Useful Tools for Editors: Welcome Back Home edition

PVC by Scott Simmons

After a few years away the Useful Tools column comes back home

One of my favorite blog categories / columns has always been the ongoing Useful Tools for Editors topic that has been a part of my coverage of our little industry since I began the Editblog many, many years ago. It was a part of my original site and then I moved it over to Studio Daily for a number of years. I'm no longer blogging for Studio Daily on a regular basis so it is time to once again move the Useful Tools for Editors column and bring it back home to the Editblog on PVC. There's so many useful tools these days I'll try to do a semi-regular round-up of them ... that is unless one comes along that is so cool it can't wait. Do you have a useful tool for editors? Then contact me and tell me about it.

Media Edit Soundpack Pro
If there is one thing editors can't really ever have enough of it's sound design elements. Media Edit Soundpack Pro is a very nice $200 collection of just that from Beatsuite.com (yep, another stock music site). There's a lot of good stuff in this package and while it has been out for a while I just recently discovered it. There are over 1,000 WAV files in the collection and if you're sound designing for some cool, actiony cuts then you'll probably find good use for categories like Dramatic Impacts and Whooshes and Swooshes. It's a very nice collection but why they supply the sounds at 44.1 k and not 48 k is beyond me.

FxFactory 4.0.2
There's been an update to the perennially useful tool FxFactory from Noise Industries. This incredibly useful plug-in package for Apple Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro / After Effects is always getting updates with new functionality and/or new plugin partners. The 4.0.2 update is no exception as there's a number of new things in this update including some borders, some picture-in-picture effects, better keying, transitions and vintage looks. Two of the additions for FxFactory 4.0.2 caught my eye but note these are both for Final Cut Pro X only and won't work in Adobe Premiere Pro. read more...