Here’s a very useful 20 min video of an MC7 demo done by Corey Tedrow and Michael Krulik at NAB. It makes many of the new features a whole lot clearer. One nice surprise — waveforms are now cached by the system, something that hasn’t been in the press releases. Click the image to play video. Thanks to TadeuszT for the link.
Avid announced MC7 at NAB today. Along with some important new features, the upgrade features a major price drop: MC is now just $999 and the Symphony color corrector can be added as a $1500 upgrade.
New Features Include:
The press release is here. Additional details and pictures are here. MC7 will be available in June.
Avid has just released a video describing the new audio keyframe features in MC 6.5. It’s concise, well-produced, very informative and blessedly free of the marketing hype that you sometimes see in productions like this. For me, you don’t need any more reason than this to upgrade.
Avid released Media Composer and Symphony 6.5 yesterday. Details are in this press release, and in this new features page. The What’s New pdf is here. The new version offers several new features for file based delivery (JPEG 2000, AS-02 archives and AMA writeback), but the changes that will appeal most to working editors lie in the way the system deals with audio keyframes. You can now cut and paste selected keyframes from one clip to another, and can move groups of keyframes together. There are also quick keyboard shortcuts to raise and lower selected keyframes in one-db increments and to move keyframes left/right a frame at a time; and there are menu picks that allow you to remove hidden audio keyframes. I’ve lobbied for these changes for years and am thrilled to see them implemented in this release.
6.5 also allows you to move non-adjacent clips in the timeline — meaning that you can now select and drag a series of clips separated by filler, without selecting the filler. That too, has been long in coming and is most welcome. Finally, the system now supports 64 audio voices. Voices aren’t the same as tracks, which are still limited to 24. But now that we can cut and mix stereo and 5.1 tracks, it’s easy to blow past the old 16-voice limit. All in all, it should be a very useful release. It’s available now with a Media Composer upgrade price of $500. Students get it for free.
I’m happy to announce that Amazon has reinstated its usual discounts on “Avid Agility.” You can now get the new third edition for about 27% off the cover price. That beats the discounted price at CreateSpace and includes free shipping. If you are frustrated by the limits of Avid’s documentation, you need this book. Details and pdf samples are here. Amazon also has the Kindle edition, at an even lower price, which allows you to have the book on your iPad, iPhone, Android device, and on your Mac or PC at the same time.
Those of you who already have the book and want to support it — please add a review at Amazon. Thanks!
The latest edition of Avid Agility, my book about Avid Media Composer, is now available from Amazon. If you’re looking to make the most out of Media Composer 6, you’re going to love this book. Filled with detailed screen shots, it offers a concise, visual, and easy-to-understand look at how to use the system — from an editor’s perspective. The new third edition has been extensively revised, is almost 50 pages longer and includes a new chapter on Script Integration and ScriptSync.
The ebook is now available, as well. It’s designed for all Kindle devices but it looks terrific on color screens like those on the iPad, Kindle Fire and Android tablets. You can also open it in the Kindle app for your Mac or PC, making it easy to have it on the same screen as your favorite editing application.
For details, reviews and pdf samples, check out this page.
To get a 20% discount on the print edition, order the book directly from the publisher, CreateSpace, and enter this code when you check out: HGDQXDTN.
CreateSpace // Amazon // Kindle
If you’re using MC6, be sure to get the Third Edition.
[Update — on Friday, an Amazon software glitch prevented installation of the digital book on the iPad. But as of Saturday morning, everything appears to be working. I’m very sorry about this. If you are still having problems, please let me know at steve@splicenow.com.]
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