editting software recommendation?

K

K-Man

Hi! I just bought a Canon HV30, hoping to shoot my first real HDD film. Can anyone recommend an affordable and versatile software for moving the video to the computer and editting it? I hope to be able to dub sound in places, and insert some text, like titles, credits, and import music files. I assume such software would have to include a data cable to connect the camcorder to the pc.

Also, my camcorder has an external MIC jack, and I bought a MIC at Best Buy, forgot the name (I am at work right now), and it does not say if it is stereo or mono, and I am not sure how to find out. It was $50. The wire is only 8 inches, and I planned to splice extra wire on it, to be able to use a boom. Is that stupid?

Thanks! I am new here, and so far am very grateful for the knowledge and tips.
 
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Your microphone is probably mono, but that really doesn't matter. You can add an extension to your mic cable, but don't do any longer than you need to, because the cable will act like an antenna. The longer the cable, the more electrical noise (usually a 60 Hz hum) it will pick up. Keep the cable as short as possible, and keep it away from noisy equipment.

If/when you want to spend some more money on audio, buy an XLR adaptor that will send it's output to your camera through that 1/8" minijack and will accept inputs form balanced microphones. You will not have to struggle with short cables or electrical noise, that way.

Don't forget, the audio quality is more important than the image quality!

Doug
 
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oakstreetphotovideo said:
Your microphone is probably mono, but that really doesn't matter. You can add an extension to your mic cable, but don't do any longer than you need to, because the cable will act like an antenna. The longer the cable, the more electrical noise (usually a 60 Hz hum) it will pick up. Keep the cable as short as possible, and keep it away from noisy equipment.

If/when you want to spend some more money on audio, buy an XLR adaptor that will send it's output to your camera through that 1/8" minijack and will accept inputs form balanced microphones. You will not have to struggle with short cables or electrical noise, that way.

Don't forget, the audio quality is more important than the image quality!

Doug
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Thanks, Doug!! I will look into the balanced XLR item!

Nick
 
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Either Sony Vegas or Adobe Premiere for the PC

Vegas is cheaper but most people go for Premiere. Don't disregard Vegas though, because more and more production companies are using it... including the BBC for Top Gear.
 
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The great thing about Vegas is that it initially started its life as a multi track audio editor, so all of that functionality is still there -- it's really the only NLE that truly is fully set up for doing your sound mix. Sure you can do a basic mix in any NLE, but Vegas has many more tools better suited to the job than others.

Though, even with that being the case, I use premiere.
 
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I like what I am seeing here about Vegas, and the price is looking attractive. I just want to be clear, I have a Canon HV30, and this Vegas software is from Sony (?). Am I okay to use a Canon with this?

Thanks again. You guys are a great help.
Nick
 
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I say do FCP if you have a mac. I recently have worked on a few independent projects in HD as well as I helped cut the show BOONDOCKS which is a cartoon. I have say FCP has the best software to handle everything from small jobs to the BIG ONES like HD FILM. Support your fellow indie maker and buy Boondocks Season 2 DVDS. The residuals are all I make money on these days.
 
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indiegod2012 said:
I say do FCP if you have a mac. I recently have worked on a few independent projects in HD as well as I helped cut the show BOONDOCKS which is a cartoon. I have say FCP has the best software to handle everything from small jobs to the BIG ONES like HD FILM. Support your fellow indie maker and buy Boondocks Season 2 DVDS. The residuals are all I make money on these days.
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He said he has a PC. ;)
 
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I ordered a copy of Vegas Platinum, which supports HD, and I am excited to receive it and check it out. I appreciated the pointers and wisdom that I got from these responses.

Nick
 
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I prefer premiere as well, but given the budget it would have been a bit of a stretch, because getting premiere by itself is pointless, since it's best used with the rest of the production suite.
 
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I've used Premiere for ages now and am very comfortable with it, so I prefer that. Sadly I had to get away from it when I got my SR11 as amazingly enough Premiere didn't support AVCHD. That left me looking about frantically for options and I tried Pinnacle Studio which was ok, but felt rather "family video" oriented somehow and Sony Vegas. Vegas worked ok with the avchd format, but since I was unfamiliar with it it just never clicked with me.

Happy to say Premiere Pro CS4 supports AVCHD, and the nvidia GPU acceleration is great. It even recognizes my SR11 allowing me to edit straight off the camera, which is even better.

I vote for Premiere Pro CS4.

EDIT: I just realized, budget may in fact play a role here of course... and Vegas may be a better option in that regard.
 
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I use Vegas as well and love it. I have Premiere, but don't use it. Compared to Vegas, Premiere appears to have a harder learning curve probably because I'm either too stupid, or too impatient to learn it. For the price range you're talking about there's Pinnacle Video Studio, ULead Studio, and Vegas Home Studio editions that are the most common affordable NLEs. I started with Pinnacle 7 and bought every upgrade through 11 Ultimate version until I came across Vegas. I hated using Pinnacle because it crashed many many times and took forever to render and was limited on controls and DVD menu options. With the amount of money I spent on each version upgrade in hopes they would improve the product, I could have just bought Vegas Pro, no kidding. Avid bought Pinnalce outt, and supposedly rebuilt the program from the bottom up. However, I'm not impressed. It still crashes and can't handle heavy tasks, and takes a lot longer for the program to even load up! ULead Video Studio is more reliable and easy to use and has a little better editing and DVD Menu options and effects, but doesn't offer all the effects and controls that Vegas does. I currently use Vegas Platinum for all of my projects and it does everything I need it to do, in fact I like it so much it makes me wonder what I would need the Pro version for- at least at this point in time. So, just food for though, I would only recommend Pinnacle to Al Qieda in hopes they would get frustrated, call the Pinnacle Support number, get even more frustrated by the lack of support, and would never be able to finish their video.....much like my experiences. :)
 
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id say get adobe premiere.... i have final cut studio 2 and adobe premiere,photoshop,after affects....and have used vegas.....my preferences in order:
Final Cut
Adobe
Sony Vegas

Adobe second because if you have the money the adobe suite can be very powerful with the rest of Adobes programs such as After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Soundbooth, Encore (blueray dvds) :)

get adobe premiere now and maybe when you save up some money you can get After Effects to make special effects or Photoshop to edit and import needed pictures to create effects.

There are also a handful of freeware video editing programs on the web that are, not comparable to adobe,vegas, or final cut; but get the job done and have some features that you wouldn't expect. so hey who knows maybe you wont even have to spend 200-500$ :)
 
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