Axle.ai is a fast, powerful and customizable media asset management system that is designed for the needs of a small to medium sized workgroup. This is an in-depth product review, along with an interview with Axle.ai CEO Sam Bogoch.
The CalDigit Thunderbolt Station 4 (TS4): More ports and more speed in one small box with a great price. However, there are a few key issues you need to understand before you buy. Here’s my detailed review.
The ATEN UC8000 MicLIVE AI-powered podcast audio mixer is a good first effort, but it isn’t ready for production. It is well-built but not well thought-out. Here’s my review.
The TourBox is a small control surface for just about any Windows or Mac application – with a special emphasis on media creation and editing. It is well-built with a very well-designed software interface. There’s only one small problem…
The iRig Pro Quattro I/O is a four-channel audio interface perfect for recording music or video in the field, or for live-steaming podcasts or other productions. Here’s an in-depth review.
What I like about the Classic Color Meter is that it works the way you expect, measures colors six ways from Sunday and allows copying and pasting color values, even color images, from whatever you measured into whatever you need. Here’s how it works.
Last week, Apple reassured editors it remained committed to Final Cut. But were they firing up development or simply being nice? This article is an effort to spark a discussion between Final Cut editors on what features they want to see and how important those features are. I encourage you to add your suggestions and comments.
If you have a crashed hard disk and need to recover images, Stellar Photo Recovery may be worth considering. But if you have specific images that used to open, but don’t open now, Stellar Photo Recovery didn’t work for me. It may work for you.
Let me talk about makeup for people on camera for a minute. OC8 is an inexpensive gel that reduces excessive shine from oily skin. It helps folks on camera look great. Learn more.
evrExpanse, a media metadata and transcoding tool, was updated to 2.1.6. The new version provides support for more codecs and faster performance. Here’s a first look.
There are cheaper soft lights out there, but I like the quality of the Lumecube Edge Light. It is well-built, easily adjustable and floods a medium-sized area with clean, soft light. Here’s my review.
SilverFast SE Plus 9, by LaserSoft Imaging, provides high-quality image scans for professional use. However, it has an interface that takes time to learn. It does a great job, not because of its interface, but in spite of it. Here’s my review.
I’m a long-time owner of an Epson Perfection V600 Photo scanner. But, recently I purchased an Epson V850 Pro because I have a lot of slides to scan. In this review, I compare both and share the strengths and weaknesses of each.
The Marshall Electronics CVM-16 Pro-Style Tripod Stand is the most solidly-built, well-thought-out, versatile small tripod I’ve ever seen. It was designed by people who take photographs for a living. And it’s built to last for years. Here’s my review.
The Elgato Stream Deck is an easy-to-use, flexible and well-built external keyboard specifically designed to trigger actions by pushing a button with your fingers, not the mouse. For live events, webinars, gaming and general productivity, this is a great little device.
The G-DRIVE ArmorATD is a solid value for a reasonably-rugged, medium-capacity, portable hard drive. It isn’t the fastest, it isn’t the most rugged, but it is made by a reliable company that should meet the needs of anyone needing portable storage.
LG makes good monitors, but, in the case of the 27UK500, if you are tall or need to tweak how your monitor looks, the 27UK500 monitor should be avoided.
The OWC Mercury Pro U.2 Dual provides extremely fast, high-capacity storage that’s essential for many creative workflows today. It works perfectly as plug-and-play, but has problems if you tweak.
Accusonus has been improving audio for a long time. Regardless of where you edit your audio, ERA 6 can make it sound better. Here’s a look at the new ERA 6 bundle with automatic, customizable audio repair.
The sound these monitors produce is very clean, crisp and rich that fills the space. If you are looking for accurate, high-quality sound in a small space, give these Yamaha monitor speakers a good listen. Larry Jordan has a review.
The OWC Envoy Pro FX SSD delivers performance, compatibility and ruggedness. It is also smokin’ fast. It supports both Mac and Windows computers and provides storage from 240 GB to 2 TB. Here’s my review.
The ProCo Power Mute CPMD mic switch is a ruggedly-built, easy to use and reasonably quiet mic mute, well-suited for live events or recording. Here’s Larry Jordan’s detailed product review.
Voice Changer, from Accusonus, is a plug-in for most popular NLEs that creates voice effects from robot to dragon. It is fast, easy to use and a fascinating sound design tool to bring the sounds in your imagination to life.
The iRig Pre HD means you can travel wherever you want, with whatever mics you want and record them on whatever device you have handy and get high quality results. Here are the details.
The Lume Cube panels are solidly built, easily adjustable, and come with flexible mounting options for different situations. I bought these for myself – here’s my review.
EditMentor is an online education tool that teaches the craft of editing. It is deep, extensive and well-thought-out. It is obviously a labor of love on the part of the EditMentor team, with a clear focus on education. Here’s a review.
The Whirlwind Micmute PMD has exactly one job – to mute a microphone – but it fails miserably at it. It generates a loud noise spike every time the mute button is pushed. The details are in my review.
The OWC Envoy Pro Elektron is a small, rugged, fast, bus-powered storage system that easily fits in your pocket. With speeds averaging over 900 MB/second, it can easily support multicam or traditional HD editing. Here’s a detailed review.
accusonus believes that audio effects can be both powerful and easy to use. Supporting all major editing software, the ERA 5 bundle includes 13 plug-ins to fix common audio problems. Here’s a first look at what’s inside.
Disk Warrior is an essential Mac-based trouble-shooting, repair and optimization tool for any Mac system accessing spinning hard drives. I’ve used it for years and continue to highly recommend it.
Easy to connect, easy to use and extremely well-built. The OWC Thunderbolt 3 10G Ethernet Adapter works exactly as you would expect. And what higher praise is there?
Audio Design Desk is an amazing program. It creates sound environments quickly and easily. Its ability to replace sounds with similar sounds, without messing up timing or sync is unique. It’s a sound designers dream – once you figure out how it works.
The Mercury Pro LTO tape system is a well-constructed, high-speed and easy to use tape archive system for media creators. Bundled with myLTO software, it can get new users archiving quickly, yet fully support more demanding archive applications.
The brand-new ArmorLock SSD from G-Technology is fast, secure and rugged. But, it has problems when trying to add multiple secure users to the drive. It’s a great idea that needs tweaking.
A product review of five powerful Mac-based audio plugins to repair common audio problems that are easy-to-use and deliver great results. They support Final Cut Pro X, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve and are worth adding to your toolkit.
Configuring a 2020 27″ iMac for video editing, with recommendations for system components, along with a discussion of this system vs. new Apple silicon gear.
CommandPost is a free, flexible, customizable tool that allows editors to get far more out of Final Cut Pro X than they would ever expect. Here’s an illustrated tutorial to this powerful software.
Video walls for performances are very popular. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to create them, using Final Cut Pro X and the Griddy plugin from FXFactory.
I’m impressed with how Image Capture simplifies moving files between iPhone and Mac. It is easy to use, capable, fast and secure. And, best of all, it’s already installed on your system.
ChronoX is a very useful app for testing your system in a real-world setting to help you maximize its performance. Here’s a detailed look at what it is and how it works.
An in-depth look at the latest release of ArGest Backup 4.0 from TOLIS Group. This is specifically designed for archiving assets to LTO tape. This review uses the LTO-8 tape format.
Simon Says On-Prem is a secure, fast, and easy-to-use transcription system that supports all major NLEs. It’s designed for editors needing a high volume of accurate transcripts with absolute security. Here are the details.
The DataColor SpyderX Elite calibrates computer monitors for accurate color. It is easy to use, but has limited tutorial, limited help, and was not able to match colors between two monitors attached to the same computer.
Pro Color Monitor is an innovative way to enable editors to monitor and modify images with color problems without requiring a degree in video engineering, though it can use some work to make it easier to understand its display.
An introduction to Drylab, which makes tools to help scripted production teams make better film and TV, while reducing costs and overhead. Plus an interview with founder, John Christian Rosenlund.
Retrospect 16 – powerful, flexible and, handicapped by out-of-date tutorials and an unhelpful User Guide, very, very difficult for the new user to learn.
A review of “The Filmmaker’s Handbook” by Steven Ascher and Edward Pincus.
Post Haste can help you get organized right at the start of a project by creating folders and files automatically, and in a format you control. This free app is worth a look – here are the details.
Image Chest is a Mac app that catalogs and finds images. This is a helpful app for managing all the stills associated with a video project. It isn’t perfect, but it is worth a look. Here are the details.
A user-writeup of a custom shooting rig for the Blackmagic Design 6K Pocket Cinema Camera.
