Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/710451
www.postmagazine.com 55 POST JULY 2016 64 AUDIO TRACKS Well, sort of. It gets a little confus- ing. There are 64 mono tracks, or ten 5.1 tracks plus four mono tracks, which equals 64, or eight 7.1 tracks, which equals 64 voices. (Sorry, I was terrible at math). But a lot more than we had. CUSTOM COLUMNS Creating your own columns in bins has always been available, but it was kind of hit-or-miss, and not highly known. This new convention allows easy creation of multiple columns and conveniently places them to the right of any highlighted col- umn (not randomly, as before). INTERFACE OPTIONS Another welcome change, especially for older editors, is in the interface dis- play in the project window. In addition to changing project window, bin and timeline colors, you can now override all bin and project fonts and font sizes universally with one click. Better late than never. Even the effects palette has been transformed a bit. Finally, transitions have their own home, and audio filters are now easily accessible from the pal- ette. All effects can be displayed on the right side panel. Any effects templates you create will also display there as long as that bin is open. AUDIO MIXER OPTIONS The audio mixer has also received some surgery. Meme jokes about the billboard-sized panel can't be made any more since it's now easy to down- size both tracks and controls. (But it still can't be variably resized with the mouse; something often requested.) These are the major changes and features. There are many more. WISH LIST Anyone who's been on MC for even a few years knows that while it's a stable, solid and dependable workhorse, there are cracks in its decades-old struc- ture that still haven't been addressed, despite 8.5.2's many new features and updates. This begs the question: why not address well-known, long-standing deficits before adding new whiz-bang features? Avid hasn't touched the Title Tool since the mid-'90s (you still can't even see fonts in the drop-down) and there's still no background saving even after 20 years of requests. You still can- not match frame to effects without re- sorting to an arcane console command, loading a sequence into the source monitor requires dragging, there's no audio dupe detection, error messages are still indecipherable, auto-saving locked bins stops everything, requir- ing mouse clicks and, the elephant in the room, is the loss of Scriptsync and Phrasefind. How could Avid let that happen? There are too many more to mention. Let's fix what's broken before adding the new. FINAL THOUGHTS Once you get past some of the reorganization and implementations learning curve, there's a lot in 8.5.2 to speed up editing. Contextual shortcuts for settings and effects, new memory utilization, greater flexibility in handling new formats, even ways of looking at the interface, all make this version more efficient and definitely faster. I don't hesitate to recommend this upgrade. In the bigger picture, Media Composer's future viability depends not on just "catching up" with the competi- tion, but superceding it with innovation and creativity. MC still lacks "suite-abili- ty," being able to talk to other programs with the same flexibility as the competi- tion. The "broadcast" paradigm Avid has been basing Media Composer's whole existence on is dying, and the company seems to be going in other directions, leaving MC something of an orphan. Avid can't continue to rely on its installed base in the broadcast and film markets, it has to reinvent itself or find a buy- er willing to reinvest and retool Media Composer without killing its formida- ble strengths. (It still reigns in media management and stability.) I hope that happens soon, because we're running out of time. [Editor's note: Visit the Post Website for Jonathan's notes on the newly- released V.8.6 of MC.] Media Composer 8.5.2 has many new features, including the ability to view all effects (far left) and set cache allocation (below). VITAL STATS MANUFACTURER: Avid PRODUCT: Media Composer 8.5.2 PRICE: $1,299 perpetual license with annual upgrade plan ($34.97 monthly subscription w/three-year agreement) WEBSITE: www.avid.com • New Timeline Mode allows more efficiency in editing • 64 tracks of audio • New grouping by audio waveform syncs clips