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Posted by Spex on 06/03/06 17:53
Okee dokee
Now that I have lived with the Macbook Pro and Final Cut Studio for a
week or so I thought I'd give my unbiased view of the Avid vs FCP debate.
Having been a long time user of Avid products I became disillusioned by
the cost, the quality of updates and feature set compared with competing
products.
I have used Apple products in the past and have never fallen for the
hype. I always thought that after the hype had been stripped away the
products themselves were quite ordinary. In my humble experience anyway.
The thing is I have just bought a 17" Macbook Pro and Final Cut Studio
primarily for Motion and DVD Studio Pro and my long held beliefs are
being challenged. Damn it!
One cannot simply compare Avid Xpress Pro HD with Final Cut Pro one has
to take into account the full Studio product. Its really well
integrated in away an Avid user could only wish for. I know I've been
there! What's really doing it for me is the intuitive nature of that
integration. It really is quite seamless going from FCP to Motion and
back again. Motion lacks a tracker which is a big negative but one is
blown away by the realtime or near realtime preview even at HD
resolutions. I hope Apple has real ambitions for this product because
the potential for a realtime AE or combustion level is definitely there.
DVD Studio Pro is glorious and well worth the price of FCS itself.
Soundtrack Pro reminds me a lot of Sony Acid Pro but without many of
Acid's features. Its more gloss than production level audio tool.
Again its promising but away from replacing Pro Tools or Logic.
I can't really say too much about FCP itself as it would be unfair as I
have not used in a meaningful way. What I can say is that it has come
along way from that pitiful piece of shite I had the displeasure of
using around version 3.0/3.5. I have a feeling that I will use FCP more
than I expected to even though I bought Studio for DVD Pro and Motion.
From my unbiased perspective it looks like Adobe has leapfrogged Apple
with its Studio product. If one compares like for like I think DVD
Studio Pro comes out on top compared to the Adobe equivalent. Its
widely understood that FCS is going to be updated shortly so one could
rightfully expect a pretty much comparable product to Adobe's.
I did wonder how well I could integrate this Mac into a PC studio. All
my other machines are PCs running XP and Win2000. I installed Bonjour
for Windows and hey presto all my Shared drives in the studio were
immediately available to the mac. Piece of piss! I've never been able
to get my PCs talking as quickly! That might be my ability as a sys
admin though!
I must just mention OS X. Its been a pleasure to use. It has come a
very long way from that jaguar release that I had the misfortune of
using. Despite all the hype surrounding jaguar it was a complete pile
of shite. Finally I think OS X deserves some of the hype that was
lavished upon it when it was released. The best thing about it is that
one doesn't actually notice the operating system.
I would never choose to buy Avid again and I think a more appropriate
thread would be Apple FCS vs Adobe PS. Both these products leave Xpress
Pro HD in the dust for features and integration. you might as well
include the software version of Media Composer in that argument to.
The only value I can see for Xpress Pro HD is an offline seat for a MC
Adrenaline an it doesn't even do that very well. As we know only too
well...
There you go Nappy, that's pretty much where I'm at with my Apple
experiment. If I have any issues I'll post them when I find 'em. All I
can say is things have improved on the Apple side of the fence. But hey
they bloody well needed too!!! :)
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