We are all looking forward to the release of Lion on Wednesday this week.

So I thought I’d dust off a few thoughts from operating system upgrades from year’s past – just to prevent any problems.

First – and most important – NEVER upgrade anything in the middle of a project. Lion will be just as dandy if you wait to upgrade when your project is complete. Yes, Lion is new. Yes, Lion is exciting. But both of those pale into insignificance if the upgrade breaks something on your edit system.

ALWAYS upgrade between projects.

Second, Lion is a big upgrade. For this reason, I recommend not upgrading any production systems for at least three months after a new OS ships. Give the third-party developers time to make sure everything works properly. Nothing is worse than upgrading only to discover that one filter you REALLY need for your project doesn’t work.

Third, a couple of weeks ago, I contacted Apple to see if Lion would bring any new features to Final Cut Pro X. Apple told me that it would not. My hope is that Apple will have new updates for FCP X in the near future, however, I don’t expect that at the same time as a Lion release.

For all these reasons, I recommend taking a cautious approach to upgrading any systems that you depend upon for editing. If you have a machine that you can spare for testing, by all means, give Lion a whirl.

Just be really, really, really cautious about putting it on any systems you depend upon until Apple has released at least one maintenance update.

Practicing patience can be difficult. But not being able to output a project is far worse.

Larry

By now, you’ve probably read that I am not a fan of upgrading as soon as new software is released. The reasons for this can be found in the Color 1.0.3 release of a couple weeks ago, which broke Color’s support for XDCAM video, or the OS X 10.5.6 release which had problems when trying to install via Software Update.

Still, not upgrading immediately is not the same as not upgrading.

I was talking with a client yesterday who was finishing a major project using Final Cut Pro 6.0.0 – which I find to be a very buggy version of the software.

So, here are the software versions I’m using for my own editing. Keep in mind that your needs may be different. I’m doing most of my deadline-based editing on a MacBook Pro and most of my writing on a G-5.

Operating System

I’m still running OS X 10.4.11. For me, it is faster and more stable than 10.5. Also, if you are on a G-5, or G-4 laptop, 10.4 will be MUCH faster than 10.5.

If you have a newer system that came with OS X 10.5 pre-installed, be sure you are running at least 10.5.4 or later. While the jury is still out on 10.5.6, I don’t know of any serious problems with either 10.5.4 or 10.5.5.

QuickTime

QuickTime upgrades have been a series of disasters. Especially with QuickTime, avoid updating when new versions are released. Waiting at least 90 days after an upgrade is always good advice.

I stayed with QT 7.4.5 until about a week ago. At which time, I upgraded both QuickTime and Final Cut. I’m now at QuickTime 7.5.5.

Note: Keep in mind that at its heart, Final Cut Pro is a QuickTime editor. Never upgrade QuickTime without upgrading Final Cut Pro at the same time. They are joined at the hip. Updating QuickTime by itself is probably the fastest way I know to make sure FCP won’t work.

Final Cut Studio

I’m a fan of Final Cut Studio 2. While FCP hasn’t changed that much in operation, the new Soundtrack Pro 2, Compressor 3, and Motion 3 more than make up for it.

Since I was updating to QuickTime 7.5.5, I also updated to Final Cut 6.0.5 — this is the ProApps 2008-5 release. However, that release also broke Color. So I waited until Apple had a fix for Color before doing the upgrade.

Note: Versions of Final Cut Pro that I do NOT like include: 5.0.0, 5.0.1, 5.0.3, 5.1.0, 5.1.1, 5.1.2, 5.1.3, 6.0.0, 6.0.1, 6.0.2, and 6.0.3.

So, my system is:
OS 10.4.11
QT 7.5.5
FCP 6.0.5

Remember, no client has ever cared what version of Final Cut you are using. If your system is running smoothly, if all the video formats you want to edit are supported, or if you are in the middle of a project, there’s probably no benefit to upgrading.

As always, let me know what you think.

Today, SmartSound released Sonicfire Pro 5 – a free upgrade to their already extremely useful music software.

I’ve been using SmartSound products since about 1997 and have always enjoyed the flexibility they gave me in creating interesting and compelling music of any arbitrary length.

However, I fell off the wagon a while back with the release of version 4, with its weirdly named “mood-mapping” feature.  I didn’t understand it and didn’t see a reason to upgrade.

A few months ago, Brian Dickman, SmartSound’s VP of Sales and Marketing, met with me to discuss ways we could work together and I shared with him some of my reservations about the software. (SmartSound’s royalty-free music library has always been excellent, with a wide variety of tunes spanning almost 200 albums – and growing by 3-4 CDs a month.)

Over the months our conversations continued until, about three weeks ago, Brian asked me to record new on-line tutorials for the up-coming release of version 5 of their software. This gave me a great opportunity to play with the software and discover some of its subtler features. Over the last two weeks, I’ve recorded ten different tutorials on the software, which runs the same on both Mac and Windows systems.

My goodness!  If you haven’t looked at SmartSound recently, you need to check out Sonicfire Pro 5. It does some amazing things with music amazingly well. Just as Apple’s Soundtrack Pro broke new ground in allowing us to change the tempo of a loop without changing its pitch, and vice-versa, SmartSound has taken music modification to entirely new heights.

They simplified the initial interface to allow you to create music quickly and easily, without resorting to a timeline. You can create exciting music – with a beginning, middle and an end – at any arbitrary length. You can set keyframes and change instrumentation in the middle of a song. You can have the software automatically determine the best tempo to match your video. And, in a feature that left my jaw on the floor, you can grab a timing keyframe and change the entire structure of the music to match your video by simply dragging a keyframe.

With hundreds of music titles to choose from, software that allows you to modify music in an unlimited number of variations, and an ease of use that makes working with music fun, the latest version of SmartSound Sonicfire Pro 5 is stunning. Best of all, the upgrade is free.