I've been an Avid editor forever.  i edited on one of the first Media Composers in Iowa, years .... ago.

i've also been on Mac forever.  I've also been on PC, but mostly Mac.

I've edited in MC, Newscutter, and currently in Xpress Pro, moving to Media Composer ... again.

I"m getting ready to make another investment in Avid software, but before i do, want to pose the question ... should I ??

it seems like Final Cut Pro ... which i own a copy of ... would be better in many ways, although i'm not completely famiiar with it.  i'm looking for someone with experience in both to either talk me off the ledge ... or push me off.  should i leave Avid after 20+ years ??

any advice would be appreciated.

Current system:

G5, OS 10.4.11 (purchasing new soon)

AXP 7.8 w/ Mojo (moving to MC with Adrenaline)

They're both just tools.  Either will probably work.  Which leads to the important question, what type of projects do you typically work on?  Any specific challenges they face?  Do you have any special requirements?  If you can provide the answers to these, there are forum members that are proficient on both and can offer their advice.

Why not use both? Each application has it's pros-and-cons and you can market better to meet client expectations.

I use both based on the project I am working on.  I use Avid Media Composer for a weekly TV show I edit for the Media Management.  I can always quickly find or recreate and of the shows segments I need to.

I use Final Cut for some of my quick live recording to add chapter points and burn a quick disk.

I use the Adobe CS3 suite to create our weekly announcements. I use a green screen to record, so Premiere captures, Ultra keys, Avid edits and Encore burns the DVD.

Use the tool appropriate to the job.  Let go of the this one has to be better because....... mentality.

Forgot to mention since this is the Mac Forum, I also use both platforms.  Mac Laptop and PC desktop, which is how I run Ultra.

No offense, but this has been beat to death in a million threads, including right here in this Community within the last few days. Do a little legwork.

For instance:

http://community.avid.com/forums/t/77045.aspx

http://community.avid.com/forums/t/74593.aspx

I've also covered this on my blog:

http://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2009/10/17/final-cut-vs-avid-redux/

http://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2009/09/29/avid-media-composer-2009/

http://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/the-new-final-cut-studio/

Now get crackin' and start reading!  ;-)

Cheers,

Oliver

Beat to death or not, it's still a wealth of fun conversations...

After 15 years on Avid I've just finished a feature on FCP and am in the middle of another feature... If your projects are big enough that you'll need to split the information up into several projects, you're going to really miss Avid (Avid has lots of files in a project, FCP can have just one but gets sluggish)... Match framing back to the source clip in a bin doesn't work if your edit is in one project and your dailies are in another.  I love a lot of things about FCP- working in the timeline is very fast, although the the options for selecting multiple edits to open and trim is lousy.  It's tough keeping effects rendered. Working with source/record ganged together is really lame. Media/Medadata management is a bit loose.  etc. etc.

I wish we could blend the two programs together!

The never ending discussion... Both do good work. Personally I'm more comfortable in Avid, but I can operate FCP with reasonable confidence (especially once I remap the keyboard). There are many things about FCP I find frustrating, and quite a few with Avid too. But my familiarity means I don't encounter Avid frustrations as often, I know what I need to avoid.

Without know more about your work I couldn't say what would be best. Personally I'd still be very shy of cutting anything with a lot of media in FCP - no full series work for example. I'd be much less hesitating about corporate videos, TVCs, short films, one off shows...

I run 50% Avids, 50% FCPs in an educational environment and both do great work. Students without an editing background tend to prefer FCP as they find the interface easier to pick up.

But the most decisive difference between them is media management. If your using FCP on a single machine it will usually handle media fine. If you're working offline/online or moving media around different machines FCP will eventually let you down. In my experience over the last decade Avid will be solid in this area whereas it always a pleasant surprise when FCP does what it is supposed to do at the first time of asking. I still find it hard to believe that FCP will not import an audio OMFI for example.

FCP gives an impression of openness, flexibility and ease, especially at the beginning -- the beginning of a project, and also to editors new to the program -- as it edits in a very obvious mouse-based way (though you can also be more keyboard-centric), and in terms of footage it will accept anything from anywhere; but it can be finishing that is the problem.Media management, render control, online/offline issues, support for external editors and export formats (OMF, AAF, EDL whatever), mixing, all these things are a bit weak. I say this having used it for ten years, since version 1.25.

I think there's a high potential that this kind of thing will drive you nuts if you are an experienced editor on Avid. The arguments for it are that you can edit and monitor a very wide variety of formats for a cheaper overall system cost, but you must take complete charge of all the ins and outs of the workflow, making sure you know how you're going to move/convert media at each step without losing quality, metadata, breaking connections, breaking master clips, etc. and how you're going to get it out at the end correctly. Basically the downside of its openness and low entry cost is that virtually nothing is automated, and you are obligated to understand the inner workings of it so you can catch it when it makes a mistake.

That being said, similar warnings could probably be made of any major media-creation software system including Avid, and I would say that for shorter, less complex, quick turnaround projects, if you can master your media control, FCP's way of working can be wickedly fast. I will say from my experience that long-form big project Avid editors are right to be wary of FCP for that work however.

Wow !!  thanks for the great responses everyone.  i can see there is a lot of passion out there about this topic.  sorry for repeating old news ... but thank you for the insights.  I will try the approach of running both ... if my old brain can spread that thin.  Will probably stick with Avid MC for repeat customers ... and accessing old edls, bins ... and use FCP as needed.  I just need to spend some "quality time" with FCP to get comfy.  Thanks again.  

Hi

I would highly advise against it.

I am crrently editing a feature which was started in FCP.

I have now moved it to Media Composer.

I lost mucho time on this film trying to correct the problems.

FCP in theory looks good on paper but the fact is (at least in my experience of using it for ten years)

It just does not work properly.

Just my two cents.

Good luck

We run both at our shop, but we do most of our work on Avid.  My experience is that when a job is done in FCP, we usually have a ton of issues, from lost media, to crashing, to losing edits.  I know they are both tools, and they both have their pluses and minuses, but in my experience, Avid is just a more mature, stable and solid environment. 

chomper129:

Avid is just a more mature, stable and solid environment. 

I agree 100%

And then there's the story of Avid to FCP and back to Avid, again. Especially in shared storage workflows.