The first thing that’s important to keep in mind when getting yourself rolling with Titler+ (Titler+) is that it’s now more like titles in other applications.  Titles in Premiere and Resolve are just what you would call “Generators”, meaning that no actual physical media is being created, when adding titles to your timelines.  This is a different concept for Media Composer editors, who have been used to their titles always being actual media.  What this means for you is that if you remove a title from your timeline, it’s gone forever.  Can’t match frame it back, or go back to your bin to find it, so that’s something exceptionally important to keep in mind.  Second thing to keep in mind is that, since the titles are no longer clips to drop in your timeline, I highly recommend NOT adding titles to media/clips that currently live in your timeline.  If you want to add a title, you’re going to select the region you want to have the title appear in, add a couple of edits, and drop it in that way.  Now, with all of that said, there’s something else important that you’ll need to keep in mind when it comes to Titler+, and that is that since your title is not an actual piece of media anymore, you won’t be able to add effects to it like Continuum or Sapphire.  You get the title, and that’s it.  This, for me, is the real downside of Titler+ but, again, if you’re serious about your titling, you’re doing it all using Title Studio or After Effects anyways, so in the grand scheme of things, it’s more of an annoyance than anything.

Your “enjoyment” of Titler+ will vary based on which version of Media Composer you’re using.  With 2024.10 of the application, there has been a major enhancement and re-writing of the effect as it was very cumbersome to use in previous versions.  Now, I’m not going to list through all the updates in one shot.  Let’s start using the effect, and we’ll talk about updates as we go.

The easiest way to search for the effect is to simply head to the Effect Palette and in the search window, just hit “+”.  You’ll notice two effects appear.  The pre-2024.10 update version of the effect, as well as the updated version of the effect. 

So, apparently you can’t update any older instances of Titler+ (but apparently no one was using it anyways), so it’s only there for legacy projects that happen to use it.  Anyways, don’t choose the “Legacy” version, only use the current one.  Once you take the effect and drag it and drop it into the space you’ve made in your timeline, the Titler+ dashboard, as well as the Effect Editor will open up and you’ll be ready to use Titler+.

DASHBOARD VS EFFECT EDITOR

If you haven’t used Titler+ before, the dashboard that pops up when you apply the effect will be something a little different for most Media Composer editors.  We’re accustomed to only having these types of windows appearing when we tell Media Composer that we want them there.  Audio Tool, Audio Mixer, etc.  When it comes to your workflow inside of Titler+, most of us will probably want to stick with the Dashboard only (which we’ll talk more about a little later), but I want to point out that you can easily toggle the Dashboard on and off through the Effect Editor, by hitting the grid icon in the upper right corner.  I’ll say that you can do 90% of your work in either the Dashboard, or the Effect Editor, but at some point you will need to use both, if you plan on animating your titles.

Alright, let’s get back into it!  Once the windows open, nothing is really happening here.  You’re going to need a title to get yourself rolling.  So let’s create one.  With the Text Tool selected, simply click anywhere in the Sequence window to add your title.  Keep in mind that you’ll probably want to make sure that you’re viewing the top most layer in your timeline, so you see the text appear right away.

What is important to keep in mind in Titler+, as opposed to how you titled before is that you can add as many titles to the frame that you need, and the Effect Editor will only show you the parameters of the title you have selected, not all of the titles at the same time.  You titles, even though there may be many of them, can always be selected, and animated (if you want), as individual elements, an not as one all encompassing title, as it has been in the past.  Now, there is a way to manipulate all the titles at the same time to animate them on and off, but we’ll discuss that later in the article when we talk about the “Foreground” parameter of our Title.

NEW ANCHOR POINT TOOL

If you know me, or my tutorials, you know we’re going with Impact, as it’s a good, thick font to start out with.  I want to mention, before we move any farther forward, that there really are two thought processes when working with Titler+.  You can work in the interface entirely, until you’re ready to animate (if you’re going to animate at all), or you can do a combination of working in the interface, and in the Effect Editor, which we’ll be doing in this article.  Once you have your first set of text input into the interface, you can now switch over to the Selection Tool (M) to reposition it.  With that said, here’s where we can start to find some simple, yet effective differences between the old Title Tool (TT) and Titler+.  You’ll notice, first of all, that there is a little crosshair sitting at the lower right corner of your text.  This is the Anchor Point, and it’s quickly adjustable in one of two ways.  If you want precision, you can move to the Effect Editor, to SELECTED OBJECTS>TRANSFORM>ANCHOR POINT, and adjust it’s position with a selection in the dropdown menu.

Or, if you click on the actual Anchor Point located in the lower left corner of the text, you’ll notice the Selection Tool turn red, and now you’re adjusting the Anchor Point dynamically, and you can now position it anywhere you want it to go.

Now, with that said, there are a couple of issues with the way Anchor Point behaves.  For example,  First, when the text is first input in the interface, the Anchor Point is locked to the lower left corner of the text, not the bounding box, which makes perfect sense.

However, if you head to the Effect Editor, and adjust the Anchor point to the “Bottom Left”, it puts at the corner of the bounding box, and not at the corner of the text that was input, which is inconsistent to the point where I find myself never using this way of setting it up.  The Anchor Point should always be relative to the text it’s affecting, not the bounding box the text sits in.  

Speaking of the bounding box, I found it odd that there was so much space at the top and bottom of it, as opposed to on the left and right sides.  I’m of the feeling that the it really should have been set up like After Effects’ bounding box, which is tight to the text, for more precise functionality.

The last thing that I think is important to talk about, when it comes to Anchor Point, is that when it’s adjusted via the Effects Editor, your text position will adjust with it.   By default, the Anchor Point is in the lower left corner, so the last thing you want to do is get everything setup and ready to go, only to realize that you now want to adjust your Anchor Point, as it will throw everything off.  It would be super helpful to have a User Setting that would let you pick the default Anchor Point behavior, but hey, this little engine has come pretty far from its humble beginnings, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed for an update that will add this feature in there, and as I said before, you can always adjust it dynamically, which won’t impact the text’s position.

MUCH BETTER TEXT SIZING AND SCALING

With the new, dynamic Anchor Point comes another mind bending feature for Media Composer editors, and that’s scaling.  Now, I know that sounds very odd, but what I mean by that is that what Media Composer editors are accustomed to, when it comes to issues like text size, is that once you have set the size of your text inside of the legacy TT, if you increase the scale of the text through the titles 3D Warp capabilities the larger you make it, the crappier it looks, due to the fact that the text is not vector based.  Well, those days are now gone.  Titler+ has the capability to not only set your text size pretty large (100 Avid point size – whatever that means), but you can then go in and adjust the scaling of the text up to a factor of 1000, keeping the text nice and crisp, along the way.

CONSISTENT COORDINATE SYSTEM

One thing that you’ll notice across applications like Media Composer, and even DaVinci Resolve is the way the Coordinate system is set up.  Unlike in After Effects, where the coordinates start in the upper left corner at 0,0 and the dead center of an HD 1080p frame is 960×540, Media Composer, across all its effects, has always treated the dead center of the frame as 0,0, and with the update to Titler+, this has now become the same for this effect, to match all the other standard effects, inside of the application.

WORKING WITH THE FOREGROUND

I talked about this concept earlier in the article, and I want to swing back and talk about the Foreground now.  I had mentioned that each title is its own element that can be selected and animated as an individual element in Titler+.  But, what do I do in a situation where I’d like to have all the titles fade on, or wipe on at the same time.  That would be a bit of a logistical nightmare trying to match up all the animations across the different titles.  Well, that’s where the Foreground parameter comes into play.  This is an interesting concept in Titler+ that I really like, and am hoping that will get a slight update to it in the future.  Here’s how the “Foreground” parameter works inside of Titler+.  All of the objects that sit in your frame populate the “Foreground” of the title, no matter what the stacking order is.  Let’s say that we want to have all of the elements fade on at the same time.  With either a title selected, or even no title selected at all, you can navigate to the “Foreground” section of the Effect Editor, twirl it down, and you’ll notice three parameters in there.  Fill Overlay, which controls the opacity of the “fill” portion of your title, the Opacity of your title(s) and a Crop parameter to have titles wipe on from the top, bottom, left or right.  I LOVE this feature except for one major omission, and that is that they didn’t include feather for the Crop parameter.  Foreground is a great, simple feature that is available when a title is selected and also available when nothing is selected, as it’s impacting the frame the titles sit in, more so than the titles themselves.  Fingers crossed for an update with crop feather in a future update.

A FEW OTHER FEATURES

I want to make sure that I mention a few other features that are included in the update to Titler+ which include better Font support meaning that you’ll have a better overall experience with your TrueType, OpenType and FreeType fonts in Titler+ as well as better cross platform compatibility.  To be honest, I’ve always found that the legacy Title Tool was pretty solid on it’s font support, so I would expect the same here in Titler+.  Tracking is included in Titler+ but, I’ll be 100% transparent.  I hate the tracker in Media Composer and would never use it, so if you like using it, you have access to it in Titler+, and last, but certainly not least, there is much more simplified workflow when it comes to Rolls and Crawls in Titler+.  You now have access to not only a linear time graph in the Effect Editor, but you can also scrub through your timeline in Edit mode to make sure that all of your crawl/roll layouts look exactly the way you need them to look.  Again, 100% tranparancy, I don’t do rolls and/or crawls in Media Composer, as there is no support for including logos, which is a deal breaker for me, so I do all my credits in After Effects, which gives me everything I need and much, much more. 

LET’S BUILD ONE!

Alright, so for kicks, let’s build a quick, good looking title inside of Titler+.

1. Let’s select a seven second range of our timeline for our title to appear in.  One second fade up and out, five seconds for the content to be on screen.
2. Head to the Effect Editor, punch in “+” in the search window and drag and drop Titler+ to the seven second hole that’s in our timeline
3. Once the effect has been applied and the Titler+ Dashboard has appeared, if the Type Tool isn’t selected, select it, double click in your timeline and let’s add our first title.  Our Boxer needs a name, so we’ll enter the name “IVAN GRAGO”.  What’s always important to keep in mind is that Titler+ will always default to creating you a title that matches the look of the previous title you created.  If it was simple white with a black drop shadow, that’s what you get.  If it looked like the thumbnail of this article, that’s what it’s going to look like.
   
   
4. Now, “IVAN GRAGO” is a little bit big.  We can use the Size parameter in the Dashboard to adjust it, or we can do something that I haven’t mentioned yet, and we can adjust it dynamically by holding SHFT and grabbing on of the corner bounding box points, and dragging the bounding box smaller.  This will keep the aspect of the title’s sizing the same, and just adjust it’s over scale.  If you wanted to adjust the X/Y scale independently of each other, you could hold OPT/ALT and drag to achieve that look.  
5. Once I have the size correct, I’m going to move “IVAN GRAGO” towards the lower left corner of the frame, and much like in the legacy Title Tool, I’m going to use the rectangle tool to draw a rectangle around “IVAN GRAGO”, I’m going to add a blue outline to it, and then turn off the fill, so I only have a blue rectangular border around it. 
   
   What’s important to keep in mind is that stacking order is still important, much like in the legacy Title Tool. I now have a transparent rectangle on top of my text, so I can just quickly hit the “send to back” button on the dashboard to move the rectangle behind my text, so if I need to make an adjustment, I’m good to go.
6. Now, a quick selection of both title elements and a Copy/Paste will give us a duplicate of what we have, and I’m going to update the text to say “Professional Boxer”, and use the technique we talked about in #4 to adjust the size of the text dynamically, give the outline a quick adjustment and we can now move that title below “IVAN GRAGO” to give us a very cool title look.
   
   
7. Now, with that said, we have a bit of a problem.  The entire title is too big.  Well, again, much like in the legacy Title Tool, we can quickly group elements together and make them smaller, so they fit exactly where we need them to fit.  One thing that’s important to keep in mind is that the engineers at Avid have kept all the icons for things like Stacking, Grouping, Select Next Object, etc the same, so that your transition to Titler+ is as smooth as possible.
   
   
   
8. Now that we have the Title placed where we want it to go, we can simply ungroup, head up to the Foreground parameter, and animate the titles fading in and out for 30 frames, and this title will be ready to go!

I’d say that was quick and simple, and it took me WAY longer to write that out, then it did for me to actually create it.

Let’s be honest.  Avid completely fumbled the ball on Titler+ when it was first released, and have had to play catchup getting it back up to where it needs to be.  Have they done it?  I’d say they have.  My biggest gripe is the fact that now I can’t use any third party effects on my titles, but that’s a very minor gripe that just means that for those specific titles, I’ll have to create them in After Effects, otherwise, good-bye legacy Title Tool and Marquee Title Tool.  It was fun while it lasted, but I’ll stick with Titler+ moving forward.

And I’m talking about using a connected computer display, usually via Thunderbolt or HDMI, right out of the computer and not buying a piece of video hardware such as a Blackmagic UltraStudio or AJA IO device. Those types of products, taking the video signal from your editing application and then sending it via a professional connection to a higher-end monitor, are the standard for client viewing in an edit suite. While a connected computer monitor can provide a great full-screen display for editorial, it’s not what I would rely on for broadcast accuracy and color correction.

But when you’re in a pinch or traveling as light as possible, an iPad can provide a very nice full-screen display for video editing. And then you can use it for all the other iPad things when you’re not editing with it.

Note, this is not a hardware-based HDMI solution we’re talking about here

There are tools that let you connect a video signal to an iPad via a piece of hardware. Apps like Orion and Video Assist can use a USB-C capture device and a video signal and use the iPad as a field monitor. That can be a great workflow and could conceivably work with an editing system as well but if you’re working in an all Apple workflow you don’t need that since Apple has all the tools built-in to use your iPad as a full-screen editing monitor.

What you’re basically doing is taking the signal from editing the application’s Viewer, Canvas, Source, Program, timeline (whatever it’s called in your application of choice) and sending that to an iPad, which the app sees as a connected display. This is possible using Apple’s Continuity feature between Mac OS and iOS. Any iPad that can support the Sidecar feature of Continuity can be used as a full-screen display. I’ve used this on three different iPads, from an original iPad Pro up to the new M4 iPad Pros.

And even wireless?

It’s easy to connect an iPad to a Mac using a Thunderbolt or USB-C cable. And if you’re working long days with an iPad as a full-screen display, you’ll probably want it hard-wired to keep the battery charged. But this can work wirelessly as well.

The key to this fast and easy display is Apple’s Sidecar technology. With your iPad on and ready to go, head to Settings > Display and connect the iPad to extend your desktop.

When connected as a second display via Sidecar, you can arrange the iPad display wherever you place it on your desk to move the mouse from one display to another easily.

Once you’ve connected an iPad as a second display to your system, it’s easy to jump back over and use it as an iPad. There’s an apparently hidden app in iOS called Continuity that allows this use case, and if you swipe out of the full-screen display, you can use it as an iPad. The Continuity app will show in your dock.

It’s worth noting that when an iPad is connected to extend the display, when you put the iPad to sleep to close it up in a keyboard case, the Mac still sees it connected for a while, so you can lose your mouse if you move it offscreen. When you’re done with it, you can disconnect it in the Display settings or wait for it to time out.

The iPad will initially show on-screen controls in a sidebar, but I turned that off so it could be a full screen with no distractions.

With your iPad connected via Sidecar, it’s time to check the settings in your editing application.

Adobe Premiere Pro

In Premiere, head to Preferences > Playback and check Enable Mercury Transmit. Then, check the appropriate Adobe Monitor device option, which is the iPad. You’ll know this by the size, and in my case, it is Adobe Monitor 2.

DaVinci Resolve

In Resolve, it’s even easier. When the iPad is connected, go under the Workspace menu > Video Clean Feed > Sidecar Display (AirPlay) to get the full-screen playout.

Avid Media Composer

For Avid, it’s a bit more work as you have to select the monitor you want to use for fullscreen playback when you have multiple monitors connected. Head to the Preferences > User tab > Full Screen Playback. From the settings box that pops up, move the whole box to the iPad and click the Select Monitor button at the bottom.

You can map Avid’s Full Screen Playback to a button or use the keyboard shortcut Shift+Command+F (that’s on Mac, CTRL on PC).

Final Cut Pro

Unfortunately, Final Cut Pro does not have quite the same when it comes to fullscreen playback on a second monitor. Checking the preferences, we might expect the A/V Output to work, but that is only for connected video hardware like a Blackmagic or AJA device.

What we can do is use what we have in FCP to get full screen playback on the iPad. First, move the Viewer to the iPad with Window > Show in Secondary Display > Viewers. Then, you can hit the Play full-screen control to take the image full screen.

One caveat of FCP is if you have any tools open in and around your Viewer, like video scopes and multicam angles to the Event Viewer, those will also show when you move the Viewers to the iPad in the secondary iPad display.

I wish Apple would add a true full-screen playback to Final Cut Pro. Many editors have multiple computer monitors connected, and putting full-screen playback onto one of those while still seeing your editing viewer is very, very useful. It’s worth noting that there are some ways to get a full-screen playout via an HDMI or Thunderbolt connection right from your computer. PVC’s resident FCP guru Iain Anderson, reminded me of Apple’s documentation on this and what is supported. None of this works with Sidecar and the iPad’s resolution isn’t supported either.

I envision using an iPad as a secondary display, first and foremost, with a laptop. It’s so easy to connect and is a great size to complement a laptop. It’s worth noting that with the iPad 4×3 aspect ratio, your 16×9 video will be letterboxed, but if you’re sitting with a laptop close to the edge of a table, it’s a very easy use case. And if you don’t want to see the full-screen playback, turn it off and use it as a second display for your NLE panels, video scopes or just the email with all those notes!

And how is the sync?

Just eyeballing it, the sync between the computer and the full-screen playback on the iPad looks good. The naked eye can’t measure milliseconds, but I’ve used this iPad full-screen playback option on several laptops and desktop Macs. While I’m not going to judge the final sync on a Sidecar-connected iPad secondary display, I’m certainly going to (and have) used it as a secondary display many times.

What does the good old sync measuring iOS app Catchin’ Sync say about this iPad sync?

That’s pretty accurate for a wireless display. And if your editing application allows you to adjust the sync on a connected display, then you can use that info to adjust.

So there you have it. An iPad is such a versatile device, and we can add using it as a full-screen editing display to the list. Part 2 of my M4 iPad Pro will discuss this in a bit more detail, coming soon.

Only a few months ago, Avid completed their takeover by private equity company STG (the full press release is below). And now, ahead of their first NAB being held by private equity, Avid has announced their new CEO, Wellford Dillard. Wellford takes over from Jeff Rosica who led Avid through some unprecedented times that included both the pandemic and well as the recent Hollywood strikes. I remember sitting down with Jeff at NAB 2018, not long after he had taken the reigns and was excited to see where he would take Avid. Here we are six years later, and I think it’s safe to say Jeff leaves Avid in a better place than when he took over, at least on the product side. The private equity acquisition is debatable so we’ll have to see where that goes.

The big thing that stood out to me in the appointment of Dillard as the CEO is that he comes from more of a software background, more specifically SaaS and that’s not what many think about when they think of Avid. While most of us thing of software that runs on the desktop such as Media Composer and ProTools, I think one can argue that one of Avid’s biggest markets is hardware. The Avid NEXIS (and their predecessors) servers are the backbone of post-production for feature films and television. I think many of us thought that STG would leverage the hardware side of Avid more than the software side, but this CEO appointment perhaps signals something else.

Regardless, those of us who love and use Avid wish Wellford well.  I pulled this statement from Mr. Dillard’s LinkedIn profile:

I couldn’t be more thrilled to share that I’ve joined Avid as its new CEO! I truly can’t thank Jeff Rosica enough for his support as I ramp up and for his incredible leadership during his tenure as Avid’s CEO – Jeff leaves some big shoes to fill!

It’s humbling to be joining a team of talented professionals who are the best at what they do and who have helped Avid become the gold standard for delivering incredibly innovative technology and collaborative tools that help creators around the world to entertain, inform, educate, and enlighten us all.

As a self-proclaimed “content junkie” with a lifetime of love for movies, TV, and music (just ask anyone who knows me for some my favorite quotes and about my endless quest to explore new music), I can’t believe I get to be a part of a company with such a rich, 30+ year history of helping media visionaries create art that enriches our culture. I’m looking forward to the continued success of Avid, its people, and the creators who use and love our technology!

Speaking of LinkedIn … Mr. Dillard isn’t completely new to the media space, as he served as CFO for Storyblocks a decade ago.

The other bit of Avid news that is making the rounds is a notice of a price increase for Media Composer subscriptions. That news went out in an email here a week ahead of NAB.

Depending on how you pay for Media Composer, your email might look different, as we see from this discussion below on Twitter.

I pay monthly and the price increase was included in the email. pic.twitter.com/Obuv5ZRTLy

— Bacon (@SenorBacon) April 2, 2024

Price increases for subscriptions aren’t a shocking thing these days. It’s been funny reading some of the discussion around this over the last 24 hours. It ranges from I’m happy to pay more for software I make my living with all the way to this is the last straw and I’m leaving Avid forever. I think the general consensus is somewhere in between. I’m just happy to teach and Avid class at NAB Post|Production World this year! So join us if you can.

I was wondering if ProTools was also getting a price increase. I don’t know the answer to that question but this discussion thread points to maybe, yes.

We wish Mr. Wellford Dillard well as he takes over Avid. Below is the full press release from Avid about his appointment.

Press Release

After running some post-production application render and export tests with an assortment of Apple silicon Macs I thought it might make a good companion to my Speeding Up Avid Media Composer article to run a few renders and exports with … Avid Media Composer!

It’s worth noting that Media Composer is compatible and fully blessed by Avid with Apple silicon and Avid’s matrix of compatibility confirms that to be the case. But Media Composer still isn’t Apple silicon native and neither is any of the supporting applications and processes that run along with a running version of Media Composer.

It’s important to note which chips are which in these four machines. I posted in a recent article comparing these machines in other NLEs, the chip order of power goes like this Ultra > Max > Pro >  basic chip.

These are the chip comparisons from Apple’s tech specs for each machine. It’s the video encode and decode engines that are important to have for video post-production. And notice that some chips have more video engines than others.

I had a couple of Avid projects online that I was able to test on these different Apple silicon machines. Since I know there are a lot of Avid editors still running Intel Macs I dusted off my beloved iMac Pro and let it play as well. All of these render and export tests were done on Media Composer 2023.8.2.

Export 8-minute 1080 DNxHD timeline from DNxHD 220 media

That is some nice speed improvements with the M3 Max. I’m unaware of any specific tooling Avid might have done for the M3s so I was pleasantly surprised at the speed improvements in Media Composer, as not all NLEs saw those improvements in other M3 Max testing. I actually when back and test the M2 Max outputs again just to make sure they were accurate.

Out of curiosity, and Media Composer’s ease of moving from system to system with good media management, I tried these tests on my 2017 iMac Pro.

Neat Video noise reduction applied, multiple 1080 shots in 1-minute timeline, generic profile

Those MacBook fans really get to cranking when doing the mixdowns. Those are the most I’ve heard out of an NLE rendering on the Macbook Pro.

And the iMac Pro.

Without Neat Video noise reduction applied, multiple 1080 shots in 1-minute timeline

Again, the iMac Pro

A few things I learned while doing this:

• Media Composer’s estimated time it gives you in the render or export progress bar box is surprisingly accurate, even though it fluctuates a bit as the operation occurs
• The fan in the MacBook Pro kicked on a lot compared to the MacMini, which never kicked on. But to be fair, the MacBook Pro’s have an M2 Max and M3 Max and the Mac Mini an M2 Pro
• The fan in the M3 MacBook Pro kicked on only during the Neat noise reduction render and outputs
• Don’t tell anyone but even though Avid doesn’t support MacOS Sonoma two of these machines were running it and MC worked just fine but this was only a test

What conclusions can we take away here? I think it’s a question more than a conclusion:

How much faster will Media Composer be across the board on Apple silicon machines once it becomes a native Apple silicon application? 

The M3 definitely was the winner in these render and output tests. But while a lot of the other M-chip machines were faster than the Intel iMac Pro they weren’t all that much faster (and I ran a number of tests against the same iMac Pro when the M1 Max Macbook Pro came out). So if you’re an Avid editor still running an Intel Mac, do you hold on until Avid’s M-chip native Media Composer or spend the money on a new M3 or M2 Mac? If you do any editing outside of Media Composer, an update from Intel Macs will be money well spent and will last you many years.

But I have to wonder … when is Avid going to get Media Composer Apple silicon native? Is their recent sale to private equity going to slow down or speed up this development? I hate to say it, but it’s almost embarrassing for every major non-linear editing editing application running on a Mac is Apple silicon native, except Avid Media Composer. But honestly, I don’t think this surprises anyone. Avid is still in an ongoing saga to fix the title tool in Media Composer.

What about Media Composer 2023.12?

Between writing this article and actually getting around to finishing it up Avid updated Media Composer to 2023.12. I updated a couple of machines and ran a couple of these tests again and didn’t see any difference in speeds.

But speaking of updating Media Composer, the Avid Link management app has the option to update MC from right within the Avid Link app. That’s much easier than logging into Avid’s website and digging deep to find the latest update. But Avid Link has never had much success for me updating from within the Avid Link app. I had given up but tried again recently with the same result.

And I was happy to hear I wasn’t alone as Eddie Hamilton had experienced the same thing.

Same thing happens to me. It should take 10 mins max but hours later… still says installing. I just shut down, restart and bingo, the new version is installed.

— Eddie Hamilton (@eddiehamilton) December 9, 2023

But a few days after this discussion Eddie replied with a fix.

I think I’ve found the culprit which stops the MC install happening via Avid Link. Apple > System Settings > Privacy & Security > App Management > Allow the applications below to update or delete other applications > make sure Avid Link is enabled.

— Eddie Hamilton (@eddiehamilton) December 14, 2023

I’m happy to report that this has worked and I’ve successfully updated Media Composer on two different systems via Avid Link.

I had to manually add Avid Link to the MacOS App Management preference. It will have to restart Avid Link but after that it worked like a charm. I don’t know why Avid Link didn’t add itself to this security preference like other apps do but at least it worked.

via GIPHY

HOW DOES NOBE OMNISCOPE WORK

If you’re a user of Nobe Omniscope, a new version has just been released as of October 2023 that includes.

• Enhanced OCIO Color Management
• Advanced HDR Quality Control and New QC Timeline
• New Multi-Input Support
• New Virtual Production Workflows for Unreal Engine & Unity
• Performance Boosts, macOS Optimization and much more.

You can get more in-depth details at this link!

Now, the first thing you’ll need to figure out with Nobe Omniscope, is how you’ll access it in your application of choice.  When you install Nobe Omniscope, you’ll have a choice of which applications to install, based on your workflow(s).

Once installed, you’ll now have the Nobe Omniscope application, but you’ll need a bridge to get from Premiere, After Effects, Resolve, etc to Nobe Omniscope.  Plug-Ins have been installed for all applications, except for Media Composer (but we’ll talk about that in a second), and using Resolve as an example, you can simply switch your Node window over to Timeline as opposed to Clip, add the Omniscope Connect effect, and that’s all it takes in Resolve!

Now, all you have to do is connect inside of Nobe Omniscope, and you’re all set to go!

To be honest, the process takes about 2 minutes, and once you’re set to go, all you need to do is put Nobe Omniscope on a secondary monitor, and you now have your software scopes set to go!  

The process works almost exactly the same for Premiere/After Effects, except instead of it being added as an effect, you can simply use the Mercury Transmit feature to output to Nobe Omniscope.  The setup in Nobe Omniscope is the same as Resolve, just check the Premiere/AE option, as opposed to Resolve.

Now, Media Composer works a little differently, and you’ll need to make sure you add an important “option”, when installing Media Composer.  When installing, make sure you have the Newtek NDI Plug-In option selected, as we can use that to send our signal from Media Composer to Omniscope.

Once installed, make sure that in Media Composer the HW/SW output is set for NewTek NDI (much like how you would export to external physical hardware).  

Once you do that, you’ll now see a new option to connect called NDI, and the name of your computer.

That’s it!  Real-time playback out of Media Composer to Nobe Omniscope, with a ton of scope options, that we’ll discuss in the next section!

WHAT YOU GET

Well, first, let’s get this out of the way right now.  Nobe Omniscope is supported on both Mac and Windows, including the M1/M2 processors, so both platforms are good to go!  

The first thing you’ll notice when working with Ominscope is that it’s well, fast.  The same as your NLE.  Hit play there, and they playback on Nobe Omniscope is instantaneous.  To be honest, it doesn’t look like much when you launch it, but with 18 scopes, you’re never going to say “I wish I had this scope”….. 

What I normally do is set up a “Default” layout that has my Source Signal (from my NLE), a Waveform, Vectorscope and Audio meters.  The basics of my color/finishing workflows.

From here, this is where things get really interesting.  Nobe Omniscope has it’s settings, but so do all the scopes contained within it.  

Using the Waveform as an example, you can first, choose between the different modes.  Luminosity, RGB, RGB Parade, YRGB Parade and YCbCr Parade.  Then add Colorize, Enhanced Render, Smooth Trace a Scale Override and even a Low Pass Filter, and all of that is just in the Display tab.  You can adjust the further Appearance of the scope, and even add 3D LUT’s to your footage, right there within the scope itself, and this isn’t unique to just the Waveform.  All the scopes have this type of in-depth options for you to choose, depending on what you want things to look like.

One thing that is important to mention is that Nobe Omniscope supports both SDR and HDR (Pro Version) as well as Dolby Vision and, depending on the version you’re using, it will function as a QC playback application as well.  With the Pro Version of Nobe Omniscope, you have access to QC features including Gamma Check, Blanking Detection, HDR Stats, Single Line (view the signal on a specific line) and HDR Gammut Check and even a timeline that you can see QC details in real-time.

Once I have my basic setup good to go, I then start creating alternate layouts (with Histogram, CIE Plot, etc) to use, as I need them.

ISSUES

If I had to pick one issue that I don’t like Nobe Omniscope, and it’s something that I haven’t been able to easily figure out, and that is how to hear audio out of the application itself.  This is not an issue when I’m playing back Media Composer, Premiere or Resolve, as I can hear the audio coming out those applications themselves, but when I playback a video that I want to QC in Omniscope, I see the VU meters moving, but can’t hear any sound coming from the application.  I’m sure it’s something I’ve overlooked, and will update the article, if and when I figure it out.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Hardware scopes are expensive, especially if you’re working in a hybrid location (home/office), or even if you’re working in a smaller studio.  Nobe Omniscope has taken the need for expensive I/O hardware that would be required for hardware scopes, and made them unnecessary, by giving you the ability to go from your NLE to Nobe Omniscope in realtime.  If you’re delivering for broadcast on television or for the theatre, Nobe Omniscope is an absolute no-brainer of a purchase that every editor, colorist and motion graphic designer should have in their post production toolkit.  For more information, or to download a free demo of Nobe Omniscope, you can check it out at this link!

A new menu item lets you create a script for a clip while PhraseFind becomes even more useful as you can “access automatic transcript creation, a new transcription management tool, and automatic multi-lingual language detection.” That multi-language support is impressive and will get a lot of use.

While the What’s New page has a ton of great details and videos, here’s the bullet point feature list:

• AI-Enhanced ScriptSync and PhraseFind (FAQ here)
• Media Composer Classic User Profile and Workspace
• Panel SDK
• Audio Punch-in Using USB Audio Devices with Video Hardware
• Batch Subclip Tool
• Display Middle Composer Button Panel
• Changing Monitor Configuration Duplicates Current Workspaces
• Apply Sequence Template to an Existing Sequence
• Keyboard Shortcuts Added to Command Button Tooltips
• Clip Gain Extended to 36 dB in Media Composer
• “LFE Only” Mono Tracks
• Track Effect Bypass
• Device Selection for Desktop Audio Output
• Multi-Mix Tool Options Added to Pro Tools Session Export Settings
• GOP Options Added to XDCAM Export to Device
• Optimized EDL with Four Audio Tracks

Extended clip gain will be another welcome addition. And in the tradition of everything old is new again, Avid continues to tweak the newish Avid Media Composer interface to make it more like the Avid of old.

They are also putting a shot across Adobe’s bow trying to make things easier for Premiere Pro editors who might be coming over.

Boost your creative intelligence—preview Avid’s new AI-powered timesavers in Media Composer 2023.8

https://t.co/kdq7XtketW#avidmediacomposer #update #mediacomposer #ai #artificialintelligence #editing #videoeditor #postproduction #postchat #editor #avid pic.twitter.com/f4DtunGVLh

— Avid Media Composer (@MediaComposer) August 31, 2023

While the feature updates are always what warrants a lot of discussion, a change in the Avid policy of being able to download older versions of Media Composer has led to a lot of talk and frustration online. This line near the bottom of the Media Composer 2023.8 announcement email has people talking: As of September 29, 2023, all Media Composer builds pre-dating Media Composer 2023.8 will no longer be available for download. Please archive any versions of Media Composer pre-dating 2023.8 that you have licenses for to retain access.

This is a big deal, at least on the surface, for a lot of Avid editors and facilities as Avid users are notoriously slow when it comes to upgrading with many still running Media Composer 2018. It is a major undertaking from both the financial side and the engineering side of things when you move an entire facility to a new version. While others are just stuck in their ways and don’t like change.

Not being able to download older versions of Avid can limit troubleshooting, restrict system upgrades and possibly make crash recovery difficult. While Avid hasn’t said exactly why the “hosting” of these old installers will go away, it seems just that. Avid won’t have these files on their servers any longer but they are encouraging users to download and archive any old installers that are needed.

Big changes coming to #AvidMediaComposer 2023.8 – If you want to keep older versions of #Avid (including ScriptSync and PhraseFind), you better download them by September 28, 2023 or you will lose access.https://t.co/IXlcR8Qz54

— Steve Kwant (@MediaVirusPro) August 31, 2023

For Avid editors, backward compatibility has always been looked at as a significant advantage over other NLEs. The backwards compatibility is second to none with the ability to open a bin and load a sequence in a much older version of Avid if an editor was working on a newer version. Things that aren’t backwards compatible often just wouldn’t show up. It looks like from some of the online discussion this won’t change with 2023.8. In fact, this explication of how the clip gain difference (with 2023.8 going above +12dB) will work:

If you stay below +12dB, you can freely move the sequence across versions. Clips with gain >12dB will appear to have no gain applied in older versions (aka “bypassed”). If you don’t change the gain in the older version, the clips >12dB gain will return when the sequence comes back to 2023.8. If you do change the gain in the older version, the new changed value will prevail when the sequences comes back to 2023.8.

Le gain peut maintenant monter jusqu’à +36dB#Avid #Mediacomposer 2023.8 pic.twitter.com/cGXHThDKff

— Damien Labbé (@DamienLabbe) August 31, 2023

That’s a great solution and I wish other NLE markers would make their versions more backwards compatible.

While we’re talking about Avid Media Composer, be sure and check out my article about Speeding up Avid Media ComposerSpeeding up Avid Media Composer if you haven’t already. Because speed is always a good thing.

Speeding up Avid Media Composer … yes, that is a thing. I am always looking for ways to speed up my editing and post-production, and one of the biggest offenders of being slow is Avid Media Composer.

There are several reasons that Avid might feel slow. That can include limited keyboard mapping, no native Apple Silicon support, a less modern code-base, or old machines running old versions, to name a few.

While I had been off of Avid for a while, a recent multi-week editing job put me back on Media Composer and reminded me that I think I’ve done about all I can to make Avid faster. 

I wanted to share some of those things here. (Of note, I’m on a Mac so I’m using COMMAND so on a PC that would be CONTROL).

Little commands that achieve big things

The first thing that can speed up editing in Media Composer is being aware of some keyboard shortcuts, and commands that will speed up something that you typically think has to be achieved with a mouse.

Restore Default Patch

You can’t save source patching setups for audio clips or complex sequence-to-sequence edits. Nor can you move source patches with a keyboard shortcut (yes, I know about Auto-patching, but it’s a poor substitute). But you can use Timeline > Restore Default Patch to get the source patches back to a more default state. 

Better yet, you can map Restore Default Patch to a keyboard shortcut. 

Waveforms, volume and audio things

Avid does not adjust the size of an audio waveform when the volume or gain is modified, but you can scale that waveform size up and down to make it easier to see when a clip is too low. Or down when it’s way too loud.

COMMAND + OPTION + K/L is the keyboard shortcut to scale a waveform larger and smaller. Sound kinda familiar? Remember that COMMAND + K/L scales the track size up and down so it’s close to that. But also remember that scaling the waveform doesn’t adjust the actual volume of a clip, just the appearance of the waveform.

Waveforms have to be turned on to view them. And outside of using the Audio Mixer, you have to turn on Clip Gain to adjust the level or a clip and/or Volume to keyframe the volume with rubber banding. Those commands are buried several levels deep under the timeline Hamburger/Fast menu. 

But you can map those to keyboard shortcuts using the Command Palette. If you use the ‘Menu to Button’ Reassignment command, you can not only map items from the Media Composer top menus but also from the timeline Hamburger/Fast menu.

I have these audio items mapped to SHIFT + F9 – F12 on my extended keyboard. 

And what about turning up the gain on a clip itself? Yes, we have the Audio Tool, but I find adjusting Clip Gain with keyboard shortcuts much faster. As long as you have Clip Gain turned on (either from the Fast Menu or on a per track basis), you can use the keyboard shortcut SHIFT+OPTION+UP/DOWN ARROW to raise and lower the Clip Gain without ever mousing to a menu or click-dragging anything. Just be aware of what audio tracks are turned on as that is what will adjust with this keyboard shortcut.

Timeline things

One thing you’re constantly doing is zooming the timeline in and out. Rather than hitting the modifier keys of Command + [ and ], I have mapped those timeline zoom keys to F11 and F12. Not having to use a modifier key for something as frequent as zooming the timeline has saved countless keystrokes over the years, especially considering I mapped the same command in all the different NLEs I use. 

And you do remember there’s also a keyboard shortcut to scale the track heights up and down? That is the COMMAND (CTRL on PC) K and L mentioned earlier. 

Loop Selectd Clips for one key Source Monitor viewing

One thing Avid has yet to do over the years is make it faster to view source media. But if you utilize the Clip > Loop Selected Clips command you can select a clip or sequence, execute that menu item, and that will load and begin playing the Source monitor. All that with one command. It’s especially useful on music and selects sequences. I’ll take that one command over a mouse double-click any day. 

But make note, if you have an IN point marked on the media you’re loading, MC will begin playing from that IN point.

So until we get some kind of skimming or hover scrubbing in a bin this Loop Select Clips option will have to do. We can hover scrub in the Source Browser so why not a bin?

This is the most useful, time-saving command in the click-happy mouse-drag @MediaComposer … loads a clip or a sequence to the Source Monitor and plays it (from an IN point if it has one). Map to a keyboard button and you can speed up the source side of things quite a lot. pic.twitter.com/FgkKSaeL42

— Scott Simmons (@editblog) July 14, 2023

Command / Control X to remove selected clips

Media Composer is a very IN-to-OUT-based editing tool, but there are times when you might have a lot of overlapping clips that you want to remove from the timeline, so you can’t precisely get them all via an IN-to-OUT. 

If that’s the case, select those clips via Segment Mode, then hit Command + X (Control + X on a PC) and watch those clips disappear. This is especially useful on audio since selecting audio via Segment Mode and hitting delete will first delete any automation you have on the clips before deleting the actual clip.

I couldn’t remember this recently and Twitter came to the rescue. See, it’s not completely useless.

Command + X

— Andrew King (@AndrewKing101) May 18, 2023

Select All and Deselect All on the timeline patch panel

If you’re constantly turning track selectors on and off (and you’ve mapped them to ALL your number keys, right?), mapping Select All and Deselect All to a single keystroke sames some time.

Yes, they already have default keyboard shortcuts but those require modifier keys so getting them to one key is great. And they can then be easily mapped to a control surface. 

Speaking of control surfaces …

But you can speed things up even more by using a control surface for many of those commands. 

If you want to take your Avid speed up to the next level, grab a control surface and map many of the above commands to a single button or dial. 

I’ve been obsessed with control surfaces and video editing for years, reviewing everything from the CTRL Console to the Sensel Morph, the Loupedeck CT to the Tourbox and several others. 

In that time, I’ve only geared one toward Media Composer in the Loupedeck Live, partly because I don’t get the call to edit in Avid as much as I used to and somewhat because Media Composer has the worst the least detailed support for keyboard shortcuts, and no deep API support for third-party hardware to control it.

So you’re stuck with the keyboard mappings that only include a second level via holding down the Shift key. Couple that with the ability to map commands from menus (not just the supplied buttons), and you can get some decent shortcut support. 

Command Post is good to control your control surfaces

The key to making a control surface work is the software to send the commands from your brain to Avid. Command Post is a free and open-source utility that, among many other functions, has extensive support for control surfaces. PVC has a good article about how this works, but let’s talk about adapting to Media Composer.

First, pick the commands you want to map

The first commands worth mapping are things you can control with a dial. These are my favorite dial-based commands I’ve mapped for Media Composer, in order of my preference and how often I seem to use them:

• Timeline zoom
• Audio gain
• Waveform scale
• Trim
• Track height adjustment

There may be other commands worth mapping to a dial, so I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below if you have others. 

Second, identify the keyboard shortcuts to execute the commands

This is my current setup for Media Composer with the Loupedeck CT:

As a couple of examples of things I have mapped:

Zooming the timeline, which as mentioned above is mapped to Zoom In – F12 and Zoom Out – F11. I’ve done that in all the NLEs I work in and that goes onto that big dial at the bottom (but could go on one of the 8 knobs at the top). The nifty graphic is repurposed from a Sideshow FX icon pack for a different NLE.

Audio Clip Gain is one of those commands that is perfect when mapped to a dial. It takes too long to grab a fader in the Audio Tool or try to click and drag the tiny faders in the corner of clips in the timeline (though I am grateful they are there). While the keyboard shortcut mentioned in the section above is great, mapping them to a rotating knob is better.

Another audio-related command that I have mapped is the control to turn on and off audio data in the timeline: waveform, clip gain, and volume. Instead of having those those are buried under the timeline hamburger menu or my shift+F keys I have them mapped to the touch screen on the Loupedeck CT.

By mapping those above commands with the ‘Menu to Button’ Reassignment option in the Command
Palette you can assign those to keyboard shortcuts and then assign any of them to a control surface. 

Third, enjoy a faster Media Composer

These are but a few examples of some 40+ Media Composer commands I’ve mapped to different control surfaces. Depending on where I work, of course, I might not have access to all of those commands, but when I’m working on my system, I do. And they can help speed up the execution of many of these often slow and buried Media Composer commands. Plus, all of the control surface software will let you save, export and import settings so you can carry them with you.

This will work with most all control surfaces beyond the Loupedeck

I’ve mentioned Command Post and the Loupedeck CT a lot as the way I’ve set up my control surfaces for Avid Media Composer. But they aren’t the only way. The official Loupedeck software also supports Avid and has some pre-built commands built into a profile you can download from their Marketplace.

I always find the default settings on anything aren’t as good as my custom settings but these are a good place to start.

Another great control surface I use is a Razer Tartarus. It’s a PC gaming controller ($63 on Amazon right now but once I picked it up for half that) but can easily be adapted to video editing (and be used with a Mac) by using Command Post to control it.

Since the Tartarus doesn’t have little screens to remind me what the keys do, I improvised with gaffer’s tape and some old Media Composer keyboard stickers.

What’s even better is that I can change the mappings in Command Post for other NLEs and pretty much map these Avid commands so they are similar or the same in other NLEs.

And … these control surfaces may be usable when remoting into another system

If your Avid work involves remoting into another system via HP ZCentral Remote Boost, Jump Desktop or something similar, these commands might still be available. I’ve experienced instances when control surfaces or advanced mouse buttons don’t work through the remote software. You’re mapping the commands on your local machine to the remote software and not to the NLE since the NLE is on the remote machine.

But on my last remote Avid job, I was able to make every one of the control surfaces work. 

First, follow the steps as directed above and use Command Post as the tool to control your control surface. 

Second, when mapping a control via the select menu, use the alternate Triggers a virtual keyboard press using an alternative method (for use in Blender, etc) option as the way to map the command. This isn’t an article on how to use Command Post but this review can help.

Once I tried this alternate method when setting up a recent remote Avid job, every command worked with this combination of Command Post and the control surfaces.

Command Post has support for many different control surfaces, so YMMV depending on what you want to use. But I was able to use these surfaces while successfully remoting in via HP ZCentral Remote Boost:

• Loupedeck CT
• Loupedeck Live
• Tourbox
• Monogram
• Razer Tartarus V2

I haven’t tried with other remote software.

Speaking of remoting into another system … if you’re a Mac use remoting into a PC but you’re still using your Mac keyboard you can change the COMMAND key to a CONTROL key on your local Mac keyboard. That can save some sanity. Check you System Preferences > Keyboard Keyboard Shortcuts > Modifier Keys.

That one is a real lifesaver. I have to think Joey D’Anna for that tip.

settings -> keyboard -> keyboard shortcuts and you can change modifier keys. its stupid because they have one labeled "command" which there is no such key, its called the apple key. but other then that it works great pic.twitter.com/NnwpjorqEg

— Joey D'Anna (@joeydanna) May 8, 2023

Wrap-up

I hope some tips here can help you speed up Media Composer. These tips might be a lot to learn for longtime Avid editors as they are notoriously resistant to change. While most Avid editors consider themselves very fast, many of these tips can make them faster. It did me and I’m a longtime Avid editor not resistant to change . While some may take some time to learn (like how to integrate a control surface) if you’ve spent years on just a keyboard and mouse, it took time to get proficient with just that, so have some patience. These shortcuts and knobs and dials take time to become second nature, but I believe they are worth it. 

Happy editing. 

Text-based video editing was all of the rage at NAB 2023. Two of the biggest nonlinear editing applications added text-based editing to their toolset while the plethora of online, cloud-based, and AI-assisted transcription tools continued to increase. However, I was quite surprised that several conversations with producers and editors revealed that many of them have not used cloud-generated transcripts of any kind, even though we’ve had very affordable cloud-based Transcription Tools for years.

I was wondering about it so I created a poll on Twitter.

Who has been using text-based editing in their video editing workflow at some point in the last couple of years? (As I’m make transcriptions, build edit with the text, use it or take that back to the NLE)

— Scott Simmons (@editblog) April 27, 2023

There are enough text-based video editing options these days that picking the right one for a specific workflow can take a little work. Different options might be worth considering depending on your need, the stakeholders involved, or your final delivery. But I will say this, living in an affordable transcription and text-based editing world is way better than before this was an option.

As we go through this, I will link back to several reviews I’ve done over the last few years, as I’ve been on a quest for the best text-based editing for a long time. 

Defining “text-based editing” vs just transcriptions

Before we begin, let’s examine the difference between “text-based editing” and transcriptions.

Transcribing an interview or dialogue is having a cloud-based system automatically generate a written transcript from audio or video uploaded to an online service. You can usually interact with a Transcription via a web browser where you can watch, listen, read the text, and correct any potential wrong transcriptions. Often these services will interact with your NLE via a workflow extension or panel.

There once was a day before these online services, where transcriptions had to be done by humans who listened to the dialogue and then transcribed it as they went along. This may have been an online service or a transcriptionist located within your market, where you perhaps ended up with a printed three-ring binder full of time-code-based transcriptions. Having humans do the transcription took much longer and was much more expensive than having “the cloud” do it.

Text-based editing takes those transcriptions and arranges the bits and pieces of the interviews and dialogue into a coherent story. This could be by copying and pasting or highlighting, tagging and dragging sections of text or cutting in a more traditional three-point Editing style. Instead of marking IN and OUT points on a video piece, you mark your IN and OUT points on a text transcript.

You can only have text-based editing after first doing some transcribing. 

How we got here

You can’t mention text-based editing without crediting the original text to video editing-based tool prEdit. Intelligent Assistance designed prEdit for Final Cut Pro Classic back in 2010. This was long before affordable cloud-based transcriptions, so it was slightly ahead of its time. 

prEdit morphed into the Lumberjack Builder NLE tool. Builder NLE is a standalone Mac application (and part of a whole suite of logging tools) that transcribes and allows for text-based editing right on the desktop (and did so long before anything else mentioned here).

The bullet point list for Lumberjack Builder NLE:

• Transcripts in minutes in 16 supported languages for free; additional languages are supported at 25c per minute.
• Keyword paragraphs and identify People
• Powerful (and unique) Keyword Manager
• Comprehensive search tools to find exactly the quote you need for this Story beat
• Drag and drop paragraphs to make a story. Trim, edit and re-order until it’s perfect.
• Send to Premiere Pro CC, Resolve or Final Cut Pro X for finishing.

I reviewed Builder back in 2019, and it was quite a revelation to have the director build stories himself, and then I could import his edits back into Adobe Premiere Pro. Builder was originally Final Cut Pro X only but Premiere support was added. As lovely as it was to work this way, I think the friction of downloading, installing and learning a new application is too much for many producers and directors. You can get over that hurdle if you can convince them of the potential time and money savings.

Text-based video editing natively, built-in within the NLE

It might be hyperbole to say that text-based editing within the NLE is one of the most significant advancements in digital editing (at least as long as I have been editing), but as a creative/craft/offline editor, I believe that to be the case. 

I don’t want to decouple the in-application, localized transcription feature from the text-based editing feature, as they are both equally important. Localized transcription into your editing application has been a great productivity tool. However, taking transcriptions one step further by letting the editor create an edit from the text is a revelation.

As of this writing, the implementation of text-based editing is relatively simple as it is early in the feature’s life. You don’t really need a ton of specific features to make this work. You take a transcription somewhere in the NLE, mark an IN to OUT point by scanning, reading and playing (including JKL scrubbing) the text, then use an insert or overwrite edit command to make an edit. 

Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe’s implementation of text-based editing currently resides in the Premiere beta. In Premiere, transcription has been built-in for a while now. And believe it or not, Premiere had a much more rudimentary transcription method way back in CS5. The editing right from the Text Transcript panel is the best part and the new part.

First, transcribe a source clip in the bin. Then load that clip into the Source panel monitor and that transcription will appear in the Transcript tab of the Text panel. 

Load up a timeline to edit into and you can use your usual editing tools to playback, mark IN to OUT points and perform edits right from the text in the Transcript panel. 

And notice in the GIF above that the edit commands in the Transcript panel support custom keyboard shortcuts, as you see with mine above. And Premiere’s text-based editing supports multicam. Transcribe a source clip and then create a Multicam Source Sequence with that clip, and you can use the transcripts with a multicam clip.

DaVinci Resolve

The latest Resolve beta adds a Transcribe Audio option at the bottom of the source clip submenu in a bin. Once a clip is transcribed, then, like Premiere Pro, you can edit right from a new transcription window. 

One feature I really like in the Resolve Transcription window is the ability to highlight text and then apply a colored marker over that whole range.

Avid Media Composer

In all this recent talk of text-based editing, I’ve seen several mentions of Avid Media Composer’s ScriptSync. But ScriptSync isn’t really text-based editing in the same way as the other NLEs.

First, Avid can’t transcribe clips to text, so to use ScriptSync you must first import a transcript (or script) into Media Composer. You then use ScriptSync to automatically line the imported script using ScriptSync.

And ScriptSync doesn’t work like text-based editing. It’s not exactly an easy task as you have to select specific parts of the imported text file and manually associate clips with the text in a script window. Only then can you automatically use ScriptSync to associate the text with the clip.

And it works in text blocks, as you can’t mark IN to OUT points directly in the script window. You can quickly go to a specific part of a clip (and mark an IN point) by double-clicking on a text block in the script window but that’s about it. So it is not text-based editing as it works in Premiere and Resolve.

Final Cut Pro

While Final Cut Pro doesn’t have quite the same deeply integrated options of Premiere and Resolve, there are several ways to work with transcripts directly in Final Cut Pro. 

The above-mentioned Lumberjack Builder is the best know and has the best integration. SpeedScriber has also long had a transcription to FCP workflow, but you’re not editing with text in a true “text-based editing” way.

Things are starting to get " nicely complicated."#FCP #FCPX #FinalCutPro #whisper #transcription pic.twitter.com/VwtJGXEsc6

— Ulti.Media (@ulti_media) March 22, 2023

And then there’s stuff like that above coming to Final Cut Pro. I don’t know what happened to Scribeomatic.

Text-based editing in the cloud

The other option for text-based editing comes courtesy of “the cloud.” Several online services offer both cloud-based transcriptions as well as the ability to do some type text-based editing in order to build a radio edit.*

What is a radio edit? That is a string out of talking heads, interviews or dialog of any kind that, while matching your script, is just a ton of jump cuts. Despite the YouTube jump-cut aesthetic, you’d never use this in a final program. It’s called a “radio edit” as you are really meant to just listen to it rather than watch it. 

There are many online transcription services these days, and I have not used all of them. I’m guessing some might offer text-based editing that I am unaware of, but I think the advantages you get from an online service vs in-NLE text-based editing would be similar. 

Those advantages are mainly a collaboration option with other stakeholders in the project. A director could begin to review interview footage to tag and categorize by subject matter. A producer could section off soundbites that legal might not let into a final cut. A writer can begin to assemble bites from across the entire shoot into a working script/edit. 

By doing that work in the cloud, the editor can be working on other things in the program. Many a project needs more time or budget for the editor to go through all of the interviews from scratch, so someone has to be responsible for building that first paper cut.*

What is a paper cut? That’s a term from the days when transcriptions happened on paper, with humans doing the transcriptions and noting timecode. A writer would go through a three-ring binder of transcripts and build an edit on paper. Later it became a lot of copy/paste when human-based transcripts moved from paper to the word processor. 

What are some of those cloud-based services that allow for text-based editing and integration with an NLE?

Reduct.video

Reduct.video offers one of the most comprehensive sets of tools for producers, writers, directors and editors to work in the cloud. I wrote a review of Reduct and have used it on several projects. 

The Reduct tools are many, and it can take some time to really understand all the tools at your disposal (hence some friction like mentioned with Builder above), but once the production embraces it, it can be beneficial.

Reduct found a way to support multi-cam clips in Adobe Premiere Pro via the Redcut panel and some clever hack engineering, so for a while, it was the only text-based editing option in the cloud to support multi-cam. That was huge as most interviews shoot mulitcam these days. As far as I know, it still is.

Transcriptive.com and the Transcriptive Premiere Pro panel

Digital Anarchy’s Transcriptive was one of the first Premiere integrations that made in NLE transcriptions useful. I wrote a review of Transcriptive back in 2017 and it has continued to be updated since then. Rough Cutter added a new level to the “text-based editing” thing. 

Descript

Descript is currently the Swiss Army Knife of all things video and transcription. It is very feature-rich, constantly evolving and even features its own video editor. PVC did a review of Descript back in 2018.

I have yet to use Descript with NLEs directly, but there is a workflow to export a Descript timeline back to Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro. (And unofficially to Resolve).

Simon Says

I’ve always thought Simon Says has one of the best interfaces to work with. It’s clean and simple and powerful at the same time. Most all of the NLEs have some kind of integration with Simon Says. Simons Says Assemble is their version of text-based editing.

Sonix

Sonix mentions integrations with NLEs and from their demo, it looks like it could be useful as it will let someone strike out transcription text that isn’t needed via a web browser interface and then conform that transcription back to an NLE with those strike-out sections missing, leaving a gap in the timeline. 

Other transcription tools like Happy Scribe mention NLE and post-production integration on their website but from what I can tell, most of them look like support for subtitles and captioning rather than actual text-based editing. 

If I am missing any services that offer text-based editing, then please let me know in the comments below. 

Where do we go from here?

I hope the online services will continue to refine their transcription > text-based editing > back to the NLE workflow. I know a lot of that involves the engineering around things like XML turnovers, panel and extension design, as well as customer education and support. We can only assume that the investment some of them have made is worth it.

As for where our video editing applications go, what Adobe and Blackmagic have done in their betas is a great start. The text-based editing implementations are simple to use and make perfect sense as a first generation of the workflow. Both Adobe and Blackmagic have cloud services, so it would be great to see some way for other stakeholders to be involved in the text-based editing workflow outside of the NLE. To have that option built into the tools should be a much smoother workflow than relying on a third-party panel or XML interchanges.

I suspect that third parties will deliver quite well on their promise to implement some kind of text-based editing workflow for Final Cut Pro beyond what is available now. The third-party ecosystem always comes through for Final Cut Pro.

As for Avid and Media Composer? It’s kinda shocking that one of the most used editing tools in the interview-heavy world of documentary editing wasn’t at the forefront of in-application transcription and text-based editing. While ScriptSync and PhraseFind certainly seemed ahead of their time back when they were introduced, they currently seem a step behind text-based editing. Will we ever get anything more in Media Composer?

And what does the world of AI hold for text-based editing? Will AI be able to listen to an interview, absorb some kind of intent for the story and cough up a rough edit?  I would not be shocked … what do you think?

Wrap-up

I used to pull selects from a transcript but do actual assembly in the NLE because I wanted to see the emotion. New text-based editing tools really are best of both worlds because you can edit in text while immediately seeing the tone and delivery.

— Daniel McCullum (@dmccullum) April 27, 2023

So what is the current state of text-based editing? I would say it is strong. It’s a relatively new concept to many editors and producers and never has there been so many options to achieve an edit of video by “editing” text from transcripts.

While editors everywhere will rejoice at the prospect of not having to log hours upon hours of interviews themself,  being able to take generated transcripts, read those against viewing video and then generating an NLE timeline right from working with text is a great tool to have in our arsenal. Next, we have to convince directors, producers and other stakeholders to jump in where they can and use some of this new technology to produce better stories more efficiently. Finally, we just have to make sure AI doesn’t do all the editing for us.

Bins, as we know, are the centerpiece of your workflow(s).  They are what will make for a smooth edit, or a potential rocky one as well.  In this Let’s Edit lesson, we’re talking Bin View Modes.  Now, you might be thinking “I have no idea what that even means!”.  Well, Bin View Modes are simply Text, Frame and Script views, that we have been using since the inception of Media Composer.  However, there are been some updates to them that you might not know about, and they will definitely help keep you organized, no matter which one is your preference.  Enjoy!

Channel: www.youtube.com/letseditMC_avid
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LetsEditwithMediaComposer
Twitter: @kpmcauliffe
e-mail: kevinpmcauliffe@gmail.com

What the discussion usually evolved into after that (or should I say devolved into) was several folks saying that the hassle wasn’t worth it as well as others explaining you can move timelines around but not whole projects even though whole projects is what the original poster usually wanted.

Often that original poster was an inexperienced editor, a post supervisor or someone working in the post-production chain who had been assigned the task of making this move happen.

As a service to the post-production community, I thought I would provide this list of stock answers to some of the frequently asked questions that come with wanting to move from one NLE to another and often back again. Some of these answers are just repeating a variation of the same information just in a slightly different way.

For those wanting to use this information:

First I provide a short answer that you can give to the person asking you to accomplish this task. Hopefully, that will suffice. There is also a long answer if you need to get into more detail as to why this isn’t easy, often doesn’t work and can end up costing more money than you might save.

Or feel free to forward this link.

For this job we need to move the project from insert one NLE here to insert other NLE here and maybe back again. Can you make that happen?

Short answer:

No. I cannot.

Long answer:

No. Negative. Nada. Can’t do it. Ain’t gonna happen. Dream on dreamer. There’s a lot more in the answer to this question you have just asked of me than one or two words can explain so just trust me as the post-production professional that I am that this isn’t really doable in the manner that you expect and let’s come up with another alternative to get this job done. This is more than we can do in an email or text exchange so let’s set up a time to chat or Zoom or Facetime and discuss options.

Why is that? I read on the internet that it’s easy to move a project from one NLE to the other.

Short answer:

What you most likely read about is how to export a timeline from one NLE to the other (and sometimes translate it with Resolve) so first of all, it doesn’t give us the whole project. Second of all this is fraught with potential pitfalls. Can we just drop it? Or can you send me the link so I can investigate?

Long answer:

What you read on the internet is wrong. You most likely googled “how to move from avid to premiere pro” and found a trash article called How to Migrate Timelines Between Video Editing Applications from 2014 that only mentions how to use the software to export lists from one NLE, sometimes translate that via Resolve and import that into another NLE. All that does is show you how to use software menus which is a common problem with learning something via a Google search. It makes no mention of all the difficulties and pitfalls of doing this and needs to be wiped from the internet.

Can’t you just use an EDL?

Short answer:

You cannot use an EDL to transfer a project from one NLE to another because an EDL is for single timelines only and supports very, very limited data.

Long answer:

The EDL, or Edit Decision List, is a simple text translation of the cuts and dissolves (for the most part) in a single layer of a single timeline only. There are no bins, folders or other project data that comes across. In order for an EDL to work the destination NLE must support the importing of an EDL (not just exporting) as well as linking to media that has proper timecode, file name and reel info among the bits of metadata that make this possible. Multiple video tracks, multiple audio tracks, effects, repositions, scaling, transitions and so much more really doesn’t translate so the fidelity is low. This is not a good idea for what you’re wanting to do.

Then can you send an XML from Premiere so they can import that into Avid?

Short answer:

Avid Media Composer doesn’t support XML as an interchange protocol so any XML I send can’t be directly imported into Media Composer.

Long answer:

There are many ways to exchange data between NLEs. EDLs, AAFs, XMLs, but not all are supported by all NLEs and different types of data may or may not come across depending on what you’re wanting to do.

Avid Media Composer, for example, doesn’t support XML exchange but does support AAFs.

Adobe Premiere Pro can export XML, EDL and AAF for timeline exchange but XML is the most common and most supported protocol but that is the old Final Cut Pro Classic XML that has been tweaked in recent years and not the new Final Cut Pro X (thought Apple dropped the X) .fcpxml. AAF is generally used for sending audio to mix but not entirely as AAF can carry other data too. I didn’t even mention OMF. This isn’t confusing at all now is it?

The new (though it’s old now) Final Cut Pro only supports the new with FCPX specific .fcpxml and needs a third-party tool (or tools) to deal with anything beyond that for import or export. You might find this document from Intelligent Assistance about their translation tools helpful as far as what might translate and what might not as they make the best translation tools depending on how you want to move.

Davinci Resolve can support all of these protocols not because Resolve is magic (though it indeed might be magic) but because Resolve began life as an online and conform tool so it has to support them all to do its job. And we all benefit from that but there are finishing artists who have spent their entire career conforming these very lists in Resolve and they still have difficulty from time to time.

Can you use an AAF?

Short answer:

No. Have you been reading the internet again?

Long answer:

While AAF exchange is used mostly for sending audio to mix edit timeline data can be exchanged with an AAF. But like all NLE interchange formats, the success depends on how complex the timeline is we are trying to exchange and what kind of media we are trying to connect/conform/link to and how good the metadata (like file name, reel name and timecode to name a few) is for those files. And have you ever tried to relink media in Avid Media Composer?

Adobe has even been nice enough to publish its own document on moving from Avid to Premiere Pro but it isn’t as easy as even that sounds due to all the issues mentioned above. We didn’t get into the Avid Log Exchange option as ALEs are yet another exchange protocol that may or may not work depending on all those different factors I’m mentioning again.

Can’t you just use Resolve to convert it?

Short answer:

Resolve is able to convert timeline lists from one NLE to another but there are many things that determine how well it works so we won’t know how well it might work until we try. And don’t expect it to work well or be easy.

Long answer:

Since all NLEs are different they use different architectures to build project and bin structures and there is no real method to convert fully imported and organized projects. In theory, you could organize a project in two different NLEs and send the edits/timelines back and forth but you run the risk of duplicating media and master clips in the project each time as well as issues relinking the timeline clips back to the media on the drive.

Of particular note here: Resolve was never meant to be a timeline list conversion tool. Yes, it can convert them because it can import one format while exporting another. But this is because it was built as a conform, online and color grading tool. It was meant to import the timeline, fix all the issues, and then do the finishing work. Often it exports a timeline back to the NLEs because it can generate new media that has been color graded back to the other NLEs. There is a lot of work between this import and export step, often including generated new media. It just wasn’t meant to be a timeline list conversion tool because one person in the post-production chain is too lazy or too stubborn to learn one tool or the other.

Can you convert the whole project (not just the timeline) from this NLE to that NLE?

Short answer:

No. No, you cannot. Now stop asking.

Long answer:

All of these XML, EDL and AAF exports we are talking about is for timeline exchange between NLEs. There is no standard or reliable protocol for converting an entire project from one NLE to another. Until Opentimeline.io becomes a standard even the timeline exchange can have issues.

You are wanting things like project logging and organization that can include bins, markers and comments, synced audio, Multicam/grouped clip, subclips and selects or stringout sequences to translate from one NLE to another and that just isn’t realistic and isn’t possible at this point in time. Each NLE is different and uses its own architecture and currently, there aren’t any methods that provide for quick, easy and (most importantly) accurate translation of full projects from one NLE to another. Anything that isn’t accurate will require manual work to make right.

The director wants to work on Adobe Premiere Pro as the post house works on Avid Media Composer so can we send projects back and forth?

Short answer:

That isn’t easily possible so we need to get both working on the same NLE to save money, time and headaches as we work through this project.

Long answer:

I understand that we want to accommodate this director doing some of this own editing but since translating from one NLE to another isn’t fairly easy or accurate we should have one or the other adapt to save time and money.

The reason for this is that anything beyond basic cuts and dissolves won’t be supported and if we constantly have problems translating back and forth it’s going to frustrate the client and cost both of us money. This isn’t what the director does on a daily basis so we risk frustrating him or her as well. On top of that if the media we are linking to as we move these timelines around isn’t rock solid with proper file paths, unique file names and accurate timecode (at the very least) we are going to have problems relinking media on any system.

And also again add on top of that, if the director starts throwing in music, b-roll, still images or YouTube rips that will future complicate things if that media isn’t correctly prepared for proper post-production workflow. And then if the director starts scaling, zooming, cropping or doing any kind of animations or movement on their cut that won’t translate either and it’s going to take more time and money to reproduce.

Can we just manually recreate what they are doing in their NLE on our end?

Short answer:

Yes, we can manually recreate what someone does in another NLE in any other NLE. How much money do we have to do this? Is it billable by the hour and time-unlimited?

Long answer:

It is possible to do a manual conform of a timeline from one NLE to the other. This is what online and color grading sessions have been doing for years. That always begins with a list of some kind (XML, AAF or to a lesser extend EDL) that is imported into the online/grading system. But you only get so much accuracy and often have to do some manual work to match the shots.

That list is accompanied by a reference video file export (hopefully with source timecode burn-in) from the originating system (usually a ProRes .mov or H264 .mp4) so the manual work of conforming the designation timeline back to the original can begin. That reference BITC means you can manually find and fix the shots that do not conform with the list.

Here are two in-depth articles from 2013 about moving from editorial to color grading that might help understand this process and the issues we face in doing this move. One is from a colorist’s point of view and one is from an editor’s point of view so you get some different perspectives on this and how it can be a lot of work.

Manually doing anything in post-production means time. Time means money. Not having to move edits and projects between NLE can … wait for it … save money.

This article is obviously a bit tongue in cheek. It is possible to move timelines back and forth with relative ease if you have good media and once the proper workflow has been established. Often there isn’t the time for that or even the desire to put in the work to make it easy. It does require some technical knowledge that one side of the process might not have. Someone in the post-production chain making a workflow request after a cursory Google search happens all the time. Often directors who do some of their own editing (which is often the catalyst for this request) know just enough to get the job done when it comes to the technical ins and outs of a good workflow and nothing more. Sometimes the post-production supervisor who is making this request and watching the budget doesn’t realize the time this back and forth can take. And as we all know:

I hope this article can be helpful when you’re inevitably asked to move a project from one NLE to another.