Recommendations for editing

If you are going to be setting up a system for your own personal use it doesn't matter which platform or which software you use. You just want as much processing power, RAM and disk space as you can squeeze out of your budget. However, if you are intending to work for others you should think about Final Cut (or Avid if you have a large budget) and a Mac; this will keep you competitive.

Hold fast to the idea that of using the computer for editing use only, this will save you many hours of tracking down software conflicts.

Being involved on the audio post side of the industry I would not be able to get as much work without Pro Tools, it's expected. So for me it's partially marketing although I really like the program and it is widely supported by third party plug-in developers. I run Pro Tools (and other DAW programs) on a Mac (which is for audio post work exclusively and is not even connected to the internet). When I do upgrades or add software or pieces of gear to my system I don't want to spend a lot of time tweaking and trouble-shooting like my peers do who work on a PC. In the lexicon of business - and I run a business - time is money, and for my entire career working on a Mac has made everything pretty much plug'n'play saving me many hours of time. And just to head off the arguments, yes, there are lots of people who use a PC with no problems, but there are many more who are not as tech savvy who spend huge amounts of time tracking down software conflicts.

Everyone has their own opinions so pay heed to one of my favorite sayings - "Opinions are like a$$holes; everybody has one and they all stink!" Ask for the opinions, but use them only as a basis for your own research and make up your own mind.

Both Mac and PC platforms have great options for software, though Final Cut is exclusive to Mac, the Adobe Creative Suite and Avid are right on par with it anyway, bearing all the same editing tools and capabilities and are available on both Mac and PC.

If you go with PC, custom build it rather than going through Dell or HP or anything like that, they tend to build systems with extreme expansion restrictions. Get your essential parts from newegg.com and/or tigerdirect.com, their prices are the best out there. If you go this route, get Windows 7, it's great. You could get Vista and qualify for a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it's released on the 22nd (you should be able to upgrade install it over Vista and keep all your stuff, that's what I did with the Release Candidate, which has been great).

You'll have yourself a wicked fast, stable system, and with Avast Home (Free) Edition, you'll be all set on anti-virus, problems shall be minimal, just the occasional one-app crash that's quick enough to recover, and that happens on all platforms when your driving your hardware to its limits. Happy hunting!

Great advice guys I really appreciate it!

I've used the Adobe CS for years - it does everything I need/want, except OMF export for audio.

That's a big issue, for someone like me, who relies on others to repair my crappy sound... and they all use Macs, they all use ProTools... and they all want the audio delivered as OMF.

The Adobe suites, aside from my own achilles, are great. It doesn't hurt that you can also pick up a new off-the-shelf Windows computer for very low prices.

Being able to fling images/video back & forth (and on the fly) into Photoshop/AEFX is worth its weight in "insert currency" to me - just wish they'd friggin' add real OMF support.

I'm a Vegas user of six years. For me, the Vegas interface is the most intuitive, and I like the fact that I can do almost anything in Vegas that most people need AE for. Some people say that Vegas can't handle long form projects very well, but I've cut two features and haven't had issues.

I think the best way to choose which route you want to go is to try the demos for all of the options and see what YOU like the most.

If you are going with a PC, build your own from scratch. Stay away from Vista.

And Never, NEVER, connect your editing bay to the internet! Ever! If a software package needs to connect to the internet to be setup, just say NO! And move on to the next one.

As far a editing software goes, download and try out every NLE package you can get your hands on. It's the best way to find the one or two that
will give you, your best work flow.

Terry

I've been an Avid editor since it's MC version 4 release (it's first version 4 release...more than 15 years ago and I have an in-house Avid suite today:

That said, when this Adrenaline finally kicks it, I'll upgrade to a nice FCP suite at a literal fraction of what this current system cost me. You don't have to spend more than 10k for a nice sute today. Times they are a changin'.