[ Here’s a link to my recent webinar on how to “Get Started Editing in DaVinci Resolve 19.” ]
Over the last three week’s, I’ve been studying DaVinci Resolve intensively in preparation for presenting a series of webinars on it. But teaching isn’t the same as editing. So, for the last three days I edited my weekly webinar in Resolve. This is the first time I’ve used it in years.
Here are the highlights of what I learned.
THREE KEY CONCEPTS
Key Concept 1
The basics of editing audio and video are the same, whether you use Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve.
In other words, while the interfaces are different, the basics of editing – import, review, edit, trim, add titles, add effects, mix audio, adjust color, export – are the same. This means much of what you already know makes it easier to learn new software.
Key Concept 2
All three NLEs (Non-Linear Editors) deliver the highest-possible audio and video quality. Changing software does not require quality trade-offs.
Key Concept 3
Just as a carpenter needs multiple tools to build a house, so, too, editors benefit from using different tools to get their work done efficiently.
That being said, if the tools you know allow you to get your work done on time, on budget and to the satisfaction of you and your clients, there is no pressing need to learn new tools.
MY REACTIONS TO DAVINCI RESOLVE
It normally takes me 4-6 hours to edit one of my webinars in Final Cut Pro. The audio mix generally takes 2-3 hours more. This week, it took me about ten hours in Resolve before getting to the audio mix. Most of that extra time was spent reading the manual to figure out how to do what I wanted to do.
I expect the next project I edit in Resolve will be closer to what I can do in Final Cut.
Import
Once I realized that the “Media Pool” is simply a name for the Browser in Final Cut or Project panel in Premiere, we got along just fine. I really appreciate the Media Page’s ability to show clips I have access to without needing to import them first. It reminded me of Kyno’s “drill down” option.
Review and Marking Clips
Skimming clips is enabled by default. Setting Ins and Outs is the same as everywhere (I and O). The Viewer previews whatever you have selected. The process is totally comfortable.
There are no default shortcuts to jump to the In or Out. Also, you can’t change the In or Out by dragging the white vertical line (as you can in Final Cut), and I haven’t found a way to easily preview waveforms, even when the appropriate setting is enabled.
Editing
There are more editing shortcuts in Resolve than in Premiere (four vs. two), but nothing like Final Cut’s append to the end of the timeline shortcut.
I missed Final Cut’s magnetic timeline, as the Edit page in Resolve emulates Premiere-style editing. (The Cut page provides a magnetic timeline, but the Edit page has more flexibility and control.)
I like the keyboard shortcut (F12) that puts clips on higher tracks. No patching, no overwriting existing clips. Very fast and worked great. Premiere needs this.
It took me a LONG time to stop pressing the Shift key when scrolling the timeline. Shift expands clips vertically, scrolling by itself moves the timeline horizontally. I was continually tripping over my own inability to stop pushing Shift.
There seems to be no easy way, using a mouse and scroll wheel, to move vertically in the timeline in either the Edit or Fairlight pages; for example to see tracks above or below the current view. The manual says there should be, but I can’t get it to work.
The overall process of editing is the same in all three NLEs. Set an In, set an Out, edit to timeline, repeat.
To delete a selected clip and close the gap, type Shift + Delete. Otherwise, like in Premiere, you end up with a lot of gaps in the timeline.
Trimming
There are three trimming tools and you select them manually. Final Cut and Premiere provide better dynamic switching between trimming tools, but it only took a couple of minutes to get used to Resolve’s approach.
I found myself using two trimming tools (Arrow and Trim) and they both worked fine. (I’m not a fan of real-time trimming, which Resolve supports, though I can see how useful it would be when editing drama or action.)
I really like that I can move the playhead, select the edit point, select which side of the edit point, and move the edit point all using keyboard shortcuts. I also really like how Resolve highlight the selected edit point in green.
Or, I can trim with the mouse. The trick is to select the right trimming tool to avoid leaving gaps.
Titles, Transitions, Effects
Far too often, titles are designed for ten-year-olds – animated, flashy and ugly. Final Cut is guilty of this. Fairlight suffers from this, somewhat, as well. Premiere mostly defers everything to After Effects.
However, there are some lovely animated lower-thirds in Resolve that are easy to apply, with a lot of formatting capability that doesn’t involve opening Fusion at all. I enjoyed using these titles. While I couldn’t find an easy way to save a title template, it was easy enough to use copy/paste in the timeline to use an existing title in the timeline as a de facto template.
Effects, like scale, position, rotation, are as accessible in the Resolve Inspector as they are in Final Cut and Premiere – and achieve the same results. I’m still getting used to what the numbers mean in the settings, for example, how to set an image to 35% size. But, that’s not a show-stopper.
Audio
The audio mixing capability of Fairlight is amazing, but there is a missing feature and a bug that prevented me from doing the mix in Fairlight.
First, the missing feature. Unlike Adobe Audition, there’s no way to lock a clip so it doesn’t shift position horizontally. Shifting horizontally knocks a clip out of sync with the video.
I contacted tech support at Blackmagic and confirmed this feature doesn’t exist. They have added it to their feature request list.
While editing without a horizontal lock makes me nervous, I could do it. Then I hit the bug.
I SHOULD be able to select a click or pop and delete it. However, sometime recently, the ability to select audio in segments shorter than a frame broke. I can select a region, but I can’t delete it. After a discussion with Resolve support, they told me this feature USED to work and they submitted a bug report to get this fixed asap.
While I am totally comfortable finding and reporting bugs, I still had a deadline to get this webinar edited.
So, what I did was export an FCP 7 XML file out of Resolve, imported it into Audition, did the audio cleanup and mix, then exported the mix as a stereo WAV file. I imported this WAV file back into the Edit page.
Everything synced up perfectly. Ideally, I should be able to do the mix in Fairlight, but, until this selection bug gets fixed, I have a perfect workaround that only adds about ten minutes of time to the audio clean-up and mixing process.
Color
DaVinci Resolve is justifiably renowned for its control over color. My understanding of video scopes and the color wheels is enough to fix minor problems. I’m also totally confident that Resolve can do far more with color than I will ever need.
I look forward to exploring this page in the future.
Export
Now that my webinar was edited, mixed and color-corrected, it was time export the finished movie. Here I hit my other roadblock.
All my media was recorded and edited as ProRes 4444. I always export a ProRes 4444 master file from which I create compressed files for posting.
However, the first three times I began a ProRes 4444 export, the export failed, saying one of the clips wasn’t online. (This occurred about 3% into the export.)
Hmm… not good.
Then, since I knew that all my clips were online, I simply played the first five minutes of the project. Everything played fine.
This apparently reassured Resolve that everything was copacetic and the master file exported perfectly. I have no idea why this error happened.
Idle Trivia
I measured the export speed and Resolve exports faster than Premiere, but slower than Final Cut. When exporting to an SSD RAID, Premiere exports around 900 MB/second, Resolve was between 900 – 1500 MB/second, while FCP generally exports similar projects between 1.2 and 2.0 GB/second.
If you are exporting to a hard disk or HDD RAID, all three will export at essentially the same speed.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
I still have a lot to learn about Resolve, but, even after this short a period of time, I’m able to get productive work done and, as I learn more about the application, I’ll spend far less time reading the manual.
With the exception of Fairlight, I was able to do everything with this edit that I wanted to do – Resolve didn’t hold me back.
It took far more energy than it should to convince myself to really learn Resolve. Inertia truly prevents growth. But, for me, the effort was worthwhile.
I’m already working on two new webinars: the first covering multicam editing and the second exploring audio mixing in depth. Once this selection bug gets fixed, I’m really looking forward to exploring Fairlight mixing in depth. Just in reading the manual it can do amazing things.
Overall, this was a good way to spend two weeks.
21 Responses to What I Learned Editing in DaVinci Resolve 19
Larry,
I left FCP7 like many when they changed their entire interface. I initially went to Premiere and was happy, but left that when Resolve became ma full featured workstation. Unlike your initial impressions, I find the whole Resolve ecosystem way more intuitive easy to work with, and in the end, more capable (just my impressions).
Yes, Fusion, Color and Fairlight can be a bit much, but they are easy to get going in and depending on what you need, there is nothing, in my opinion, more full featured.
Every editor or audio mixer I introduce to Resolve, so far, says, “Yes, in in.” and dives in.
Larry, I’m glad to see you are adding Resolve to your Final Cut and Premiere teaching, and like you said in your initial review, we all may have a go to workstation, but we all should know to some extent the others as well.
Lou 🙂
Lou Hemsey Music and Film
Appreciate the thoughtful actionable review Larry. Great idea to use your practical project as the backbone.
As a long form doc editor – features and episodic tv – like you, I find all 3 of the NLEs solid for basic stuff. I’m looking forward to your Multicam tutorialto see how Resolve handles those finicky/complicated parts of the process.
Graham:
Nothing like actually editing something that needs to be done to separate hype from reality. Aside from some problems with Fairlight, Resolve itself worked great.
As for multicam, I’ve played with it in the past, so I’m looking forward to getting into it in depth over the next week.
Larry
I understand that Resolve also has a separate editing interface for more simplistic cutting, for things like news reports, and would love to know more about using that.
I know you said you weren’t interested in teaching Fusion, but I would love to see you interview someone who uses Fusion, AfterEffects, and Apple Motion, to do some comparisons between the three tools, describing what the relative strengths are. Personally I feel the same way about AfterEffects that you seem to about Fusion. But we gotta get over our technical prejudices at some point, and knowledge is the key.
Mark:
Yup, the Cut page – which I covered here – is that simpler interface. I’ll get to it in version 19 “at some point….”
Funny you mention a interview – I’m looking into exactly that for Fusion in the near future.
Larry
Great to see you diving deeper into DaVinci. Like all NLEs it has its pros and cons. At BMD’s NAB announcement their CEO mentioned they will work on improving the Cut page. My hope is that they make it as close to FCPX and/or CapCut as possible. If they do that, we will probably make the full switch. FCPX’s magnetic timeline is so fast on certain kinds of projects. Requiring way less clicks, drags, etc. DaVinci Resolve reminds me a lot like Final Cut Studio but it still has a way to go in polishing tools like multicam editing (ironic with their ATEM line), Fairlight (also ironic because of the control surfaces they sell), Cut, and possibly Fusion (I am no expert in VFX/compositing – though I hear Fusion is a good foray into Nuke and last I heard Corridor Digital uses it instead of After Effects).
Jeff:
Good comments. You are correct, there’s no “perfect” NLE – but it is always good to have choices and competition. I’m looking forward to learning more about Resolve.
Larry
my choice of NLE was usually made for me as a freelance editor on what the client required ;). ( usually AVID media composer or more recently Premiere, which I used for my own videos to learn)
Now “retired “I do no longer want to pay the subscriptions for all of the edit systems on my own computers, for the odd job.
I “gave up” on FCP after FCP7, as few of my clients used it.
I have now decided to learn and use Resolve, as it provides everything I want in one box, I have bought the studio version, but it has the advantage of being non subscription.
In regards to moving vertically in the timeline…if I understand you correctly…you are trying to move upwards or downwards to adjacent video or audio tracks in DaVinci. I am able to that with the wheel on my mouse…you may need to have the cursor over the timeline area for it to function…but I use this all the time when editing.
Michael:
Interesting. When I do that I only move side to side. No amount of scrolling, mouse position or modifier key allows me to move vertically.
Larry
Hi Larry,
If you go to da Vinci settings, under user> UI settings, there should be a box to check that says, “2D timeline scrolling”. With this selection, I think you should be able to stroll vertically with video and audio tracks, at least it works for me.
Thanks,
Jeffrey.
Jeffrey:
I appreciate your comment. However, I did some further research.
2D Preference UNCHECKED
* Scroll wheel scrolls horizontally
* Control + Scroll wheel scrolls vertically
* Option + Scroll wheel zooms into or out of the timeline
2D Preference CHECKED
* Scroll wheel scrolls vertically
* Cmd + Scroll wheel scrolls horizontally
* Option + Scroll wheel zooms into or out of the timeline
Thanks! Now I know what that preference option does.
Larry
Thanks for this write up Larry. Looking forward to more. One of things I’d like your take on is the use of roles vs. tracks. That’s still something that is such a killer feature in FCP both during the editing process and exporting. Multicam is also something I still prefer in FCP. think Resolve has better setup of multicam clips being that FCP can’t batch sync (I tend to use Sync N Link anyway) but it’s multicam performance is less clunky. I enjoy the Resolve experience a lot for very specific things, but it also reveals just how superb of a creative product Apple created at least from a workflow and performance perspective. I also like how resolve shows the user the frames it’s working on during export.
Tangier:
I love Roles for the control they provide – especially for exporting. But I HATE!! them for audio mixing. There’s no bus structure, we can’t apply effects to a role, and, in general, they are a mess.
I’m looking forward to exploring multicam in Resolve in depth. I agree, for me, multicam in FCP is the state of the art. On export, Resolve emulates Adobe Media Encoder. Both show frames.
Larry
something I miss in AVID, seeing the output file as you render, saved manay hours, by showing “mistakes” when I could then stop fix and try again 😉
Hi Larry,
Your attempt to DaVinci remind me mine years ago.
I worked in all BIG three, plus FCP Studio, as well as Avid, and a few others, and recently I even tested CupCut for my students (it surprised me positively). When FCPX was released, it lacked many functions I needed – I was cooworking with a sound studio regularly and that was the problem. But after a year, the FCPX had almost everything I needed and that’s when I bought it. And to this day I am impressed by what Apple engineers did (in terms of editing, not file structure :). FCPX is most similar to manual assembly, on the editing table, for me it is incredibly intuitive, fast and allows me to concentrate more on creating and less on monitoring technical nuances (which I have never had any problems with). For now, I see no reason to switch to another NLE. I also edited a full-length feature film in FCPX with ease. Including color and sound processing (yes, FCPX is reach in great audio processing functions). I don’t really understand the complaints about the weakness of FCPX in these areas, I think they result from ignorance of the functions and the capabilities of this software. And they are gigantic.
Of course, we can complain about imperfections or shortcomings, but they are everywhere, and a software dedicated to audio processing will always be better than any video NLE.
My adventure with DaVinci ended when it turned out that the exported image was different from the one I set – it was brighter from what I remember (hardly anyone noticed it). I had to correct it in another NLE, which made me abandon DaVinci for good (I don’t know if this problem still exists), even though the color processing was and is more advanced in it than in FCPX. But if you get your footage right, there’s not much to fix. Additionally, ubiquitous LUTs provide virtually unlimited possibilities for fast color grading. I think DaVinci owes its popularity mainly to the fact that it is free and yet powerful in color grading. If I were to use it, it would only be for color processing. Almost everything else is better solved in FCPX for me. But these are my personal preferences, everyone has their own 🙂
Kris:
Thanks for your comments. While I disagree with you on audio processing and mixing in FCPX, I agree with the rest of your FCP X comments.
It is puzzling to me that Resolve – which prides itself on color science and image quality – would have problems with image export. Hopefully, that problem has been fixed.
Larry
I have been using Resolve for color since 2009 and as our primary NLT since 2015. Resolve is far from perfect but then any bit of software that is as complext as an NLE is going to have issues – It’s the nature of the beast.
I remember when you were interviewing someone from BMD at NAB and they mentioned that Resolve was an NLE and you objected and said it was not but the BMD rep insisted 🙂
Welcome to the dark side, Larry 🙂
Mike:
Smile… if you are using Resolve for color, it’s gotta handle more than just the shadows… So, I prefer to think of it as an unexplored country.
Thanks for your comments.
Larry
Thank you, Larry, for this extensive review of Resolve. I recently began learning this NLE to round out my toolbox. Like you, I know Final Cut and Premiere best but I thought it might be important to add Resolve, as I’ve been told it’s preferred for feature film editing in my region.
For my next short form edits I’m going to mix it up. Premiere for a couple client edits, Final Cut for a fun IG edit, and then Resolve for a short video for my website. I’d like to be as comfortable with Resolve as I am with the other two.
Thanks for helping me get there!
Gayle:
Thanks for your comment. I think the key benefit to learning new tools is discovering the differences between the tools you use. For instance, multicam in FCP is superior to multicam in Premiere or Resolve. Yet audio mixing in Resolve is better than Premiere, and significantly better than FCP. Premiere’s integration with other Adobe tools is better than the other two. Understanding these differences allows you to pick the right tool for the job.
Yeah, it takes energy to learn something new. But, often, that learning unexpected dividends.
Larry