Avid Media Composer 4.0 User guide

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Avid

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Avid

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Media Composer

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Basics Guide

2

Legal Notices

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This software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group.

This Software may contain components licensed under the following conditions:

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Redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph

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Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that

the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in

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The following disclaimer is required by Nexidia Inc.:

Manufactured under license from the Georgia Tech Research Corporation, U.S.A. Patent Pending.

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Portions of this software licensed from Paradigm Matrix.

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“Install-It” is licensed from Ray Sauers Associates, Inc. End-User is prohibited from taking any action to derive a source code

equivalent of “Install-It,” including by reverse assembly or reverse compilation, Ray Sauers Associates, Inc. shall in no event be

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respect to its merchantability or its fitness for any particular purpose.”

“This software contains V-LAN ver. 3.0 Command Protocols which communicate with V-LAN ver. 3.0 products developed by

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of this software will allow “frame accurate” editing control of applicable videotape recorder decks, videodisc recorders/players

and the like.”

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The following disclaimer is required by Altura Software, Inc. for the use of its Mac2Win software and Sample

Source Code:

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Certain real-time compositing capabilities are provided under a license of such technology from Ultimatte Corporation and are

subject to copyright protection.

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Certain waveform and vector monitoring capabilities are provided under a license from 3Prong.com Inc.

The following disclaimer is required by Interplay Entertainment Corp.:

The “Interplay” name is used with the permission of Interplay Entertainment Corp., which bears no responsibility for Avid

products.

This product includes portions of the Alloy Look & Feel software from Incors GmbH.

This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation (http://www.apache.org/).

This product may include the JCifs library, for which the following notice applies:

Party Software directory on the installation CD.

Avid Interplay contains components licensed from LavanTech. These components may only be used as part of and in

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EveryPhase, ExpertRender, Fastbreak, Fast Track, FieldPak, Film Composer, FilmScribe, Flexevent, FluidMotion, FXDeko,

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Intelli-sat Broadcasting Recording Manager, Intelli-Sat, InterFX, Interplay, inTONE, Intraframe, iS9, iS18, iS23, iS36, ISIS,

IsoSync, KeyRig, KeyStudio, LaunchPad, LeaderPlus, Lightning, ListSync, Lo-Fi, Magic Mask, Make Anything Hollywood,

make manage move | media, Marquee, M-Audio, M-Audio Micro, Maxim, Mbox, MCXpress, Media Browse, Media Composer,

MediaDock, MediaDock Shuttle, Media Fusion, Media Illusion, MediaLog, Media Reader, Media Recorder, MEDIArray,

MediaShare, MediaStream, Media Suite, Meridien, MetaFuze, MetaSync, MicroTrack, Midiman, MissionControl, Mix Rack,

MixLab, Moviebox, Moviestar, NaturalMatch, Nearchive, NetReview, NewsCutter, Nitris, NRV-10 interFX, Octane, OMF,

OMF Interchange, OMM, OnDVD, Open Media Framework, Open Media Management, Palladium, Pinnacle,

Pinnacle DistanTV, Pinnacle Geniebox, Pinnacle HomeMusic, Pinnacle MediaSuite, Pinnacle Mobile Media, Pinnacle Studio,

Pinnacle Studio MovieBoard, Pinnacle Systems, ProEncode, ProServices, ProSessions, Pro Tools, QuietDrive, Recti-Fi,

Reel Tape Delay, Reel Tape Flanger, Reel Tape Saturation, RetroLoop, rS9, rS18, Salesview, Sci-Fi, Scorch, Scorefitter,

ScriptSync, SecureProductionEnvironment, Session, Show Center, Sibelius, SIDON, Soft SampleCell, Soft-Clip Limiter,

Sound Designer II, SPACE, SPACEShift, SpectraGraph, SpectraMatte, Sputnik, Starplay, SteadyGlide, Streamfactory,

Streamgenie, StreamRAID, Strike, Structure, Studiophile, SubCap, Sundance Digital, Sundance, Symphony, SYNC HD,

SynchroScience, SynchroScope, Syntax, TDM FlexCable, Thunder, Titan, Titansync, TL Aggro, TL AutoPan, TL Drum Rehab,

TL Everyphase, TL Fauxlder, TL In Tune, TL MasterMeter, TL Metro, TL Space, TL Utilities, Torq, Torq Xponent, Transfuser,

Trigger Finger, Trillium Lane Labs, TruTouch, UnityRAID, Vari-Fi, Velvet, Venom, VideoRAID, Video Slave Driver, VideoSPACE,

VideoSpin, Vortx, Xdeck, X-Form, Xmon, Xponent, and X-Session are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Avid

Technology, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.

5

Adobe and Photoshop are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States

and/or other countries. Apple and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other

countries. Windows is either a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other

countries. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

Footage

Arri — Courtesy of Arri/Fauer — John Fauer, Inc.

Bell South “Anticipation” — Courtesy of Two Headed Monster — Tucker/Wayne Atlanta/GMS.

Canyonlands — Courtesy of the National Park Service/Department of the Interior.

Eco Challenge Morocco — Courtesy of Discovery Communications, Inc.

It’s Shuttletime — Courtesy of BCP & Canadian Airlines.

Nestlé Coffee Crisp — Courtesy of MacLaren McCann Canada.

Saturn “Calvin Egg” — Courtesy of Cossette Communications.

“Tigers: Tracking a Legend” — Courtesy of www.wildlifeworlds.com, Carol Amore, Executive Producer.

“The Big Swell” — Courtesy of Swell Pictures, Inc.

Windhorse — Courtesy of Paul Wagner Productions.

Arizona Images — KNTV Production — Courtesy of Granite Broadcasting, Inc.,

Editor/Producer Bryan Foote.

Canyonlands — Courtesy of the National Park Service/Department of the Interior.

Ice Island — Courtesy of Kurtis Productions, Ltd.

Tornados + Belle Isle footage — Courtesy of KWTV News 9.

WCAU Fire Story — Courtesy of NBC-10, Philadelphia, PA.

Women in Sports – Paragliding — Courtesy of Legendary Entertainment, Inc.

GOT FOOTAGE?

Editors — Filmmakers — Special Effects Artists — Game Developers — Animators — Educators — Broadcasters — Content

creators of every genre — Just finished an incredible project and want to share it with the world?

Send us your reels and we may use your footage in our show reel or demo!*

For a copy of our release and Avid’s mailing address, go to www.avid.com/footage.

*Note: Avid cannot guarantee the use of materials submitted.

Avid Media Composer Basics Guide • 0130-07971-02 • September 2009

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Contents

Using This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Symbols and Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

If You Need Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Accessing the Online Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Accessing the Goodies Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Avid Training Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Chapter 1 Editing Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Editing Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Starting a Project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Preparing to Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Editing a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Outputting a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Chapter 2 Starting a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Turning on Your Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Working with the Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Using the Windows Taskbar (Windows Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Using the Macintosh Dock (Macintosh Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Using Shortcut Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Using the Keyboard for Navigating in Dialog Boxes and Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Using the Mouse Scroll Wheel for Navigating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Customizing Mouse Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Suggestions for Optimum Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Turn Off File Sharing (Windows) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Optimum Performance (Windows) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Antivirus Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Starting Your Avid Editing Application (Windows). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Starting Your Avid Editing Application (Macintosh). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

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Working with Projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Select Project Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Creating a New Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Project Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Raster Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Raster Sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Setting Film Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Opening an Existing Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Opening the Startup Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Browsing for a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Opening a Project Automatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Closing a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Deleting a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Quitting Your Avid Editing Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Turning Off Your Equipment After Quitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Avid Projects and Avid Users Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Changing Project and User Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Backing Up Your Project Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Saving Your Project Information on a Drive or on Removable Media . . . . . . . . 70

Restoring from a Backup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Avid Attic Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Retrieving Files from the Avid Attic Folder (Windows) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Retrieving Files from the Avid Attic Folder (Macintosh) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Using Toolsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Opening Toolsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Customizing Toolsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Linking Toolsets to Other Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Chapter 3 Working with the Project Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Project Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Controlling Project Window Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Using the Bins Tab in the Project Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Viewing a List of Bins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Creating a New Bin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

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Renaming a Bin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Opening and Closing Bins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Displaying Folders of Bins in the Bins List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Deleting a Bin or Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Viewing Contents in the Trash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Emptying the Trash in the Bins List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Saving Bins Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Using the Settings Tab in the Project Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Using the Format Tab in the Project Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Chapter 4 Preparing for Capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Logging and Shot Logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Importing Shot Log Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Preparing the Hardware for Capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Getting Information About Striped Drives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Establishing Sync for Audio-Only Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Selecting Settings for Capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Understanding Video Resolutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Selecting Video Resolutions and Media Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Setting Drive Filtering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Configuring Decks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Configuring a Deck or Multiple Decks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Deleting Deck Configuration Elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Connecting a DV Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Setting Up the Capture Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Opening the Capture Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Changing the Power Scheme (Windows Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Selecting a Deck in the Capture Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Activating Playback from an Available Deck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Selecting a Source Tape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Selecting Source Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Setting the Video and Audio Input in the Capture Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Detecting a Valid or Locked Sync Signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Setting the Pulldown Switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

10

Film Project Pulldown and Transfer Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Capturing Digital Audio in Film Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Selecting a Resolution in the Capture Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Selecting a Target Bin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Selecting the Target Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Interpreting the Time-Remaining Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Selecting a Custom Preroll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Preparing for Audio Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Audio Project Settings for Capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Selecting the Audio Sample Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Performing Audio Sample Rate Conversion During Capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Understanding Audio Files and Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Selecting the Audio File Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Selecting the Audio Input Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Configuring the Sound Card (Software-Only Systems) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Sound Card Configuration with Surround Sound Capabilities

(Software-Only Systems) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Understanding the Audio Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Opening and Sizing the Audio Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Adjusting Audio Input Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Preparing for Video Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Opening the Video Input Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Using the Factory Preset Buttons in the Video Input Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Preparing to Calibrate Video Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Calibrating Video Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Luminance Settings for Video Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Capture Preparations Check List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Chapter 5 Capturing Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Capturing and Logging at the Same Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Naming Clips and Adding Comments in the Capture Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Capturing by Setting Both Marks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Capturing by Setting Only One Mark. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Capturing On-the-Fly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

11

Preparing to Autocapture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Autocapturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Capturing from a Non-Avid-Controlled Deck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Capturing with Time-of-Day Timecode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Capturing Directly from a DV Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Capturing DV 25 Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Selecting the DV 25 Software Codec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Capturing DV 50, DVCPRO HD, or HDV Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Selecting a DV Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Frame Chase Capture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Understanding Frame Chase Capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Enabling Frame Chase Capture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Requirements and Guidelines for Frame Chase Capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Batch Capturing from Logged Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Preparing to Batch Capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Batch Capturing Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Recapturing and Decomposing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Understanding Recapturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Understanding Decompose and Expert Decompose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Decomposing Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Using Expert Decompose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Recapturing a Sequence Without Using Decompose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Chapter 6 Importing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Preparing to Import Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Creating and Modifying Import Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Importing Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Importing Audio Files from a Music CD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Adjusting Gain Before Importing Audio Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Using the Drag-and-Drop Method to Import Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Reimporting Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Batch Import Dialog Box: Reference. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

12

Chapter 7 Working with Bins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Setting the Bin Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Object Icons in Bins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Understanding Bin Highlight Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Bin Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Using Brief View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Using Text View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Using Frame View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Using Script View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Basic Bin Procedures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Using the Bin Fast Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Selecting Clips and Sequences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Duplicating Clips and Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Moving Clips and Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Copying Clips and Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Deleting Bin Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Changing the Bin Background Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Working with the SuperBin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Enabling and Disabling the SuperBin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Opening Bins in the SuperBin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Closing the SuperBin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Moving Bins into and out of the SuperBin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Moving Clips and Sequences into and out of the SuperBin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Copying Clips and Sequences into and out of the SuperBin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Deleting a Bin with the SuperBin Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Creating a Storyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Chapter 8 Managing Media Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Working with Media Files in an Avid Interplay Environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Configuring Avid Editing Systems for the Interplay Engine

and Interplay Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Using Avid Editing Systems in an Avid Workgroup Environment . . . . . . . . . . 203

Disconnecting an Avid Editing Application from the

Interplay Environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

13

Voluntarily Disconnecting from the Interplay Environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Limitations of Disconnected Client Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Using Disconnected Client Mode with Network Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Using Avid Editing Systems in an Avid Unity LANshare Workgroup. . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Viewing Media with a 100Base-T Connection to Avid Unity ISIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Understanding Drive Mounting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Mounting and Unmounting Drives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Using the Media Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Basic Media Tool Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Using the Media Tool in an Avid Interplay Environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Opening the Media Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Deleting Media Files with the Media Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Consolidating Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Understanding the Consolidate Feature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Using the Consolidate Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Consolidate Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Using the Transcode Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Transcode Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Loading the Media Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Refreshing Media Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Deleting Unreferenced Clips and Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Backing Up Media Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Chapter 9 Viewing and Marking Footage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Viewing Methods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Customizing the Composer Window and Monitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Resizing the Composer Window and Monitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Using the 16:9 Display Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Displaying Tracking Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Tracking Format Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Playing Video to the Client Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Selecting the Video Display Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Playing Video to a Full-Screen Monitor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Loading and Clearing Footage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

14

Loading Clips or Sequences into Monitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Switching Between Loaded Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Clearing Clips from Monitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Controlling Playback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Using Position Bars and Position Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Playback Control Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Stepping Forward and Backward by Field. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Playback Control Using the Keyboard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Playing Footage with the J-K-L Keys (Three-Button Play) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Playing Back to a DV Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Video Quality Options for Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Setting the Video Quality for Playback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Marking and Subcataloging Footage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Marking IN and OUT Points. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Marking an Entire Clip or Segment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Creating Subclips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Creating Subsequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Subclips and Audio Sync for 24p and 25p Projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Marking Audio Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

Finding Frames, Clips, and Bins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

Using Timecode to Find a Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Searching for a Clip or Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Understanding Match Frame. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Using Match Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Performing a Reverse Match Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Selecting Tracks for Matching Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Finding a Bin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Locating a Master Clip from a Subclip in a Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Finding a Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Chapter 10 Creating and Editing Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Entering Source/Record Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Creating a New Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Changing the Name and Timecode for a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

15

Track Display for New Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Adding Filler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Making a First Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Creating an Instant Rough Cut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Undoing or Redoing Edits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Editing Additional Clips into the Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Performing an Insert or Splice-in Edit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Performing an Overwrite Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Performing a Replace Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Enabling Single-Mark Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

Mixing Frame Rates and Field Motion Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

How Your Avid Editing Application Handles Mixed Rate Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Viewing Mixed Rate Clips in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Viewing and Adjusting Motion Adapter Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Modifying the Field Motion Attribute for a Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Refreshing Motion Adapters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

How Your Avid Editing Application Modifies the Format of a Sequence . . . . . 292

Modifying the Format of a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Considerations When Working with Mixed Rate Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Lifting, Extracting, and Copying Material. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Lifting Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Extracting Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Copying Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

The Avid Clipboard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

Using the Clipboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Playing Back a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Sync Breaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Tips for Avoiding Sync Breaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Customizing Sync Break Display in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Fixing Sync Breaks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Tips for Fixing Sync Breaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

16

Chapter 11 Using the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Customizing Timeline Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Examples of Customized Timeline Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Using the Timeline Fast Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Timeline Fast Menu Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Enlarging and Reducing Timeline Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Moving Timeline Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Displaying Clip Colors in the Timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Assigning Local Colors to Clips in the Timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Managing Customized Timeline Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Navigating in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

Understanding the Timeline Position Indicator and Scroll Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

Switching to the Timeline Position Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

Setting the Scroll Option for the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Zooming and Focusing in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Controlling Movement in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

Using Segment Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

Guidelines for Editing in Segment Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

Selecting and Deselecting Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Selecting Multiple Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Four-Frame Display in Segment Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

Suppressing Four-Frame Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

Maintaining Sync in Segment Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

Editing Segments in Segment Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Moving Segments with Drag and Drop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Deleting Segments in Segment Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

Marking Clips and Sequences in Segment Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Cutting, Copying, and Pasting in the Timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

Working with Multiple Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

Understanding the Track Selector Panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Selecting Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Understanding Track Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

Monitoring and Soloing Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

17

Patching Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

Understanding Locking and Sync Locking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Locking and Sync Locking Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Adding and Deleting Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Backtiming Edits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346

Chapter 12 Working in Trim Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Understanding Trim Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Trim Settings Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350

Entering Trim Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Setting Small Trim Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

Exiting Trim Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

Using Basic Trim Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

Selecting Trim Sides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

Selecting Video Tracks in Trim Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

Soloing Audio in Trim Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

Selecting Additional Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

Performing a Basic Trim. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Reviewing Trim Edits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358

Trimming On-the-Fly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

Using Dual-Image Playback During Trims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

Trimming During a Playback Loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Chapter 13 Working with Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

Overview of Audio Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Accessing Audio Effect Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Using Audio Timecode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

Using Audio Scrub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

Selecting Tracks for Audio Scrubbing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Performing Smooth Audio Scrub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

Adjusting Digital Scrub Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Performing Digital Audio Scrub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

Soloing Audio Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

Audio Displays in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

Displaying Audio Waveforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

18

Identifying Sample Rates by Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Using Audio Meters in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374

Adjusting Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

Working with Surround Sound or 5.1 Audio

(Avid Nitris DX and Avid Mojo DX Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Setting Up the Analog Audio Output for Surround Sound

(Avid Nitris DX and Avid Mojo DX Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

Setting Up the Audio Output with HDMI

(Avid Nitris DX and Avid Mojo DX Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379

Adjusting Buffer Size (Software-only Models) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

Using the Audio Mixer Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

Accessing the Audio Mixer and Audio Mixer Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

Audio Mixer Tool Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Resizing the Audio Mixer Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384

Track Selection in the Audio Mixer Tool and in the Timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Using the Track Solo and Track Mute Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Interpreting Position Indicator Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Using Clip Gain and Pan Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

Adjusting Clip Gain and Pan for Audio Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

Audio Mixer Fast Menu: Clip Gain and Pan Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Modifying How Your Avid Editing Application Interprets Pan . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391

Using the Center Pan Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

Using Automation Gain and Pan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Using Automation Gain and Pan in the Timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Deleting Automation Gain or Automation Pan Keyframes

in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

Automation Gain and Pan Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

Understanding Automation Gain or Automation Pan Recording . . . . . . . . . . . 397

Using the Audio Mixer Tool for Automation Gain and Pan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

Audio Mixer Tool Fast Menu: Automation Gain and Pan Mode . . . . . . . . . . . 399

Using Keyboard Shortcuts with Audio Keyframes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

Using Live Mix Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

Entering Live Mix Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402

Using Live Mix Mode with an External Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402

19

Using Live Mix Mode Without an External Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

Switching Between Live Mix Mode and Other Audio Mixer Modes . . . . . . . . . 405

Audio Mixer Tool Fast Menu: Live Mix Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

Live Mix Mode Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406

Isolating Clip Portions for Audio Adjustment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407

Fading and Dipping Audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408

Fading Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408

Dipping Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410

Audio Sample Rate Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411

Changing the Audio Sample Rate for Sequences and Audio Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . 411

Mixing Down Audio Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412

Chapter 14 Working with Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

Types of Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416

Effects Creation Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419

Real-Time Effects and Non-Real-Time Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420

Effects and Project Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421

AVX Plug-In Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421

Understanding the Effect Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422

Displaying and Adjusting the Effect Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423

Promoting and Demoting Existing Effects in Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424

Applying Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426

Applying Effects From the Effect Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426

Using the Fade Effect Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

Using the Quick Transition Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

Deleting Effects in a Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433

Sizing Effects to Fit the Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434

Adjusting Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

Entering Effect Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

Understanding Effect Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436

Making Basic Effect Adjustments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437

Moving Through an Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438

Working with Effect Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438

Saving an Effect Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438

20

Applying an Effect Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

Working with Keyframes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440

Understanding Standard Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441

Adding a Standard Keyframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441

Selecting a Standard Keyframe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441

Moving a Standard Keyframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442

Changing a Standard Keyframe’s Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442

Copying and Pasting Standard Keyframe Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

Deleting a Standard Keyframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

Playing Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

Playing an Effect in Effect Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

Playing Real-Time Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

Understanding Render On-the-Fly for Effect Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446

Using Render On-the-Fly for Effect Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446

Real-Time Playback of Video Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447

Understanding Real-Time Effects Processing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447

Understanding Real-Time Playback Information in the Timeline. . . . . . . . . . . 448

Turning Playback Performance Indicators On or Off. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449

Options for Controlling Real-Time Effects Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450

Controlling Real-Time Effects Processing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452

Playing Effects Back at Different Video Qualities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453

Basics of Effects Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454

Understanding Effects Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455

Rendering a Single Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456

Rendering Effects at Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457

Rendering Effects Between IN and OUT Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458

Displaying Estimated Render Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459

Clearing Rendered Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459

Rerendering Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461

ExpertRender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462

Understanding ExpertRender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462

Using the ExpertRender Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464

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Avid Media Composer 4.0 User guide

Avid Media Composer 4.0 User guide

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