David Yardley:

However, the eloquent protests of many did eventually allow us to effectively turn off the "Smart Tool."

You brought back memories of this little tutorial I made about an idea I had to help switch off the Smart Tool

HERE

Regards

Douglas

Funny.. :-)

Is there really an option to turn it completely off? Where? All I know are the two checkboxes in the timeline settings to make the timeline behave like it did before. The way it is implemented now doesn't bother me - and heck, there might be a bunch of people (beginners?) who find it useful. Who knows..

However, that is definitely not true for the mute/solo buttons. Please Avid, give us an option to handle this. I am pretty sure there is a way to do this that even BEGINNERS would understand (or just not use at all). Just some function that mutes or solos the selected audio tracks. Pretty please.

(Or change it back to the way it was before) :-)

We've had "solo/mute selected tracks" on our list of "to-dos" for a few years now.  Unfortunately, in the big list, it hasn't made it to the "done" pile yet.  It's not because we don't want to, but there were lots of other things that needed to get done this cycle.. waveforms were a big deal, and I hope you like the mini gain sliders in the timeline (yes I know they need to be ganged).  Also, we ported the entire video engine into Pro Tools which took a lot of time from some folks who otherwise might have worked on audio features.

Sorry to make you wait, but you're doing absolutely the right thing.. keep being vocal about stuff you need us to do.  The more we hear about it from different people, the more it tends to get pushed up the list.

Thanks,

Doug

I am sorry Doug, I do not like the faders (and the trim values) in the timeline.

A complex timeline gets too cluttered with them shown (see page 2 in this thread) but I do like to be able to see the clip gain shown as before, and use the external controller, or the mixer to alter the clip gain.

Was this a feature request?

Please can we have the option to have it as it was?

Do not forget Job ter Burg's distilation of what needs attending too by you guys.

Kind Regards,

David Y

If you are aiming to display everything at the same time - it's too much, yes. I have an extra timeline view for audio editing. They come in handy from time to time. Wouldn't say they are useless. However, also being able to view it in the old way wouldn't hurt.

By the way: I really miss being able to set a custom color for  everything. That was such a cool feature. Why did you drop it back in MC5?

hitINdaGs:

I am tired of software developers thinking, professional software must be in the first place easy to use for a beginner.

Hmm, maybe all that revenue that can be gained by allowing more access to your product?  Create brand-advocates earlier in the process?  Have the new editor-crowd in your camp as soon as possible?

If you think Avid wants to wait until a young editor goes through a couple "simple" products (perhaps) from the competition and THEN come to Media Composer, you are kidding yourself.

hitINdaGs:

This is excatly what Apple did to their professional software - and look what happened.

If your are referring to the release of X, what exactly has happened?  Apple, while it totally screwed the pooch on the release of X and the death of FCP7, has released a product that has simplified the visual storytelling process and is rapidly gaining the young editor market.  And it's extremely versatile, nimble and powerful.  So, I think the jury is still out on the "look what happened" comment.  Perhaps Avid might want to "look what is happening".  Why does creating a good visual story have to be a complicated process?  

Are we seriously going to have this discussion here?

switthaus:

Why does creating a good visual story have to be a complicated process?  

Because it is.

switthaus:

is rapidly gaining the young editor market

Are you talking about those people doing wedding videos or pro editors for broadcast and feature? No source monitor? Are you kidding?

Avid should closely watch what Adobe is doing, because they do some really cool stuff. But Final Cut X? Come on..

switthaus:

If you think Avid wants to wait until a young editor goes through a couple "simple" products (perhaps) from the competition and THEN come to Media Composer, you are kidding yourself.

Don't get me wrong, I do think that Avid should in many ways become simpler and easier to use. Some things are really old fashioned. I can't even import a High-Res JPG into Avid to with it in a proper way. The Pan&Zoom effect is a joke and doesn't even allow rotating.

How about easier media management? How about an option that lets you update imported footage with one click, a PSD for example. AMA is still a pain in many cases. You should be able to choose MXF folders for different projects, and a whole lot of effects that come with Avid should be updated. Why the heck is the letterbox effect still referring ONLY to 4:3 footage? Why is there no presets for other aspect ratios? Why is FrameFlex so complicated and doesn't just let you use the full image?How about RGB full swing color projects?

But I think this is not the place to discuss this in depth.

hitINdaGs:

pro editors for broadcast and feature?

pretty narrow definition of "pro".  More like a niche in the "pro" market.

hitINdaGs:

No source monitor?

Dont miss it, now that you mention it.

hitINdaGs:

Final Cut X? Come on..

Yup.  Been doing this 30 years and I am serious.  If you haven't spent quality time on the product using it the way it was designed to be used (not like you cut on Avid or FCP7), then you really can't comment.  Not good for every project, of course, but *** good for most of them.  I still have MC and CS6 on my editing systems, but X is taking more projects every day.

I said it when it was first released: Avid will make a big mistake ignoring this product and boxing it in as a little "wedding video" editor.  Avid ignored Final Cut when it first came out and FC chewed a large hunk out of it's market share.  Avid should not make the same mistake twice (although I am really not sure what Avid can do about it).  Of course there is always the question "will Apple continue to support the product"....

..but we stray off topic...

Dhansel:

you're doing absolutely the right thing.. keep being vocal about stuff you need us to do.  The more we hear about it from different people, the more it tends to get pushed up the list.

Thanks,

Doug

Doug, I am very impressed with your statement, as I was impressed & amazed when the edition of Xpress DV with Color Correction tools was released, so long ago. It was ground breaking. Today, I really miss the customization of the UI that was part of that release. When I sit down in front of MC v7.0, I am much less enthused by comparison. Are those days of color and customization gone forever?

http://reviews.cnet.com/video-editors/avid-xpress-dv-3/4505-3670_7-21117059.html

"Advanced users will appreciate the high degree of user customization that's available in version 3.5. Everything from button styles and workspace colors to window arrangements, encoding and output settings, and keyboard mapping can be set according to your preferences."

Maybe we should move this discussion into a different thread, but I like where this is going :-)

One thing that is really great about FCP X: Auto sync a clip with external sound. Too bad that professional cameras like Alexa and RED don't allow sound recording. Otherwise this feature would be a groundbreaking feature and there would be no need to - how do you say in English - hit the clap? anymore.

Re: Customization: I can't promise anything as that is largely up to Product Management.  However, it would be useful to know exactly which part of the customization you are missing and exactly how it helped you work more efficiently. This might help make the case for getting at least some of what you are missing back?

I think the original concern from folks in product management prior to v6 was that the Avid "brand" could get effectively be destroyed by some of the crazy customizations we had seen..  Basically to the point of being unrecognizable as an Avid system.   That was seen as a negative by execs at the time.

So, concrete examples on how organizational ability has been lost, etc. would be helpful to log so product management and engineering can understand the issue.

Thanks,

Doug

Dhansel:

the original concern from folks in product management prior to v6 was that the Avid "brand" could get effectively be destroyed by some of the crazy customizations we had seen..  Basically to the point of being unrecognizable as an Avid system.   That was seen as a negative by execs at the time.

With all due respect: stories like these are showing PRECISELY what is wrong with the company and the product.

It does not matter how the EXECS feel it LOOKS, nor does brand recognition (you can do that in your logo's and marketing material) but whether or not your CLIENTS can make it USEFUL to THEM.

Really, it IS that simple. Or, it should be.

Dhansel:

concrete examples on how organizational ability has been lost

Cannot change size for Audio Mixer meters. Would want to add/remove tracks from the Mixer at my own discretion, based on how many tracks I have (see PT). Cannot customize/save the current Audio Mixer settings per user or project. Cannot map Clip Gain and Auto Gain for quick access (like we could when they were two separate windows). Cannot easily change font size for many existing bins in one go. Lost a whole bunch of color settings that let us set up darker or lighter areas for bins and other backgrounds (the dark/light slider does not do HALF of what was touted as revolutionary customizablity around the year 2000, then destroyed in v5/v6). Got new tools (like the Smart Tool) that can NOT be hidden (unlike EVERY other tool in the interface - I want it gone and never have to look at it, even if it's useful to others). This is my first minute of thinking, I can think of more. Product management should have an easy job gathering comments like these, and they should already have a pile of comments like that - if they ever talk to end users. But I guess they must have been talking to a whole different crowd than I have, for the last 5 years or so.

Here's an idea for product management: while there's still older versions of the software to download, install various versions from the last 15 years and have a look at them. Use them. Even just MC4.5. Then give us back all that you guys felt you needed to take away because of 'brand recognition'.

Edited out all curse words before posting.

Dhansel:

crazy customizations we had seen

Amen, Job!