Looking to upgrade from Edius

[Alan Angel]

I started editing on Pinnacle Liquid Edition and found it simply amazing. Then they were taken over by Avid and Avid Liquid was born which was even better, then out of the blue it was shut down and all the best bits shipped to Avid MC. I tried MC but hated it, the whole process was clunky and imo inferior to Liquid.

I then went to Edius 6 and I hate it with a passion, it's light years behind what Avid Liquid was back in 2009, the layouter is very limited as are the sound options and as for the titler well it's just dreadful.

I am PC based at the moment but am thinking of going down the Mac route and getting FCP.

I am totally self taught in editing but have been doing it for 15 years now so I know my way around an editor. How is FCP in relation to the likes of Edius, is it a steep learning curve?

Also does FCP run on a £1500 iMac or do I need the pro?

I also don't really understand what product I need to be buying as there seems to be a huge range of products from Apple. I am just after an editor and the ability to create some nice titles on the videos.

The main stuff I edit are corporate/charity/Documentaries and TV Pilots.

I am also upgrading my camera to the JVC HM600 which I believe is well suited to export footage into FCP.

Thanks for any help you guys can offer.

[Michael Wisniewski]

Hard to recommend an NLE because it comes down to personal preference. What works great for one person, can be editing hell for another. Been there, done that, not fun. Best to download the free trials and try them first to see which one fits your workflow ... and your personality. Other NLEs to try on the PC platform:

Sony Vegas
Lightworks
Adobe Premiere

Switching to the Mac and FCP X ain't a bad idea, just be very sure it's what you really want before you spend the dough. It's a lot more than just buying a new computer and installing an NLE, you'll need to make sure all your supporting programs run or have an equivalent on the Mac. Cuz when you switch everything changes from email, word processing, website design, graphics, special f/x, audio software, DVD/Blu-Ray creation, managing videos and sound files are subtly different on the Mac.

[Noa Put]

I would also try the options Michael gave you before invest into a mac, not that it won't be a step into the right direction, just a very expensive one compared to only changing to another pc based NLE (unless your pc needs to be upgraded anyway, then it's not such a big jump.) I also think that Edius and fcpx can not be compared at all when it comes to layout and how you edit, you will have to start all over again anyway.

[James E. Thomas]

What version of Edius are you running. The latest version is 6.54 which has a much improved layouter among many other improvements.

[Alan Angel]

Yeah the Mac would just be for editing, I will be keeping my PC for everything else.

I am not running the latest version of Edius, I am running the one before but I have seen and had a go of the latest version.

[Noa Put]

Just curious, you hate Avid MC, you hate Edius, what makes you think you won't hate fcpx?

[Richard Gooderick]

Alan's problem is that he was a Liquid user.
I was too.
I have a grudging respect for Avid but I hate using it because it is so clunky.
The problem is that as a piece of software design it seems Liquid was light years ahead of anything else.
I'm hoping that because Lightworks is open source it may develop in a Liquid-like direction.
Perhaps FCP won't cut it for Alan either.
Unfortunately Liquid was scrapped. That's life. Despite what the story books say the good guys don't always win :-)

[Sareesh Sudhakaran]

Originally Posted by Alan Angel

How is FCP in relation to the likes of Edius, is it a steep learning curve?

Also does FCP run on a £1500 iMac or do I need the pro?

I also don't really understand what product I need to be buying as there seems to be a huge range of products from Apple. I am just after an editor and the ability to create some nice titles on the videos.

The main stuff I edit are corporate/charity/Documentaries and TV Pilots.

I am also upgrading my camera to the JVC HM600 which I believe is well suited to export footage into FCP.

Thanks for any help you guys can offer.

FCP-X is easy to learn and intuitive. It offers very little in terms of transcoding options without Compressor. For your use-scenario I recommend Adobe CC.

Either way, both work fine on an iMac. If you have the option, upgrade to an i7 and max out your specs. I think the mac (book) pro for your work is a total waste of money. If you don't have access to an i7 iMac (I didn't, and had to settle for the i5 version), then I recommend you build or buy an i7 PC and pair that with a Dell Ultrasharp 27" monitor.

You'll be happy with an i7 iMac 27" and FCP-X. You'll be unbeatable with Adobe CC.

Hope this helps.

[John Nantz]

Originally Posted by Alan Angel

..... does FCP run on a £1500 iMac or do I need the pro?

System requirements can be found on this page: Apple - Final Cut Pro X - System Requirements and Tech Specs

A used machine can keep costs down if you're up to that.

Personally, I'm using an older Mac Pro 1,1 Model Number: A1186, "Early 2006 Core Duo" 2.66 MHz machine. The graphics card must be upgraded and mine is using the ATI Radeon HD 5770 Apple version. There are non-Apple versions of this card but if you like to avoid problems and want a plug-and-play card use the one from Apple. ATI Radeon HD 5770 Graphics Upgrade Kit for Mac Pro (Mid 2010) - Apple Store (U.S.)) This card has 1 GB of memory vs the old card that had, I think, 256 MB.

The 5770 runs very quiet! (Nice!)

Important note #1: What ever graphics card is in the machine, make sure the cooling fan and ports are kept clean of fuzz!

Important note #2: Memory on the graphics card is important with more being better for faster speed. Some users even run two graphics cards with positive results.

This model and the subsequent one, "Late 2006", use what is now fairly expensive memory so memory upgrades can be costly.

Speaking of used machines, my other Mac Pro is an "Early 2008" with 8 cores but the big improvement came with the "Late 2008" and given the option that is the one I'd shoot for as a minimum starter on the used market. Anything newer than that would be great.

How will your Mac benefit with more memory?: Apple MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac Pro Memory Benchmarks and Upgrade Performance Testing

Hopefully this helps with the "minimum requirements" question.

[William Hohauser]

Depending on your need for quickly rendering elaborate filters and complex transitions, a new 27" i5 iMac might work very well for you and leave you enough money to get FCPX and Compressor (which is not expensive anyway). FCPX and HM600 camera files work very well together, that's what I shoot and edit with (plus the Panasonic GH3).

As I am not familiar with Liquid, it's hard to predict how you might react to FCPX but I can say that if you don't like Avid or Edius, you probably won't particularly like Premier either. The theory behind the interfaces are similar however Premier is very powerful, the underlying programming is extremely well written to take advantage of a computer's processing power. You can download Adobe Premier and see if it's good on your PC, the program is identical across platforms. While FCPX is also programmed to use the computer's processing power extremely efficiently, the editing interface in FCPX is a different world and you might either fall right into it or have to take advantage of the huge amount of teaching support (free and pay) that is out there to get used to the FCPX method of working. After some trial and error and some great hints from the community, I like it better than the old FCP which I liked better than Avid or Premier.

[Craig Seeman]

While I edit with FCPX I do use some Windows specific software.
All modern Macs can run Windows natively with Bootcamp (provides Windows drivers for some Mac specific things).

For example, I may edit on Mac and then reboot the computer and encode a file in Microsoft Expression Encoder if someone wants a WMV.

[Brian Drysdale]

Originally Posted by Richard Gooderick

I'm hoping that because Lightworks is open source it may develop in a Liquid-like direction.

Lightworks isn't currently open source, that's on Editshare's road map once it's completely cross platform. There are areas that the developers are working on but I suspect they want the program to fit transparently into a professional workflow, but with enough features to satisfy the lone worker or hobbyist. How far they'll go in adding audio workstation and DVD authoring features, remains to be seen, but those could be areas that might develop further once Lightworks goes open source.

One point is that you do run into problems trying to use other NLEs the same way as you operate your current NLE. Each NLE has it's strengths and weaknesses, so selection is a matter deciding what's important for you.

I would say that the Lightworks developers are across their forum and some features have been added to the next build within hours of them being suggested. If there's some Liquid feature that's important to you, there's no reason why you couldn't request it.