An Introduction to Transition Preservation
Media Composer 4 introduced Transition Preservation, Avid’s term for a group of enhancements that improve the handling of dissolves during editing. It’s one of those features that’s so intuitive that it immediately feels like you’ve been using it for years — and then you wonder how you did without it for so long. It’s all about timeline dynamics, and that makes it difficult to explain in words. So I’ve posted a video that explains it.
As mentioned in a comment from Grant yesterday, Transition Preservation might be all the reason you need to move to 4.0. Watch the video below or check it out a larger version on Vimeo.
Explore posts in the same categories: Avid Technical Tips, With Video
Splice Now 
September 11, 2009 at 12:21 pm
This is really great. Now if only the shows I work on would upgrade.
Thanks for the video!
September 11, 2009 at 3:09 pm
This is awesome, but I’m really excited about a feature you used that I didn’t know about and can take advantage of immediately. I had no idea you could add a dissolve directly from trim mode, that’s awesome!
September 11, 2009 at 5:04 pm
My workaround to preserve dissolve on audio tracks to move a SFX or a music to another channel was to add an “ADD-EDIT” mark next to the dissolve on an empty space on the timeline, later with the red arrow I selected the SFX and the Filler next to it and move wherever I want.
September 11, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Yeah that method works well for segment mode. Being able to trim over and, finally, splice from a source transition is going to be really nice, though. The workarounds for those two things weren’t nearly as neat or easy as just adding an edit to the filler.
September 13, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Great new features!
One thing that I’m puzzled about is if you have two clips with a Transition and you move the B-side clip (approx 1:15 in your video), the dissolve stays with the A-side clip. What if you wanted to have the dissolve stay with the B-side?
That was always the paradox that I assumed prevented this feature from being possible.
September 13, 2009 at 11:03 pm
Great new features indeed.
Now we, the Avid users, want is more audio tracks and if possible audio nesting abilities (like FCP).
Oh, and of course real time waveforms
September 17, 2009 at 4:02 am
[…] a number of other new additions like transition preservation, improved 3D editing and Macintosh support for the Pro Tools Satellite feature. Steve Cohen has […]
September 22, 2009 at 5:14 am
..long live fcp !!
September 25, 2009 at 9:45 am
Hey
first: thanx for explaining this so well.
second: Delveloper Team woke up!!!!! I hear the bell´s ringing!!!! :-)
I´m waiting for this to happen since 1996….
Thanx
Peter
(i´ve got tears in my eyes!)