Blog Archives

A detailed review of the new music plug-in from Smartsound that connects with either Final Cut Pro X or Adobe Premiere Pro CC.

A detailed review of “Final Cut Library Manager” from Arctic Whiteness.

A detailed product review of the ioSafe 2014 – disaster recovery storage for your data.

An in-depth look at the Promise Technology Pegasus2 Thunderbolt RAID, from the perspective of video editing.

A comparison of Adobe Media Encoder and Apple Compressor running on a new Mac Pro. [Updated]

A speed comparison between the iMac and new Mac Pro, testing video compression speeds. The winner may surprise you!

A detailed review and system configuration on the new Apple Mac Pro computer.

A review of new utilities for Final Cut Pro X that speed common editing tasks.

An explanation of how to configure the new MacPro to get the best performance for the least amount of money. (This was written before the MacPro was released.)

A detailed look at the latest release of Sorenson Media’s Squeeze Pro 9.

A detailed review of SpectraLayers Pro 2 from Sony Creative Software.

A detailed product review of the Areca 8050 Thunderbolt RAID.

A detailed product review of the new G-Technology G-Dock ev storage system.

An in-depth look at the ShuttlePRO v2 and ShuttleXpress from Contour Design.

SliceX with mocha is a new plug-in from CoreMelt that can solve a variety of rotoscoping problems in Final Cut Pro X.

The Neat Video Reduce Noise filter does an amazing job reducing video noise created by shooting in low-light situations.

A step-by-step guide to creating extremely slow-motion clips using Twixtor in Final Cut Pro X.

A detailed product review of Sony’s Sound Forge Pro Mac audio software.

A detailed product review of the Drobo 5D Thunderbolt RAID.

A look at new Samurai and NInja digital video recorders from Atomos, and why they are helpful during production.

Trevor Ward sent me his review of the Sony PMW-100 camcorder, based on his use at the London Olympics.

This is a first-look at Autodesk Smoke 2013, Pre-Release Trial 1; what it is and how to get started.

A hardware review of the RAIDAGE GAGE104U40 series 4-bay RAID, manufactured by iStarUSA.

ScopeBox 3, new from Divergent Media, is designed to replace hardware scopes with software. Here’s a video demo.

A few weeks ago, AJA sent me a new KiPro Mini to take a look at.

GenArts, long recognized as a leader in high-end visual effects, announced a new version of its Sapphire product line at the London SuperMeet in late June.

One of the limitations of FCP X is that all Events and Projects must be open at all times. This product is a stand-alone utility that makes file management much easier in FCP X.

Here’s a product review of the iStoragePro; a RAID with a rocket attached to it.

You know the drill. The client didn’t have the money for makeup when they were shooting the video, then is horrified to discover in post that their star/kid/sweetie has a humongous zit that spoils all the close-ups of the video they dumped in your lap to edit.

Drobo has been making a lot of noise in the market with its new storage hybrid – part RAID, part expandable hard drive. I’ve been using one for a couple of months now and in this review, I put it to work and discover that it can serve a very useful role in editing, but not in the place you would expect.

Data Robotics released a new storage unit: the Drobo Elite. In this detailed product review, we examine how it works, how well it works, how fast it works, and what its limitations are.

The Drobo line of storage products offers a lot for video and audio editors. Their newest product – the Drobo FS – doesn’t help editors, but it CAN help around the office, as this detailed review explains.

Data Robotics makes a family of RAID products that can be very useful in a video capture and editing environment. This is a review of their latest unit – the Drobo S – which directly attaches to the computer via FireWire. I find these units to be especially useful on set when shooting tapeless media.

Editing is all about storage. Successful editing requires storage that is big enough and fast enough to keep up with your work. One company that specializes in meeting the needs of video editors is Dulce Systems. Here’s a look at the new RAID, the Pro Q.

get is the new kid on the block — an almost magical piece of software that searches your audio files looking for words you type into a typical text entry window. If you know “you’ve got the file around here somewhere,” but haven’t a clue where it is, get is for you, as this product review explains.

NewBlue is new to the Mac, but not to creating effects. They’ve been producing video effect for Windows users for years. This product review takes a look at several of their new plug-ins for Final Cut Pro/Express/Motion. Featuring a very easy to use interface, there is a lot to like.

Adobe Premiere can create text transcripts of your media files. prEdit takes those transcripts and allows you to edit a rough cut for either Premiere or Final Cut just using those transcripts. For editors wading through a ton of material trying to find just the right quotes, this software can make your life VERY easy, as this product review explains.

When you are working with tapeless media during production, and recording to cards, the basic workflow is to copy the card to your hard disk then ERASE THE CARD! (Sorry, I come from a tape background and that word “erase” is just plain scary…) So, it makes sense that when copying the card to your hard disk you take every precaution to do so safely. Here’s a review of a product that can help: Imagine Products’ Shotput Pro.

Transcriptize is a new piece of software that takes the text transcripts automatically generated by Adobe Premiere or Adobe Soundbooth and formats them so people, rather than computers, can read them. PLUS, it allows you to a great trick to import those text transcripts into Final Cut Pro to speed your editing.

Sheffield Softworks creates filters specifically designed for video retouching. They have a suite of products – Electronic Makeup Artist, Digital Coverup, and Look Sweet – which make the process of fixing your video much simpler, In this article, we take an in-depth look at each of the three, illustrate how it can best be used, and show you how to use it.

The Samson Zoom H2 recorder has a lot of good things going for it – price, size, and portability. However, when I was using it at NAB, the one thing that disappointed me was the audio quality. Read the review here.

Telestream Pipeline is a capture and output device that is unique in the features it provides Final Cut editors — specifically, its ability to share decks over a network and allowing an editor to start editing a clip before the capture is complete. In this detailed review, we show you how it works, and examine its strengths and weaknesses.

Working with still images in video is hard, because images created on the computer are not compatible with video. A new software – PhotoMotion – seeks to solve a lot of the challenges in working with still images. This is a detailed review of how the product works.

If you edit multiple cameras and spend time creating multiclips, you need to check into a new utility for Final Cut Pro called “PluralEyes.” This software vastly simplifies the process of syncing and building multiclips — especially when there are breaks in the timecode. This article shows you how to use it.

The Primatte RT keyer, which ships with both Motion and Final Cut Pro, is a nice keyer, but it has problems with hair and transparency. In this review/technique, I show you how to use the big brother to the RT filter: Primatte Keyer Pro 4 to key a model who has lots and lots of big, bouncy, hair!

When I first discovered the motion tracking in Motion 2, I was really excited. It was fairly easy to learn, easy to use, and delivered great results. Updated with more examples and lots of reader feedback.

Apple released Final Cut Studio (3) on July 23, 2009. This is a quick look at the announcement and an exclusive interview with Richard Townhill, Director of Video Application Marketing for Apple, about the new software suite.

The Matrox MXO offers a reasonably priced way to monitor and output HD video. Learn more about it in this review.

The latest versions of Final Cut Pro, Motion, and DVD Studio Pro were announced, along with a brand new application: Soundtrack Pro 2. This article gives you a behind-the-scenes look at what’s new.

Final Cut Server is out, but what does it really do? In this article, we take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of the product. Server has a lot of power, but it isn’t for everyone — this article helps you decide for yourself.