The Transformative Powers of a Keyboard

Back in the days of linear A/B roll editing, CMX was a popular brand of edit controller, and the space bar on the CMX keyboard was labeled "ALL STOP." If you were in the midst of prerolling and edit and realized you have made a grace error, you could hit the space bar and the CMX would bring all of your machines out of edit mode. A nice feature.

It didn't take long for some enterprising entrepreneur out there to come up with a third part replacement for the spacebar key, labeled "Oh Shit!" instead of "ALL STOP." They sold a lot of them, and I probably saw them on about half of the CMX editors I'd ever encountered.

So what does this have to do with modern nonlinear editing and keyboards? These days, chances are you're using a Mac or PC as the core of your editing system, and you're probably using the keyboard that came with the system. Do yourself a favor and buy a custom keyboard, matching whatever editing software you use, be it Final Cut, Avid or Premier. Why?

A custom keyboard does a couple of things for you. First of all, it makes it easier to see what the keyboard shortcuts are, and I find it reminds of possible shortcuts I never really knew were there, simply because I'd fallen into a set of habits when I was editing. Second, and perhaps more importantly, from your client's point of view it transforms your generic computer system, "That Mac you use to edit video...", into a custom video editing workstation. It's amazing to me how having a colorful custom keyboard in the edit suite changes the perception of the system you're using in the client's eyes. 

After shopping around at NAB a few years ago we settled on the Logic Keyboard for our Final Cut systems.

Do you have a favorite keyboard brand? Share with us all in the comments!

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Avid Makes Adjustments

There's been much speculation buzzing around ever since Avid bowed out of NAB this year (followed not far behind by Apple) about what they're planning on doing to get more competitive. Today Avid released a press release outlining their plan, a "New Thinking" initiative.

It's been a while since I've spent any meaningful time editing on an Avid, but plenty of editors I know and respect think they're the bees knees. My pal Bob Russo from Avid was kind enough to give me and extended demo of an Avid system at NAB last year, and sure enough there are some very impressive features. (ScriptSync is pretty magical.) Not enough to make me consider a switch from Final Cut Studio, but enough to understand the appeal and recommend that anyone starting out take a serious look at what Avid has to offer. It's not as compelling as it used to be, but there's still some panache in calling yourself an Avid Editor.

Frank Capria has some interesting, informed commentary over at the ProVideo Coalition.
He makes the interesting point that part of the success of FCP has been the ease with which you can pirate it. Students edit using stolen software, and when they graduate to professional work they recommend the package they're familiar with. Right or wrong, it's reality, and something to consider.

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Mac (Pro) Daddy

Alrighty, dear readers. Today we're going to be quick, because I seem to have picked up a bit of a stomach bug that's making its way through the Bittner family. It's either that or the raw oysters I was eating at the Baltimore Rotary Club's annual Bull and Oyster Roast fundraiser. Consuming uncooked, filter-feeding, bottom dwelling shellfish may not be on the list of recommended practices from the fine folks at the FDA, but they sure are yummy. Once you get past the snot-like consistancy, of course. But that goes without saying.



At any rate, Apple caused a bit of a stir today by releasing a new batch of Mac Pros. As is their custom, the announcement comes a week before Macworld expo, which creates the sub-stir that Apple must have a fine selection of other announcements for the expo if these systems are being given a quiet launch. Let's not forget that the Macworld is considered a consumer show, and the Mac Pros are considered, er, pro machines, so they're not typically updated at Macworld.

Improvements in this latest round of heavy-computing-iron from Apple include 8-cores across the line, and the option for much improved graphics capabilities via the NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 with 1.5 gigabytes of onboard RAM. It will be interesting to see what's to come at NAB this year, and what Apple will bring to the Final Cut Studio suite to make use of so much graphics horsepower. Motion should see a nice speed boost, methinks. Of course, the top-of-the-line card costs as much as the base CPU, and is probably overkill for most users. Still, nice to see a truly high-end graphics option from Apple, and area where they've lagged behind.

With eight cores I have to wonder how much performace inprovement you'll see with the faster speed versions. All of these machines are blazingly fast, and After Effects CS3 tears through renders on these Intel machines like my son ripping the wrapping paper off his Nintendo DS on Christmas morn. Extemely fast, with singular determination.

Now pardon me while I help those oysters complete their circle of life...

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