Splice Now

Media Composer makes it easy to trim asymmetrically (simultaneously trimming some elements to the right and some to the left), but the technique contains a subtle bug. If you make an asymmetrical trim that eliminates a clip by trimming it away, the roller attached to that clip doesn’t know where to go — and it jumps to a nearby clip. In a complicated trim, this is inevitably jarring, and if you don’t catch it, it can lead to mistakes that you only discover later.

In the illustration below, if you were to trim to the right, and go far enough to eliminate the clip in v1, the v1 roller would jump to another transition.

The problem has been in the system for a long time — since asymmetrical trimming was introduced in the early 90s. Well, believe it or not, it’s finally fixed. In Media Composer 4.0 rollers never move. This may sound like a small thing, but if you spend a lot of time in trim mode, it might just be reason enough to upgrade. As the I Ching says “Perseverance Furthers.”

This entry was posted on November 1, 2009 at 8:19 am and is filed under Avid, Avid Technical Tips. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.