Larry Jordan's Newsletter

June 13, 2022

Well, the dust has started to settle from the WWDC keynote last Monday. The first big take-away, from a media creation and editing point of view, was the announcement of macOS Ventura. Shipping this fall, it doesn't offer any new features that apply directly to media, but the overall OS improvements should benefit all of us in our daily work.

The second big news item was the announcement of the latest SoC chip from Apple: The M2. Its first release will be in the MacBook Air and a new, smaller 13" MacBook Pro. While this new chip is newsworthy and Apple has worked very hard to deliver it, I don't think this makes much difference to media creators. That thought is the basis of my lead story this week:

Link: Apple Introduces the M2 SoC - and What It Means

In other news:

FocusRite won "Best of Show" at NAMM for Vocaster One and Two. Vocaster One is ideal for the solo podcaster, giving them high-quality sound with confidence & ease. Vocaster Two features two mic inputs and two headphones outputs for recording and listening. It's ideal for two people recording in the same room.

Link: https://focusrite.com/en/vocaster

Creamsource introduced LNX (pronounced Lynx), an entirely new rigging system for its Vortex series LED fixtures. Designed to bring consistency and cohesiveness to a historically disordered aspect of lighting, LNX simplifies rigging and cabling with a series of purpose-built clamps and pins for the Vortex Series.

Link: https://creamsource.com/product/lnx/

Wave announced Cloud MX Audio Mixer, a 100% cloud-based audio mixer with superior sound quality for cloud broadcast environments. Cloud MX Audio Mixer delivers pristine audio, high-precision mix control, and creative processing capabilities with full Waves plugin integration – all in a scalable, remotely operated, broadcast-ready cloud workflow.

Link: https://www.waves.com/mixers-racks/cloud-mx-audio-mixer

Audio Design Desk introduced Media Bridge, a unified stock media delivery and management system. It gives Audio Design Desk users access to over 20,000 free music cues from Free Music Archive, 500,000 free sounds from freesound.org, and millions of media assets from paid services such as Envato, Epidemic, Artlist and Shutterstock.

Link: https://add.app

Streambox introduced Aura, color accurate HDR/SDR wireless monitoring on iPad Pro. (Larry adds: They announced Aura, but I can't find any reference to it on their website. Nor have they posted a press release.)

Link: https://www.streambox.com/solutions/the-big-picture

Dale Johnson asked me to bring FCP Diet 2 to your attention. Published by Ulti Media, "FCP Diet 2 is a complete, powerful, intelligent and effective program for managing Final Cut Pro libraries. Not only that, it allows you to keep entire projects consolidated, and it does it with a very simple interface where all you have to do is drag a folder and press a button." (Ulti Media website)

Link: https://ulti.media/product/fcp-diet-2/

Backblaze recently published a free guide to network-attached storage (servers) and the cloud. It is easy to read, reasonably detailed and helps explain when and how to take advantage of network storage and the cloud in your business.

Link: Guide to Network-Attached Storage

In sad news, AoTG.com (Art of the Guillotine) stopped updating their website on May 23. They've been with us since 2007 and will be missed. I wish Gordon Burkell the best.

Link: https://www.aotg.com

My next webinar explores BorisFX Continuum. Continuum is an effects powerhouse for multiple NLEs that I haven't looked at in detail for several years. However, my next webinar won't happen until July 13. (I'm doing some traveling and renovations between now and then.) Signup links are live now, though. Feel free to register. As always, registration is free.

Link: Larry's Free Webinar Registration

In tutorials this week, I explain what video bit depth is and why it matters. This article applies to any NLE.

Link: Why Video Bit-depth Matters

Next, Burkhard Berger contributes a detailed article on how to create retro visual effects using Final Cut Pro.

Link: How To Create Retro Film Effects With Final Cut Pro

For Premiere editors, I have a detailed tutorial on using layered Photoshop images in Adobe Premiere Pro.

Link: Import Layered Photoshop Files in Adobe Premiere Pro

And, for Final Cut editors, I have a similar detailed tutorial on using Photoshop layered images in Apple Final Cut Pro.

Link: Using Layered Photoshop Files in Final Cut Pro X

Now that WWDC has shown us Apple's goals for the near future, it's time for us to take stock and see how Apple's announcements fit into our own work. Nothing announced at WWDC directly affects visual storytellers, though parts of it affect us as computer users. Still, it's nice to know that nothing hugely disruptive is on the immediate horizon. That's good - it gives us time to ramp back into work without fighting unexpected stress.

Summer is a good time to focus on life outside work. Relax, think long-term and plan for the future. So, until next Monday, stay safe, stay healthy and edit well.