(Continued from Page 1) To start out, it’s important to understand that all NLE software packages, without question, base themselves around similar standard concepts: Video and audio capture, clip organization, playback and record monitors, a timeline to place clips, transitions and effects, a host of filters and FX tools and eventual playback to tape and/or disc. How these various editors approach these concepts is what creates the love/hate relationship with the user. Most times they are all looking over their shoulders, borrowing, sharpening and modifying a competitor’s ideas and making it their own. That’s the beauty of competition in the marketplace.
Final
Cut is no different. The interface design is quite striking; clean and
unobtrusive with well placed buttons that have a sleek, 3D feel. You have
your standard project window for importing clips, and resizable dual monitor
windows that utilize the popular three-point editing functions found in
the Avid system.
Capturing video was fairly straightforward after all the DV presets were set up in the preferences menus. The software controlled the camera beautifully, and batch capturing was a breeze.
The timeline, although clean and easy to view, has a few drawbacks. The program's designers chose a butt edit system where clips are placed end to end and transitions, such as dissolves or wipes, are assigned by double-clicking on the edit point and using handles to control the length of the effect, both in and out. I much prefer the dual video timeline where clips are placed in alternate channels and are overlapped to the length of the effect. This method is much easier and exact when trying to control a transition’s in and out points.
The effects palette was full of a variety of transitions; although most are of the cheesy, fly-around, page-roll type you see in most late night infomercials. These transitions are customizable, however, which gives Final Cut the advantage over most other packages who only offer a few stock moves.
Another small shortcoming is audio. Although you can control audio levels by double-clicking the clip in the timeline, which opens up a waveform window with volume and pan controls, I would much prefer a drop-down waveform control within the timeline that would give you a rubber-banding method of fading audio up or down with more accuracy. This keeps audio editing right at your fingertips, instead of traveling through a variety of windows to reach your controls. Also, the project timeline and audio waveform window cursors do not move in sync through the project, making it a little tough to figure out where you are as you tweak audio. Another weak point is effects filters for audio. You are supplied with a healthy array of filters (echo, panning, etc.) but cannot hear your effect until after you render. If you forget to render you hear this annoying “beep” as a reminder. In other NLE programs you can at least hear a preview loop of a short section of the audio you are filtering to make instant changes to the filter until it sounds the way you want it to before you render.
Another snag worth mentioning is a “dropped frame” warning which appeared when trying to scroll or play video from the timeline. Several messages were left with Apple and various user groups, but no answers yet have been found.