MagicMenu expands what we can do when we right-click a file or the Finder. It is fast, affordable, customizable and flexible. It supports Apple silicon systems. Though it isn’t perfect, it can save you a lot of time.
This review of storage speed-testing software AmorphousDiskMark, from Katsura Software. This details how it works, the consistency of its results and compares it to Blackmagic Design’s Disk Speed Test. However, there are questions about its accuracy.
This guest post, from Zac Carr, looks at a variety of online tools that enable better collaboration and organization during video editing.
There is a large, significant difference in measuring storage speeds when using Blackmagic Disk Speed Test versus AJA System Test Lite. The problem is that we don’t know which one is more accurate. Here are the details.
Is there a speed difference between the three Thunderbolt ports on an 16″ M1 MacBook Pro? Larry Jordan tests his system to find out.
Recently, Alteon.io announced a new workflow extension for Final Cut Pro that provides an end-to-end media workflow from within FCP. (They also have one for Adobe Premiere Pro.) In this interview with Larry Jordan, CEO Matt Cimaglia explains why Alteon is, why video editors should consider it and how it compares to the competition.
Here’s a collection of two dozen websites with free – or mostly free resources for video editors.
In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan explains that Thunderbolt, though very fast, still has speed limits, especially for video editing. And those speed limits vary, depending upon what you are doing.
In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan explains what affects computer system performance for video editing, what can slow down your data and what speeds we should expect from our gear. There’s a lot that can affect the performance of your system.
Nothing replaces directly-connected storage for speed. But nothing is better at sharing than a server. The Synology DS-1522+ is an excellent choice for any small network. Here’s a detailed review, including configuration and performance tests.
Servers are designed for sharing data. In this tutorial, Larry Jordan looks at how to install hardware into Synology DS 1522+ server, then interviews Patrick Deshere, from Synology, about how to pick the right server for your office.
You need to animate some text. It needs to be flashy. It needs to be colorful. And, most importantly, it needs to be done yesterday. Apple Keynote to the rescue! In this short video tutorial, Larry provides an overview on how to create animated text using Apple Keynote for use in any video editor, such as Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro or Media Composer.
One of our favorite – and most wide-ranging – sessions returns with “Ask Larry Anything!” Presented by Larry Jordan, this is a free-form conversation based on questions submitted by viewers. In this short video tutorial, Larry presents three methods of importing only a portion of a video clip into Apple Final Cut Pro – along with an explanation of why you can’t.
One of our favorite – and most wide-ranging – sessions returns with “Ask Larry Anything!” Presented by Larry Jordan, this is a free-form conversation based on questions submitted by viewers. In this short video tutorial, Larry explains the challenges of maximizing performance when using hard disk drive RAIDs for video editing.
One of our favorite – and most wide-ranging – sessions returns with “Ask Larry Anything!” Presented by Larry Jordan, this is a free-form conversation based on questions submitted by viewers. In this short video tutorial, Larry shows you how to read the video scopes in Adobe Premiere Pro, then how to use them to match skin tone colors.
One of our favorite – and most wide-ranging – sessions returns with “Ask Larry Anything!” Presented by Larry Jordan, this is a free-form conversation based on questions submitted by viewers. In this short video tutorial, Larry shows you how to access all the audio channels when editing multicam clips in Adobe Premiere Pro.
The speed of a local-area network is dependent upon a number of factors, some of which we have more control of than others. Here’s a list of what to check to improve your network speed, without replacing the server.
Color management for HDR media in Premiere Pro is rapidly changing. For now, it’s a mess with too many color settings that need to be changed manually, with color results that vary inconsistently between clips. iPhone video is a special problem. Here’s what you need to know.
SSDs offer far faster performance and, when combined into a RAID, storage equal to spinning hard disks. But, there are traps to avoid. Here’s what you need to know. (Featuring an in-depth technical interview with Tim Standing, VP Software Engineering, OWC.)
Confused when comparing Intel to Apple silicon systems? Jerry Thompson was, too. Here are the answers to your questions on what the differences are between Apple silicon and Intel, along with suggestions on how to spec a system.
Picking a high-quality computer monitor for video editing is surprisingly confusing. Here is Larry Jordan’s explanation of what specs you need to look for, which you can ignore, and what criteria he uses for picking computer and video monitors.
In this illustrated tutorial, learn how to animate multiple elements in the same graphic using Adobe Premiere Pro.
Here’s an illustrated tutorial on how to animate multiple elements in a bar graph to illustrate a scientific concept. While this will work with most video editing software, I use Apple Final Cut Pro in this example.
Apple Keynote, like Apple Pages, supports text styles. However, these are more limited than you might at first think. Here’s a tutorial that explains more about how to create and modify them.
What is a “Retina Display?” What does it do and what monitors support it? This tutorial explains the term, why it’s used and what it means.
No monitor is perfect, but if images are your life, you should make the effort to check out the ViewSonic VP2776. When I look at the same image on all three monitor connected to my Mac, the ViewSonic looks the best. Here’s a detailed review.
Which combination of hard disk or SSD storage provides the fastest speed or highest capacity for video editing? This illustrated tutorial will answer these questions, plus provide a spreadsheet you can use to test your own numbers. This works for Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve and Apple Final Cut Pro editors.
Here are two very clever workarounds to create short extracts of much larger media files to save storage space when importing video into Apple Final Cut Pro.
Looking for ways to work faster? Here are five pretty much undocumented quick tricks – from import to export – that make Final Cut Pro work even faster.
Even the largest RAIDs fill up. If you own an OWC RAID, you can safely and easily archive RAID sets for archiving and storage. Loren Miller explains the process in this highly-illustrated, step-by-step tutorial.
Thunderbolt is an amazing protocol and essential to many video workflows. However, it isn’t a magic box. Once you understand what affects the speeds it can transfer data, you can better plan for how to use it. This tutorial explains what impacts the speed of a Thunderbolt device.
[Update: Dec. 17, 2022, I updated to Ventura 13.1. Mostly, it went fine. But there were issues. Read the details here.] Sometime in October, Apple will release the latest version of the macOS: Ventura. First announced at the 2022 WWDC …
August is vacation time. Still, over these five weeks, we published 19 tutorials and product reviews. Here’s a summary of everything we released this month. Something to look through during the holiday weekend.
Axle.ai is a fast, powerful and customizable media asset management system that is designed for the needs of a small to medium sized workgroup. This is an in-depth product review, along with an interview with Axle.ai CEO Sam Bogoch.
Last week, I asked video editors to share how they organize and manage their media for video editing. Here’s what they told me.
There are seven Stylize effects in Apple Final Cut Pro that create illegal video levels. This tutorial shows what they are, the problems they cause and how to fix them before final export.
[ Updated Aug. 22, 2022, with comments from Ed Cilley. ] Kristen Flynn asks: “How do people keep track of stock music? Where do they keep it? How do they access it for an edit? I feel like I have …
Last week, Adobe released a detailed Premiere Pro Workflow Guide for Episodic and Feature film Editing. This week, I spoke with Morgan Prygrocki, at Adobe, about typical mistakes video editors make and how this Guide can help.
The reason we use effects is to help us tell our story more effectively. While creating effects can take more time than we expect, the results, when effects are chosen wisely, can be amazing. Here are a baker’s dozen of little-known effects in Apple Final Cut Pro.
One of the smaller changes in the June update to Premiere Pro is also one that can save you a bunch of time: Adobe revised Copy/Paste. Here’s what you need to know.
The CalDigit Thunderbolt Station 4 (TS4): More ports and more speed in one small box with a great price. However, there are a few key issues you need to understand before you buy. Here’s my detailed review.
One of our favorite – and most wide-ranging – sessions returns with “Ask Larry Anything!” Presented by Larry Jordan, this is a free-form conversation based on questions submitted by viewers. In this short video, Larry has a conversation about computer performance in the real-world, specifically for video editing.
One of our favorite – and most wide-ranging – sessions returns with “Ask Larry Anything!” Presented by Larry Jordan, this is a free-form conversation based on questions submitted by viewers. In this short video, Larry talks about Mac obsolescence and whether the new Apple silicon computers make older systems obsolete.
One of our favorite – and most wide-ranging – sessions returns with “Ask Larry Anything!” Presented by Larry Jordan, this is a free-form conversation based on questions submitted by viewers. In this short video, Larry answers Simone’s question about scanning photographs for digital video.
The TourBox is a small control surface for just about any Windows or Mac application – with a special emphasis on media creation and editing. It is well-built with a very well-designed software interface. There’s only one small problem…
Larry Jordan shows how to optimize preference settings for Adobe Premiere Pro 2022. Feel free to share your personal choices in the comments.
The Apple silicon version of Premiere does not support AAF export – yet. But the Intel version does. Here’s the workaround to get AAF export working in both versions of Premiere.
This built-in Mac utility is fast, easy-to-use and always available. When you need to rename files in a hurry, this is a good trick to know.
There’s an old axiom for everyone who works in video, “Editing is all about work arounds.” Carleton Cole presents a workaround for editing Microsoft Teams videos when the images randomly shift position.
Integrating vertical video into a horizontal video timeline is increasingly common. Here’s an illustrated tutorial on how to do it using both Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro.
