Diary of an Avid Switcher – Part 1: Humble Beginnings

Toolbox by Jonny Elwyn

Learning Avid Media Composer 6.5

I bought Avid over Christmas, making the most of Videoguys crossgrade deal, and finally installed Avid Media Composer 6.5.2 in the new year. The download and install process from the Avid site was very easy. I had scoured the net to see if anyone else had installed AMC 6.5 on Snow Leopard (10.6.8) and so far I’ve not had any problems, so that’s my first tip.

In preparing to invest the time and determination it takes to learn (anything!) a new piece of software – made all the more challenging when you’re coming from 10 years of using FCP to be fast, comfortable and customised to the teeth to be that fast and comfortable – I tried to keep reminding myself to:

EXPECT THAT IT WILL ALL BE UNFAMILIAR.

EXPECT THAT IT WILL BE DIFFERENT.

EXPECT THAT LEARNING TAKES TIME.

But still given all that – this gif is how I feel when I open Avid.

A Few Shocks and Surprises

One thing that came as a nice surprise was that Sorenson Squeeze 8 comes with Avid, which somehow had evaded my eagle eyes (am I blind?), so that was nice. Avid’s DVD program only comes on Windows so that was a non-starter. The Videoguys crossgrade comes with a free Class on Demand training series – an excellent combination. Both Videoguys and Class on Demand’s customer service was exceptional and I would highly recommend them to anyone. read more...

Check out these items featured in this post and available now at Videoguys.com.
	Avid Media Composer 6.5 Crossgrade for Final Cut Editors $949.00			Avid Media Composer 6.5 Upgrade from Avid Media Composer, Xpress DV, Xpress Pro $588.00			Complete Training for Avid Media Composer and Symphony 6 $99.95