Music Videos, what Video Editor to use ?

[offki]

Adobe Premiere Elements 10 | Features

Don't overlook Premiere Elements, I have no idea what you're going to do, but it's fast and very simple.

[fooddude]

I started with FCP6 and used it for a few years. Got and tried out FCPX a few months ago. Very disappointed with it and not as "manual" as the older more professional FCP's (heck, there's not even a Pen tool, wtf?!). Returned it the next day and got FCP7. FCP7 is great, has the most popular plugins. There's no plugins for FCPX, yet. Many, including myself, see FCPX as more consumer and totally more akin to iMovie, you can even tell by the fancy shmancy design and "look" of it like the colors, window/border graphics and stuff. Seems more consumer-fashion prog, than a real pro workhorse. Might as well call it iMovie-Pro or something.. but NOT FCP! :/

As for which prog for special effects, more special plug-ins, and super cool editing capability stuff... the industry standard I think would be AE. I use it only for a few plug-ins, but not at all versed in it and don't know a lot of stuff you can do in it like 3d compositing, tracking, cool text, etc. I always wished I knew how to use AE; but just global-transporting/transferring back and forth to FCP could already be a pain in itself and there are special plug-ins just to transport to each other (even those plug-ins/programs can be buggy and not work perfect too; hence a pain and why I never really got into AE that much). So i'd pick FCP7, AE, and maybe PremierePro if you plan to use AE alot (since Premiere and AE are both Adobe related; similarly to how FCP and Motion is under the same Apple manufacturer)

[syntheticrhyme]

I use and highly recommend sony vegas. I've used final cut pro in the past but just prefer vegas. I published a few tips which might be of use to anyone looking into filming their own music video

How To Film A High Quality Music Video Yourself | This Music Business

[sineson]

I use Adobe Premiere and After Effects because I have Adobe Suite, but Sony Vegas is very intuitive. Its like Sony Acid but with video.
I would go with Vegas.

[muziksculp]

Hi,

Thanks for your feedback.

I am leaning towards using both Adobe, and Apple video editing programs, and since both options are multi-platform applications, a must for my needs. I will primarily use them on a Mac OSX-Snow Leopard, but sometimes on PC/Win7.

Apple (FCP-X and Motion 5)

Adobe (Premiere Pro and After Effects).

I don't think I can go wrong by having more tools at my disposal, I hear mixed feedback regarding FCP-X, but I think Apple is beginning to add more of the missing features via updates. I like the overall interface of FCP-X, and having worked with iMovie, it seems to be easy to adapt to. Motion 5 is a killer program for the price ($49).

Another program that seems to be attractive for my type of video production ideas (mainly to accompany my musical projects) is 'Artmatic 5, and 'Artmatic Voyager version 2. To create some interestng, futuristic landscapes, and much more. They also offer V-Track which is quite a hip video editor. These programs are offered by uisoftware. Here is the link:

ArtMatic & ArtMatic Voyager

I'm not sure if anyone has any experience with uisoftware's 'Artmatic', and 'Artmatic Voyager' programs, but their V-Track seems to only work via Rosetta in (OSX leopard, and Snow Leopard), but is not compatible with OSX-Lion. Which is fine in my case, since I'm using OSX Snow Leopard. Another downside, is it currently does not support multi-processors. and since I have a Mac Pro (2008) 2X Quad 3.0 Ghz with 24 GB RAM, and 1GB VRam graphics card, it's kind of a bummer this program does not take advantage of my computer's resources. I hope they update their apps. for today's computers.

Are there any other similar programs to uisoftware's 'Artmatic', and 'Artmatic Voyager' for the Mac that I could consider ?

Any additional feedback on this would be appreciated, and very helpful.

Cheers,
Muziksculp

[sineson]

Check out Vue.
Looks similar for landscapes.
For Mac and PC.

e-on software - Solutions for Natural 3D Environments

[Revisionist]

Final cut pro. The one without the "X". Definitely the best I've used but I have yet to try Avid

[fooddude]

These is a reason you hear mixed reviews about the new FCP-X! :P

Reason = it sucks.

Do you hear many "mixed reviews" about the original FCP's, premiere, vegas, etc.? Nope.

Get the older, REAL FCP's (FCP7 or FCP6, check craigslist)..and not the X.

I have an older version of Sony Vegas and it's easy to use and there are good tutorials for it online at YouTube. However, the version I have is limited to only 3 tracks of video and 3 tracks of audio. This is extremely limiting so be careful when you buy; make sure you know the max number of tracks of the version you are buying. Also the installer made some serious mistakes that I had to fix manually. So it could totally fail on some systems where the user doesn't know what to do as a remedy.

Last but not least, a lot of video editing programs require the purchase and/or installation of QuickTime (usually for various types of MPEG-4 support) which can mess up your codecs and system stability with videos. This is annoying since some of us prefer to use FFdShow TryOuts or whatnot.

[aunshui]

I cut everything on FCP 6 and 7. I don't see myself going elsewhere any time soon

[muziksculp]

Originally Posted by fooddude

These is a reason you hear mixed reviews about the new FCP-X! :P

Reason = it sucks.

Do you hear many "mixed reviews" about the original FCP's, premiere, vegas, etc.? Nope.

Get the older, REAL FCP's (FCP7 or FCP6, check craigslist)..and not the X.

From my observations, it seems like most FCP7 users who tried FCPX seem to not like it, or complain about missing features, and the new iMovie style GUI.

But.. On the other hand, most of iMovie , and new comers to FCPX who have not worked with FCP7 seem to like it a lot. (I guess I belong to this category). I also feel that FCPX will gradually add more features, and become more popular, just give it some time. By the way, I have seen some unique plug-ins becoming available for FCPX. So, I'm not totally sure about the lack of plug-in support at this time.

You might want to check this website (it has many interesting articles, and resources for FCPX users) :

FCPX


Adobe (AE), and Premiere Pro are also very popular, and will surely be interesting to use, and get creative with them, plus, I think they integrate with the other Adobe Creative Suite programs.

[muziksculp]

Originally Posted by sineson

Check out Vue.
Looks similar for landscapes.
For Mac and PC.

e-on software - Solutions for Natural 3D Environments

Thanks for the helpful info., I will check it out.

[Dirty Halo]

Final Cut Pro and Avid are the industry standards. If you're really going to learn to edit, you may as well do it on a system with a skill set that could become a decent career in itself.

(BTW- I'm in an edit suite as I type this, my editor prefers Avid, but works on Final Cut about 50% of the time.)

-andrews

[muziksculp]

Originally Posted by astroidmist

I have an older version of Sony Vegas and it's easy to use and there are good tutorials for it online at YouTube. However, the version I have is limited to only 3 tracks of video and 3 tracks of audio. This is extremely limiting so be careful when you buy; make sure you know the max number of tracks of the version you are buying. Also the installer made some serious mistakes that I had to fix manually. So it could totally fail on some systems where the user doesn't know what to do as a remedy.

Last but not least, a lot of video editing programs require the purchase and/or installation of QuickTime (usually for various types of MPEG-4 support) which can mess up your codecs and system stability with videos. This is annoying since some of us prefer to use FFdShow TryOuts or whatnot.

Yes, Sony Vegas is very popular too, I haven't had enough time to check their latest version, (Although I wish it ran on Mac OSX), but it is Windows only, not a major problem, but I think the Adobe option is more popular in the professional arena. Especially for those users that have other Adobe Creative Suite programs, i.e. Photoshop, ...etc.

[Osc1lfo]

The pro editing apps have steep learning curves. Start with a simple app like iMovie until the limitations are driving you nuts - which may not even happen.

Adobe Premiere Pro is very good and an easy transition for FCP7 users, without most of the old FCP's speed bumps to workflow.

[louis.lbnc]

I used fcp 7 for a while, I decided to give fcpx a try. Oddly enough, I really like it. It's straightforward and it gets stuff done.

First time I opened to software, I just got going, nothing to learn, and it takes care of everything in the background. As someone who's much more involved in music than video, I can kind of feel that I'm more in GarageBand territory and that pros might want more controls and option (though not much, I think most of the features pros need have been added, I think it's the workflow that might not be there yet for them). As someone who, from time to times edits some video, I feel like I'm pretty efficient without even with little experience.

What you plan on doing with the software and your budget might be better guides to what software you should get than simply comparing them.

[muziksculp]

Hi,

It's been a while since I revisited this thread.

Well... I decided to go Adobe Premiere Pro.

Actually I subscribed to Adobe's Creative Cloud service, I get their entire CS6 line of products. Which is a bit of an overkill for my current needs, but I think I will enjoy having these tools at my disposal if I need them, ie. Photoshop, After Effects, Illustrator, Audition, ..etc.

http://www.adobe.com/products/creati...130418080005:s

I'm just beginning to learn Premiere Pro, and After Effects.

Cheers,
Muziksculp