Tuesday, March 17, 2009 at 3:14 PM |  

What are some of the critical settings within Avid Xpress or Media Composer that you should be aware of?

There are many different settings within the Avid software. At last count there are roughly 40 different categories of settings within Avid Media Composer, and that doesn't count all the various settings within each category.

We've compiled a list of common 'critical settings' that you might want to check before launching the software.

Audio Settings: A common mistake among amateur editors is to double up audio tracks in order to get sound from their left and right speakers. It is recommended that you work with all tracks centered, therefore saving valuable timeline space.


Import Setting: It is recommended that you turn off the 'autodetect sequential file' option. Otherwise if you import an image that has a number after it, the Avid will only import one frame. Since digital photo cameras always place numbers after picture files, the Avid would mistake a single image as part of an image sequence.

It is also recommend that you click on invert existing alpha for importing graphics that contain an alpha channel.

General Settings: Use this setting to configure the default starting timecode for new sequence. This is particular useful for Avid Xpress users who do not want the default starting timecode value to reset to 00:00:30:00 each time they start a new sequence


Keyboard: Don't forget to customize and configure your keyboard.
There are a couple of critical editing functions you might want to map to your keyboard layout.



The keyboard can be mapped by navigating to th

e Tools-Command Palette menu. You can then drag the appropriate editing functions to re-map your keyboard.

Marquee Settings: If you are used to the traditional Avid Title tool, or if you simply need basic titling capabilities, it is important that you modify the Marquee Title tool setting so the appropriate title tool launches when you go to create titles.

Media Creation: It is not recommended that you record media to your internal hard-drive. Within the media creation settings, you have the option to filter out your internal hard-drive would will prohibit media being recorded to it accidentally.


Render Settings: For most motion effects, it is recommended that you use the 'interpolated field' method, which will normally produce superior results over the default method of using duplicate field rendering.


Timeline Settings: Within the timeline settings box, I recommend activating the auto-patching and segment drag sync locks option. Turn off auto-monitoring and the default Snap-to-Edit functions.


Site settings: The avid site settings file can be found by navigating to the file menu and selecting 'open setting file'. You can drag important settings such as the default timecode start time for new sequences.

The Avid site settings can be found by navigating to the file menu and selecting 'open setting file'. Find your way to the Avid programs folder on your internal hard drive and look inside the settings folder. You should be able to find site_settings.avs.

*It is important that the Project window is the active window and that you are parked on the settings tab. Otherwise, the 'open setting file' option from the File menu will not be an option.


When you're finished dragging your settings into the site setting folder, make sure you save your changes by navigating to the file menu and selecting the save site-settings menu as shown above.
Posted by AvidMediaComposer

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

im very exited.this is so useful information.Thank you.....
Sykam srinu

March 17, 2009 at 5:31 PM  
Anonymous said...

hi

i think this is your first blog
i can give sugistion for you you can put some more information in this site like information about avid softwares and avid tool.

March 17, 2009 at 5:41 PM  
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