Comments on: Final Cut Pro vs. Avid – An Ode to the Moviola.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 23:39:07 +0000

@Musa

Park the playhead on a clip in FCP. Hit Shift+F and it finds it in the bin.

By: scott

scott — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:36:31 +0000

Final Cut Pro can never and will never AVID’s capabilites. I’ve used AVID since 1994 and Final Cut Pro since 2000. Avid’s useablilty blows the doors off Final Cut pro, Avid is a workhorse and FCP is a workaround. I blame this on the fact that AVID holds all the patents on user interface and functionality that apple cannot copy. FCP is clunky and non intuitive in dealing with timeline patching, and slipping and sliding audio and video independantly, pure hell having to lock tracks to make an overlap edit. AVID i can roll 6 clips or more simulatneously in the trim tool left or right and be done with it and maintain the effects, the same move in FCP is and hour process with redoing all my keyframes.

When you have all the patents you win. FCP is works for cutting straight up non effect driven series. AVID rises to the challenge and the integration of Sapphire and Boris plugins is 200% better with the AVX versions than the apple versions… i could go on with why AVID is better. but the truth is dunderhead executives only see the price of the FCP system up front, they don’t see the cost of slow and labored production down the road.

AVID worked hard in the early days to build the best editor around and to win the game, to put in tons of features that eveyone needed. FCP bought out radius edit and changed very little of the interface and instead of innovation they went after the low end of the market, and stole customers by providing easily copyable software without dongles. Which AVID is now discovering as a way to spread illegal copies to the youth and get them hooked.

I would rather professionally work on AVID when i have to get Series work done, FCP is good for the odd freelance project at home for the odd corporate client.

just my 2 cents.

By: godwin kwame fudzi

godwin kwame fudzi — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:13:28 +0000

Just like what the last User, Said….
FCP is more of a Prosumer product it doesn’t have the flexibility and luxury of an Avid. For example to search a clip from the timeline and it’s where about in the bin is simple in Avid, in FCP you can get to the clip but the where it is situated, you’ve got to look for it by yourself. Even to create a simple title is difficult. For story teller, there are no other tool just AVID.
Avid is for the real prof, I mean truly professional. A lots of FCP don’t realy have time to adapt to new leaning curves so they just by-pass the good stuff avid truly offer…

By: Musa Idris

Musa Idris — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 19:46:32 +0000

I guess I,m the first Malaysian to used the Avid since 1991.I’ve used most of Avid editing products even the Avid Media Suite Pro. As a film editor I’m so used with the Steinbeck where you use your marker to mark your cutting points, splicer to cut and your splicing tape to joint.Then when I read about the Avid NLE in a magazine and a company in Singapore offers a 3 day short course, I say to myself why don’t I give it a try. At that time I have zero knowledge about computers, I was quite worried, after using it I found that it’s the best editing tool, it’s easy, user friendly, all the footages/clips are well organized in the bins and many other features. In 1994 I was offered to edit a movie using Media Composer 5.0. from that day on there is no turning back now I’m using the Avid Adrenaline.FCP is not a bad tool it’s quite easy to handle, for me FCP is more of a Prosumer product it doesn’t have the flexibility and luxury of an Avid. For example to search a clip from the timeline and it’s where about in the bin is simple in Avid, in FCP you can get to the clip but the where it is situated, you’ve got to look for it by yourself. Even to create a simple title is difficult. For story teller, there are no other tool just AVID.

By: Luis

Luis — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 02:28:32 +0000

Vince…I totally agree with you.
I´m also doing some editing in a Quantel EQ, and boy,
is Avid the supreme deal.
As for other opinions, I must say, I´ve edited in both systems, I still prefer Avid.
They have opposite backgrounds, Apple ascending to the big league, Avid stepping down from it´s High-End pedestal.
This is just my view, but I feel a much closer
connection to my work using avid, is much more stable,
organized and powerful, and gives you intense proximity with what you are doing.
I can admit though, that for some it may have a steep learning curve, because it has some major differences
from other pro-sumer NLE´s like Premiere, Vegas, Edius or FCP, that have similar workflows.
But once you get to it, there´s no turning back.
Other strong issue about Avid is it´s network capabilities…there is nothing like a unity storage
for capture and managing media, fast and easy.
Forget that Xsan horror movie…
I understand that for some users, FCP may be the choice, its more visually appealing,”ready to go”,with on sight tools. It also has to do with generational issues, all Apple products are an object of desire, cleverly marketed, and as for FCP, it comes with that marketing attached to it, and it also comes as a whole package.
If you buy FCP, it only supports Mac O.S, and it comes with a bundle of additional software.
It doesnt mean its necessarily great software, but the point is : you get all you need from one provider,
the O.S, the editing, audio, color correction,effects
software, and that has an incredible market value.
Avid has recently changed that, by selling the best
software for editing with accessible price I´ve ever known (media composer 3.0) with an amazing software package. Dont think Avid equals perfection…
It has some unbelievable flaws…like it´s limited
range of formats for import (which I think is related with copyright and legal issues, and connections to film industry) when playing, you can´t do anything else, or it stops, and sometimes it crashes very often, but I know for sure, that these crashes are more related to windows than Avid itself.
With recent price dropping from AVID, competition will gain some life, but as John said, avid has some marketing homework to do.
This is a never ending and even passionate discussion, but as an editor who works with about 5 or 6 different systems, I can tell you, its not the tool that makes the editor. I you feel FCP is better for you, and meets your requirements, than it´s the right tool for you. I can only tell you that when I work with AVID, there is no tool…just the story being cut.
Greetings to all.

By: John

John — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 04:57:56 +0000

Haven’t used FCP but have been using the Adobe suite of products now for over 12 years. Started with my present position about 3 years ago. They had an AVID Adrenaline. Took a course on it and, the more I learned about it, the less I liked it. Way too cumbersome to use as compared to PremierePro. Wanna drag a clip on the timeline? One mouse click in Premiere as compared to several in Avid. Effects? drop’em on the clip, no ’step in – step out’. Finally got rid of the Avid and for the price of four years of AVID maintenance contracts, built two excellent workstations with Adobe Production bundles.

By: Vince

Vince — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:49:32 +0000

FCP is a joke! It was terrible at launch v1 it isn’t any better now. I for one have had my bumps with Avid, but it is the real deal a workhorse, which will not let you down. I’m currently cutting on the Quantel system and I’ll just say I miss my Avid.

By: TomTom

TomTom — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:53:58 +0000

I have been editing in Avid & FCP and my experience is that what Apple has done with FCP is that they have unmystified quite a few editing routines which would have been more difficult to do with Avid (or I do not know how to use that software…) but there is one thing which makes me return to Avid. I have been running Avid 2 months non stop editing a big factual series without a single crash while FCP has crashed one a day. For me these are two very different workhorses. If I would cut a documentary or feature film I would choose avid but for promos or music videos it would be FCP because of the suitability of the UI of those softwares for those tasks in my opinion.

By: John

John — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:40:30 +0000

For me it comes down to the fact that FCS is a mass-market product made by a mass-market company, who can’t decide what it wants to be. Apple makes changes in QuickTime to accommodate the consumer-driven app iTunes, and it breaks FinalCut. They’re focused on selling music and iPhones, which are making them a boatload of money, while ProApps have little if any profit and make money only when the user is forced into buying Apple hardware.
Not that Avid has been particularly good at deciding who they are until only recently, but they at least know themselves as a maker of niche products for a specific industry (notwithstanding the Pinnacle acquisition). They don’t have to append their product names with “Pro” because people know they’re professional. Yes, they fell into that trap with ExpressPro, but humor me anyway.
Let us and Avid not be so elitist that we ignore the FCP juggernaut – there’s always the possibility that Mr. Jobs secretly loves FinalCut and the kinks will be worked out. And other systems have figured (out or will) that playing nice with FCP XMLs is a good thing. Avid still has their marketing work cut out for them. Buzz isn’t always easy to generate. But success isn’t always about buzz, either.

By: Diego Villalba

Diego Villalba — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:53:13 +0000

I have edited in linear systems, VPE131, in all Avid’s flavours and in FCP 5.0.
In my own experience, I could affirm that FCP has latency. If you come playing the sequence an mark an edit point or stop with space bar, the application will mark or stop around 4 frames after, and it’s true that you’ll never see audio sync in an external monitor.

But for me the biggest problems of FCP are the need to render, and render, and render… the lack of a audio master in the mixer, his terrible variable speed, and the absence of his own hardware… people! it is impossible to work seriously without hardware! and it’s also impossible for me let third party companies develope it, while Apple improoves IPhones… there you know how they care about the media businesses…