Edit Geek: Media Composer 6

By Dylan Reeve

Avid’s flagship editing product, Media Composer, has been on the scene for a little over twenty years and has looked and worked roughly the same way for that whole time.

Today saw the announcement of the first major overhaul since Media Composer’s numbering was restarted with the release of Adrenaline in 2003… And it’s a big overhaul – not only has it been rewritten entirely as a 64-bit application but it also looks different with a redesigned UI.

But what does the new Media Composer deliver?

Big Change and No Change

With the recent release of Apple’s Final Cut Pro X leaving a sour taste in many editors’ mouths thanks to the loss of key features it will be a great relief for Avid users to learn that the basics haven’t changed. What you did in Media Composer 5.5 and earlier you can still do in 6.0. The bins will open, the sequences will play and the media is still fine.

What has changed pretty drastically is the user interface, although it still remains familiar enough that any Avid editor should be able to sit down and getting cutting without any massive adjustment

Tabs

Once you get past the basic changes in the look of Media Composer 6 the most significant UI change is actually the addition of a tabbed interface model. Bins can be combined into individual tabbed windows which should be a welcome change for any users working with limited screen real estate, or those of us who tend to have a whole bunch of bins open at any given time. read more...