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NLE alternatives to Premiere?
  • As Adobe is going fully into cloud I though it can be useful to ask.

    Let us know ones you know and like. How much is actual ownership cost, how stable are they?

    Variants suggested:

    Sony vegas Pro 12

    Prices from $340 for Edit version, $260 for student version

    Avid Media Composer 7

    Prices at about $795, $295 for student version

    Magix Video Pro X5

    Prices from $43 for older version up to $399 for latest, $149 in all top products pack for students/teachers

    Grassvalley Edius Pro 6.5

    Prices from $500, $160 for student version

    http://www.grassvalley.com/products/edius_pro_6.5

  • 50 Replies sorted by
  • Well I use Sony Vegas Pro. But it's just cut & paste, crossfades and sound.. if I'm going to do more serious work maybe I'll use 3rd application for sound. But for now Vegas does that also just fine for me.

    Very fast to use, workflows to DaVinci Resolve and After Effects works etc.. what else you can ask? I love it.

    Price currently seems to be $396.99. Version 12 hasn't crashed on my computer.

  • I use Vegas Pro as well, usually when a version is first released its a little buggy but gets more stable as upgrades are put out. Towards the end of a numbered version's life cycle it's rock solid.

    Vegas really shines when dealing with Audio.

    I'm thinking of having a play with Light Works, I've been waiting for a good Linux based NLE for awhile. Kind of annoying to keep a dual boot of Windows mainly for Vegas.

  • I use avid at work and at home - it's all I've known for many years. What's great about version 6+ is they've opened up the software to 3rd party hardware vendors. I have a Matrox MX02LE which lets me use a standard def broadcast crt monitor with an HD lcd monitor via hdmi simultaneously. So far, so good. I believe there may still be crossgrade offers for fcp users to migrate platforms to avid if they're interested.

  • @mrbill

    Only issue with Avid is that you do not know if they'll be here next year at all.

  • Avid, for offline. I've been using it for 19 years. AE for complex effects/keying And probably resolve.

    @vitaliy_kiselev, what makes you think avid might not survive?

  • what makes you think avid might not survive?

    They even refused to report last forms to public so bad it is, you can find topic in my blog some time ago.

    According to that complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District Of Massachusetts the plaintiff alleges that Avid Technology, Inc. violated the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. More specifically, the plaintiff claims that the defendants allegedly made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that Avid Technology, Inc. allegedly incorrectly accounted for its Software Updates by failing to properly treat the Software Updates as post-contract customer support under U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, that Avid Technology, Inc. allegedly lacked adequate internal and financial controls, and that Avid Technology, Inc. allegedly as a result of the foregoing, the Company's statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

    On February 25, 2013, Avid Technology, Inc. announced that it is postponing its fourth quarter 2012 earnings release and investor conference call, previously scheduled for Tuesday, February 26, 2013 to provide additional time for the Company to evaluate its current and historical accounting treatment related to bug fixes, upgrades and enhancements to certain products which the Company has provided to certain customers.

  • I use Vegas Pro as well but don't have anything to compare it to. Easy to learn, doesn't hang and runs fast on Win7. Plug-ins run efficiently. For audio I use Cubase with a RME Fireface interface on a separate computer.

  • Great topic and great advice guys. I'm in theworks switching fromFCP now.

  • I will go for Final Cut X, and try the new and free Lightworks.

  • I use CS5 but started with Avid. I still use Pinnacle studio 14 and Avid Studio. Both are fine for light to moderate work.

    The company itself and its support absolutely sucks though and I wouldn't be surprised to see them fold.

  • @Vitaliy_Kiselev Here's an article about Avid you might find interesting. http://www.philiphodgetts.com/2013/04/whats-the-truth-about-avids-financial-position/

    I've been using FCPX, mostly. $299 as most everyone knows. But the real cost is closer to $1300 when you add up all the plugins to get more pro support.

    My list of "helper" apps:

    • Compressor: $50

    • Motion: $50

    • Pro Versioner $60 (for backing up events and projects)

    • Event Manager X: $5 (a must for dealing with loads of events - hopefully Apple will institute better mgmt in software)

    • Xto7: $50 (hate X? send it to 7!)

    • 7toX: $10 (love X? send it from 7 to X!)

    • Sync-N-Link: $200 (replicates Avid functionality for syncing clips with jam synced audio)

    • SliceX with Mocha: $150 (great tracker and object remover)

    • Lock & Load: $100 (a much better image stabilizer)

    • X2Pro Audio Convert: $150 (export to AAF)

    • Pluraleyes: $200 (sync multiple clips with multiple tracks of non-timecoded audio to separate clips FCPX can't currently do that unless you make a multiclip).

    • Davinci Resolve Lite: Free

    Total for FCPX and helper Apps: $1325

    I know that not everyone doesn't need all these apps and plugins. Some of these duplicate features in FCPX (but do them better or different). These are the apps I recommend to people that are cutting anything for broadcast in X.

    Who knows what the upgrade costs to any of this will be. SliceX is pretty new, so probably no upgrade cost for a year or two. My guess is we could see an upgrade cost for FCPX later this year if 10.1 comes out. It's all over the place right now. If Apple starts charging for upgrades, most of the plugins will most likely follow suit.

    Right now, FCPX is pretty stable. It has lots of little bugs and strange behavior sometimes. But it rarely crashes. You definitely need a fast system with a beefy video card for this program to be responsive. And most people say that it's best for short form projects (which I agree with right now).

    I will be using Premiere CC when it comes out, too.

  • Pluraleyes: $200 (sync multiple clips with multiple tracks of non-timecoded audio to separate clips FCPX can't currently do that unless you make a multiclip).

    Btw, Magix Video Pro since X3 has such sync and multicam editing.

    Davinci Resolve Lite: Free

    Btw, since 10 they add functions of basic NLE. And it is still free for FullHD.

  • I run Premiere under CC as part of an annual plan at $50/month. Alternative apps may include investigating:

    Edius: http://www.grassvalley.com/products/nlesoftware

    Lightworks: http://www.lwks.com/

    I do not use these two editing apps, just mentioning them.

    Edit: As part of the topic outline, I understand that Edius is liked by it's user base and stable. As for Lightworks, there is a free version and a 1 year subscription Pro license for $60 per annum, providing more features.

  • I'm using CS6 as part of the student $20/month program. I know it's contentious, but from my math I come out ahead compared to buying the suite, at least if I were planning on upgrading every 2 years. Never have to worry about upgrading, either.

    The irony of using Vegas for video and something else for sound is that Vegas was originally a sound editing program that they tacked video onto later. I have Vegas (erm, Movie Studio Platinum 12) as well and for knocking stuff out quick and dirty with immediate output to DVD/whatever it's been great. It's only crashed on me once.

  • I started out with Vegas over ten years ago before they added video and the last version is still getting used even if I have CS6 Cloud edition. Warp stabilizer is much better than Vegas, but nothing beats how Vegas deals with tracks and master fx. I love CS6 media browsing though. Haven't got my head around nested sequences, but it should prove more effective in the long run. Audio-wise, Vegas wins hands down :-) CS6 has proven very stable, and since Vegas 12 I haven't had any crashes. Tough choice!

  • I wish I heard more about Lightworks, they're the most affordable by far of the main NLE editors out there. And now they have Linux as an option that is pretty exciting.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightworks

    http://www.lwks.com/

    (got a free version which is pretty functional to give it a go, and the full version for only $60/year)

  • I use Edius Pro. I find it to be very stable and fast. It's native intermediate codec is excellent. Most native effects will play back without rendering.
    http://www.grassvalley.com/products/edius_pro_6.5

  • Interesting topic could also be about alternatives of After Effects..

  • Grass Valley Edius is much more responsive on the time-line than PPro, and manages everything in real-time without the equivalent of the Mercury Engine. It works fine with cheap GPUs and without huge RAM requirements. And it's very stable.

    With slower systems you may need their HD Spark card for smooth real-time video preview on an HD monitor, but with a 3930K system, I get smooth real-time on both the computer monitor and the external HD, via the Geforce card, no dropped frames.

    It lacks the depth of filters available in Premiere, and there's much less third-party plugin support, but you do get the basics and Edius has an After Effects bridge which will work with some AE plugins.

  • @Kihlian

    Interesting topic could also be about alternatives of After Effects..

    Do you know some?

  • It is easier to find a substitution for NLE(Premiere). But the After Effects is the real problem to find alternatives for its extended and very complex features/abilities that have become standard by now. None that I know.

  • Just to say maybe there are some autodesk products that can fill the bill for After Effects replacements? Smoke is interesting- now if they would just port to Windows!

  • Has anyone used Magix? Observations?

  • Has anyone used Magix? Observations?

    It is very good software :-)
    Has some pluses and some minuses compared to competition, of course.

    Check http://pro.magix.com/en/video-pro-x/overview.275.html and try trial.

    Old X3 also has most features, except GPU/Intel acceleration and some new stuff.

  • Timely topic, thank you. I used Sony Vegas before - fast, simple and easy.