "Avid Media Composer 4.0, Avid Media Access"

Steve Cohen (of Splice Here) - "What's New in Media Composer 4.0"

ALSO, Media Composer 4.0 software will be given away as part of the 'world famous raffle!'

The event is open, but requires registration to attend: http://www.lafcpug.org/user_schedule.html.

Wednesday, Nov. 18 @ the Gallery Theatre in Hollywood, Ca. Event begins at 6:45 PM

If you're in the LA area, this is a don't miss!

Using Keyframes in Avid Marquee Title Tool

GeniusDV.com — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:01:01 GMT

Manipulating Keyframes in Marquee can sometimes turn into a complex process. Here is a quick tutorial to help simplify the process. If you are new to Marquee, I recommend that you read my Basic Marquee animation tutorial and then come back to this article. I’ve found it’s best to use Marquee’s animation mode to create a basic path, and then manually manipulate individual keyframes later. Just about everything in Marquee is keyframeable. This makes Marquee extremely powerful when it comes to manipulating...(read more)

Hypermusic Prologue revisited

Daniel Spreadbury — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:00:31 GMT

A few months ago I posted a snippet of the manuscript for Hector Parra’s opera, Hypermusic Prologue. Here it is again: Reader Ilja Panzer commented that he would love to see the equivalent passage in Sibelius. Copyist Katherine Anderson was happy to oblige; here it is: To see the example above at a much larger size, click [...] Read More......(read more)

Hide the Source Monitor

SpliceHere.wordpress.com — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:07:26 GMT

You probably know that the Composer Window can be resized, but did you know you can completely hide the source monitor? This can be very helpful if you’re short on screen real estate and want to work on a visual effect where you need to make things big — an Animatte, for example. To blow up [...] Read More......(read more)

Tips for Small Camera and Hybrid DSLR Production

DIGITALFILMS.wordpress.com — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:13:46 GMT

It started in earnest last year and has no sign of abating. Videographers are clearly in the midst of two revolutions: tapeless recording and the use of the hybrid still/video camera (HDSLR). The tapeless future started with P2 and XDCAM, but these storage devices have been joined by other options, including Compact Flash, SD and [...] Read More......(read more)

Creating a Backup Copy or Clone of Mac HD

GeniusDV.com — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:26:51 GMT

It's time to revisit the popular Carbon Copy Cloner program that allows you to create an exact copy of your source machine onto an external hard drive. I recently tested this by backing up my Mac Book Pro running Snow Leopard. It took about 1 1/2 hours to back up 80 Gigs to my portable pocket drive running at 5400 RPM. The latest version also allows you to create incremental backups that can be scheduled. You can even back everything up to a remote Mac on a Network. To create a backup of your entire...(read more)

No More Jumping Rollers

SpliceHere.wordpress.com — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:19:10 GMT

Media Composer makes it easy to trim asymmetrically (simultaneously trimming some elements to the right and some to the left), but the technique contains a subtle bug. If you make an asymmetrical trim that eliminates a clip by trimming it away, the roller attached to that clip doesn’t know where to go — and it [...] Read More......(read more)

AJA Ki Pro

DIGITALFILMS.wordpress.com — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:21:32 GMT

If you thought that there were more than enough tapeless recording devices already on the market by Focus Enhancements, Edirol and Convergent Designs, you would only be partially right. The AJA Ki Pro sparked a lot of enthusiasm at NAB 2009. While it clearly offers cameramen many benefits, it also provides some opportunities for the [...] Read More......(read more)

The Pros and Cons of Fast Scrub

SpliceHere.wordpress.com — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:40:58 GMT

If you’re using Avid’s new DX hardware (Nitris or Mojo), then you’ve probably been using “Fast Scrub,” perhaps without knowing it. This is a slick new feature that makes the timeline more responsive, by dramatically improving the number of frames displayed as you drag. Fast Scrub offers some of the smoothest timeline performance in the [...] Read More......(read more)

Designorati: “Sibelius 6 is close to perfect”

Daniel Spreadbury — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 09:11:08 GMT

Designorati is an online publication for creative professionals in the fields of visual design (web design, typography, graphic design, illustration, and so on), written by a team of creative professionals who themselves have many years of experience. It’s somewhat unusual for the site to carry a review of music software, but I am delighted that [...] Read More......(read more)

New Avid Tip Podcast

SpliceHere.wordpress.com — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:49:32 GMT

Christian Foerster has started a new Avid screencast of video tips that you can subscribe to via iTunes. There’s only one episode so far, but it’s very nicely done. Check it out. His website is avidscreencast.com. The itunes page is here. Read More......(read more)

Blackmagic Design UltraScope

DIGITALFILMS.wordpress.com — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:21:47 GMT

Blackmagic Design’s UltraScope gained a lot of buzz at NAB 2009. In a time when fewer facilities are spending precious budget dollars on high-end video and technical monitors, the UltraScope seems to fit the bill for a high-quality, but low-cost waveform monitor and vectorscope. It doesn’t answer all needs, but if you are interested in [...] Read More......(read more)

Howard Goodall wins Emmy for soundtrack to Into The Storm

Daniel Spreadbury — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:01:08 GMT

Composer and Sibelius and Pro Tools user Howard Goodall recently added an Emmy to his long list of accolades when his soundtrack for the joint BBC-HBO production Into The Storm picked up the award for Music Composition for a Mini series, Movie, or Special (Dramatic Score). The film, which first aired in the US at [...] Read More......(read more)

Media Composer Cutting Edge - Read Audio Timecode

Avid Community Team — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:35:00 GMT

Gain more flexibility during production with Read Audio Timecode, a feature in Avid Media Composer that allows you to capture audio and video separately and then automatically synchronize the sources together as you begin editing. During production, you use an external timecode generator to sync the internal clock of the sound recorder, while feeding the same timecode signal as an audio channel to the camera. When you’re ready to edit, Media Composer decodes that camera audio back into timecode that it can read. Used in conjunction with the AutoSync feature in Media Composer, your audio and video sources can be rejoined automatically, in perfect sync. See them both in action in this Cutting Edge video.

Download the Podcast: Media Composer Cutting Edge - Read Audio Timecode (MP4) Running time: 4:09

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Jeff Wayne’s War Of The Worlds live tour scored in Sibelius

Daniel Spreadbury — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:24:08 GMT

The November issue of Music Tech magazine contains an article about the live tour of Jeff Wayne’s War Of The Worlds, the seminal 1977 album that is as popular as ever some 30 years on. Sibelius played an important part in taking Jeff’s original handwritten scores and bringint them bang up to date. Speaking in [...] Read More......(read more)