My book - Final Cut Pro Power Tips - just received another glowing review on Amazon: "The organization is beyond anything I could have imagined. How Larry was able to lay this incredibly vast and detailed subject matter into a form that’s so easy to navigate and in a manner that’s so intuitive is amazing. The screen shots are well thought-out and are so importantly relevant to the subject matter. Not to mention the quality of the photos and even the quality of the pages themselves. Larry is so completely thorough, but somehow, he makes learning fun and interesting and easy to understand. This is no small task with technical subjects. Larry truly has the heart of a teacher. Well done!"
This book is one Christmas present to yourself that will pay dividends all year long. (Save 35%, use JORDAN as the coupon code.)
Much of the first two weeks of December were spent in reviewing a variety of products. My latest review looks at the WRX 560 Synology Wireless Router. This combination router and wireless access point provides speed, prodigious customization and an easy ability to extend your reach using mesh networks. There's a lot to like here, but a couple of cautions as well.
I have two excerpts from last week's Webinar. The first illustrates how to read the two principle video scopes in Premiere and Final Cut: the Waveform Monitor and the Vectorscope.
Also, I presented a more detailed look at how fast our video storage needs to be. Yes, more speed is great. But, if you aren't doing multicam work, much of that speed will be wasted. Here's an easy to understand definition of "how much speed is enough."
The latest "Ask Larry Anything! webinar is now posted. It looks at real-world storage speed tests, SSD speeds, reading video scopes, the basics of color correction, and several questions covering Apple Final Cut Pro. Even better, it's available at a holiday discount.
Webinars will return after the start of the New Year.
This tip is too short to put into an article, but I thought you'd like to see this, contributed by Jim McQuaid: "This is probably a well-known problem but I just saw it today for the first time. I was recording a simple standup interview with a wired Lav mike and I begin to hear a tick, tick, tick in the headphones. Turns out that the cord from the mic element to the base of the unit was laying right across a pocket containing a cell phone and when the cell phone was removed the sound went away!"
Hanukkah began yesterday, the shortest day of the year (here in the North) is tomorrow, Christmas arrives on Sunday and Kwanzaa starts a week from today. It's a wonderful time of the year. (However, we failed to celebrate "Pretend to be a Time-Traveler Day" on Dec. 8. My apologies.) For me, the next two weeks are best spent reconnecting with friends and family, with time to recharge yourself.
Our world is an increasingly complex place. There's no harm in taking some time to rest and reflect. Until next Monday, stay safe, stay healthy and edit well.
