Splice Now

The FCP/MC comparison seems to have generated a fair amount of controversy. That’s all to the good because it’ll make our tools better.

Thanks to all of you who have commented. The FCP features some of you mentioned are definitely wins and I should have included them: the ability to search across bins, add angles to groups already cut, and enable or disable clips in the timeline. All useful and not available in the MC.

I didn’t mean to gloss over FCP’s trim mode. Yes, it’s there, and Apple duplicated much of the basic functionality from the Media Composer. But, for me, and for many other longform editors, the subtleties are missing. One of the main things you can’t do is monitor the audio tracks on an asymmetrical cut while dragging along the picture. Moreover, when you do so, the MC shows you little trim outlines so it’s really clear which direction everything is moving. No such thing happens in FCP. You also can’t trim a slip or slide while watching moving video.

Regardless of which side you like right now, the competition is good for editing and I hope the the manufacturers continue to study our needs and do their best to satisfy us. The deeper we get into understanding and evaluating these applications, the better they are going to become.

I appreciate your feedback; please keep it coming.

This entry was posted on July 31, 2006 at 7:49 am and is filed under Avid, Avid vs. Final Cut, Final Cut. 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.