Blog Archives

Video compression is essential to all media today, from social media to broadcast to streaming. In this short video, Larry Jordan shows how to create Watch Folders to automate media compression using Adobe Media Encoder.

Apple’s new M1 SoC chips launched to incredible reviews – but the best is still to come, especially for media creators. Read Larry Jordan’s thoughts on this new technology.

Apple has expanded hardware acceleration on recent makes. Here’s what you need to know to vastly improve the speed of video compression.

OWC releases a new 4-port Thunderbolt 3 dock that provides more Thunderbolt ports to any Mac with Thunderbolt 3 and running Big Sur. This is actually a big deal. Here are my thoughts.

As part of a larger update, Apple released new versions of their Pro Video Formats. This free update is recommended for all media editors. Here are the details.

Video compression is essential to all media today, from social media to broadcast to streaming. In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how job chaining in Apple Compressor can save significant time when applying multiple compression settings to a source file.

Video compression is essential to all media today, from social media to broadcast to streaming. In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to use Apple Compressor to crop or reframe a video clip prior to media compression.

Video compression is essential to all media today, from social media to broadcast to streaming. In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to apply both still and moving watermarks to compressed video using Apple Compressor.

Video compression is essential to all media today, from social media to broadcast to streaming. In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to use Apple Compressor to create a custom compression setting for use in Apple Final Cut Pro X.

With the release of macOS Mojave and continuing into Catalina and Big Sur, older media codecs are no longer supported, nor displayed. Here’s a simple technique to find and transcode outdated files using Kyno.

New with the 10.5 update to Apple Final Cut Pro X is the ability to copy libraries, events and projects and, if necessary, create proxy media while all project media is being copied. This simplifies creating projects to share between editors.

Storage speeds vary widely. Here’s a tip to measuring them accurately.

I first saw these 10 inspirational filmmaking tips from Spike Lee posted to LinkedIn.com. I don’t know who compiled them, but I thought they were deeply insightful. and worth sharing with you.

Media professionals should wait on upgrading any mission-critical systems to Big Sur until there’s time for developers to test and upgrade their software.

Today, Apple updated Final Cut Pro X (10.5), Motion (5.5.) and Compressor (4.5) to support new computers with Apple silicon, along with a variety of bug fixes. Here’s the list.

Technology constantly changes, but older codecs and media don’t. What do you do if you can’t play older media in macOS Catalina or Big Sur? Watch as Larry Jordan shows how to use Kyno to potentially find and convert older media.

In this Apple Motion tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to create a burning effect using particles, blend modes and the world’s most amazing light saber.

In the past, we would use Safe Boot to repair and maintain our Macs. But that was then. Today, we need to use Recovery Mode. In this short video, Larry Jordan shows what you need to know to keep your Mac running right.

When you need to KNOW that your audio meets the technical spec, neither Premiere nor Final Cut can help. But Adobe Audition can. Watch as Larry Jordan shows how to use amplitude statistics to make sure your audio has the right levels and is distortion-free.

I first wrote this article to work-around a bug in Final Cut Pro X. But, Apple fixed the bug. Now, this is a step-by-step guide to importing chapter markers into Apple Compressor, which is useful for media created outside of Final Cut Pro X.

Final Cut Libraries store stuff. But how that stuff is organized is up to you. Here are a variety of thoughts on working with libraries in Apple Final Cut Pro X.

Thunderbolt 4 is already on the market – and it isn’t what you expect. What does it mean for Mac and PC users? Is our Thunderbolt 3 gear out-of-date? Larry Jordan interviews Larry O’Connor, Founder/CEO of OWC, a leading Thunderbolt manufacturer, to learn more.

After testing, a 7200 RPM RAID is about 30% faster than a 5400 RPM RAID. Also, journaling makes a difference. When speed is important, here’s what you need to know.

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.

Here’s a summary of the new features introduced at Adobe MAX (Oct. 2020) for Adobe Premiere Pro, with a link for more details.

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?

In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to add effects to a multicam sequence for both single clips and an entire track in Adobe Premiere Pro.

In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to create a multicam sequence using video clips with different frame sizes in Adobe Premiere Pro.

In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan explains some of the key settings you need to consider when configuring a multi-camera source sequence for editing in Adobe Premiere Pro.

Regardless of which video editing software you use, storage is more important than your computer for multicam editing. Here, Larry Jordan presents the three storage criteria that multicam editing demands – and why they are important.

Multicam recording captures an event using multiple cameras. Multicam editing displays all those angles during the edit. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows why and how to use with proxies for multicam editing in Apple Final Cut Pro X.

Multicam recording captures an event using multiple cameras. Multicam editing displays all those angles during the edit. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to create a montage of video or stills using multicam techniques in Apple Final Cut Pro X.

Multicam recording captures an event using multiple cameras. Multicam editing displays all those angles during the edit. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to work with multi-channel audio in a multicam clip using Apple Final Cut Pro X.

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 answer is “Maybe.” This detailed article explains the fundamentals of high-speed networking, illustrates how to connect a Mac to a 10G Ethernet network, then measures performance between 1G and 10G connections, with a focus on video editing.

Josh asked me to explain the pros and cons of using internal, direct-attached, and network-attached storage for media editing. Here’s an overview, along with recommendations on what you should consider for your own system.

Recently, NewBlueFX launched: NewBlue Stream, a new product designed for live streaming. In this interview with CEO Todor Fay, we learn more about the product, why they created it and who it is designed for. This is fascinating.

This article details what I learned trying to access often corrupted digital images that are 15 – 25 years old. It illustrates the software I use to recover images, video codecs that are obsolete and techniques I used to preserve media for the future. This covers AppleWorks, PICT, PhotoCD, JPEG, TIFF, audio, and video media.

You exported your video file only to find that it is WAAAY too big! Here’s an explanation of file sizes, codecs and media workflow for beginners.

Whether you use Adobe Premiere Pro or Apple Final Cut Pro X for your edit, you can clean, edit and mix your audio faster and better in Adobe Audition. In this excerpt, Larry Jordan shows how to use auto-ducking or, even better, a channel EQ to improve the balance between dialog and music in Audition.

Whether you use Adobe Premiere Pro or Apple Final Cut Pro X for your edit, you can clean, edit and mix your audio faster and better in Adobe Audition. In this excerpt, Larry Jordan shows how to move a project from Final Cut Pro X into Audition for audio clean-up and mixing, then, bring the final mix back into Final Cut for output.

Whether you use Adobe Premiere Pro or Apple Final Cut Pro X for your edit, you can clean, edit and mix your audio faster and better in Adobe Audition. In this excerpt, Larry Jordan shows how to move a sequence from Premiere Pro into Audition for audio clean-up and mixing, then, bring the final mix back into Premiere for output.

Whether you use Adobe Premiere Pro or Apple Final Cut Pro X for your edit, you can clean, edit and mix your audio faster and better in Adobe Audition. In this excerpt, Larry Jordan shows how to fix a popped “P,” called a plosive, and other weird pops and clicks using Audition.

Apple release bug-fix updates to Final Cut Pro X (10.4.10), Motion 5 (5.4.7) and Compressor (4.4.8). Here’s what was fixed and what’s still broken.

A list of folders where Adobe Premiere Pro stores settings and work files. These are the first place to look when you need to track down a missing file.

In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates why correctly setting the HDR Graphics White Point for HDR HLG media is important when adding graphics or SDR media to an HDR sequence. This is a new feature in Adobe Premiere Pro v.14.4.

In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates how automatic scene detection works in Adobe Premiere Pro v.14.4, along with a potential problem.

Motion graphic templates are created in After Effects for use in Premiere. This illustrated tutorial explains how to add, find, edit, modify and delete these templates.

New in the Sept. 2020 update to Adobe Premiere is an improved HDR workflow for Rec. 2100 HLG HDR media. Adobe continues to upgrade Premiere to support HDR. However, the process is not painless. Here’s an illustrated tutorial showcasing what you need to know.

New with the Sept. 2020 update to Premiere Pro is automatic scene detection. Here’s an illustrated tutorial explaining how this works. In short, it is fast, fun and pretty darn accurate.