Pinnacle Systems Media Composer First User’s Guide

Avid® Media Composer | First

User’s Guide

Legal Notices

Product specifications are subject to change without notice and do not represent a commitment on the part of Avid Technology, Inc.

This product is subject to the terms and conditions of a software license agreement provided with the software. The product may only be used in accordance with the license agreement.

This product may be protected by one or more U.S. and non-U.S patents. Details are available at www.avid.com/patents.

This document is protected under copyright law. An authorized licensee of Avid Media Composer may reproduce this publication for the licensee’s own use in learning how to use the software. This document may not be reproduced or distributed, in whole or in part, for commercial purposes, such as selling copies of this document or providing support or educational services to others. This document is supplied as a guide for Avid Media Composer. Reasonable care has been taken in preparing the information it contains. However, this document may contain omissions, technical inaccuracies, or typographical errors. Avid Technology, Inc. does not accept responsibility of any kind for customers’ losses due to the use of this document. Product specifications are subject to change without notice.

The following disclaimer is required by Apple Computer, Inc.:

APPLE COMPUTER, INC. MAKES NO WARRANTIES WHATSOEVER, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THIS PRODUCT, INCLUDING WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO ITS MERCHANTABILITY OR ITS FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES IS NOT PERMITTED BY SOME STATES. THE ABOVE EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THIS WARRANTY PROVIDES YOU WITH SPECIFIC LEGAL RIGHTS. THERE MAY BE OTHER RIGHTS THAT YOU MAY HAVE WHICH VARY FROM STATE TO STATE.

The following disclaimer is required by Sam Leffler and Silicon Graphics, Inc. for the use of their TIFF library:

Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software [i.e., the TIFF library] and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that (i) the above copyright notices and this permission notice appear in all copies of the software and related documentation, and (ii) the names of Sam Leffler and Silicon Graphics may not be used in any advertising or publicity relating to the software without the specific, prior written permission of Sam Leffler and Silicon Graphics.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS-IS” AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

IN NO EVENT SHALL SAM LEFFLER OR SILICON GRAPHICS BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER OR NOT ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGE, AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.

The following disclaimer is required by the Independent JPEG Group:

This software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group.

This Software may contain components licensed under the following conditions:

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are duplicated in all such forms and that any documentation, advertising materials, and other materials related to such distribution and use acknowledge that the software was developed by the University of California, Berkeley. The name of the University may not be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation. This software is provided " as is" without express or implied warranty.

Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation, and that the name of Daniel Dardailler not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific, written prior permission. Daniel Dardailler makes no representations about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided " as is" without express or implied warranty.

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any purpose without fee is hereby granted, provided that this entire notice is included in all copies of any software which is or includes a copy or modification of this software and in all copies of the supporting documentation for such software.

THIS SOFTWARE IS BEING PROVIDED " AS IS" , WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY. IN PARTICULAR, NEITHER THE AUTHOR NOR AT&T MAKES ANY REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY OF ANY KIND CONCERNING THE MERCHANTABILITY OF THIS SOFTWARE OR ITS FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

This product includes software developed by the University of California, Berkeley and its contributors.

The following disclaimer is required by Paradigm Matrix:

Portions of this software licensed from Paradigm Matrix.

The following disclaimer is required by Ray Sauers Associates, Inc.:

“Install-It” is licensed from Ray Sauers Associates, Inc. End-User is prohibited from taking any action to derive a source code equivalent of “Install-It,” including by reverse assembly or reverse compilation, Ray Sauers Associates, Inc. shall in no event be liable for any damages resulting from reseller’s failure to perform reseller’s obligation; or any damages arising from use or operation of reseller’s products or the software; or any other damages, including but not limited to, incidental, direct, indirect, special or consequential Damages including lost profits, or damages resulting from loss of use or inability to use reseller’s products or the software for any reason including copyright or patent infringement, or lost data, even if Ray Sauers Associates has been advised, knew or should have known of the possibility of such damages.

The following disclaimer is required by Videomedia, Inc.:

“Videomedia, Inc. makes no warranties whatsoever, either express or implied, regarding this product, including warranties with respect to its merchantability or its fitness for any particular purpose.”

“This software contains V-LAN ver. 3.0 Command Protocols which communicate with V-LAN ver. 3.0 products developed by Videomedia, Inc. and V-LAN ver. 3.0 compatible products developed by third parties under license from Videomedia, Inc. Use of this software will allow “frame accurate” editing control of applicable videotape recorder decks, videodisc recorders/players and the like.”

The following disclaimer is required by Altura Software, Inc. for the use of its Mac2Win software and Sample Source Code:

The following disclaimer is required by Ultimatte Corporation:

Certain real-time compositing capabilities are provided under a license of such technology from Ultimatte Corporation and are subject to copyright protection.

The following disclaimer is required by 3Prong.com Inc.:

Certain waveform and vector monitoring capabilities are provided under a license from 3Prong.com Inc.

The following disclaimer is required by Interplay Entertainment Corp.:

The “Interplay” name is used with the permission of Interplay Entertainment Corp., which bears no responsibility for Avid products.

This product includes portions of the Alloy Look & Feel software from Incors GmbH.

This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation (http://www.apache.org/).

This product may include the JCifs library, for which the following notice applies:

Avid Interplay contains components licensed from LavanTech. These components may only be used as part of and in connection with Avid Interplay.

Attn. Government User(s). Restricted Rights Legend

U.S. GOVERNMENT RESTRICTED RIGHTS. This Software and its documentation are “commercial computer software” or “commercial computer software documentation.” In the event that such Software or documentation is acquired by or on behalf of a unit or agency of the U.S. Government, all rights with respect to this Software and documentation are subject to the terms of the License Agreement, pursuant to FAR §12.212(a) and/or DFARS §227.7202-1(a), as applicable.

Trademarks

Avid, the Avid Logo, Avid Everywhere, Avid DNXHD, Avid DNXHR, Avid Nexis, AirSpeed, Eleven, EUCON, Interplay, iNEWS, ISIS, Mbox, MediaCentral, Media Composer, NewsCutter, Pro Tools, ProSet and RealSet, Maestro, PlayMaker, Sibelius, Symphony, and all related product names and logos, are registered or unregistered trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. The Interplay name is used with the permission of the Interplay Entertainment Corp. which bears no responsibility for Avid products. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. For a full list of Avid trademarks, see: http://www.avid.com/US/about-avid/

legal-notices/trademarks.

Adobe and Photoshop are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Apple and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Windows is either a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

Footage

Arri — Courtesy of Arri/Fauer — John Fauer, Inc. Bell South “Anticipation” — Courtesy of Two Headed Monster — Tucker/Wayne Atlanta/GMS. Canyonlands — Courtesy of the National Park Service/Department of the Interior. Eco Challenge British Columbia — Courtesy of Eco Challenge Lifestyles, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Eco Challenge Morocco — Courtesy of Discovery Communications, Inc. It’s Shuttletime — Courtesy of BCP & Canadian Airlines. Nestlé Coffee Crisp — Courtesy of MacLaren McCann Canada. Saturn “Calvin Egg” — Courtesy of Cossette Communications. “Tigers: Tracking a Legend” — Courtesy of www.wildlifeworlds.com, Carol Amore, Executive Producer. " The Big Swell" — Courtesy of Swell Pictures, Inc. Windhorse — Courtesy of Paul Wagner Productions.

Arizona Images — KNTV Production — Courtesy of Granite Broadcasting, Inc., Editor/Producer Bryan Foote. Canyonlands — Courtesy of the National Park Service/Department of the Interior. Ice Island — Courtesy of Kurtis Productions, Ltd. Tornados + Belle Isle footage — Courtesy of KWTV News 9. WCAU Fire Story — Courtesy of NBC-10, Philadelphia, PA. Women in Sports – Paragliding — Courtesy of Legendary Entertainment, Inc.

Avid Media Composer | First User’s Guide • Created 8/25/17

Symbols and Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

If You Need Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Avid Training Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Chapter 1 Media Composer | First Quick Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Downloading and Installing Media Composer | First. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Launching Media Composer | First . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Creating a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Accessing Your Footage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Accessing and Previewing Your Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Importing or Linking Your Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Creating a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Marking IN and OUT Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Adding Clips to the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Editing the Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Trimming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Adding Effects to Your Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Adjusting Audio with “Ducking” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Publishing Your Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Create a Publishing Profile. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Chapter 2 Starting a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Turning on Your Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Working with the Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Using the Windows Taskbar (Windows Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Using the Mac Dock (Mac Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Using Shortcut Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Using the Keyboard for Navigating in Dialog Boxes and Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Antivirus Applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Working with Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Setting Project-Naming Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Avid Projects and Avid Users Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Opening and Closing Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Deleting a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Quitting and Turning Off Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Changing Project and User Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Backing Up Your Project Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Chapter 3 Working with the Project Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Overview of the Project Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Using the Bins Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Viewing a List of Bins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Creating a New Bin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Renaming a Bin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Opening and Closing Bins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Displaying Folders of Bins in the Bins List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Creating a Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Deleting a Bin or Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Viewing and Emptying the Trash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Saving Bins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Saving Bins Manually. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Using the Settings Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Using the Format Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Using the Usage Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Using the Info Tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Customizing the Avid User Interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Changing Interface Component Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Changing Font and Point Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Overriding Bin and Project Font and Font Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Setting the Media Cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Using Workspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Assigning a Workspace Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Chapter 4 Using Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Using the Tools Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

The Command Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Understanding Button Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Mapping User-Selectable Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Mapping Menu Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Activating Commands from the Command Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Using the Avid Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Using The Console Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Chapter 5 Working with Bins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Object Icons in Bins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Bin Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Using Text View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Sorting in Bins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Sorting Clips and Sequences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Understanding Bin Views. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Saving a Custom Bin View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Using Frame View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Using Script View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Bin Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Using the Bin Fast Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Selecting Clips and Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Duplicating and Moving Clips and Sequences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Deleting Items from a Bin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Changing the Bin Background Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Assigning Colors to Objects in a Bin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Selecting Offline Items in a Bin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Selecting Media Relatives for an Object in a Bin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Selecting Sources Used by an Object in a Bin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Selecting Unreferenced Items in a Bin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Working with Bin Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Moving, Aligning, and Deleting Bin Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Adding Customized Columns to a Bin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Changing a Custom Bin Column Heading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Moving Within Column Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Copying Information Between Columns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Modifying Clip Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Bin Column Headings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Modifying Data in Bins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Modify Command Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Copying Information from Another Cell in a Custom Bin Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Applying the Same Text to a Custom Column for Multiple Items. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Printing Bins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Filtering Items in the Bin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Chapter 6 Ingesting Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Source Browser Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Accessing and Previewing Your Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Linking Your Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Linking with Multichannel Audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Relinking to Linked QuickTime Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Importing Your Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Importing Media Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Importing Audio Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Importing Photoshop Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Chapter 7 Managing Media Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Using the Media Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Opening the Media Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Deleting Media Files with the Media Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Consolidating Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Transcoding Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Deleting Unreferenced Clips and Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Finding a Related Media File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Sequence and Clip Information Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Creating a Summary of Effects and Source Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Summary Information Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Chapter 8 Viewing and Marking Footage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Viewing Methods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Customizing the Composer Window and Monitors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Resizing the Composer Window and Monitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Displaying Tracking Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Tracking Format Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Using the Info Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Using the Timecode Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Playing Video to a Full-Screen Monitor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Using the Tool Palette. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Playing Selected Clips in a Loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Loading and Clearing Footage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Loading Clips or Sequences into Monitors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Switching Between Loaded Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Clearing Clips from Monitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Controlling Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Using Position Bars and Position Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Playback Control Buttons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Playback Control Using the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Playing Footage with the J-K-L Keys (Three-Button Play). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Using the Mouse for Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Video Quality Options for Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Setting the Video Quality for Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Marking and Subcataloging Footage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Marking IN and OUT Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Marking an Entire Clip or Segment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Creating Subclips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Creating Subsequences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Marking Audio Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Using Markers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Suggested Uses for Markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Adding Markers While Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Adding Markers On-the-Fly while Playing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Finding Markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Finding Marker Comment Text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Editing Marker Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Marking an Area Using Markers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Moving to the Previous or Next Marker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Deleting Markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Using the Markers Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Viewing Markers in the Markers Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Working in the Markers Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Exporting and Importing Markers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Creating a Marker Text (.txt) File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Printing the Contents of the Markers Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Disabling the Marker Edit Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Finding Frames, Clips, and Bins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Using Timecode to Find a Frame. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Searching for a Clip or Sequence with Text Find. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Using Match Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Performing a Reverse Match Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Selecting Tracks for Matching Frames. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Finding a Bin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Locating a Master Clip from a Subclip in a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Sequence and Clip Information Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Creating a Summary of Effects and Source Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Summary Information Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Chapter 9 Creating and Editing Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Creating a New Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Track Display for New Sequences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Adding Filler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Making a First Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Creating an Instant Rough Cut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Undoing or Redoing Edits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Editing Additional Clips into the Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Performing an Insert or Splice-in Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Performing an Overwrite Edit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Performing a Replace Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Lifting, Extracting, and Copying Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Using the Avid Clipboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Adding Notes to Clips in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Playing Back a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Playback Performance Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Setting Video Memory and Video Frame Cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Understanding Sync Breaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Fixing Sync Breaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Understanding Sync Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Syncing with Tail Leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Using Add Edit When Trimming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Ganging Footage in Monitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Sync Point Editing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Working with Phantom Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Chapter 10 Using the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Customizing Timeline Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Using the Timeline Fast Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Timeline Fast Menu Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Enlarging and Reducing Timeline Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Moving Timeline Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Displaying Clip Colors in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Changing the Track Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Assigning Local Colors to Clips in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Clip Color for Proxy Clips in Timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Displaying Timecode Tracks in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Showing Markers in the Timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Showing Adapter Icons in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Changing the Background Color of a Project Window or Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Setting the Playback Option for the Timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Disabling the Smart Tool in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Using the Full-Screen Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

The Timeline Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

The Track Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Using the Track Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Displaying Source Material in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Displaying the Timeline Top Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Managing Customized Timeline Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Using Timeline View Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Navigating in the Timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Understanding the Timeline Position Indicator and Scroll Bar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Switching to the Timeline Position Bar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Zooming and Focusing in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Vertical Scrolling in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Controlling Movement in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Working with Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Guidelines for Segment Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Selecting and Deselecting Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Live Dragging in the Timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Creating a Sequence Based on Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Linked Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Selecting Linked Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Selecting Multiple Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Excluding Filler when Selecting Multiple Segments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Selecting Filler with Segment Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Four-Frame Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Suppressing Four-Frame Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Maintaining Sync with Segment Edits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Moving Segments with Drag and Drop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Copying and Dragging Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Dragging Nonadjacent Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Deleting Segments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Marking Clips and Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Cutting, Copying, and Pasting in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Setting the Default Segment Edit Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Enabling Only One Segment Edit Tool at a Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Bin Editing into the Timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Working with Multiple Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Understanding the Track Selector Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Selecting Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Understanding Track Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Monitoring and Soloing Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Patching Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Performing an Alternate Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Muting Individual Clips in the Timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Disabling a Video Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Understanding Locking and Sync Locking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Locking and Sync Locking Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Adding and Deleting Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Splitting Stereo Tracks to Mono Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Backtiming Edits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

In to Out Highlighting in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Editing in Heads or Heads Tails View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Performing a Quick Edit Using the Top and Tail Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Working with Add Edits (Match Frames). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Dupe Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Activating Dupe Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Editing with the Film Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Finding Black Holes and Flash Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Printing the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Searching for Text in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Chapter 11 Working with Trim Edits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Trimming with the Timeline Palette. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Timeline Trim States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Selecting Trim Sides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Selecting Video Tracks for Trimming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Selecting Additional Transitions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Soloing Audio while Trimming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Overwrite Trimming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Ripple Trimming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Dual-Roller Trimming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Refining Trims. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Reviewing Trim Edits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Trimming On-the-Fly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

End of Trim Indicators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Trimming During a Playback Loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Creating Overlap Edits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Extending an Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Maintaining Sync While Trimming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Slipping or Sliding Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Selecting Segments for Slip or Slide Trimming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Performing a Slip or Slide Trim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Trimming in Two Directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Chapter 12 Working with Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Overview of Audio Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Creating Tone Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Audio Ducking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Fading and Dipping Audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Working with Multichannel Audio Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Modifying Track Formats in Bins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

The Track Control Panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Using the Track Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

Soloing Audio Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

Making Tracks Inactive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Using Audio Scrub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Selecting Tracks for Audio Scrubbing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Performing Smooth Audio Scrub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Performing Digital Audio Scrub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Audio Displays in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Displaying Audio Waveforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Displaying Volume and Pan Values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Using Audio Meters in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Adjusting Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Displaying Audio Formats in Bins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Using the Audio Mixer Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Accessing the Audio Mixer and Audio Mixer Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Audio Mixer Tool Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

Resizing the Audio Mixer Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

Track Selection in the Audio Mixer Tool and in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

Using the Track Solo and Track Mute Buttons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

Rendering and Unrendering Order for Audio Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

Audio Volume Staging and an Audio Editing Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Using Clip Volume and Pan Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Adjusting Clip Volume and Pan for Audio Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Audio Mixer Fast Menu: Clip Volume and Pan Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Bypassing Existing Volume Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Adjusting Volume While Playing a Clip Volume Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Improving Response Time When Adjusting Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Using the Center Pan Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Isolating Clip Portions for Audio Adjustment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Using Volume and Pan Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

Using Volume and Pan Automation in the Timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

Volume and Pan Automation Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

Understanding Volume or Pan Automation Recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Using the Audio Mixer Tool for Volume and Pan Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Audio Mixer Tool Fast Menu: Volume and Pan Automation Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Using Keyboard Shortcuts with Audio Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Copying, Pasting and Moving Audio Keyframes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Creating a New Keyframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Copy and Paste Individual Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Copy and Paste by Lassoing an Area of Audio Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Copy and Paste a Whole Region or Marked Region of Audio Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Moving Keyframes in the Timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Removing Hidden Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Using Live Mix Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Entering Live Mix Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Using Live Mix Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Switching Between Live Mix Mode and Other Audio Mixer Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Audio Mixer Tool Fast Menu: Live Mix Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Live Mix Mode Example. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Adjusting Audio Clip Gain in the Timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

Mixing Down Audio Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Using the Audio EQ Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Audio EQ Tool Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Applying Audio EQ Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Saving Audio EQ Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Removing Audio EQ Effects with the Fast Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

Removing Audio EQ Effects with the Remove Effect Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Audio EQ Examples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Using Audio EQ Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Adjusting EQ While Playing an Audio Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

Understanding the Audio Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

Recording Voice-Over Narration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Audio Punch-in Tool Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Audio Punch-in Tool Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Recording Voice-Over Narration Using Audio Punch-in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Extended Audio Punch-In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Monitoring Previously Recorded Tracks While Recording Voice-Over Narration . . . . . 301

Audio Punch-In Support for Open I/O Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Using Peak Hold While Recording Voice-Over Narration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

Chapter 13 Using Audio Plug-Ins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Audio Effects Plug-Ins Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Audio Track Effect Plug-Ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Inserting an Audio Track Effect Plug-In on a Track in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Editing an Audio Track Effect Plug-In on a Track in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Moving and Copying Audio Track Effect Inserts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

Ordering Audio Track Effect Inserts on a Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

Removing Audio Track Effect Inserts on a Track. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Using Audio Track Effect Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Avid AudioSuite Plug-Ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Using Avid AudioSuite Plug-Ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Applying an AudioSuite Plug-in to a Clip in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Common Buttons in the AudioSuite Plug-In Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

AudioSuite Fast Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Real-time EQ and AudioSuite Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Rendering AudioSuite Plug-in Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Creating New Master Clips with AudioSuite Plug-Ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

AudioSuite Controls for Creating New Master Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Mono, Stereo, and Multichannel Processing in AudioSuite Plug-Ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Using AudioSuite Plug-ins to Create New Master Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Using AudioSuite Effect Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Using AudioSuite Plug-Ins in Stereo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

AudioSuite Plug-in Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Troubleshooting AudioSuite Plug-Ins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Core Avid Audio Plug-Ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

AIR Chorus (Audio Track Effect) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

AIR Distortion (Audio Track Effect) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

AIR Dynamic Delay (Audio Track Effect) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

AIR Enhancer (Audio Track Effect) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

AIR Ensemble (Audio Track Effect) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

AIR Filter Gate (Audio Track Effect). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

AIR Flanger (Audio Track Effect) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

AIR Frequency Shifter (Audio Track Effect) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

AIR Fuzz-Wah (Audio Track Effect) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

AIR Kill EQ (Audio Track Effect) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

AIR Lo Fi (Audio Track Effect) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

AIR Multi-Chorus (Audio Track Effect) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

AIR Multi-Delay (Audio Track Effect) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

AIR Non-Linear Reverb (Audio Track Effect). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

AIR Phaser (Audio Track Effect) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

AIR Reverb (Audio Track Effect) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

AIR Spring Reverb (Audio Track Effect) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

AIR Stereo Width (Audio Track Effect). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

AIR Talkbox (Audio Track Effect). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

AIR Vintage Filter (Audio Track Effect) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Bomb Factory BF76 (Audio Track Effect and AudioSuite). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Channel Strip (Audio Track Effect and AudioSuite) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

Compressor/Limiter III — Dynamics III (Audio Track Effect and AudioSuite) . . . . . . . . 350

D-Verb (Audio Track Effect and AudioSuite) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

DC Offset Removal (AudioSuite) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

DeEsser III — Dynamics III (Audio Track Effect and AudioSuite) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

Dither (Audio Track Effect). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

Down Mixer (Audio Track Effect) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Duplicate (AudioSuite) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358

Eleven Free (Audio Track Effect and AudioSuite) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358

EQ (AudioSuite) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

Expander/Gate III — Dynamics III (Audio Track Effect and AudioSuite) . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Funk Logic Mastererizer (AudioSuite) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

Gain (AudioSuite). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

Invert (AudioSuite) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Lo-Fi Plug-In (Audio Track Effect and AudioSuite) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Maxim (Audio Track Effect and AudioSuite) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

Mod Delay III (Audio Track Effect and AudioSuite) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Normalize (AudioSuite) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Pitch Shift (AudioSuite) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Pow-r Dither (Audio Track Effect) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

Recti-Fi (Audio Track Effect and AudioSuite). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

Reverse (AudioSuite). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372

SansAmp PSA-1 (Audio Track Effect and AudioSuite) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372

Sci-Fi (Audio Track Effect and AudioSuite) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Signal Generator (Audio Track Effect and AudioSuite) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

Time Compression Expansion (AudioSuite) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Time Shift (AudioSuite) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

Trim (Audio Track Effect) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

Chapter 14 MultiCamera Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Understanding Grouping Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Creating Group Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

MultiCamera Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

MultiCamera Editing Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Using the Add Edit Button During Multicamera Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Using the Multi-angle View Menus During Multicamera Editing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Using Match Frame in MultiCamera Editing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Selective Camera Cutting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

Chapter 15 The Avid Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

Purchasing and Downloading Plug-ins from the Avid Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

Upgrading to Avid Media Composer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

Chapter 16 Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Understanding Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Working with Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Viewing and Modifying Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391

Duplicating Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391

Naming Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391

Selecting Among Multiple Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

Deleting Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

Restoring Default Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Audio Ducking Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Bin Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Full Screen Playback Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

General Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

Import Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

Interface Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

Keyboard Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399

Link Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

Media Cache Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

Media Creation Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

Timeline Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402

Chapter 17 International Character Support (ICS) in Avid Editing Applications. . . . . . . . 405

Choosing a Locale on an English Language Operating System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

Using a Local Language Operating System

(Windows Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

Non-English Character Support (Mac) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406

Non-English Character Support (Windows) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408

Using Foreign Keyboard Mapping (Windows) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411

Considerations for International Character Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412

Using This Guide

This guide contains the task-oriented instructions, conceptual information, and reference information you need to use the features of your Avid editing application. The contents of this guide is also available in the Help.

This guide is intended for all users, from beginning to advanced.

Symbols and Conventions

Avid documentation uses the following symbols and conventions:

Symbol or Convention Meaning or Action

> This symbol indicates menu commands (and subcommands) in the

(Windows), (Windows only), (Mac), or (Mac only)

Bold font Bold font is primarily used in task instructions to identify user interface

Italic font Italic font is used to emphasize certain words and to indicate variables.

Courier Bold font

A note provides important related information, reminders, recommendations, and strong suggestions.

A caution means that a specific action you take could cause harm to your computer or cause you to lose data.

A warning describes an action that could cause you physical harm. Follow the guidelines in this document or on the unit itself when handling electrical equipment.

order you select them. For example, File > Import means to open the File menu and then select the Import command.

This symbol indicates a single-step procedure. Multiple arrows in a list indicate that you perform one of the actions listed.

This text indicates that the information applies only to the specified operating system, either Windows or Mac OS X.

items and keyboard sequences.

Courier Bold font identifies text that you type.

Ctrl+key or mouse action Press and hold the first key while you press the last key or perform the

mouse action. For example, Command+Option+C or Ctrl+drag.

If You Need Help

If you are having trouble using your Avid product:

1. Retry the action, carefully following the instructions given for that task in this guide. It is especially important to check each step of your workflow.

2. Check the latest information that might have become available after the documentation was published. You should always check online for the most up-to-date release notes or ReadMe because the online version is updated whenever new information becomes available. To view these online versions, select ReadMe from the Help menu, or visit the Knowledge Base at

www.avid.com/support.

3. Check the documentation that came with your Avid application or your hardware for maintenance or hardware-related issues.

4. Visit the online Knowledge Base at www.avid.com/support. Online services are available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Search this online Knowledge Base to find answers, to view error messages, to access troubleshooting tips, to download updates, and to read or join online message-board discussions.

5. For Avid Community support visit the Media Composer | First Community Forum where you can get help and advice from other Avid users.

6. Watch the Get Started Fast Tutorials.

Avid Training Services

Avid makes lifelong learning, career advancement, and personal development easy and convenient. Avid understands that the knowledge you need to differentiate yourself is always changing, and Avid continually updates course content and offers new training delivery methods that accommodate your pressured and competitive work environment.

For information on courses/schedules, training centers, certifications, courseware, and books, please visit www.avid.com/support and follow the Training links, or call Avid Sales at 800-949-AVID (800-949-2843).

1 Media Composer | First Quick Start

The following topics provide a quick start for installing and using Media Composer | First. This document is meant to get you running quickly with Media Composer | First.

• Downloading and Installing Media Composer | First

• Launching Media Composer | First

• Creating a Project

• Accessing Your Footage

• Creating a Sequence

• Publishing Your Story

Downloading and Installing Media Composer | First

Use the following procedure to access and install Media Composer | First.

To access the download for Media Composer | First:

1. Go to http://www.avid.com/media-composer-first

2. You must have an Avid Master Account. Follow the on screen instructions to either Login in (if you already have an account) or create an Avid Master Account. The on screen instructions will step you through creating an Avid Master Account, verifying your email address, and downloading Media Composer | First. Once the download is complete, continue with installing the application.

(Windows) To install the Avid software:

1. Access the file you downloaded.

2. Click to launch the Media Composer | First installer. A window will open with instructions as well as options for choosing file locations and other custom settings.

3. Follow the on screen instructions.

4. When prompted, choose to restart the computer.

The installation process adds a Media Composer | First icon to the Desktop icon and a pointer to your Avid editing application in the Start menu. The installation process also adds an Application Manager icon to the Toolbar menu. The Application Manager allows you to view the installed Avid applications and try new offerings.

5. Once you restart your system, the Application Manager launches.

Downloading and Installing Media Composer | First

6. Sign In to your Avid Master Account. NOTE: You cannot launch Media Composer | First if you are not signed into your Avid Master Account. Continue with Launching Media

Composer | First.

(Macintosh) To install Media Composer | First:

1. Access the file you downloaded.

2. Double-click the .pkg file with the editing application name.

3. Follow the on screen instructions.

4. When prompted, choose to restart the computer.

The installation process adds a Media Composer First icon to the Dock. The installation process also adds an Application Manager icon to the Dock. The Application Manager allows you to view the installed Avid applications and try new offerings.

5. Once you restart, the Application Manager launches.

6. Sign In to your Avid Master Account. NOTE: You cannot launch Media Composer | First if you are not signed into your Avid Master Account. Continue with Launching Media

Composer | First.

Launching Media Composer | First

Perform the following to launch Media Composer | First:

(Windows) To start your Avid editing application, do one of the following:

t Click Start > All Programs > Avid > Media Composer | First.

t Double-click the Media Composer | First desktop icon.

The Media Composer | First application opens.

(Macintosh) To start your Avid editing application, do one of the following:

t Click the alias icon for your Avid editing application on the Dock.

t Select Go > Applications, and double-click the Avid editing application folder. Then double-

click the Media Composer | First application file.

The Media Composer | First application opens.

Launching Media Composer | First

Creating a Project

When you first open Media Composer | First, a window opens where you can create a project or open an existing project.

To create a project:

1. Enter a name for your project in the Create Project text box.

2. Click Create.

The application opens with a default workspace.

Creating a Project

Top row: Project Window, Sequence Bin and Clip Bin, Source and Record monitors Bottom row: Source Browser, Timeline

The following describes the windows that initially open when you create a project:

Window Description

Project Window The Project window is a central location for

important information and tools that you need as you work on your project. The Project window has tabs that allow you to choose from the following:

• Bins - lets you create and open bins.

• Settings - lets you view and modify settings.

• Effects icon - lets you access a library of effects.

• Format - displays the Raster Dimension and Frame Rate.

• Usage - lets you view information about the work session usage.

• Info - lets you view information about system memory usage and system hardware configuration.

Sequence Bin and Clips Bin Bins are locations for organizing and managing

your media. You can create up to 5 bins.

Source and Record Monitors The Source Monitor (left monitor) displays the

currently loaded clip. The Record Monitor (right monitor) displays the frame at the current position of a loaded sequence in the Timeline.

Source Browser The Source Browser window allows you to import

or link your media. You can also preview your footage before you commit the clip(s) into a bin.

Window Description

Timeline Media Composer | First represents each edit and

Accessing Your Footage

Once you have created a project, use the Source Browser to access and preview your footage. Once you decide on the footage you want for your sequence, use the Source Browser to import or link to your media.

Accessing Your Footage

effect on the Timeline to help you track and manipulate the elements of your sequence. The Timeline continuously updates as you work, displaying icons and information that you can customize in various ways. The Timeline also has its own set of editing tools for creating and revising edits and transitions across multiple tracks.

The audio and video tracks in the Timeline play in the Record monitor. You can continually edit your sequence and review your changes until you are pleased with the result.

Accessing and Previewing Your Media

You can preview your media in the Source Browser before you commit the clip(s) into a bin.

To access and preview your media:

1. In the Explore area of the Source Browser window, browse to the location of the media you want to preview.

The clips will populate the right pane of the Source Browser with the frame clip representation (thumbnails).

Accessing Your Footage

2. Press Ctrl + L (Windows) or Command + L (Mac) to enlarge the thumbnails.

3. Place your cursor so it hovers over the thumbnail of the clip. While hovering, move the cursor to the edges of the thumbnail to preview the footage. You can also use the JKL keys to shuttle through the thumbnail. (Use L to move forward, K to pause, and J to move backward.)

4. (Optional) You can drag a clip from the Source Browser to the Source monitor to review the clip. Dragging to the Source monitor does not commit the clip to the bin.

5. (Optional) You can also choose to view the clips in text view, rather than in thumbnail view by clicking the Text View button at the bottom of the display pane.

6. Continue with Importing or Linking Your Media.

For additional details on the Source Browser, see “Source Browser Overview” in the Help.

Importing or Linking Your Media

In the Source Browser Window, you can choose to either import or link your media. Linking allows you to quickly link to the files without importing, transcoding, or copying them. Once you link to the files, you can immediately drag them to your Timeline and start editing. Importing will actually import the media files to the bin. (The import process can take longer than linking.)

To link or import the media files:

1. Once you have previewed the clips you want in the Source Browser window, select the Link button if you want to link to them or select the Import button if you want to import the files.

2. Select the clips you want and drag and drop them to the bin. (Ctrl+click or Shift+click to select multiple files.)

Creating a Sequence

If you chose to Import, a Project Properties dialog box appears showing the image size and edit rate of the first clip you are importing to the bin. You can click OK to accept the selected clip size and edit rate, or select another raster size and edit rate from the menus.

If you chose to Link rather than import, the Project Properties dialog box will appear when you drag the first linked clip to the Timeline.

The clips appear in the bin. Linked clips appear with a link on the clip icon.

You can also import or link clips by selecting them, right clicking and selecting Add to Bin.

Creating a Sequence

Once you have your media in the bin, you can begin to assemble the clips into the Timeline to create your sequence. The following topics cover a basic workflow to edit your sequence.

• Marking IN and OUT Points

• Adding Clips to the Timeline

• Trimming

• Adding Effects to Your Sequence

• Adjusting Audio with “Ducking”

• Publishing Your Story

Marking IN and OUT Points

You can mark IN and OUT points in your footage to indicate selected material, for example, the portion of a clip that you want to edit into a sequence. You can also easily clear or move these marks. Even if your marks are not accurate now, your Avid editing application lets you trim the edit points and fine-tune the sequence later without reediting the material.

To mark IN and OUT points:

1. Double click a clip in the bin to load it into the Source monitor.

2. Play, step, or shuttle through the material by using the blue bar, J-K-L, or the Play, Rewind, and Fast forward buttons.

Creating a Sequence

Blue bar, Rewind - Fast Forward- Step Backward - Step Forward buttons, Play button

3. Mark an IN point by doing the following:

t Click the Mark IN button under the monitor to mark an IN point and stop playback.

In the monitor, a Sawtooth icon appears on the left to indicate the mark IN frame.

Sawtooth icon in the frame, and marked IN point, in the monitor

4. Continue moving through the material.

Creating a Sequence

5. Mark an OUT point by doing the following:

t Click the Mark OUT button under the monitor to mark an OUT point and stop playback.

In the monitor, a Sawtooth icon appears on the right to indicate the mark OUT frame.

If you need to move a mark icon, simply press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac) while dragging the icon to a new location.

6. Continue loading your clips in the Source Monitor and marking the material you want to add to your sequence with IN and OUT points. Once you have finished marking IN and OUT marks for your source material, continue with Adding Clips to the Timeline.

For more details on marking your footage, see “Viewing and Marking Footage” in the Help.

Adding Clips to the Timeline

You can create a sequence by loading the clips directly into the Timeline.

To create a sequence:

1. In the bin, select the first clip you want to add to the sequence and double-click to load the clip in the Source Monitor.

2. Drag the selected clip to the Timeline.

If the first clip you are dragging to the Timeline is a linked clip, the Project Properties dialog box opens.

Editing the Sequence

3. The dialog box shows the image size and edit rate of the first clip you are dragging to the Timeline. You can click OK to accept the selected clip size and edit rate, or select another raster size and edit rate from the menus.

The selected clip appears in the Record Monitor and a graphical representation appears in the Timeline.

4. In the bin, double click to load the next clip you want to add to the sequence to the Source Monitor and click the Splice-In button below the Source Monitor.

5. Continue loading the clips in the Source Monitor and then click the Splice-In button to add the clip to the sequence.

6. Once you have finished adding clips to the sequence, you can edit the sequence by trimming, adding effects, and adjusting audio. See Editing the Sequence.

For more details on working in the Timeline, see “Using the Timeline” in the Help.

Editing the Sequence

Once you have added the clips you want to the sequence, you can continue to fine tune the sequence by trimming, adding effects, and adjusting audio.

Trimming

Basic editing of a sequence initially produces a rough cut, which is loosely defined as a series of straight-cut edits with many rough edges and few effects. After creating a rough cut, you can use trim edits to fine-tune the transitions between each clip or between whole segments.

To perform a trim:

1. Click the Trim mode button to enter Trim mode.

Editing the Sequence

2. Once you enter Trim mode, the Composer monitor changes to display Trim mode for trimming transitions. Outgoing frames appear on the left monitor and incoming frames appear on the right. Trim rollers appear at the nearest transition in the Timeline.

3. If you want to trim frames from the outgoing clip, click in the left monitor and then drag the trim roller at the transition in the Timeline to the left to trim the frames. If you want to trim frames from the incoming clip, click the right monitor and then drag the roller to trim the frames.

4. Continue trimming transitions if necessary. Once you are finished cleaning transitions, you can add effects to your sequence.

5. Exit Trim mode. There are multiple ways to exit Trim mode: click on another mode button, for example, the Source/Record mode button directly above the Trim mode button, or simply click in the TC 1 ruler at the bottom of the Timeline.

For more details on using Trim mode, see “Working with Trim Edits” in the Help.

Adding Effects to Your Sequence

Media Composer | First provides a number of effects that you can add to your sequence. In this example, we’ll add a simple fade to a transition.

To add a fade to a transition:

1. Place your cursor at a transition in your sequence.

2. Click the Quick Transition button in the Timeline Tool bar.

Editing the Sequence

3. The Quick Transition dialog opens.

4. Type the number of frames to fade up and fade down, and click Add.

5. You can view the Fade effect by playing the segment in the Timeline.

You can also add a number of effects from the Effect Palette. You can access the Effect Palette from the Tools menu.

Adjusting Audio with “Ducking”

Audio Ducking is a feature that allows you to reduce the audio level of one or more audio tracks when you want to hear the level of another audio track(s). For example, this is useful when you want to lower the music on one track in order to hear the dialog on another audio track.

To set Audio Ducking:

1. Load the sequence that contains audio tracks to which you want to apply Audio Ducking.

2. Right click in the Timeline and select Audio Ducking.

The Audio Ducking dialog opens.

Editing the Sequence

3. Select the Dialog and Music track(s) that you want to adjust.

4. (Optional) Select Use Marks if you want to set IN and OUT points to determine the starting and ending frames for applying audio ducking.

5. Click Duck.

Keyframes are applied to the respective target tracks and you will visually see the ducking in the track(s).

6. Play the sequence. The audio will playback with Audio Ducking applied.

7. (Optional) If you want to make adjustments to the Audio Ducking, click the Advanced opener in the Audio Ducking dialog and make adjustments by choosing from the following options:

Option Meaning

Dialog track parameters Threshold: Enter a value to set how aggressive key frames will be

applied when analyzing the Dialog tracks.

Hold time: Enter a value in frames to set how long a track will remain ducked after the last known peak above the threshold value in the Dialog tracks.

Option Meaning

Music track parameters Attenuation: Sets how much the volume will be reduced in the

Music track(s).

Ramp time: Sets how many frames it takes to ramp the Music track(s) down from or back to full volume.

Media Composer | First also provides several unique features that facilitate audio editing, such as audio scrub, waveform displays, and tools for adjusting and mixing audio levels and pan between speakers as well as the frequency ranges of segments.

For details on using these audio tools, see “Working with Audio” in the Help.

Publishing Your Story

When your sequence is finished, you can choose to save it to your local drive, or publish it to social media such as YouTube and Vimeo.

To publish your story to a local drive:

1. In the Sequences Bin, select the sequence you want to publish, right click, select Publish To > local drive.

Publishing Your Story

2. Choose from the following options to publish your story.

Option Description

Publish to.. Choose to publish to your local drive.

Set Choose the Set button to select the location where you want to place

the finished movie.

Type Choose what type of output you want to publish. Select either Video

and Audio, Video only, Still image, or Audio only

Format Choose the kind of file to be created. The options for Format change

according to the Type you selected:

• Video and Audio: Choose QuickTime

• Video only: Choose QuickTime

• Still Image: Choose either PNG or JPEG.

• Audio only: Choose Wave format, either Mono or Stereo

Codec Choose a compression type. The options for Codec change depending

upon the output Type you selected.

• Video and Audio: Choose h264 (a common format for distribution of video content) or DNxHD.

• Video only: Choose h264 (a common format for distribution of video content) or DNxHD.

Publishing Your Story

Option Description

Qualtiy Set the quality for the compression. The options for Quality change

depending upon the output Type you selected.

• Video and Audio: Choose from Faster, Best, and Better

• Video only: Choose from Faster, Best, and Better

• Still Image: Choose from Best, Media, Least

Size Set the image dimension for the Video and Audio or Video Only

movie.

Audio Format Choose the Audio Format. The options for Audio Format change

depending upon the output Type you selected.

• Video and Audio: Linear PCM

• Audio only: Choose Wave format, either Mono or Stereo

3. Click OK.

A .mov will be saved to the local drive.

To publish your story to social media:

1. Select the sequence you want to publish, right click and select Publish To > social media. For example, YouTube or Vimeo.

The Publish dialog opens.

2. Click the Login button.

Your social media login window opens.

3. Login to your account.

The first time you Login, you will receive a dialog asking you to allow Avid to access your account to upload your movies. The following is a sample of the Youtube permission dialog.

Publishing Your Story

4. Choose to allow access to post your movie.

You will be returned to the Publish dialog.

5. Choose from the following options to publish your story.

Option Description

Publish to.. Choose to either publish to social media.

Set Choose the Set button to select the location where you want to place

the finished movie.

Type Choose what type of output you want to publish. Select either Video

and Audio, Video only, Still image, or Audio only

Format Choose the kind of file to be created. The options for Format change

according to the Type you selected:

• Video and Audio: Choose QuickTime

• Video only: Choose QuickTime

• Still Image: Choose either PNG or JPEG.

• Audio only: Choose Wave format, either Mono or Stereo

Codec Choose a compression type. The options for Codec change depending

upon the output Type you selected.

• Video and Audio: Choose h264 (a common format for distribution of video content) or DNxHD.

• Video only: Choose h264 (a common format for distribution of video content) or DNxHD.

Publishing Your Story

Option Description

Quality Set the quality for the compression. The options for Quality change

depending upon the output Type you selected.

• Video and Audio: Choose from Faster, Best, and Better

• Video only: Choose from Faster, Best, and Better

• Still Image: Choose from Best, Media, Least

Size Set the image dimension for the Video and Audio or Video Only

movie.

Audio Format Choose the Audio Format. The options for Audio Format change

depending upon the output Type you selected.

• Video and Audio: Linear PCM

• Audio only: Choose Wave format, either Mono or Stereo

6. Click OK.

A Publish to social media dialog box opens.

7. Enter the information you want to associate with your movie.

8. Click Publish.

A publish progress dialog opens. Once the progress bar completes, your movie is uploaded to the selected social media site.

If you choose to upload to Vimeo and receive an error that the video is too long, click OK. The video

should upload successfully.

In some instances, upload times might be slower on Windows 7 systems.

It might be useful to save profiles for publishing your movies. See Create a Publishing Profile.

Create a Publishing Profile

When you create movies for publishing, you can save the settings in the Publish dialog box as a profile so you can recall those settings when publishing a movie where you want to apply the same settings.

To create a Profile:

1. Right click a sequence and select Publish To > local drive or YouTube.

2. Select the desired settings for the Type of movie you want to Publish.

3. In the Profile name text field, enter a name for your profile.

Publishing Your Story

4. Click Save profile.

The saved profile appears in the Profile pull down menu. You can create multiple profiles to fit the different kinds of movies or audio files you create.

To rename a Profile:

1. In the Publish dialog, select the profile you want to rename from the Profile pull down menu.

2. Click Rename profile.

3. Type a new name for the profile.

The new profile name appears in the Profile pull down menu.

To delete a Profile:

1. In the Publish dialog, select the profile you want to delete from the Profile pull down menu.

2. Click Delete profile.

A message box opens.

3. Click Yes.

The selected profile is deleted.

2 Starting a Project

Your work begins when you turn on your system, start your Avid editing application, and open an existing project or create a new project. The following topics describe procedures for starting your work, as well as several techniques to safeguard and restore your work if necessary:

• Turning on Your Equipment

• Working with the Desktop

• Working with Projects

• Quitting and Turning Off Equipment

• Avid Projects and Avid Users Folders

• Changing Project and User Names

• Backing Up Your Project Information

Turning on Your Equipment

Avid recommends that you turn on your equipment in the following order:

1. Storage devices.

2. Peripheral devices (such as monitors and speakers).

3. Computer system.

Do not disconnect devices while you run your Avid editing application. Before you start your Avid

editing application, make sure you connect all your devices first.

Working with the Desktop

You can use some of the desktop navigation features of your operating system to speed your work or customize for your convenience while you edit. You can:

• Control how the Windows taskbar appears on the screen (Windows only).

• Use the Mac Dock as a quick way to launch your Avid editing application (Mac only).

• Use shortcut menus (also sometimes known as context menus) to quickly access editing commands.

• Use standard keyboard shortcuts to navigate and select options in dialog boxes and menus.

• Use the mouse scroll wheel for navigation and customize mouse button functions.

You also use the desktop for backups and transferring projects, as described in “Backing Up Your

Project Information” on page 44 and “Avid Projects and Avid Users Folders” on page 40.

For information on the Windows desktop and icons, see your Microsoft® documentation. For

information on the Mac System Folder and the desktop and icons, see your Apple documentation.

Using the Windows Taskbar (Windows Only)

By default, the Windows taskbar always appears on the bottom of your screen, on top of your Avid editing application. You have two other choices:

• Keep the taskbar hidden behind your Avid editing application

• Set the taskbar to appear only when you drag the mouse pointer to it

If you keep the taskbar hidden while you run your Avid editing application and you minimize an application such as Help, you do not see the minimized icon in the taskbar.

For more information about the taskbar, see the Windows Help.

You can also drag the taskbar to the top, bottom, or either side of the monitor.

When you work in your Avid editing application, you can minimize windows (such as the Project window and bins). The icons appear in your Avid editing application window, not in the taskbar.

To see the taskbar and minimized icons:

t Minimize your Avid editing application.

To change the taskbar settings:

Working with the Desktop

1. Right-click an unused part of the taskbar, and select Properties.

The Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box opens.

2. Select the options you want:

3. Click OK.

Using the Mac Dock (Mac Only)

You can place an application icon alias on the Dock for easy access to your Avid editing application. The Dock is hidden when your Avid editing application is active. For full information on using the Dock, see the Mac documentation.

To display the Dock:

t Move the mouse pointer to the edge of the screen where the Dock is hidden.

Using Shortcut Menus

In addition to standard menus to find a command you need, you can use shortcut menus. Shortcut menus show the most frequently used commands for a window or a screen object.

Most shortcut menus contain a What’s This? command to access Help for the window or the object.

To use a shortcut menu:

t Right-click a window or a screen object.

Using the Keyboard for Navigating in Dialog Boxes and Menus

To navigate in dialog boxes and menus and to select and deselect options:

Option Command

Working with Projects

To move from tabbed page to tabbed page within a dialog box.

To move from check box to check box or from option to option in a dialog box.

To select or deselect a check box or an option in a dialog box.

To move up or down in a menu, or increment a numeric value.

Antivirus Applications

Antivirus programs that contain autoscanning features can interfere with the operation of your Avid editing application. Since virus scanning is a processor-and disk-intensive activity, it can interfere with capturing and playing real-time effects in your Avid editing application.

Avid recommends you do not scan files or schedule any background tasks such as virus scanning when you use your Avid editing application.

File deletion protection utilities also consume system resources and could interfere with the proper operation of your Avid editing application. These utilities automatically back up any files that you delete, even temporary files that you create and delete with your Avid editing application. This consumes a large amount of disk space.

Press Page Up or Page Down.

Press Tab.

Press Right Arrow, Left Arrow, or the space bar.

Press Up Arrow or Down Arrow.

Working with Projects

When you start the editing application, the system displays the window where you can create a new project or open an existing project.

You should also back up your project information regularly to a separate storage device, as described in “Backing Up Your Project Information” on page 44.

Setting Project-Naming Conventions

The system limits bins to 64 characters and project names to 56 characters. If you plan to move bins and projects from one platform to another, do not use the characters / \ : * ? “ < > | or leading spaces, trailing spaces, or trailing periods, when you name a project, bin, and user.

Avid Projects and Avid Users Folders

When you create a new project or user profile, your Avid editing application creates files and folders in the Avid Projects and the Avid Users folders.

Locations of Avid Project Folders

By default, the system installs two Avid Projects folders:

Private Shared

Opening and Closing Projects

Windows drive:\Documents and

Settings\Windows login name\Documents\Avid Projects

Mac Macintosh HD/Users/Mac login

name/Documents/Avid Projects

Locations of Avid Users Folders

drive:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Shared Documents\Shared Avid Projects

Macintosh HD/Users/Shared/Avid editing application/Shared Avid Projects

The Avid Users folder is located in the application folder:

Windows drive:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Shared Documents\Avid editing

application\Avid Users

Mac Macintosh HD/Users/Shared/Avid editing application/Avid Users

(Windows only) The location of the Avid Users folder depends on the installation path for your Avid

editing application.

Files and Folders Created For Projects

When you create a new project, your Avid editing application creates a folder with the name that you entered when you created the project. The following three files are stored within the project folder:

• A project file (.avp)

• A project settings file (.xml)

• A bin file (.avb)

The project folder and the three files all use the project name you provide. The project folder is stored in the Avid Projects folder.

Your project settings are initially set to the default values. As you create additional bins for the project (see “Creating a New Bin” on page 47), additional bin (.avb) files are added to the project folder.

Files and Folders Created For User Profiles

When you create a new user profile, your Avid editing application creates a folder for the user and two files that are stored within the user folder:

• A user profile file (.ave)

• A user settings file (.xml)

The user folder and the two files all use the user profile name you provide. The new folder is stored in the Avid Users folder.

Opening and Closing Projects

When you launch Media Composer | First, the window opens where you can create a new project or open an existing proejct.

To open an existing project:

1. Launch Media Composer | First.

2. Click the name of the existing project under the Open list:

The project opens.

To open a project automatically:

1. Click the Settings tab in the Project window.

The Settings list appears.

2. Double-click any Interface setting.

The Interface Settings dialog box opens.

3. Select “Automatically Launch Last Project at Startup,” and then click OK.

The next time you start your Avid editing application, it opens your last project.

To close the current project, do one of the following:

t With the Project window active, select File > Close Project.

t Click the Close button in the Project window.

Deleting a Project

To delete a project:

1. Start your Avid editing application.

2. Click the project you want to delete.

3. Press the Delete key.

4. If you see a message asking if you want to delete the selected project and associated bins, click OK.

The deleted project no longer appears when you launch the editing application.

Deleting a project also deletes any bins that are in that project.

Media related to a deleted project is not deleted with the project folder. For more information on

deleting media files, see “Deleting Items from a Bin” on page 73 and “Deleting Media Files with the

Media Tool” on page 98.

Quitting and Turning Off Equipment

To quit your Avid editing application and leave it immediately:

t (Mac) Select Avid editing application > Quit Avid editing application.

t (Windows) Select File > Exit.

The project closes and your Avid editing application quits.

Changing Project and User Names

To quit your Avid editing application and view the Select Project dialog box:

1. Click the Close button at the far right (Windows) or at the far left (Mac) of the Project window’s title bar.

The Select Project dialog box opens.

2. Click Quit.

A message box opens.

3. Do one of the following:

t Click Leave to quit your Avid editing application.

t Click Cancel to return to the Select Project dialog box and select another project.

To turn off your equipment:

1. Turn off the system by doing the following:

For a Windows system:

a. Click the Start button, and select Shut Down.

The Shut Down Windows dialog box opens.

b. Click the menu, and select Shut down.

c. Click OK.

For a Mac system:

t Select Apple menu > Shut Down.

2. If you have an Avid input/output device attached to your system, turn it off.

3. Turn off peripheral devices (such as monitors and speakers).

4. Turn off external storage devices.

Never remove media drives from your Avid system when it is turned on. Shut down the computer, and then remove the drives.

5. Turn off all other hardware.

Changing Project and User Names

You cannot change project or user names from within your Avid editing application. You must change the names from your desktop before you start your Avid editing application. For information about the location of the Avid Projects and Avid Users folders, see “Avid Projects and Avid Users

Folders” on page 40.

When you change a user name or a project name, make sure you change the name of the folder and all the files in the folder that have the old name. Your Avid editing application does not automatically change the names of corresponding files in the folder.

To change a project name or user name:

1. Navigate to the Avid Projects or Avid Users folder, and then double-click the folder to open it.

2. Click the name of the folder you want to change.

The name highlights.

3. Type the new name of the folder.

4. Double-click the folder with the new name to open it.

The folder contains profile, settings, and project files with the old name.

5. Change the old name of each file to the new name.

Do not change the name of the file MCState in the Avid Users folder.

6. Close the windows, and restart your Avid editing application.

The new project name or user name appears in the Select Project dialog box.

Backing Up Your Project Information

Although your Avid editing application automatically saves your bins, projects, and settings, you should back up these items frequently. Because the storage requirements are minimal, you can back up these files to a variety of storage devices, such as a thumb drive, a file server, etc.

To save your work on a drive or on removable media:

1. Mount the drive or insert the storage media..

2. (Windows only) From the Windows desktop, double-click the My Computer icon.

3. Double-click the icon for the destination storage drive or storage media to open it. Double-click any additional folders to target the appropriate storage location.

Backing Up Your Project Information

4. Navigate to the folder that contains the project folder or the user folder you want to save.

5. Drag a project folder or a user folder to the targeted storage location.

6. When the system finishes copying the files, unmount the drive or eject the media and store it.

To restore a project or user information from a backup storage device:

1. Mount the drive or insert the removable media that contains the backup copies you want to restore.

2. From the desktop, double-click the icons for the drive or storage media and for the internal hard drive (Windows) or for the Macintosh HD (Mac).

3. Drag the copies from the storage device to the appropriate folder on the internal hard drive (Windows) or

When you start your Avid editing application, the restored project and user profile appear in the Select Project dialog box.

If you restore a single bin or bins, you must relink them to the project from within the Project window.

For more information, see “Opening and Closing Bins” on page 47.

Macintosh HD/Users/Shared

(Mac).

3 Working with the Project Window

The Project window provides controls for structuring and viewing important information about your current project. You can also modify User and Project settings from the Project window and display a list of effects.

The following topics describe features of the Project window:

• Overview of the Project Window

• Using the Bins Tab

• Using the Settings Tab

• Using the Format Tab

• Using the Usage Tab

• Using the Info Tab

• Customizing the Avid User Interface

• Using Workspaces

Overview of the Project Window

The Project window is a central location for important information and tools that you need as you work on your project.

Project window information is organized in tabs.

Tab Function

Bins Lets you create and open bins. See “Using the Bins Tab” on page 46.

Settings Lets you view and modify settings. See “Using the Settings Tab” on page 51.

Using the Bins Tab

Effects Icon

Format Lets you view information about the format of the project. See “Using the Format

Usage Lets you view information about the work session usage. See “Using the Usage

Info Lets you view information about system memory usage and system hardware

Lets you access a library of effects.See “Applying Effects” in the Help.

Tab” on page 51.

configuration.

Using the Bins Tab

When you create a project, your Avid editing application automatically creates a bin with the name of the new project, which displays in the Bins tab. You can rename this bin and create additional bins as you work in your project.

The word bin is a movie industry term that refers to a container that holds pieces of film. In your Avid editing application, bins contain master clips that are created when you capture source material. Bins also contain the sequences, subclips, group clips, and effect clips that you create during a project. From the Project window, you can view a list of bins associated with the project, and open, close, and create bins. You can also open bins that you create for other projects.

Media Composer | First allows you to create up to 5 bins. If you want to create more than 5 bins, you can upgrade to Media Composer.

Viewing a List of Bins

You can view a list of bins in the Project window.

To view a list of bins associated with the project:

t Click the Bins tab in the Project window.

Creating a New Bin

To create a new bin from the Project window:

Using the Bins Tab

1. Do one of the following:

t Select File > New > New Bin.

t Click the New Bin button in the Project window.

A new (empty) bin opens and is given the name of the project as displayed in the title bar of the Project window. The new bin appears in the Bins list in the Project window with a default name highlighted and a number appended to it.

2. In the Project window, click the new bin name and type in a new name.

3. Press Enter.

To place a bin in a folder:

t Drag the bin to the folder icon.

Renaming a Bin

Each new bin that you create takes the name of the project that appears in the title bar of the Project window and is numbered incrementally.

If you plan to move bins and projects from one platform to another, do not use the characters / \ : * ?

“ < > | or leading spaces, trailing spaces, or trailing periods, when you name a project, bin, and user. Bins are limited to 64 characters and project names are limited to 56 characters.

To change the name of a bin:

1. Click the bin name in the Bins list.

2. Type a new name.

Opening and Closing Bins

You can open a single bin or open multiple bins at once. You can also open a bin from another project.

Using the Bins Tab

Never open a bin that is stored on a removable disk or equivalent device; otherwise, your Avid editing application cannot save your work. Always copy the bin to a project folder on the system drive before you open it.

To open a bin directly:

1. Click the Bins tab.

2. Double-click the Bin icon next to the bin name.

The bin opens in a separate window.

You can also open a bin by dragging it from the Bins tab in the Project window to an open bin. The bin opens as a tab in the existing bin.

To open several bins at once from the Project window:

1. Click a Bin icon in the Bins list.

2. Ctrl+click (Windows) or Command+click (Mac) each additional bin you want to open.

3. Do one of the following:

t To open each bin in a separate window, right click the Bin icon and select Open Selected

Bins.

t To open all bins as tabs in a single bin, right click the Bin icon and select Open Selected Bins

In One Window.

The selected bins open either in separate windows or in a single window with tabs indicating the bins.

You can also open multiple bins by dragging them from the Bins tab in the Project window to an open

bin. The bins open as tabs in the existing bin.

To open a bin from another project:

1. Select File > Open Bin.

The Open a Bin dialog box opens.

2. Find and select the bin you want.

Bins have the file name extension .avb.

3. Click Open.

The bin appears in the Bins list in a folder called Other Bins. The name Other Bins appears in italic. You can rename this folder. This option is useful when you want to open a bin not currently displayed in the Project window.

The Other Bins folder disappears from the Bins list when you delete all the bins in the Other Bins

folder. Deleting bins from the Other Bins folder does not remove the bins from your system; only the pointers to the bins are removed.

To close a bin, do one of the following:

t Click the Close button.

t Select File > Close Bin.

To close all open bins except the active bin:

t Select Windows > Close All Bins But Active.

Displaying Folders of Bins in the Bins List

You can add folders to the Bins list to help organize your project. You can drag bins into folders or drag folders into folders.

To create a folder in a project:

1. Click the Fast menu button, and select New Folder.

A new untitled folder appears.

2. Click the untitled folder name in the Bins list and rename it.

To show or hide the folder’s contents in the Bins list in the Project window:

t Click the arrow next to a folder icon.

To view a list of only the folder contents and not the folders:

t Click the Fast Menu button, and select Flat View.

The Trash icon and its contents disappear until Flat View is deselected.

Creating a Folder

To create a folder in a project:

Using the Bins Tab

1. Click the Bins tab in the Project window.

2. Click the Fast Menu button, and select New Folder.

A new untitled folder appears.

3. Click the untitled folder name in the Bins list and rename it.

Deleting a Bin or Folder

You can delete bins and folders along with their contents from the Bins list. Deleted bins and folders are moved to a Trash folder in the Bins list until you empty the Trash. If you need a deleted bin or folder, you can retrieve it from the Trash. For more information, see “Viewing and Emptying the

Trash” on page 49.

Only bins and folders appear in the Trash. If you select a clip, subclip, or effect directly in a bin and press the Delete key, the item is permanently deleted and does not appear in the Trash.

To delete a bin or folder from the Project window, do the following:

t Select the bin or the folder you want to delete in the Bins list, and press the Delete key.

A Trash icon appears in the Bins list in the Project window. The Trash contains the deleted item.

The Trash is not visible in the Project window until you delete your first item.

Viewing and Emptying the Trash

If you need to view the contents in the Trash or decide you do not want to delete those items, you must first move the bins and folders from the Trash.

Emptying the trash permanently removes the bins or folders from the drive.

If you change the name of the Trash icon, you cannot empty the Trash.

To view items in the Trash:

1. Click the arrow next to the Trash icon in the Bins list.

2. Click the bins or folders you want to keep (or view), and drag them from the Trash to the Bins list in the Project window.

3. Double-click the bin or folder to view it.

To empty the Trash in the Bins list:

1. Click the Fast Menu button, and select Empty Trash.

A message box opens.

2. Click Empty Trash to delete the bins or folders from the Trash and from your hard drive.

Saving Bins

Your Avid editing application automatically saves changes to your work on a regular basis. You can modify the frequency of the automatic backups.

You can also manually save a specific bin, selected bins, or all bins. You might want to do this immediately after performing an important edit.

When you work with bins, an asterisk appears before the bin name in the bin’s title bar. The asterisk indicates that the changes to the bin have not been saved. After you save the bin, your Avid editing application removes the asterisk.

Using the Bins Tab

To adjust the frequency of automatic saves:

1. In the Project window, click the Settings tab, and then double-click Bin.

The Bin Settings dialog box opens.

2. Type a number in the Auto-Save interval text box.

3. Click OK.

Saving Bins Manually

To save a specific bin:

1. Click the bin to activate it.

2. Select File > Save Bin.

To save selected bins:

1. In the Bins tab, click a Bin icon to select it, and then Ctrl+click any additional bins.

2. Select File > Save All.

The system saves all the selected bins.

The Save Bin command appears dimmed if there were no changes since the last time the active bin

was saved.

To save all the bins:

1. Click the Bins tab in the Project window.

2. Select File > Save All.

The system saves all the bins for the project.

Using the Settings Tab

From the Settings tab in the Project window, you can view, select, open, and alter various User, Project, and Site settings. Each setting either displays information about that specific tool or window or lets you select options or preferences associated with that tool or window. For more information, see “Viewing and Modifying Settings” on page 391.

To view the Settings list:

t Click the Settings tab in the Project window.

Using the Settings Tab

To open a setting:

t Double-click the setting in the Settings list.

Using the Format Tab

The Format tab in the Project window lets you view basic project information, such as raster dimension and frame rate.

To open the Format tab:

t Click the Format tab.

Using the Usage Tab

The Statistics feature gathers and reports information on system usage. You can use this information to support business functions such as resource management.

All statistics are gathered and reported by project. The file that contains this information is formatted so you can use it as input to software programs such as analysis applications, spreadsheets, or report generators.

Using the Info Tab

The Info display in the Project window lets you view your editing application version number, licensing type, GPU information, and a list of installed plug-ins. You can also view system memory information by access the Hardware tool. The items listed in this display are for information only and cannot be changed. The Hardware tool gives a visual representation of usage for each drive and provides operating system information.

To open the Info display:

t In the Project window, click the Info tab.

To open the Hardware tool:

t In the Project window, click the Info tab, and then click the Hardware button.

The Hardware tool opens.

Customizing the Avid User Interface

The Interface Settings dialog box provides you with controls for customizing the brightness and the colors of the Avid user interface. For complete reference information on the Interface Settings dialog box, see “Interface Settings” on page 397.

Using the Info Tab

The Interface Settings dialog box allows you to set the highlight color for buttons. You can also control the brightness of the user interface, which includes the following components:

• Application, tool, toolbar, and dialog box backgrounds

• Buttons and button contents

• Project background

The Avid editing application lets you modify the colors of some interface components using controls not included in the Interface Settings dialog box:

• Bin media object color — see “Assigning Colors to Objects in a Bin” on page 75.

• Timeline clip color — see “Displaying Clip Colors in the Timeline” on page 175.

• Timeline track colors — see “Changing the Track Color” on page 177.

• Bin background color — see “Changing the Bin Background Color” on page 74.

Changing Interface Component Colors

You can use a brightness selection slider and selection buttons to change the appearance of some interface components.

When you use the selection slider to modify interface settings, it overwrites any previous user settings. Avid recommends you save a copy of your user settings before you use the selection slider.

To set the brightness and color of interface components:

1. In the Project window, click the Settings tab, and then double-click Interface.

The Interface dialog box opens.

Customizing the Avid User Interface

2. Click a highlight color to change button highlight colors.

3. Click the Interface Brightness slider to adjust the brightness of the user interface. The Avid editing application provides several presets on the slider.

4. (Option) If you want to set the color of the video, audio, or timecode tracks to the default, select the appropriate option.

5. (Option) If you want to be able to set custom background colors for bins, select Allow Custom Bin Backgrounds.

For more information, see “Changing the Bin Background Color” on page 74.

6. Do one of the following:

t Click Apply to apply the changes you selected.

If you click Cancel after you click Apply, interface components retain the colors you applied.

t Click OK to close the dialog box and put the new setting into effect.

t Click Cancel to close the dialog box.

The changes you select do not take effect.

Changing Font and Point Size

You can change the default font and point sizes of the Project, Bin, Composer monitor and Timeline windows. You can vary the fonts and point sizes across these windows. For example, you can set the Project window to Helvetica, 13 pt.; set one Bin window to Times Roman, 11 pt.; and set another Bin window to Arial, 12 pt.

The table describes the windows you can change, and where these changes are saved.

Window Location of Changes

Project Changes the font and point size of the text in the Project window; saves as a Project

setting.

Bin Changes the font and point size of the text in the Bin window; saves as a Bin setting

(not a Bin View setting).

Customizing the Avid User Interface

Composer monitor

Timeline Changes the font and point size of clip text; saves as a Timeline View setting.

To change the font in the Project, Bin, Composer monitor, or Timeline window:

1. Click the Project, Bin, Composer monitor, or Timeline window to make it active.

2. Select Windows > Set Font.

The Set Font dialog box opens.

3. Click the Font menu, and select a font.

Any font installed on the Avid system appears in the list. For information on adding fonts to your

system, see the documentation for your operating system.

4. Type another point size for the font in the Size text box.

5. Click OK.

The new font and point size appear in the active window.

When you close the window, the last font and point size applied are saved with the window.

Changes the font and point size of the sequence or source clip name text; saves as a Composer setting.

Overriding Bin and Project Font and Font Size

Normally, project window fonts are stored in the project file and bin fonts are stored in each bin. You can easily override these fonts for all bins and/or projects via the Interface Setting, which is a User setting. This is useful if you share projects and bins with other users or if you are switching between systems. The font and font size you want to see on a desktop might be different than the one you want to see on a laptop. You can set up multiple Interface Settings and switch between them easily. If you turn off the overrides, you will see the original project and bin fonts.

To override the bin or project font and font size:

1. In the Settings tab of the Project Window, open the Interface Settings.

The Interface Settings dialog opens.

Customizing the Avid User Interface

2. To override the Project font, click Override Project font and select the desired font from the pulldown menu.

3. To override the Project font size, click Override Project font size and enter a value in the text box.

4. To override all Bin fonts, click Override all Bin fonts and select the desired font from the pulldown menu.

5. To override all Bin font sizes, click Override all Bin font sizes and enter a value in the text box.

6. Click Apply.

The project and bin font and font size change to the selected settings.

Setting the Media Cache

Media Composer allows you to establish how much memory can be utilized for caching thumbnails in memory as well as disk. Caching images in memory allows thumbnails to quickly be recalled as you load or scroll in bins, sequences or the Source Browser. Saving them to the disk cache allows

Using Workspaces

them to be recalled after relaunching the application and can avoid the need for the application to have to create them again. To specify the size of the Disk cache and Memory cache perform the following.

To set the Media Cache:

1. In the Settings list in the Project window, select Media Cache.

The Media Cache dialog box opens.

2. Click the Thumbnails tab.

3. If you want to change the default location of the Cache folder, click the Set button and choose the location for the Cache folder.

4. Enter a value for the Disk Cache Size and Memory Cache Size.

5. Click OK.

You can clear the cache from the cache folder by clicking the Flush button in the Media Cache dialog.

6. Click the Source Browser button and repeat steps 3 to 5.

For information on Video Memory, see “Setting Video Memory and Video Frame Cache” in the Help.

Using Workspaces

Your Avid editing application provides default layouts of windows and tools designed to utilize the application interface efficiently. These layouts are organized as workspaces, and the default workspaces include the following:

• Single View Editing

• Source/Record Editing

• Full Screen Playback

• Effects Editing

• Color Correction

• Audio Editing

Using Workspaces

If you are accustomed to working with a particular group of windows arranged and sized in a particular setup, you can assign them to a workspace setting that you can then recall with a workspace button.

For example, during effects editing, you might want to display the Effect Palette and Effect Editor in particular locations and sizes.

While in a workspace, you can move tool windows or open and close tool windows. The next time you select that workspace, the tool windows appear with the arrangement you set for the workspace.

You can assign up to 12 buttons that let you switch between workspaces. Workspace settings are user settings, so different users can have separate workspace arrangements. This is useful if there is more than one user accessing the same Avid system. Each user can assign up to 12 workspaces.

To select a workspace, do the following:

t Select Windows > Workspaces > workspacename.

To customize the workspace:

1. For the workspace you want to customize, select Windows > Workspaces > workspacename.

2. Open other tools with which you want to work, and position them where you want them.

3. Select Windows > Workspaces > New Workspace.

4. Type a name for the new workspace in the Workspace Name text box.

5. Click OK.

The new workspace appears in the Workspaces menu.

To remove your customizations:

1. Select Windows > Workspaces > Restore Current to Default.

A message box warns you that the action deletes your custom workspace settings.

2. Click OK.

The workspace settings revert to the default settings on which you based the customizations.

To delete a custom workspace:

1. Select Windows > Workspaces > Delete Workspace.

The Delete Workspace dialog box opens.

2. Click OK.

The active workspace is deleted.

Assigning a Workspace Button

When you assign a workspace to a button, the button displays the first two characters of the workspace or layout name. If the assigned workspace is not available — for example, if you deleted the workspace — the button remains visible but the label displays italicized characters. If you want to recreate the workspace with the same name, the italics change back to normal text.

Using Workspaces

To assign a workspace button:

1. Select Tools > Command Palette.

Workspace buttons in the Workspaces tab of the Command Palette

2. Click the Workspaces tab.

3. Select Button to Button Reassignment.

4. Click a workspace button and drag the button to a location on another palette (for example, the Tool palette) or the Keyboard setting.

The workspace button appears in the new location.

4 Using Tools

The Tools menu provides quick access to essential tools that you can use in your projects. In addition to the tools available from the Tools menu, you can also access the Command Palette, the Avid Calculator and the Console Window. These tools are described in the following sections:

• Using the Tools Menu

• The Command Palette

• Using the Avid Calculator

• Using The Console Window

Using the Tools Menu

To open a tool:

t Select Tools > tool name.

The Command Palette

The Command palette provides a central location for all user-selectable buttons that you can map to various locations for ease of use. User-selectable buttons let you perform a wide range of commands with a single click of the mouse.

The Command palette organizes buttons by editing function. Tabs display each editing function and the buttons that perform those functions display in each tab. The functions include: Move, Play, Edit, Trim, FX (Effects), CC (Color Correction), MCam (MultiCamera), Other, More, and Smart Tool, Workspace, and Plug-ins.

You can use the Command palette to:

• Map buttons to any Tool palette or the keyboard. See “Mapping User-Selectable Buttons” on

page 61.

• Map menu commands to various buttons and keys. See “Mapping Menu Commands” on

page 61.

• Directly activate a command. See “Activating Commands from the Command Palette” on

page 62.

Understanding Button Mapping

Mapping user-selectable buttons lets you reconfigure Tool palettes, toolbars, or the keyboard in various combinations to suit different editing needs.

When you map buttons to the keyboard, the mapping might be specific to the current editing mode.

For example, buttons mapped to the Page Up key or the Page Down key revert to the default key functions when you enter Effect mode. After you exit Effect mode, the keys return to the mapped function.

The following are examples of buttons you might want to map:

The Command Palette

Buttons you use to subcatalog clips. Left to right: Make Subclip, Find Bin, and Add Marker.

Buttons you use for complex layering and effects. Top, left to right: Motion Effect, Remove Effect, Transition Corner Display, and Fade Effect. Bottom, left to right: Render Effect, Cycle Picture/Sound, Quick Transition.

When you remap buttons or commands, the system immediately saves your new configuration in one of the default settings that you open from the Project window. You can also save, rename, and recall multiple versions of any of these settings to serve various purposes.

Your Avid editing application saves button configurations as follows:

• Changes to the Keyboard palette are saved in the Keyboard settings.

• Changes to Tool palette in the Composer window are saved with the Composer settings.

• Changes to Command palettes while trimming are saved with Trim settings.

• Changes to the Tool palette are saved in the Interface settings.

The Blank Button

The Blank button in the Other tab of the Command palette lets you replace a defined button with an undefined button. If you do not need a specific button on the Tool palette, you can replace this button with a Blank button.

For more information on mapping the Blank button to a new location, see “Mapping User-Selectable

Buttons” on page 61.

Mapping User-Selectable Buttons

To map buttons or keys on the keyboard by using the Command palette:

1. Do one of the following to open a window that has a user-selectable button:

t Activate the Playback, Source, or Record monitor in the Composer window.

t Click a Fast Menu button, and drag the Tool palette to open it.

t Activate the Source/Record monitor or the pop-up monitor, click the Fast Menu button, and

drag to tear off the Tool palette.

t Open a clip in a pop-up monitor.

t Open the Keyboard palette from the Settings list in the Project window.

t Open the Mouse Settings dialog box from the Settings list in the Project window.

2. Select Tools > Command Palette.

The Command palette opens.

3. Select Button to Button Reassignment at the bottom of the Command palette.

4. Click the tab from which you want to select a user-selectable button.

5. Drag the button from the Command palette to a button location on the other palette.

The Command Palette

Mapping Menu Commands

You can also map menu commands directly onto any mappable button location or onto the keyboard. In some cases, you can avoid using menus altogether.

Before you map some commands, you must first establish the condition that enables the command.

For example, before you map the Render In/Out command from the Clip menu, you must first mark IN and OUT points in the Timeline so that the menu command appears.

To map menu commands:

1. Do one of the following to open a window that has user-selectable buttons:

t Activate a monitor in the Composer window.

t Click a Fast Menu button, and drag the Tool palette to open it.

t Open a clip in a pop-up monitor.

t Open the Keyboard palette from the Settings list in the Project window.

2. Select Tools > Command Palette.

The Command palette opens.

3. Select Menu to Button Reassignment.

4. Click a target button in the Keyboard palette or other palette (for example, the Command palette under a monitor).

5. Select the menu command you want to map to the target button.

The initials for the menu command appear on the target button.

Example of a menu command — Composer > MultiCamera Mode (MM) — mapped to a button in the Tool Palette.

Activating Commands from the Command Palette

You can perform a command function directly from the Command palette. For example, you can click the Play button in the Command palette to play the material in the Source monitor.

To activate a command from the Command palette:

1. Select Tools > Command Palette.

The Command palette opens.

2. Select Active Palette at the bottom of the Command palette.

3. Click the tab from which you want to select a command function.

4. Click the button in the Command palette for the function you want to perform.

Using the Avid Calculator

The Avid Calculator helps you calculate video durations, and convert timecode to different formats.

For example, you can:

• Convert drop-frame to non-drop-frame timecode values.

• Convert timecode durations between 30-fps and 25-fps projects.

• Convert a duration in video to the corresponding length in footage and frames for measuring 35mm film.

To use the Avid Calculator:

1. Select Tools > Calculator.

The Avid Calculator opens.

2. Click the Format menu, and select a format.

3. Make calculations in one of the following ways:

t Click numbers and functions in the Avid Calculator.

t Enter numbers and functions using the numeric keypad.

t Enter numbers and functions using the top row of numbers on the keyboard.

You do not need to enter leading zeros, colons, or semicolons for timecode.

To convert your totals at any time to another format:

t Click the Format menu, and select a different frame code or key number format.

If you enter drop-frame timecode into the calculator while non-drop-frame timecode is selected in the format menu, the calculator converts the entered timecode to a non-drop-frame equivalent (and vice-versa).

Using The Console Window

The Console window provides a number of features including, finding your system ID number, viewing log error messages and getting information about your sequence.

Using The Console Window

Do not use the programming features of the Console without guidance from Avid.

The Console window provides quick access to bin information such as total duration of selected clips or total items in a bin including hidden items. You can also use the Console window to display information about a clip, segment, or sequence in the Timeline.

To display current system information:

1. Select Tools > Console.

The Console window opens.

2. Scroll in the Console window to view your system information and ID.

Your system ID is on a line beginning

To review errors logged to the Console window:

1. When an error occurs, close the message box and select Tools > Console.

2. Scroll through the Console window to find a log of the error to use when you contact your Avid Reseller or Avid Customer Support.

To get information with the Console window:

1. Select Tools > Console.

The Console window opens.

2. Select the item about which you want information, for example:

System ID:

t In the Timeline, move the position indicator to the selected clip or segment and select

File > Get Position Info.

t In the bin, right-click and select Get Bin Info.

Information about the clip appears in the Console window.

To make your mapped network drives available:

1. Open the Console window by selecting Tools > Console.

2. In the Console command line, type:

alldrives 1

3. Press Enter.

Network drives are now visible in your Avid editing application.

Typing restores the default behavior where only media drives are available.

By default, network drives are filtered by resolution when the option Filter Network Drives Based on Resolution option is selected in the Media Creation settings. For more information, see

“Media Creation Settings” on page 401.

alldrives

in the Console window turns this feature on and off. Typing

alldrives 2

5 Working with Bins

Bins provide powerful database tools for organizing and managing your material. Bin functionality lets you view bin objects and information in several different ways. You can rename, sort, sift, duplicate, assign colors, and delete clips and sequences, move or copy clips from one bin to another, and print single-clip frames or whole bins. You are limited to 5 bins in a project.

The following topics provide information on working with bins:

• Object Icons in Bins

• Bin Views

• Bin Procedures

• Working with Bin Columns

• Modifying Clip Information

• Printing Bins

• Filtering Items in the Bin

Object Icons in Bins

Bins use icons to identify clips, sequences, and other media objects that they display. The table describes all of the object icons that you might see in a bin display.

Not all these objects might be viewable in Media Composer | First.

Icon Object Type Description

Master Clips A clip that references audio and video media files formed from captured footage or

imported files

Local Storage Master Clip

Subclips A clip that references a selected portion of a master clip

Shared Storage Subclips

Audio Clips A clip that references audio media files formed from captured audio or imported files

Shared Storage Audio Clips

Sequences A clip that represents an edited program, partial or complete, that you create from

A master clip that references media files located on local storage.

A subclip that references media files on a shared storage system

An audio clip that references media files located on a shared storage system

other clips

Icon Object Type Description(Continued)

Bin Views

Linked video clip

Linked audio clip

Effects A clip that references an unrendered effect that you create.

Motion Effects A file in the bin that references effect media files generated when you create motion

Rendered Effects

Groups (For MultiCamera editing) Clips containing two or more grouped clips, strung

Bin Views

You can display the contents of your bins in three different ways using the Bin View buttons at the bottom of the bin window.

Using Text View

Text view provides the most complete view of clip information. It uses database columns that you can rearrange and customize to suit your needs.

Indicates a file based video clip that links directly into a bin through an link plug-in.

Indicates a file based audio clip that links directly into a bin through a link plug-in.

effects

A clip that references an effect media file generated when you render an effect

together sequentially according to common timecodes

You can select individual or multiple headings to display or hide in the bin. For a complete description of each column heading, see “Working with Bin Columns” on page 76.

To enter Text view:

t Click the Text View button in the bin.

Text view in the bin. Bottom: Text view button.

Bin Views

To select column headings:

1. With a bin in Text view, do one of the following:

t Select Bin > Choose Column.

t Right-click and select Choose Column.

The Bin Column Selection dialog box opens.

2. Select the headings you want to add to the bin:

t Click the name of a heading to select it.

t Click a selected heading to deselect it.

t Click All/None to select or deselect all the headings.

3. Click OK.

Only the headings selected in the Bin Column Selection dialog box appear in the bin or bin view.

For information on hiding columns, see “Moving, Aligning, and Deleting Bin Columns” on

page 77.

To add more columns:

1. While in Text view, place your cursor in any column heading and right click and select Choose Columns.

The Bin Column Selection dialog opens.

2. Click the column headings you want, and press Enter.

Each of the additional columns appear to the right of the selected column.

If you do not select a column, the new columns will be placed at the far right of the bin.

Sorting in Bins

You can sort clips to arrange them in either numerical or alphabetical order, based on the data in the column you select as the sorting criteria. When you sort clips, any selected items in the bin remain active.

You can also sort clips by color if you have assigned colors to the clips. For more information, see

“Assigning Colors to Objects in a Bin” on page 75.

If you want to sort clips in a customized order in Text view, you must first rearrange the clips in Script view, and then return to Text view. For information about Script view, see “Duplicating and

Moving Clips and Sequences” on page 72.

Sorting Clips and Sequences

You can automatically sort clips and sequences in Text view. If you need to view sorted clips in Script or Frame view, sort them in Text view first and then return to Script or Frame view.

To sort clips in ascending or descending order:

1. With a bin in Text view, do one of the following:

t Double-click the heading of the column that you want to use as the criterion.

t Right-click the column heading and select Sort on Column, Ascending or Sort on Column,

Descending.

If the Sort command appears dimmed in the menu, you have not selected a column.

2. To reverse the order of the sort, do one of the following:

t Double-click the column heading again.

t Right-click the column heading and select the reverse order for the Sort on Column

command.

To reapply the last sort, do one of the following:

t Select Bin > Sort Again with no column selected.

This step is useful after you add new clips to a sorted bin.

t Click the column heading and select Bin > Sort.

To perform a multilevel sort using the information in the bins:

1. With a bin in Text view, arrange the columns in the bin to establish the primary column.

The column that appears farthest to the left in the bin has higher sort priority.

2. Select the headings for the columns you want to contribute to the sort criterion. Cmd+click (Macintosh) or Ctrl+click (Windows) columns to add them to your selection. You can also Shift+click headings to select a range of columns.

3. Select Bin > Sort.

Bin Views

The objects in the bin sort.

To sort clips by color:

1. Click the Color column heading in the bin.

2. Do one of the following:

t Double-click the column heading.

t Select Bin > Sort.

The objects in the bin sort by color. Colors sort by hue, saturation, and value.

Understanding Bin Views

Use the Bin View menu (available in Text and Script view) to select different bin views. The Bin View menu appears to the right of the bin tabs. The following table describes the default bin views that are available.

View Description

Bin (basic default)

Custom Lets you create and save customized views. The Name heading is only required column

Contains a basic set of headings such as Name, Duration, Drive, IN-OUT, Creation Date, TapeID, etc.

heading, which displays by default. Add, hide, or rearrange column headings to customize the view.

You can also create and save customized bin views, and then access them from the Bin View menu. For more information, see “Saving a Custom Bin View” on page 68.

When you create a new bin view, your Avid editing application saves the settings for the view so that you can alter, copy, or delete the settings at a later time. You can name and save bin views to suit your needs.

Bin view settings are also available in the Settings list of the Project window. For more information, see “Working with Settings” on page 390.

Bin tabs (top), Fast Menu button (bottom left), and Bin View menu (bottom right) in the bin

Saving a Custom Bin View

To save a bin view:

1. Open a bin, click the Text View button.

2. Resize, add, hide, or rearrange bin columns according to preference to customize your view.

The Name column is the default and the only required column heading.

The bin view name changes to an italic name with the file name extension .n to indicate that it no longer matches the original view. If you select a new bin view setting while the current setting is untitled or italic, the system discards the current setting.

3. Click the Bin View menu, and select Save as.

The View Name dialog box opens.

Bin Views

4. Type a name for the custom view, and click OK.

To change a custom bin view with the Bin View dialog box:

1. Click the Settings tab in the Project window.

The Settings list appears.

2. Double-click the custom bin view you want to change.

The Bin View dialog box opens.

3. Select and deselect the columns you want to display.

4. Click OK.

Using Frame View

In Frame view, each clip is represented by a single frame, with the name of the clip displayed below the frame. The system uses the head frame as the default.

You can perform the following functions in Frame view:

• Enlarge and reduce the sizes of the frames.

You must enlarge or reduce all frames together, and you cannot change the sizes of individual frames.

• Rearrange the display of the frames in the bin by moving them.

• Realign the frames in a bin after you have changed their display.

• Select any frame to represent the footage.

• Play back the footage within any clip.

• Show border colors based on either the object type or clip color. You can also show icons in Frame view.

To enter Frame view:

t Click the Frame View button in the bin.

Frame view in the bin. Bottom: Frame View button

To enlarge the frame size:

t Select Edit > Enlarge Frame.

The display size increases each time you select this option, up to seven times.

To reduce the frame size:

Bin Views

t Select Edit > Reduce Frame.

The display size decreases each time you select this option, up to seven times.

To rearrange a single frame:

1. Click the frame, and drag it to its new position.

2. Click the background area of the bin to deselect the clips.

To rearrange multiple frames:

1. Do one of the following:

t Shift+click the frames.

t Lasso the frames by clicking the mouse pointer outside the first frame and drag it to

surround the frames with a white dotted line.

2. Drag the selected frames to a new position in the bin.

3. Click the background area of the bin to deselect the clips.

To align all frames to an invisible grid:

t Select Bin > Align and Fill >Align to Grid.

To align selected frames to an invisible grid:

t Select Bin > Align and Fill > Align Selected to Grid.

To space the frames evenly to fill the Bin window:

t Select Bin > Align and Fill > Fill Window.

To arrange frames in the order in which they are sorted in Text view:

t Select Bin > Align and Fill> Fill Sorted.

To change the frame identifying the clip:

1. Select the clip that you want to change.

Press and hold the K key (Pause) on the keyboard and press the L key (Play Forward) to roll the footage within the frame forward at slow speed. To move backward through the footage, press and hold the K key and press the J key (Play Reverse).

2. When you see the frame that you want to use, release the keys.

Your Avid editing application saves your choice as part of the bin configuration.

To set Frame View border colors and icons:

1. Click the Settings tab in the Project Window.

2. Double-click Bin.

The Bin Settings dialog opens.

3. In the Frame View pane select Show Border Colors.

4. Select one of the following options:

Option Description

Bin Views

Use color based on object type

Use clip Color If you assigned colors to items in the bin in Text View, these same

Show icons The applicable bin item icon, for example sequence, clip, subclip,

5. Click OK.

The applicable borders and icons will appear in the bin when in Frame View.

Using Script View

Script view combines the features of Text view with Frame view and adds space for typing notes or script. The frames are displayed vertically on the left side of your screen with the text box next to each clip. As in Text view, each clip is represented by a single frame, and the head frame is the default. Clip information is displayed above the text box.

When selected, a colored border appears around the following:

• Blue - Precomputes and source side motion effects

• Green - Master clips

• Dark Green - Subclips and Group clips

• Red - Sequences

• Purple - Media files in the Media Tool

colors will be used as a border for the bin item when in Frame View.

title, etc. will appear in Frame View.

You can do the following in Script view:

• Add text.

• Use basic word processing procedures to highlight, delete, cut, copy, and paste text between script boxes.

• Rearrange clips.

• Select any frame to represent the footage.

• Play back the footage within any clip.

To enter Script view:

t Click the Script View button in the bin.

Bin Procedures

Script view in the bin. Bottom: Script Bin View button.

To type text in the script box:

1. Click the text box and begin typing.

2. (Option) If the text you type extends beyond the size of the script box, you can use the Page Up and Page Down keys on the keyboard to scroll through the text.

This text does not appear in sequences edited from the clips, only in printouts of the bin in Script view.

To change the represented frame in Script view:

t Press the J-K-L keys to move through the clip.

To rearrange clips in Script view:

t Drag each clip up or down to a new location in the bin.

t Sort and sift clips in Text view, and then return to Script view to display selected clips in the sort

order you want.

When you return to Text view, the order of the clips is changed there as well.

Bin Procedures

You can manipulate material in the bin in a variety of ways, including selecting, deleting, duplicating, moving, copying, and sifting clips and sequences.

When you work with bins, an asterisk appears before the bin name in the bin’s title bar. The asterisk indicates that the changes to the bin have not been saved. Once you save the bin, the asterisk is removed.

Using the Bin Fast Menu

All Bin menu commands are also available in the Bin Fast menu located in the lower left corner of every bin. The Bin Fast menu is especially convenient when you work with several open bins and need to access Bin menu commands quickly.

To open the Bin Fast menu:

t Click the Fast Menu button.

Selecting Clips and Sequences

To select a clip or sequence in a bin, do one of the following:

t Click the clip or sequence icon (Text view).

t Click in the picture area of the clip or sequence (Frame or Script view).

Ctrl+click (Windows) or Cmd+click (Macintosh) toggles the selection between selected and

deselected states. Double-clicking a clip loads it into the Source monitor.

Bin Procedures

To select multiple clips or sequences in a bin, do one of the following:

t Ctrl+click (Windows) or Cmd+click (Macintosh) clips to add them to your selection.

t Select a clip, and then Shift+click another clip to select a range of items. If you then Shift+click

another clip, the range covers all clips from the one you originally selected to the new clip. In Frame view, the range of items includes all clips within a rectangular region bounded by the first and last clips selected.

t Lasso several items. Click the mouse pointer outside the first item and drag it to surround the

items with a white dotted line.

Selecting a single item deselects any other selections.

To reverse your selection:

t Select Bin > Select > Reverse.

The items that you previously selected are deselected, and those items that were previously deselected are selected.

Duplicating and Moving Clips and Sequences

When you duplicate a clip or sequence, your Avid editing application creates a separate clip linked to the same media files. You can move, rename, and manipulate this clip without affecting the original clip.

To duplicate clips or sequences:

1. Select the clip or sequence that you want to duplicate, or select multiple clips or sequences.

2. Select Edit > Duplicate.

Bin Procedures

A copy of the clip or sequence appears in the bin, with the original clip or sequence name followed by the file name extension .Copy.n, where n is the number of duplicates created from the original clip or sequence.

Deleting media files for the duplicate clip or sequence also deletes the media files for the original clip or sequence.

To move clips or sequences from one bin into another:

1. Create or open another bin.

Give the bin a name that represents its purpose or contents.

2. Position or resize the original bin and the new bin so that you can see both of them at the same time.

3. Select the clips or sequences that you want to move.

4. Drag the clips or sequences to the new bin.

Deleting Items from a Bin

You can delete the following items from a bin:

•Clips

•Subclips

• Sequences

• Effect clips and their media files

• Motion effect clips and their media files

• Rendered effects clips and their media files

• Master clips and their media files

• Sources

•Groups

When you delete media files, you can no longer see the deleted material. If you load a clip for which a media file has been deleted, a black screen appears with the words “Media Offline.” If you need to use those clips again, you must recapture the media from tape or reimport graphics.

To delete individual video and audio tracks from a clip, use the Media tool. For more information, see

“Deleting Media Files with the Media Tool” on page 98.

(Windows) To delete clips, subclips, and sequences with their media files from a bin:

1. Select the clips, subclips, or sequences you want to delete.

2. Do one of the following:

t Select Edit > Delete.

t Press the Delete key.

The Delete dialog box opens which displays the items that you selected. By default, media files are not selected for deletion.

3. Select the items you want to delete:

t Select clips and their associated media files for deletion.

t Select only the media files for deletion if you want to retain the clips to recapture later.

t Select only the clips for deletion (in case the media file is referenced by other clips in your

project).

t Select the resolutions you want to delete.

The Resolutions to Delete section lists all video resolutions for the clips you selected. It also lists a single entry for all audio sample rates and compressed audio. Click All to delete all resolutions. However, you still need to select the individual media files that you want to delete. If you don’t want to delete any media files, click None, and all media files are deselected.

The options in this section also let you delete only audio media, only data media or only video media from a clip, if that clip has separate media files for audio, data and video.

4. Click OK.

If you choose to delete media files, a dialog box opens.

5. Click Delete.

The selected clips, sequences, and media file are deleted.

When you select a title for deletion, you might see more than one resolution.

(Macintosh) To delete clips, subclips, and sequences with their media files from a bin:

Bin Procedures

1. Select the clips, subclips, or sequences you want to delete.

2. Do one of the following:

t Select Edit > Delete.

t Press the Delete key.

The Delete dialog box opens which displays information about the selected items.

3. Select the items you want to delete.

t Select clips and their associated media files for deletion.

t Select only the media files for deletion if you want to retain the clips for recapturing later.

t Select only the clips for deletion if the media file is referenced by another clip.

4. Click OK.

If you choose to delete media files, a dialog box opens.

5. Click Delete.

The selected clips, sequences, and media file are deleted.

Changing the Bin Background Color

You can customize the background color of the bin. Changes affect only the currently active bin. Also, you can reset the bin background color to the default color for your Interface settings.

To change the bin background color:

1. In the Settings list of the Project window, double-click Interface.

The Interface Settings dialog box opens.

2. Select Allow Custom Bin Backgrounds, and then click OK.

3. Activate the bin you want to change.

In Text view, make sure no clips are selected.

4. Right click in the bin and select Set Background Color and click a color.

The bin color changes. The change applies to all bin views.

Assigning Colors to Objects in a Bin

You can assign colors to clips, subclips, sequences, and effect clips to help you manage and organize the bin objects. You can also display colors in bins and in the Timeline. For information on displaying colors in the Timeline, see “Displaying Clip Colors in the Timeline” on page 175.

Also, you can reset the clip color to the default color for your Interface settings.

Clip colors assigned to sequences, groups, motion effects, and title clips do not appear in the

Timeline.

To add a Color column to a bin:

1. With a bin in Text view, select Bin > Choose Columns.

The Bin Column Selection dialog box opens.

2. In the column list, click Color.

3. Click OK.

Bin Procedures

The Color column appears in the bin. By default, a new column appears as the first column in the bin, to the left of all other columns. You can reposition the Color column by clicking the column heading and dragging it to a new location.

To assign a color to a clip, subclip, sequence, or effect clip in a bin:

1. With a bin in Text view, select the bin objects to which you want to assign a color.

2. Right-click in the Color column and click a color:

The color appears in the Color column (Text view only).

To reset clip color to the default, do one of the following:

t Right-click in the Color column and click None.

Selecting Offline Items in a Bin

Offline items are clips, subclips, or sequences that are missing some or all of their original media files or that have never been captured.

To identify offline items, do one of the following:

t Select Bin > Select > Offline Items.

t Click the Bin Fast Menu button, and then select Select > Offline Items.

The bin highlights all items that are missing media files. To identify offline items in the Timeline, see “Displaying Clip Colors in the Timeline” on page 175.

Selecting Media Relatives for an Object in a Bin

When you identify media relatives of a selected clip or sequence, your Avid editing application highlights all other clips linked to the selected clip, such as subclips or other sequences.

You can also use the Media tool to look at the captured video and audio data files stored on your media drives. For more information on the Media tool, see “Using the Media Tool” on page 97.

To identify media relatives:

1. Open the bin that contains the selected clip or sequence.

2. Open any other bins that might contain the media relatives that you want to find.

3. Resize and position the bins so that you can see their contents.

Text view is the best display for viewing as many objects as possible.

4. Select the clip or sequence, and select Bin > Select > Media Relatives.

The system highlights all related objects in all open bins.

Selecting Sources Used by an Object in a Bin

The Select Sources command identifies all the sources used by a particular object. For example, if you select a sequence as the object, the Select Sources command identifies every master clip, subclip, tape, and media file that is a source for that sequence.

To identify sources for a clip or sequence:

1. Select one or more objects in a bin.

Working with Bin Columns

2. Select Bin > Select > Sources.

All sources for the selected objects in all open bins highlight.

Selecting Unreferenced Items in a Bin

When you select unreferenced clips, your Avid editing application highlights all clips not currently referenced by clips or sequences that are in the open bins. Any master clips, subclips, or effect clips you edited into sequences in the bins do not highlight.

The Select Unreferenced Clips option is useful for finding unused media.

To identify unreferenced clips:

1. Open the bin containing the sequence or clip that is referenced.

2. Open all other bins containing clips that were used during editing.

3. Select Bin > Select > Unreferenced Clips.

A message informs you that unreferenced clips highlight in open bins only (items in closed bins do not display).

4. Click OK.

All unreferenced clips highlight in the open bins.

Working with Bin Columns

The topics in this section describe how to work with the columns of information that appear in the bin when you are in Text view.

For more information on Text view, see “Using Text View” on page 65. For information on modifying the information that appears in bin columns, see “Modifying Clip Information” on

page 79.

Moving, Aligning, and Deleting Bin Columns

You can move, align, and delete columns in a bin.

When you align bin columns, the system maintains the same order of columns from left to right but spaces them according to the length of their contents. This is useful to remove spaces which remain after you move or rearrange columns.

When you delete a statistical column it is the same as hiding the column; you can restore the column at any time by using the Bin Column Selection option. When you delete a custom column, however, you must re-create the column.

For information to display and hide column headings in the bin, see “Using Text View” on page 65.

To move a text column in a bin:

1. Click the heading of the column that you want to move.

The column is highlighted.

Working with Bin Columns

2. Drag the column to the position you want, and release the mouse button.

A bounding outline of the column guides you as you drag it. The column appears in the new position, and columns to the right move to make room.

To align bin columns:

t Select Bin > Align and Fill > Align Columns.

To hide or delete a column:

1. Do one of the following to hide a column:

t Click the column heading in a bin, and then select Bin > Hide Column.

t Right-click a column heading and select Hide Column.

The column disappears from the view, and surrounding columns close to fill the space.

2. Do one of the following to delete a column:

t Click the column heading in a bin, and then select Edit > Delete.

t Click the column heading in a bin, and then press the Delete key.

The column disappears from the view, and surrounding columns close to fill the space.

3. When you delete a custom column, a confirmation dialog box opens. Select OK to delete the column or HIde to hide the column and save the custom information.

If you delete a custom column, all information in the column is deleted. You must re-create the column to restore it.

Adding Customized Columns to a Bin

In addition to the standard column headings, you can add your own column headings to describe information about clips and sequences. For example, you might want to add a column heading to describe what kind of shot (close-up, wide shot, master shot, extreme or close-up) is used in a clip.

To add a custom column:

1. While in Text or Script view, place your cursor in any column heading, right click and select Add Custom Column.

The default name Untitled appears as the column heading name.

2. Type the desired name in the column heading and press Enter.

Changing a Custom Bin Column Heading

You can change the heading name of custom columns only. You cannot change any of the standard column headings.

To change the name of a custom column:

1. Right click on the column name and select Rename Column.

The new column name appears.

Moving Within Column Cells

You can use the keyboard shortcuts described in the table to move from cell to cell in bin columns:

Working with Bin Columns

Shortcut Description

Tab Moves the pointer to the cell in the next column. You can continue to press the Tab

key to move through the cells to the right until the cell in the last column highlight. The next time you press the Tab key, the cell in the first column highlights.

Shift+Tab Moves the pointer left to the cell in the previous column. You can continue to press

Shift+Tab to scroll through cells to the left until the cell in the first column highlights. The next time you press Shift+Tab, the cell in the last column highlights.

Enter Enters any new information you type in the cell and moves the pointer down to the

cell in the next row. You can continue to press Enter to scroll down the column until the last cell in the column highlights. The next time you press Enter, the first cell in the column highlights.

Shift+Enter Moves the pointer up to the cell in the previous row. You can continue to press

Shift+Enter until the cell in the top row highlights. The next time you press Shift+Enter the cell in the last row highlights.

Copying Information Between Columns

To copy column information to another column:

1. (Option) If you want to copy only the information on specific rows, select the rows that contain the clip information you want to copy.

2. Select the column that you want to copy.

3. Select Edit > Duplicate.

The Select dialog box opens, to prompt you to target a column for the data.

4. Select the target column for the data, and click OK.

Modifying Clip Information

You can change or modify the information in certain columns for your master clips, subclips, tapes, and other objects stored in the bin. This is useful if some of the data is incorrect or if you need to conform information for organizational purposes.

The following conditions apply to modifying clip information:

• When you modify a clip’s information, related objects automatically update to reflect the new data. For example, if you change the name of a clip, the updated name appears in the sequences that use the clip.

• You cannot modify some data after capture because changes would prevent you from playing back and editing the material successfully.

You can modify data in two ways:

• Modify some data directly for master clips, subclips, and other objects stored in a bin.

• Use the Modify command to change specific information for master clips only.

For more information, see “Modifying Data in Bins” on page 81.

Bin Column Headings

Modifying Clip Information

You can select individual or multiple headings to display or hide in a bin. For information on how to select column headings, see “Moving, Aligning, and Deleting Bin Columns” on page 77.

You can modify information in bin columns. For example, you can type a new name for a clip or correct the start and end timecodes. For more information, see “Modifying Data in Bins” on page 81 and “Modify Command Options” on page 82.

You can modify any data in the bin even while you log, prior to capture. After the footage is captured, however, you can modify information only in selected headings, with restrictions. For more information, see the following table.

When you modify tape names and timecodes, the modification affects any key numbers you enter for the selected clips.

The following table describes all bin column headings available in Avid editing applications, including information on which bin columns you can modify after you have captured footage. Depending on the model of your Avid editing application, you might not see all column headings.

Bin Column Heading Description

Name Heading always appears in the bin. The column contains the name of the clip or

sequence.

Audio Bit Depth Use audio bit depth when you work with audio files: 16 bit or 24 bit.

Audio Format Audio format of master clips (AIFF-C or WAVE).

Audio SR Audio resolution (sample rate).

Modifying Clip Information

Bin Column Heading Description

Color Color of the bin objects for organizing the objects. For more information, see

“Assigning Colors to Objects in a Bin” on page 75. Modifiable after capture with

no restrictions.

Color Space Indicates the color space (RGB or YUV) of the clip.

Comments Modifiable after capture with no restrictions.

Creation Date Date and time you log or capture the clip.

Drive Last known drive where the media for the master clip existed.

Duration Length of the clip.

End Timecode of the clip’s tail frame.

Format The format of a clip or sequence which you determine by the project type, such

as 30i NTSC or 1080i/59.94. This is useful if you have both SD and HD clips in the same bin.

FPS Play rate: the number of frames that display each second. The default is 29.97

for NTSC and 25 for PAL for video. The play rate is also 24 or 23.98.

Image Aspect Ratio Indicates the shape of the image frame. Ratio of width to height.

IN-OUT Length of the marked segment.

Mark IN Timecode for the IN point, if you set one for the clip.

Modifiable after capture — altering the mark IN also alters the IN to OUT duration. This replaces any previous mark.

Mark OUT Timecode for the OUT point, if you set one for the clip.

Modifiable after capture — altering the mark OUT also alters the IN to OUT duration. This replaces any previous mark.

Modified Date Date and time a sequence was last edited or changed.

Offline Track names for any media files offline.

Project Project under which the media was originally captured.

Raster Dimension Displays the raster dimension for the clip.

Scene Scene number of the clip.

Source File Specifies the source file name.

Source Path Specifies the location of resources on local or remote storage using Universal

Naming Convention (UNC).

Start Timecode of the clip’s head frame. Modifiable after capture with no restrictions.

Tracks All tracks used by this media object.

Video Clip video format (resolution, color space and field motion type).

Modifying Data in Bins

You can modify data in bin columns directly by typing in a selected text field. You can use the standard keyboard shortcuts for entering text — for example, press Ctrl+A (Windows) or Command+A (Macintosh) to select all text in a text field.

You can also use the Modify command for specialized control over groups of clip information. For example, you can use the Modify command to change the name of source tapes, or to increment or decrement the start and end timecodes by a specified length of time for one or several clips at once.

You can apply changes with the Modify command to master clips only. You cannot alter subclips and sequences in this way. You can modify the data of captured, imported and file-based clips. In addition, you can perform modifications that only alter the end timecodes or the tracks before capture.

Modifying Clip Information

When you modify tape names and timecodes it affects any key numbers entered for the selected clips.

To modify the clip data directly in a bin:

1. Click the Text View button in the bin to enter Text view.

2. Click the cell that you want to modify. Select only one item at a time.

The timecode data highlights, as displayed in the following example.

3. Click the cell again to enter text.

If the pointer does not change to an I-beam, you might be selecting a column that cannot be directly modified.

4. Type the new information, and press Enter.

To modify selected data using the Modify command:

1. Click the Text View button in the bin.

2. Click the icon to the left of the clip, sequence, or other object you want to modify. Ctrl+click (Windows) or Cmd+click (Macintosh) each additional object you want to modify.

3. Select Clip > Modify > Modify Clip.

The Modify dialog box opens.

4. Click the Modify Options menu, and select an option.

5. Select an option or type information into the text boxes.

For more information, see “Modify Command Options” on page 82.

6. Click OK.

The modification takes effect.

Modifying Clip Information

Modify Command Options

Type of Modification Options Description

Set Timecode Drop/ Non-drop

Set Timecode By Field Start or End Changes either the start or end timecode. You can only

Increment Timecode Start or End Changes either the start or end timecode. If you

Decrement Timecode Start or End Changes either the start or end timecode. If you

Drop, Non-drop Changes the timecode format between drop-frame and

Hour, Minutes, Seconds, Frames

Timecode text box Lets you enter custom incremental timecode.

Timecode text box Lets you enter custom decremental timecode.

non-drop-frame. Setting must match the timecode format of the tape.

alter start timecodes after capture.

Lets you enter custom timecode.

increment the start timecode automatically, it modifies the end timecode by the same amount. You can only alter start timecodes after capture.

decrement the start timecode, it automatically modifies the end timecode by the same amount. You can only decrement start timecode after capture.

Set Tracks V, A1, A2, A3, A4, A5,

A6, A7, A8

Set Multichannel Audio Mixed, Mono, Stereo Lets you assign multichannel formats to audio tracks. For

Changes the clip’s configuration of tracks.

more information, see “Working with Multichannel

Audio Tracks” on page 249.

Copying Information from Another Cell in a Custom Bin Column

To copy information from another cell in a custom column:

1. Press and hold the Alt key (Windows) or Option key (Macintosh) while you click in the destination cell to reveal a menu of all items entered in that column.

2. Select the text from the menu.

The text appears in the cell.

Applying the Same Text to a Custom Column for Multiple Items

To apply the same text to a custom column for multiple items:

1. Select the items in the bin to which you want to apply the same text.

2. Right+click the custom column and select Set <column name> column for selected clips.

3. Enter the text you want to appear in the column for the selected items in the bin.

The text appears in the cells.

Printing Bins

To print entire bins:

1. Make sure your printer is correctly set up.

2. Select the Text, Script, or Frame bin view of the bin you want to print.

3. Select File > Page Setup.

The Page Setup dialog box opens, reflecting the specific options for your printer.

4. Select the appropriate options.

5. Click OK (Windows) or Print (Macintosh).

6. Select File > Print Bin.

The Print dialog box opens, reflecting the specific options for your printer.

7. Select the Print options.

8. Click OK (Windows) or Print (Macintosh).

The system prints the active bin.

To print a single frame of a clip or sequence:

1. Load a clip or sequence into the Source or Record monitor.

2. Select the frame you want to print.

3. Select File > Print Frame.

The Print dialog box opens.

4. Select the Print options.

5. Click OK (Windows) or Print (Macintosh).

The system prints the frame currently displayed in the active monitor.

Filtering Items in the Bin

The editing application bins include a quick filter text box that allows you to quickly filter out items in a bin that match the filter criteria. This is helpful when you have a large number of items in a bin and want to quickly filter for specific items.

To filter items in a bin:

1. Open the bin.

2. Enter text in the filter text box.

The search will display only those items in the bin that match the search criteria.

If individual columns are selected, the search is performed on the information in the selected

columns. If no columns are selected, the search is performed on the Name column.

Filtering Items in the Bin

6 Ingesting Media

When ingesting media in Media Composer | First, you use the Source Browser. The Source Browser allows you to preview, scrub, and play the clip prior to linking or importing the clip. Once you preview your clips, use the Source Browser to either link or import your media. Ingesting media features are described in the following topics.

• Source Browser Overview

• Accessing and Previewing Your Media

• Linking Your Media

• Importing Your Media

Source Browser Overview

Within the Source Browser window you can easily navigate to your media, preview your media, and choose to link or import your media with the appropriate settings.

Source Browser in Frame View: (from top to bottom) Navigation tools and breadcrumbs; Middle area: Navigate and display media panes; Source Browser Settings. Bottom area: Link or Import and select Settings, Choose bin to commit media and Processing Media progress indicator

Source Browser Overview

23 4

Navigation Tools and Breadcrumbs

The top area of the Source Browser provides navigation tools and shows the path to the currently displayed location of your media.

Item Description

1 Navigation buttons: Click to move backward, forward, or up directory levels.

2 Home Button: Click to go to the home directory.

3 Collapse Directories Button: Click to collapse the directories to top levels.

4 Add or Remove Favorites: Click to add the selected folder to the Favorites tab.

5 Media Folder View Button: Click to view folders as media volumes. If you choose to display

as media volumes, the Source display area will display the media as individual master clips. Other structural contents will not be displayed. When viewing a volume, you may see a “Media Processing” message in the display area. Once complete, the master clips will display.

6 Breadcrumbs: Displays the path to the currently selected folder.

Explore Media Drives Area of Source Browser

The left area of the Source Browser is where you navigate to your media drives. In this area you can also view your Favorite folders or media drives. You can also view the most recently viewed folders or drives.

Display Media Area of Source Browser

The right pane of the Source Browser displays the media. You can choose to view the media in either Text view or Frame view.

Source Browser Overview

Item Description

1 Media display area.

2 Text View button. Click to display the media in text view

3 Frame View button: Click to display frame representations (thumbnails) of the media clips.

4 Search Field: Enter text in the search field to easily find clips.

5 Thumbnail slider: Move to enlarge or reduce the thumbnail. (Frame view only)

6 Scroll bar: Scroll to display more columns.

Source Browser Settings

The Source Browser Settings is where you configure the behavior of the Source Browser window.

Choose from the following options:

Accessing and Previewing Your Media

Option Description

Double Click to: Link or Import Select this option if you want to double click on media files in the

Source Browser to link or import them into the selected bin.

Double Click to: Load Clips in Source Monitor

Close Source Browser after Link or Import

Clear Source Monitor Upon Closing Source Browser

Link or Import Area

The bottom area of the Source Browser is where you choose whether to import or link your media. You can also choose the Target Bin where you want to add the linked or imported clips. A Processing media indicator appears at the bottom of the Source Browser to show the progress of the media as it is populating the display area.

Select this option if you want to double click on media files in the Source Browser to load them into the Source Monitor (without committing them to the bin.)

Select this option if you want to automatically close the Source Browser after the link or import process is complete

Select this option if you want to clear all uncommitted Source Browser clips from the Source monitor after you close the Source Browser window.

You can choose to Link or Import the media to your bin while the media is populating the display

area. You do not need to wait for the processing indicator to be complete.

Accessing and Previewing Your Media

You can preview your media in the Source Browser before you commit the clip(s) into a bin.

To access and preview your media:

1. In the Explore area of the Source Browser window, browse to the location of the media you want to preview.

2. Click the Frame View button.

The clips will populate the right pane of the Source Browser with the frame clip representation (thumbnails).

Initially, thumbnails show the first frame of the clip. Any thumbnail playback will change the representation frame to the last one displayed.

Linking Your Media

3. Press Ctrl + L (Windows) or Command + L (Mac) to enlarge the thumbnails.

4. Place your cursor so it hovers over the thumbnail of the clip. While hovering, move the cursor to the edges of the thumbnail to preview the footage. You can also use the JKL keys to shuttle through the thumbnail. (Use L to move forward, K to pause, and J to move backward.)

5. (Optional) You can drag a clip from the Source Browser to the Source monitor to review the clip. Dragging to the Source monitor does not commit the clip to the bin.

6. Continue with Linking Your Media or Importing Your Media

Linking Your Media

File-based media such as .mov, mp4, .mts, mxf, .wav, etc. files can be acquired from a third-party device (a camera, reader, or drive), from a CD or DVD, from a folder on your system, or from a virtual volume (a server connected to your system). To move the media into your Avid editing system, you have the option to use the linking method which links the file based media directly into a bin through a plug-in, or you can use the import method which imports the media onto your system. Linking allows you to quickly link to the files without importing, transcoding, or copying them. Once you link to the files, you can immediately drag them to your Timeline and start editing. Importing will actually import the media files to the bin. The linking method is the preferred and the faster method. To import, see Importing Your Media.

The following Avid-supplied plug-ins are included with the editing application: Avid Generic Plug-

in, QuickTime, AVCHD, MXF, and WaveAiff.

To see which plug-ins are installed on your system, click the Info button in the Project Window.

Linking Your Media

Some third party plug-ins are not included and installed with your Avid editing software. You must download and install them separately. This enables Avid and third-party camera manufacturers to update plug-ins outside of a software release. Go to the Avid Media Access page on the avid.com

web site to make sure you download the latest plug-in for your specific third-party device.

See the documentation supplied by the third party plug-in vendor for details on using their plug-in.

To link the media files:

1. Once you have previewed the clips you want in the Source Browser window, select the Link button.

2. Select the clips you want and drag and drop them to the bin. (Ctrl+click or Shift+click to select multiple files.)

The clips appear in the bin. Linked clips appear with a link on the clip icon.

You can also import or link clips by selecting them, right clicking and selecting Add to Bin.

To automatically link media from a third party device:

1. Make sure you have the appropriate 3rd party plug-in installed on your system.

2. Attach the camera and insert a card, disc or drive.

The system links the clips automatically into a bin.

It is highly recommended for performance reasons, that you copy the entire media volume to an

external HD drive if you plan on copying media from a card.

3. Use the master clips to edit a sequence.

Linking with Multichannel Audio

You can use the Link Settings dialog box to define the audio track formats for the audio channels in your linked media, up to a maximum of 8 audio channels for the clips in your bins. This allows you to specify which source channels are treated as mono or multichannel audio tracks in your project, rather than having to modify the clips in your bin after you link to the media.

The mappings affect all media clips created when you link to your source media. If you want to use different mixes for different master clips or different projects, create a custom Link Settings template for each separate type of mix and then create your linked master clips.

Relinking to Linked QuickTime Files

Each stereo track requires two channels, but you can mix mono and stereo input channels for your linking operation as long as you do not exceed the maximum of 8 audio channels for each master clip.

To specify the multichannel audio mix for linked clips:

1. In the Project window, click the Settings tab.

2. Double-click Link.

The Link Settings dialog box appears.

For information about the Link Settings, see “Link Settings” on page 400.

3. Click Edit.

The Set Multichannel Audio dialog box opens.

4. Click the format buttons to select one of the following audio track formats for each pair of source channels:

Button Track Format

Mono

Stereo

You must map source audio channels in mono or stereo pairs. For example, you cannot map A1 to a mono track and A2 and A3 to a stereo track. Instead, map A1 and A2 to mono tracks, and A3 and A4 to a stereo track. If the source media does not have an audio channel on A2, the Avid editing application ignores the channel.

5. Click OK to close the Set Multichannel Audio dialog box, and then click OK to close the Link Settings dialog box.

The Track Formats column in the bin Text view displays the format for all multichannel audio tracks in a master clip.

Relinking to Linked QuickTime Files

After you link QuickTime files into your sequence, you have the option to make changes (in a third party application, such as Adobe After Effects) to that file. If you change the filename or change the location of the file, the best way to link that clip back into your sequence is through the relink option. Relinking to a linked file allows you to link to a different file. This process only works if the targeted file is compatible with the old file, for example the file has the same duration, edit rate or number of tracks.

Importing Your Media

This feature is helpful when you have a group of linked clips that were moved to a different folder or drive. You can relink the clips to the new location. You can also use this feature to toggle between different versions of a QuickTime movie, for example a low-resolution version of the movie is myMovie_DV.mov and the high-resolution version of the movie is myMovie_1to1.mov. You can relink to both of these versions, to see which clip works better in your sequence.

At this time, Relink to File(s) is only available with QuickTime files.

To relink to QuickTime file(s):

1. Select the file(s) you want to relink by doing one of the following:

t Click a single file

t Shift+click to select multiple adjacent files

t Ctrl+click (Windows) or Command+click (Macintosh) to select multiple nonadjacent files

2. Right-click and select Relink to File(s).

The Select file(s) to relink clip dialog box opens asking you to locate the new file(s).

3. Locate the folder where the files exist and select the files in the folder that require relinking.

4. Click OK.

The clips appear linked in the bin. If all the clips you wanted to relink to do not reside in the selected folder, you will receive a dialog indicating how many files were not relinked. Open the Console window to see the name of the file or files that were not relinked.

If the new file is not compatible with the clip in the bin (it does not have the same duration, edit rate

or number of tracks), the clip in the bin retains its original link.

Importing Your Media

You should use the Import option in the Source Browser when importing files such as Adobe® Photoshop

Consider copying all graphics files to a single folder before you import the files. Using this folder helps you manage graphics from multiple sources and streamlines the reimporting process. Use the following procedures for Importing Media Files:

• Importing Media Files

• Importing Photoshop Files

• Importing Audio Files

Importing Media Files

To import your media files into a bin, perform the following.

To import files:

1. Select File > Input > Source Browser.

graphic files and audio files.

2. Select the Import button.

3. (Optional) If you want to change an import setting, simply click the Settings button at the bottom of the Source Browser to access the “Import Settings” on page 395 and make your changes

4. Select the files you want to import to the bin and either drag and drop them to the bin or select the Target Bin at the bottom right of the Source Browser window and click Import.

The imported files appear in the bin.

You can also import clips by selecting them, right clicking and selecting Add to Bin.

Importing Audio Files

When you import audio files, you can set the gain on a clip without opening the Audio Mix tool. This is especially useful when you import audio from a CD or an MP3 device and you would like to lower the decibel level for all files that you import. If you do not want to adjust the gain before import, start at step 6.

To adjust the gain before import:

1. In the Project window, click the Settings tab.

2. Double-click Import.

3. Click the Audio tab, and then select Apply attentuation/gain effect on Import.

4. Type a decibel level from 12 to -96 to adjust the volume, or use the Up and Down arrows on the keyboard to locate the decibel level you want to apply to all the imported clips.

Importing Your Media

5. Click OK.

When your Avid editing application imports the files, it applies the gain adjustment to each file imported to a bin. If you later apply gain from the Clip menu to a clip that you adjusted the gain before import, your Avid editing application ignores the pre-import gain. For example, if you apply -6 dB before import, and then apply another -6 dB to the clip, the clip remains at -6 db and not -12 db. For each subsequent adjustment, your Avid editing application ignores the previous adjustment, except where the clip appears in a sequence. To adjust a clip’s gain in a sequence, you must use the Audio Mix tool.

6. Select File > Input > Source Browser.

7. Select the Import button.

8. Select the audio files you want to import to the bin and either drag and drop them to the bin or select the Target Bin at the bottom right of the Source Browser window and click Import.

The imported files appear in the bin.

You can also import clips by selecting them, right clicking and selecting Add to Bin.

To adjust the gain after import:

1. Choose one of the following methods:

t Select the clip in the bin, and select Clip > Audio > Apply Gain.

t Right-click a single clip and select Audio > Apply Gain.

The Apply Clip Gain menu opens.

2. Type a decibel level from 12 to -96 to adjust the volume, or use the Up and Down arrows on the keyboard to locate the decibel level you want to apply.

3. Click OK.

The gain adjustment applies to the clip. If there was a gain previously associated with the clip, the new gain value override it.

Importing Photoshop Files

You can import both single-layer and multilayered graphics created in Adobe® Photoshop®. If you import multilayered graphics, you can preserve the original layers, and then edit them individually in your Avid editing application.

Single-Layer Photoshop Graphics

A single-layer graphic is a graphic file that was created either on a single layer or with multiple layers and subsequently flattened in Photoshop. Avid editing applications import this kind of graphic as a matte key or master clip, depending on the format of the Photoshop file.

• If the graphic uses a transparent background or an alpha channel, your Avid editing application creates a matte key.

• If the graphic uses a background color, your Avid editing application creates a master clip.

Single-layer files that contain transparency gradients or feathering and a transparent background do not import correctly. Partially transparent pixels display with either white or black blended into them, based on the percentage of transparency. To avoid this problem, create an additional layer in the original Photoshop file that contains at least one pixel of information, such as a spot drawn with a paintbrush. Then import it as a layered file, as described in “Importing Photoshop Files” on page 94. In the message box, click Select Layers and select only the layer that contains the graphic elements. Do not select the additional layer.

Importing Your Media

Multilayer Photoshop Graphics

A multilayered graphic is a graphic file that was created in Photoshop with two or more layers.

When you import a multilayered graphic, you can import each layer as a separate object (a matte key or master clip). You can then manipulate individual layers like any other matte key or master clip. You can also import the graphic as a flattened image, or select the layers to import.

Some layer options in Photoshop are not supported for import into your Avid editing application. For example, a title with a Drop Shadow and an Outer Glow effect would not keep these effects when imported.

For information on support for layer options and types, see the following tables.

Layer Option Supported Notes

Blending Mode No To preserve the blending mode (Dissolve, Multiply, and so on), merge the

layer into another layer that does not use a special blending mode. Only normal mode is supported.

Opacity Yes The imported layer’s Level is set to the opacity specified in Photoshop. You

can adjust opacity levels with the Foreground Level control in the Effect Editor.

Layer Group Partial Import ignores layer grouping and instead imports all layers, including

grouped layers, as individual layers. To preserve a clipping group, merge the grouped layers into the base layer.

Layer Set Partial All layers within a set are imported as individual layers.

Importing Your Media

Layer Option Supported Notes

Layer/Set Mask No Import ignores layer and set masks. To preserve a layer mask, apply it to the

layer. To preserve a set mask, merge the set into an empty layer. To preserve a special layer’s mask, rasterize the layer.

Layer Style No Import ignores layer styles. To preserve a layer style, you must convert the

style into layers.

Special Layer Option Supported Notes

Type Layer Yes —

Solid Layer Yes Solid layers import as a graphic with a full-screen opaque alpha

channel.

Gradient Layer Yes Gradient transparency is preserved.

Pattern Layer Yes —

Adjustment Layer No Adjustment layers include Levels, Curves, Color Balance,

Brightness/Contrast, Hue/Saturation, Channel Mixer, Gradient Map, Invert, Threshold, and Posterize.

Example of Multilayered Photoshop Graphics Import

Your Avid editing application imports each layer as an individual matte key with alpha channel. During the import, your Avid editing application creates a sequence with each layer on a separate video track. This makes it easy to edit all layers into the final sequence. This sequence preserves the names and order of the layers as created in the original Photoshop file.

You can then edit the tracks as necessary to build up to the full collage.

To import a single-layer graphic, or a flattened multilayered Photoshop graphic:

t Follow the standard instructions for importing a graphic, as described in “Importing Your

Media” on page 92.

To import a multilayered Photoshop file:

1. Prepare the Photoshop graphic for import.

2. Follow the standard instructions for importing a graphic, as described in “Importing Your

Media” on page 92. To create the matte correctly, you need to click the Options button and select

Alpha: Invert on Import.

3. After you select one or more files and click Open, a message box opens.

4. In the message box, do one of the following:

t Click Sequence of Layers if you want to preserve all layers. If the number of layers exceeds

the number of tracks supported, your Avid editing application creates a sequence that contains the number of tracks supported. Additional layers are imported into the bin, but not as tracks in a sequence. This selection applies to all files you select for import.

t Click Flattened Image if you want to import the graphic as a single matte key or clip. Your

Avid editing application flattens the file by combining the layers. This selection applies to all files you selected for import.

Importing Your Media

Hidden layers are not combined in the flattened image. Make sure all layers you want in the final image are visible. In addition, layers with partial transparency do not display properly in the flattened, imported image.

t Click Select Layers if you want to select which layers to preserve.

The Select Layers dialog box opens. Select the layers you want to import and click OK.

Your Avid editing application displays messages as it creates media for each layer. At the end of the process, the selected bin displays the objects.

To preserve layer effects:

1. For the first import, click Select Layers and select all layers except the layers that contain layer effects.

2. For the second import, open Photoshop, hide the layers you’ve already imported, and show the layers that contain layer effects. During the import, click Flattened Image.

The resulting image contains only the layers that contain layer effects.

7 Managing Media Files

In addition to the bins where you organize the clips that reference these media files, your Avid editing application provides tools for directly managing these media files. These tools and features are described in the following topics:

• Using the Media Tool

• Consolidating Media

• Transcoding Media

• Deleting Unreferenced Clips and Media

Using the Media Tool

The Media tool is your window into the video and audio data files stored on your media drives. The Media tool provides similar database tools for manipulating digital media files to those provided by bins for manipulating clips and sequences. The Media tool does not display sequences and subclips. Only master clips, Linked Master clips, precompute (rendered effect) clips, and associated media files are available for display.

Opening the Media Tool

To open the Media tool:

1. Select Tools > Media Tool.

The Media Tool Display dialog box opens.

2. Select the media drives from which to load by doing one of the following:

t In the Media Drive(s) list, select individual media drives.

t Click the All Drives button.

The Media tool loads the media database only for the drives you select. The more drives you select, the more memory is required for the Media tool to open.

3. Select the projects to load by doing one of the following:

t In the Projects list, select individual projects.

t Click the Current Project button.

t Click the All Projects button.

Only projects with associated online media and the current project appear in the Project(s) list in the Media Tool Display dialog box.

4. Select Master Clips, Linked Master Clips, Precompute Clips - Rendered Effects, Precompute Clips - Titles and Matte Keys, Media Files, or any combination of the options.

5. Click OK.

The Media tool opens.

Deleting Media Files with the Media Tool

Using the Media Tool

You can use the Media tool to delete selected media files.

IMPORTANT: You must be very careful about deleting media files. If you use the Media tool to delete selected media files, you no longer have access to the deleted material. DO NOT delete your media files unless you are certain you no longer need the media. If you load a clip for which a media file has been deleted, a black screen appears with the words “Media Offline.”

To delete selected media files:

1. Select Tools > Media Tool.

2. Select one or more media files (audio, video, or both) or master clips whose media files you want to delete.

3. Do one of the following:

t Select Edit > Delete.

t Press the Delete key.

The Delete Media dialog box opens.

4. Select the media objects that you want to delete:

Option Description

Consolidating Media

Video media file (V) After deletion, the master clip linked to that file is black, with the

message “Media Offline” displayed. Related subclips and sequences are affected in the same way.

Audio media file (A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7, A8)

Precompute media file (V, A)

Audio mixdown file (A)

After deletion, the master clip linked to that file is silent. Subclips and sequences created from the master clip are affected in the same way.

After deletion, the section of the sequence with the effect is black, and the message “Media Offline” is displayed.

After deletion, the section of the sequence with the mixdown is silent.

5. Click OK.

A dialog box opens, asking you to confirm the deletion.

If there are metadata files associated with linked media, you can choose to delete the metadata files also.

6. Click Delete.

The selected media files (and/or linked media metadata files) are deleted.

Consolidating Media

When you consolidate media files, your Avid editing application finds the media files or portions of media files associated with selected clips, subclips, or sequences. It then makes copies of them, and saves the copies on a target drive that you specify.

Consolidate only works for media that is in a format your Avid editing software understands natively.

This is why some linked media will consolidate (such as XDCAM) and some will not (AVCHD, for example).

Consolidating Media

There are three basic reasons to use the Consolidate feature:

• To copy media onto one drive for storage or transfer to another system.

• To keep only the media required to play back a sequence, and delete the rest to use less storage space.

• To create backup files.

Master Clips

When you consolidate a master clip, your Avid editing application creates a new master clip with the file name extension .new that is linked to the new media files.

The new master clips are also numbered incrementally beginning with .01. Consolidating master clips does not save storage space because your Avid editing application copies the same amount of media for each clip.

Subclips

When you consolidate a subclip or group of subclips, your Avid editing application copies only the portion of the media files represented in the subclip and creates a new master clip that is the duration of the subclip and a new subclip. The file name extension .new is attached, along with incremental numbering beginning with .01.

Sequences

When you consolidate a sequence, your Avid editing application copies only the portions of media files edited into the sequence and creates new master clips for each clip in the sequence. The file name extension .new is attached to the master clips, along with incremental numbering beginning with .01. The original sequence is not renamed but a new sequence is automatically created with a name extension consolidated.01.

Consolidate finished sequences to:

• Create backup files.

• Preserve only the captured media required for playback, and delete the rest to use less storage space.

• Gather dispersed media onto one drive for storage or transfer to another system.

Because a consolidated sequence is linked to the new files by default, consider duplicating the

sequence each time you consolidate if you need to maintain links to the original files.

To consolidate media:

1. Select a clip or sequence in a bin.

2. Select Clip > Transcode.

The Transcode dialog box opens.

100

Pinnacle Systems Media Composer First User’s Guide

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Contents

Symbols and Conventions

If You Need Help

Avid Training Services

1 Media Composer | First Quick Start

Downloading and Installing Media Composer | First

Launching Media Composer | First

Creating a Project

Accessing Your Footage

Accessing and Previewing Your Media

Importing or Linking Your Media

Creating a Sequence

Marking IN and OUT Points

Adding Clips to the Timeline

Editing the Sequence

Trimming

Adding Effects to Your Sequence

Adjusting Audio with “Ducking”

Publishing Your Story

Create a Publishing Profile

2 Starting a Project

Turning on Your Equipment

Working with the Desktop

Using the Windows Taskbar (Windows Only)

Using the Mac Dock (Mac Only)

Using Shortcut Menus

Using the Keyboard for Navigating in Dialog Boxes and Menus

Working with Projects

Antivirus Applications

Setting Project-Naming Conventions

Avid Projects and Avid Users Folders

Opening and Closing Projects

Deleting a Project

Quitting and Turning Off Equipment

Changing Project and User Names

Backing Up Your Project Information

3 Working with the Project Window

Overview of the Project Window

Using the Bins Tab

Viewing a List of Bins

Creating a New Bin

Renaming a Bin

Opening and Closing Bins

Displaying Folders of Bins in the Bins List

Creating a Folder

Deleting a Bin or Folder

Viewing and Emptying the Trash

Saving Bins

Saving Bins Manually

Using the Settings Tab

Using the Format Tab

Using the Usage Tab

Using the Info Tab

Customizing the Avid User Interface

Changing Interface Component Colors

Changing Font and Point Size

Overriding Bin and Project Font and Font Size

Setting the Media Cache

Using Workspaces

Assigning a Workspace Button

4 Using Tools

Using the Tools Menu

The Command Palette

Understanding Button Mapping

Mapping User-Selectable Buttons

Mapping Menu Commands

Activating Commands from the Command Palette

Using the Avid Calculator

Using The Console Window

5 Working with Bins

Object Icons in Bins

Bin Views

Using Text View

Sorting in Bins

Sorting Clips and Sequences

Understanding Bin Views