Re: Liquid 7 configuration & newbie

Ron,
Of course I don't mind answering questions, that is what I try to do here....that said there is a forum for Liquid, unfortunately is under the name of Pinnacle Liquid Edition....Ask questions over there next time, but for this one I'll try to answer here.

Your machine should definately be up to specs. I see you have 2 drives in a RAID setup...what type of RAID striping are you using ??? I use RAID 0, but I am not too bothered about backups as I can always redigitaze my footage if needed. Also, is it that it for drives ??? I like to have a system drive for all of my software, then capture drives for the media. Better performance.

I do not see too many conflicts with doing more than editing on your system, that said, there are some precautions you should take. First....Antivirus... DO NOT use Norton, Mcafee or any of those big commercial names...they will suck the juice out of your system and you will more than likely have conflicts. I like thge AVG free edition, does a great job, it's free and plays nicely with Liquid. Also, try to use your computer as little as possible for internet usage. Spyware can really slow a computer down. It would be almost worth picking up a cheap Celeron for these duties, but if you have to use your "big machine" be careful.

I really do not know Studio so I can not comment on it. I like Liquid...it is extremely scaleable. The newbie can use it, along with the high end pro to do some pretty nice stuff. There are a lot of filters included with Liquid which means that most likely you won't need a 3rd party program for effects...that said, I like to use After Effects and Boris Red along with Liquid. Liquid also comes with a titler...I myself don't use it, as I much prefer Red and After Effects for my titles....I do some pretty intense compositing with titles (some have 10 layeres of the same text recomped over each other with filters and transfer modes).

Premiere is cool, but not my cup of tea. I own it, or I will soon, am awaiting my shipment of the Adobe video collection. I will play around with it, but it will not be my tool of choice. I bought it because I was buying After Effects pro and photoshop and it was cheaper to buy the video collection than to buy those two titles seperately. I definately wouldn't have bought it otherwise....but I own it so I will definately play around with it...it also comes with Adobe Audition and Encore (DVD authoring)...again wouldn't have bought them, but will play with them.

The learning curve....well if you've never edited, it may be a good thing. The Liquid timeline is different than other editors, I really like it. It lets me edit....I don't have to think about the tools, I just edit. It is like a natural extension of my creativity, I don't have to think about the tools, I just edit. You can map all kinds of keyboard shortcuts in Liquid, so basically you set Liquid up to work the way you want it to. I suggest going on the Pinnacle Liquid Edition forum here at the COW....I think is his name is Paul Mitton...he has a book out or training DVDs, or both...he could certainly help you out. Too bad you are on the West coast...there is agreat event happening at Avid in january, but it is near Boston...some great courses.
The learning can be steep for some, but don't forget, you are learning everything in one package, you don't have to learn a bunch of titles...and lets face it, the price is right !!!

Hope this helps, please feel free to ask anything again that I may have missed. Reply in this forum for this post.

All the best,

Mark harvey