okey, i am running a dual 1Ghz G4 quicksilver with 1.5GB (maxed) RAM and the following softs:

FCP4/shake
After Effects 6.0 w/ magic bullet installed
DVDSP 2.0.4
QT Pro 6.5
Adobe CS suite
Amadeus II
Bias Sound Soap
macromedia studio MX 2004
cleaner 6

what am i missing?

i feel like there's something out there that i should spend some of my hard earned $$ on. any thing come to mind? any rare apps out there to play with?

i know there's a lot of plug-ins available, any to recommend?

(i do mostly commercial/corporate DVDs)

Check in "Now Hear This." Douglas Spotted Eagle has some suggestions re Mac software for music, background and otherwise.

You don't seem to have much for audio, other than the default FCP apps. I would look at Logic Pro from Apple. I prefer Toast to burn my CD's, DVD's etc. Of course you could always upgrade that old G4 to a G5.

You don't have plugins Boris Continuum Complete and Saphire Pluggins for FCP and AE? I have BCC and Boris RED and Virtix filters etc but would like to have Saphire's new filters too. Depends what you want to do with your video.

What do you think of Shake?

I realize this question is not directed towards me, but we have Shake at work and I cannot make heads or tails of it. GUI is bad, it has a steep learning curve (to purposely scare away non-professionals, most likely), and really doesn't seem very useful. I use After Effects instead.

Maybe I should try one of the tutorials.

thanks guys! for all the input!

i will look at boris and saphire plugins, thanks for the tip. that's just what i wanted, something cool to play around with.

i have used shake to do very basic composites and i found it fairly simple to use. i use AE a lot in post, love that app. shake will never replace AE for me. yes, take the tutorials (preferably on company time, as they can be tedious and mind numbing), they helped me immensely.

yeah, an audio app is a good idea. so far, Amadeus II has fulfilled my needs. (alongside soundtrack, of course) i will look at Logic Pro, but i always thought that was for djs or something, serious music creation, not editing. i will check it our though, thanks.

oh yeah, i have toast 6, but i never think of it as capable of burning DVDs, i always just go to DVDSP. i will look into it's capabilities.

thanks for all your help and replies!
matthew

Toast 5 rocks for burning DVDs. But in Toast 6 the connected DV converter box pops up as a GIANT camcorder icon when I select "Video" to burn a DVD. I guess Toast just automatically assumes this is what I want. I'm glad Roxio knows what I need to to. It is anoying to have to delete that from the window every time I want to burn a DVD. I would like to go to Roxio HQ, use the restroom, and then not flush for this annoyance! :)

If you can, get Toast 5. It is better than Toast 6 in every way except mounting image files. Toast 6 also has a "Fisher-Price" look to it for some odd reason.

yeah, ted, i hear you on the GUI of toast 6. kinda microsoft loking, if you ask me. that's probably why i have not been using it unless i just have to burn a data CD.

but, alas, i am obsessed with the latest and greatest and cannot, that is, will not, return to the glory days of toast 5, regardless of the cheesyness of 6. i just gotta run the new thang.

thanks for the input though. much appreciated.

Combustion, Comotion Pro, Logic, Flash, Director, Maya.

combustion looks hella cool, i will see if i can get a PO going for that one.

thanks!