Migrated to Premiere Pro CC

[Daniel Ridicki]

After 6+ years of working with FCP (which I never thought I would leave) I finally moved to Premiere Pro. Not that I really wanted. I was more then happy with MAC/FCP combination, but first crack to this love story appeared with introduction of FC X. I simply did not found it suitable for my needs. I decided not to switch to the X and stay with FCP as long as possible.

But, a couple of months back, my MAC PRO simply died out. Tried to have it repaired only to be told it was - a vintage model and no parts were available. Believing the power pack was responsible, I've got one through E-bay, and a few hundreds dollars later discovered it was something else. OK. It was time to change.

Checked new Mac pro, realized I had to buy new thunderbolt storage as well, and then compared price of PC that would be good enough for me. (I am working on 1K, not foreseeing 4K transition any time soon. My God, lots of industrial films I do I deliver on - DVD!!! Big factories simply wants DVD to give to their clients and would just not hear of Blue Ray or mp4 files). Anyway, the difference in price was overwhelming. I got a decent no name PC machine for 1000$, save the periphery I had already,

Tested Avid and PP and decided PP was what I needed. Subscribed to CC (even got discount as old customer) and kept my fingers crossed while importing some dozen FCP project into PP installed onto my new machine. Yes, they say you can do it, but will it really work? And I was amazed. All of my ongoing projects were practically intact in PP timeline. Lost some transitions I've done with third parties plug-ins, captions as well, but everything else was perfect. And all of my EX3 files were recognized even though they have been wrapped for FCP. Amazing.

So, I simply thought I would share this here, having been devoted reader of this forum, just in case there are more guys like me, thinking what to do when inevitable happens. My experience of Win7/PP CC is just perfect. And importing of FCP projects really works.

[Scott Hiddelston]

Daniel, I'm happy to hear PP is working for you. There is no denying the price advantage of using a PC/CC combo. I opted to go the other way, using PP for a few years now on my MacPro but recently moving to FCPX. Reasons? I do very limited effects, and am only a hobbyist. I find FCPX offers a more fluid process and is easier getting accomplished what I want done. However I fully understand your choices, and given the obscene prices of a new MacPro I might do the same as you when my '09 Pro dies. For the price of a MacPro I could buy a CC sub, a faster machine and even update my camcorder.

[Gabe Strong]

It's funny, after FCP X came out, I was not happy. I ended up mostly staying with FCP 7.
Then when I bought a FS100 and later FS700, I started looking at options so that I
would not have to transcode to ProRes for quick turnaround jobs. I ended up
switching to CS 6, which was pretty nice. Then came the 'mandatory rental' policy
of Adobe. I understand some of you like it, but I most definitely cannot stand it.
Which meant that the very reason I switched to Adobe (to have a 'way forward', where
I could learn a new NLE and get good in it going into the future) was now the
reason I would switch to FCP X. Strange how that all worked out.

[Daniel Ridicki]

Well, different people, different choices. One should do whatever seems right for him. I am actually quite happy with CC, as for as little as 40$ a month, I have access to PP, PS, Lightroom, AE, Indesign... Its a bargain. And all the updates are coming in practically automatically. But, I can see why this would bother someone. I was also "installation disc guy", but I got used to this. And I do not feel 40$ deducted from my account at all. The main point for me is that it was an easy transition. I retain all my projects, all my shots.

Yes, it is strange how things all work out. When Windows Vista was introduced, I moved to Mac in anger. Few years earlier, I moved from Apple to PC because I could not make Avid run on brand new Mac workstation. Had people from both Apple and Avid over to my studio, they just could not make it work as well. They offered me a new Mac comp, but since they represented HP s well I decided to take HP workstation instead, since Avid had both PC and Mac options. Never had better machine then that HP. Then Vista came in. Went back to Apple. But then FCP 7 was abandoned. Back to PC. Am happy now. Who knows what the future brings.

Actually, my main complaint about FCP X was that it is not really designed to handle hundreds, sometime thousands of clips (which I often have in my projects; the last one being a project I filmed for two years with some 200+ days of shooting) and different way of editing, as opposed to PP, FCP or Avid. These three are to me basically the same, same working philosophy behind them. And then someone comes in with the X, saying we should all learn to work in other way. Never understand why should I. Just because someone thought I should?

Just the other day I tested some new editing software and realized it does not support J K L commands. For some 15 minutes could not find out how to play backward. Really? Uninstalled it immediately. I mean, can you imagine if someone produced a car without reverse? Like, turn around if you want to move back. I don't think so.

So, different needs, different solutions.

[Gabe Strong]

Yeah, I'm not really interested in using Dreamweaver, Indesign, Illustrator and other web
design and graphic design programs. But much like a cable TV subscription, you have to
pay for the whole 'bundle' if you want more than one program. I'd like PP, AE, Photoshop,
Audition, and Photoshop. Like a 'video pro' bundle. But subscription doesn't work for me
so off to FCP X I go. And it seems to work pretty well. Just finished a 2 hour and 30
minute show last night and no problems here despite thousands of clips.....about 6 hours
of footage in the project. As you say, different needs different solutions. But sometimes
I also think different people have different experiences (good or bad) with an NLE. Which
can influence what they choose. If I'd had a problem with FCP X dealing with my big
projects, I likely would not be as happy as I am with it.

[Derek Heeps]

As above , different strokes for different folks .

Having used Macs all my life , I just find them more intuitive than PC's ; similarly having used various incarnations of FCP , and now using FCP 7 , I am just used to it .

We have a PC at work with a Matrox system running PP and I find it a pain in the backside to use , apart from not liking the look of the timeline and having to squint to see things that are easily visible in FCP and just generally finding it more cumbersome to use , the PC constantly crashes and loses work , something my Macs NEVER do .

I do have a CC subscription for PS & LR which I use for still photography on both my Mac Pro and my MBP , and for video I use either iMovie or FCP , depending on the job in hand .

I have to say that , having tried it , I am not a fan of FCPX either , similarly the later versions of iMovie , and prefer traditional timeline based editing , but I appreciate that others may feel differently .

As for the cost of machines , I used a Powermac G5 until not so long ago , and a 17" G4 Powerbook , but with the advent of the new MacPro , I realised that the previous generation ones would drop in price and picked up an 8 core 2.8GHz machine for only £400 - it currently only has 6Gb RAM , but I plan to upgrade as I go along - these machines are now available at very little cost and are still very capable ; similarly I picked up an older MBP , both run Mavericks , Adobe CC and FCP 7 ( which I bought a used upgrade package for from my previous full version of FCP 6 ) . I feel this is much more cost effective than going the PC route .

Oh , while Apple may offer limited support for older Macs , specialists like The Bookyard recycle older computers and offer tested used parts with warranty . I'm sure there are plenty of others who do the same .

[Mladen Ilic]

I've migrated from Premiere CS6 to CC and was not satisfied at all.. Horrible amount of crashes (general instability) with some changes that do not suit me. But one thing is noticeably better, editing and previewing footage is much faster than in CS6. Anyway, I still have both CS6 and CC installed on my computer, so I switched back to CS6, yes it's faster but those crashes ruin it... Maybe some updates will fix it soon...

[Daniel Ridicki]

Now this I find strange. My CC works like charm. Had two or three 'freezing' so far but given number of clips I use - it is not so strange. I must say, my FCP used to crash much more, not to often for it to be a problem, but still. I guess it all comes down to luck. The only thing about CC is that it absolutely needs 16 GB RAM, at least. I am even thinking 32 now.

[Adrian Tan]

Have to say I've had a lot of problems with PPro lately as well. CS6 worked fine. CC worked alright, and thank God for warp stabiliser. CC 2014 is giving me a lot of headaches, the main ones of which are: (1) crashes when I try to open a project file on a different computer (I have to open from the autosave file instead!); (2) random flickering generated in images, visible in Premiere Pro, and still there on export. Have Google for help, and plenty of other people are encountering the same thing, and no one really has a solution that works. That flickering issue has wasted days of my time and really peed off my clients, so back to CC I go...

[Shaun Roemich]

Originally Posted by Gabe Strong

It's funny, after FCP X came out, I was not happy. I ended up mostly staying with FCP 7.
Then when I bought a FS100 and later FS700, I started looking at options so that I
would not have to transcode to ProRes for quick turnaround jobs.

Amusingly, I JUST switched from FCP7.0.3 on a project that has both FS100 and FS700 media BECAUSE I was getting tired of file sizes for ProRes for this one and the mandatory transcoding. I've had CS5.5 Production Premium since Adobe offered it for for $800 to Apple FCS users and seldom used it except for PhotoShop and Audition.

For this project it has been an absolute Godsend!

I've been an FCP user since v1.0.2 (and still have my install disc to prove it!) on OS8.6 (yuck!) and operated on FCP1.2.5 for 5 years on a B&W G3 450 until I bought my first iMac.

Premiere ain't perfect but for the way I work, Premiere is now a better solution for me than FCPX.

I am struggling with the whole subscription model if/when I update my hardware, which is currently a 3.5 year old iMac 2.7GHz i5 but I can guarantee that I'll be using Premiere and not FCPX.