What's the secret?

[Ronan Doyle]

I've just become aware of the avid xpress pro and am pretty excited at the sheer bang for the buck, including the mojo. A lot of people on this site seem to love the DVX100, this seems like it's natural partner. Offlining for HD (Future)! DVD authoring. 24 video and audio tracks. 24p Endless excellent aftereffects plugins. It doesn't seem to stop.

I'm just confused that it does not seem to have much of a buzz about it here.

Why is it so?

[Ronan Doyle]

It seems I'll remain unenlightened.

[Glenn Chan]

Possible reasons:
1- Mojo is expensive. It also may not even be compatible with your system. Mojo is not that good bang for your buck when it costs so much.

2- A lot of NLEs out there can edit 24p. Most of them do now.
Premiere, Vegas, Final Cut come to mind.

3- For effects, I hear Avid isn't that good. Avid is not good for compositing. Other NLEs are better.

4- Many people here have their favorite NLE. On dvinfo.net, Final Cut, Premiere, and Vegas seem to be the most popular. They each have their own board, except for FCP. As far as Final Cut goes, the Mac forum is pretty much all Final Cut.

My personal favorite is Vegas. It's super powerful- very good for color correction and compositing. Time remapping is also very neat. The audio tools are the best of any NLE. As far as cutting goes (how little button pushing you have to do), I'm still getting the hang of it. Final Cut and Avid may be better (Final Cut I've used, and its intuitive and easy to learn how to cut fast on it).

As far as real-time goes, it's not perfect. I'm not sure how it compares to all the other systems out there, but a pentium 3.0ghz with Vegas seems to be on par with a duallie G4 with Final Cut. The problem with real-time it seems is that you only get lots of RT streams if you are using particular filters and features. I think Edition may be the only NLE that doesn't suffer from this.

I'm an Avid virgin so I can't comment on it.

[Ronan Doyle]

Thanks Glenn. I think you've elucidated the general view.

As it happens, I use combustion 3 for compositing, and I have the recommeded machine spec for Xpress Pro already. So those issues are not issues for me.

For me, the capability to finish on the bigger Avid systems is a big plus. I'm also eager to learn the industry standard interface.

So I guess it is expensive, but from my particular POV, it seems really great value.

I have a DVX100A on order, and full marks to this site.
It was a fantastic resource to help me get a feel for it.

I guess I was hoping for a similar forum for the Xpress.
But then , I guess, I'd be spoiled.

[Richard Alvarez]

Ronan,

If you want to learn the interface to move up, than it's exactly the right choice. If you cut on Pro, you can cut on Symphony or Composer. Avid also comes with Boris Grafitti and FX. The same compostiting and titling software that Vegas reccomends. But it's included in the Avid price. Avid runs on MAC and PC and comes with copies for both... again, a good deal for the price.

If you want an Xpress forum, try www.avid.com But be advised. It is full of crotchety old pros who don't take lightly to newbie questions. This board is more user friendly, I've found. But if you go in to the avid forums, you can get some really great professional advice and tips. Just be sure to RTFM first!

[Gary Bettan]

Avis Xpress pro & Mojo is a top notch combination.Many folks think they understand what Mojo does, but they don't really get it until they start using it for real projects. Real-Time playback from the timeline in PERFECT sync is a BIG deal. That's both analog & DV at the same time. Not scaled down preview quality but full res DV that you can export for your final master - in real-time. Add uncompressed video for compositing and/ or graphics work. Put it on the same timeline as the DV footage. Very powerful combination.

Avids film makers toolkit and support for 24P makes it a very powerful solution for indy film makers.

With the Xpress Studio package you can also preview your Avid FX(Boris Red) and Avid 3D (softimage animation) on a TV monitor while you work with Mojo. Same with Protools le. View the music and video in perfect sync while you compose/mix/sweeten etc.

Xpress Pro w/ Mojo is very powerful combination and while it is not cheap($2795), it will pay for itself pretty quickly in a professional edit suite.

For more info on Xpress Pro, Mojo & the Xpress Stuio Suites
http://www.videoguys.com/avid.html

Gary

[Scott Plowman]

Avid and FCP are junk..
Malcolm Baldridge gave Vegas their NLE of the century award...
9 editors out of 10 editors recommend Vegas

lol

[Gary Bettan]

Vegas 5 is a wonderful program. And it's got a great following of very vocal and loyal users. This is one of the strengths of Vegas.
We recommend Vegas highly and we sell alot of it.

That said, for indy filmaking I still give Xpress Pro the nod, especially with the Mojo hardware. The Avid filmmakers toolkit is loaded with valuable tools and utilities. The color matching in the expert color correction tool is a tool you will use cand grow to love as a film maker.

Avid also has by far and away the best media management of any current NLE. The ability to organioze and find the clips you need quickly and easily becomes even more crucial when working on long format projects.

Too recap - I love Vegas 5, I just think is you have the budget, Xpress Pro w/ Mojo is the best solution available for the indy film maker.

Gary

[Scott Plowman]

Please dont take my post literally.. i really love Vegas.. i dont really feel those other apps are junk.. just making a joke...
Dont flame me.. lol