Which software would you recommend for learning?

[Pro7913]

I gotta learn something new from the video world by start learning how to use the software completely. Well, I'm having a dilemma because of each software that I checked before.

Premiere Pro seems to be an industry standard and a lot of people are using it but Mac is not optimized for PP and when I tried it, it's really slow...

FCPX could be the best choice cause it is for Mac.

Davinci Resolve is also nice especially for color grading which I wish to learn.



You see, I can't buy all of them just for video editing. What would you recommend to build video-related skills and knowledge? I probably gonna use both GoPro MAX and none cinema camera.

 

[ColdCase]

Not sure where you conclude Premier is the industry standard, as that depends on the industry.

Its probably best to start learning on the package you intend to use down the line and works well on your platform.

 

[e1me5]

Clearly all of them have pros and cons.

- Premier is widely adapted but many editors have issues with its stability and general performance. It also part the Adobe Suit so it can communicate seamlessly with other apps like After effects. Its only subscription paid so you have to shell out some $ every month in order to use it.

- Resolve has a free version but it has virtually 0 limitations unless you plan to export high resolutions (above 4k) or stereoscopic video and use 3rd party plugins. It is one of the colouring software used in Hollywood ( but not this vanilla version, Hollywood uses highly modified versions) but it still it has plenty of power. Downsides are, it is a really hard to master editor and you have to have deep technical understanding at least for the colouring part in order to get the correct output and it also requires powerfull hardware in order to run without issues. Also sometimes it becomes unstable and crashes without warning. Paid version is around 300$ and you get updates for free. You can input projects from either FCPX or Premier to it for colouring as well so you can use it together with other software.

- FCPX is natively written for macOS. It utilises all the available power from your hardware, so even a less powerful mac can easily run it and get a lot of performance out of it and even play with 4K files without hiccups. Super stable as well. The only "downside" ( for some people, usually seasoned editors) is the interface with the magnetic timeline that takes some time to get used to. But when you master it, you can see that is a really fast app, both performance and usability wise. Price is around 300$ with free updates. You can download a free 1 month trial with some limitations in output for Apple's website.

Avid Media Composer is also a very good editing software, and its the one considered "the industry standard" at least in Hollywood, but it is super expensive and not worth it.

I personally use FCPX. I find it super fast and super reliable. Sometimes I send projects to resolve for colouring but after the last few updates of FCPX with the improved color tools I do everything in it.
Other people use the apps tailored to their needs. I suggest to try them all and see how you handle them and how you computer handles them. You don't want to loose time either from crashes or low performance.

 

[kohlson]

I use FCPX. There's a one-time charge of $300, and seemingly updates for life after that. It is highly optimized for Mac OS X. For example, when editing or exporting, it makes use of all the hardware resources it can. On my late-2013 MBP, you can see it using both the iGPU and the dGPU and the CPU when doing work. It works pretty well. There are lots of training books available, and some good tutorials on YT.

I have started learning Resolve. You can get both free and fee versions in the App Store (easier to update). You'll need a system with a relatively recent GPU. For example, my 2009 Mac Pro with a GT-120 was incapable of running Resolve. With a 580 it flies. YT tutorials are available, and BMD also produces nice tutorials.

Many have said it before in these forums, but worth saying again. All these NLEs are just tools. For the most part, they all work fine on a Mac. They do have different approaches and do some things better than others. While Resolve does seem to work nicely on color, both Adobe and FCPX have pretty competent tools. How you apply/match color to your work, once understood, is easily taken to other NLEs. I wouldn't get too crazy about magnetic timelines - you can turn this feature on in Resolve and disable in FCPX.