Am looking for a thread or an article telling me what I would miss from FCP if I go to Premiere

I'm hoping that one of you happy editors can guide me to a thread or an article which will tell me what abilities are not within Premiere but that I use all the time in FCP 6.0.6 - like the Motion Tab, key frames and the ability to easily make montages of multiple image panes, which I have to do a lot.

I'm lazy and I don't want to download the Premiere demo version and fiddle around for days attempting to learn it, only to discover that I hate it.

I am running OS 10.6.7.

I imagine that everyone except me knows this stuff, so please don't beat me up. Just be good enough to prod me in the right direction. I gather that many of the keyboard commands are the same which is helpful because, these days, I have difficulty remembering my own name.

Am I correct in thinking that we are on the cusp of a new Premiere version 6.0?

I find the Adobe site confusing - there seem to be many components to this wretched "Suite" and I can't even find out what it costs or which components I would need. Hopefully just the basic Adobe Premiere Pro, no?

Many thanks,

Harry.

PS. Is it true that Premiere renders super-fast? I have a 64 bit machine, as far as I am able to detect. It's a 2x3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon.

Don't know an article but just from user experience, everything mentioned in your first paragraph is in Premiere. Furthermore, it renders much quicker than FCP/Compressor. However minor, I find the lack of ability to select what attributes you would like to paste in paste attributes, and option up/down to move a clip to a different track annoying.

Thanks very much for the reply and the info.

Best

Harry.

-- moved topic --

You can paste distinct attributes in Premiere.

Copy and Paste Specific Effects

1. In the timeline, select the clip that contains the effect you want to copy

2. In the effects view click the Edit Effects button to open the properties view.

3. Select the effects you want to copy. Shift click or command click to select multiple fx.

4. Choose Edit > Copy

5. In the timeline, select the clips which you want to receive the copied fx.

6. Choose Edit > Paste.

Not sure about shift up and down. Haven't had the opportunity to try that yet.

I wrote a bit about this topic last year:
[www.digitalrebellion.com]

I think what you will miss from FCP depends on your workflow. If you're used to cutting music videos with lots of multicam angles, you'll be out of luck with Premiere because it only supports 4 angles. I personally haven't had any major complaints about the feature set but I have found that it feels less solid and stable than Avid or FCP. I hope they address stability in CS 6.

If you're thinking of buying Premiere, I would recommend buying After Effects too. The AE integration is Premiere's number one selling point in my opinion.

harry323 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> PS. Is it true that Premiere renders super-fast? I
> have a 64 bit machine, as far as I am able to
> detect. It's a 2x3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon.

Well, the idea is that you should rarely, if ever, have to render at all. In practice, it depends on the codec and the speed of your CPU and storage but I have found Premiere does a good job with almost everything I've thrown at it.

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...

As with any new software, there's a learning curve. But, PPro is very similar to FCP7 in many ways and has, imho, a far more advanced feature set (plus 64 Bit = performance). It's also platform independent as well as being widely compatible with other NLE's. It will only take you about a week with your choice of training resource (the Premier Pro Classroom in a Book is one) to get comfortable with. After a project or two, you'll be up and running. Where it really shines is with the interaction between other apps in the suite. It's basically everything that a lot of us had hoped Final Cut Studio would become, but didn't.

The PPro user community as well as Adobe themselves are very repsonsive. I find the latter especially refreshing. Life with Adobe is way far more professional than with Apple and with a whole lot less guesswork as to where they are headed. And, yes, there's a new release around the corner that promises to be even better.

At the end of the day it all boils down to what tool you feel the most comfortable and proficient with. If you're "just" editing and your rig is in good order and your clients are happy, you could stick with FCP for awhile still and take your time in evaluating alternatives. A lot of people are doing exactly that. If you want to improve and expand your skill set and stay current with the industry (which will happen at some point), then it's time one way or another to look at the alternatives. Personally, I like to be ahead of the game. FCS is over. FCPX is playing catch-up and has not achieved wide acclaim within the professional community, to put it mildly. Maybe it will someday, but meantime I've a business to run. Adobe is an innovative front-runner and a solid, reliable partner and thus has proven a good choice for many of us.

What I'll miss is we have FCP set up with a huge monitor on the left which has the timeline only, and the right screen
which has the viewer, bins, and program viewer. Everything seems so compartmentalized on Premeire.

However, I don't know if this makes a difference but the after effects- premeire-encore is on a PC. Maybe it looks prettier on a Mac?

Mark, In Premiere on a Mac you can do an "Unlock Panel" to the timeline viewer window. Move it any where, or to any monitor. You can do this to any viewer window. Also works that way in After Effects and Encore.

So you are saying this can't be done on a PC?

I toyed with Premiere at B an H for like twenty minutes and realized that you get dual image play as opposed to single image play in FCP in the trim window when ripple trimming and you get a four up display when slipping so you can see the outside frames you are slipping against which is something you don't get in FCP either.

I seem to be missing something. How do you get the 4 up display on slip/slides? I only see a two up, and it's the first edit point. Premiere's trim tools are much improved, though...



www.strypesinpost.com

I think that's in the display prefs...