What are the best editing programs?

Editing software shouldn’t cost you both arms and legs

So you want to edit your video? Once upon a time, editing was the domain of production houses and TV stations. Today, apps can edit your content for you, but they are limited in what they offer the end user in the ways of changing, well, anything. If you’re after a solution that does it all for you, we recommend a visit to the app store, but if you’re interested in the best production software on the market, read on;

Not so long ago, Apple’s Final Cut Pro was the dominant editing software of the industry, but most notably at consumer level; it was cheaper than Avid and Media 100 (it didn’t need expensive hardware to drive it), the interface was formulated from well-known competitor software and worked on Macs, which are really solid editing computers!

Then one day, Apple dropped it in favour for Final Cut X. FCX was nothing like its predecessor, it was more akin to iMovie, the once-bundled software that came free with every new Mac. X doesn’t interface with any previous versions of FCP, so you would have had to start all over again… new project file formats, export permissions, user and compression settings not to mention the ‘prosumer’ workflow… it’s so easy to see why production companies and editors hate it.

We produced about 5 x small–medium video projects a week. We have three edit suites in our workflow: 2 x Mac Pros for editing processing and RAID and a offline laptop.  Whilst real time file sharing across the stations would be great, we set different tasks to each system in the workflow. Generally two editing separate projects and one compressing and/or uploading.

Here’s our tips

iMovie: we’re not going to lie to you – this is the simplest, entry-level editing software on the market. BUT its crash-tastic. Don’t buy – try and torrent it!

Final Cut Pro X If you’ve never edited before we recommend X. Its an expensive version of Apple’s free iMovie (does it event work?) and to get it to work anything like a professional interface requires extra app plug-ins. Plug ins made by third parties? That why FCP 7 was stable and reliable because it was tested and released by one manufacturer. The only positive of X is that it can be installed on multiple computers. Cost $319.99

Adobe Premier is bundled in Adobe’s ‘creative cloud’ and costs $49.99 per month. It can be installed on multiple computers or operating systems (yay!) has a powerful keying tool and offers a massive effects palette, which interfaces with Adobe’s entire product stable. No more ‘file not recognized’ and it’s worth buying it just for that!

We love AVID. I learned to edit on it. It’s powerful, intuitive, as complex and as easy as you need it to be, but can you justify the cost? AVID lets the regular production house down with its slow and clunky interface which only AVID hardware can remedy. And the more expensive the hardware the harder it works. Today’s powerful computers don’t need the extra hardware acceleration, FCP7 and Apple computers proved that. Perhaps when AVID finally drops it Scientology-style approach to its products it will be worth buying. Cost: AVID media composer $2500, between15k- $25k for right hardware.

The verdict

Both X and Premiere can be installed on multiple computers but for real-time editing its go to be AVID.

There are countless other editing programs, but if its simplicity you want, don’t look past YouTube’s ‘enhancements’ editing feature. You get the timeline, effects and all the functions of X…and it’s free.

If you ever need any editing tips or tricks get in touch!