Re: Smoke 2013 Changes Everything

[Walter Soyka] "[Chris Harlan] "I'm curious what you think of the Symphony cross-grade in the light of this."

What do I think of Symphony versus Smoke? I guess it depends on your workflow and needs. I don't think they really compete as they don't really have overlapping feature sets."

I guess, Walter, what I'm really asking about is where they do overlap--say, in color correction, and whether Symphony's would be--to your knowledge-- superior to the new Smoke for Mac's.

[Walter Soyka] "Symphony is a steal at $999 if you have an Avid workflow and want to color in the context of your edit, or want if you want to get the bundled Boris Continuum effects for less than the Boris bundle's standalone price, but other finishing tasks like paint and compositing would clearly go to Smoke."

My understanding--and I could be quite wrong about this--is that Smoke fits fairly well into the Avid workflow, PLUS it has the other finishing and composite tools. So, I guess I'm back to wondering if Symphony's 100% compatibility with MC projects and its Color tools have enough of an edge to makeup for not gaining the compositing tools? I'm also wondering the degree to which Smoke for Mac will always be Smoke-lite because of the potential lack of Sizzle core beasts. I can't help but wonder if this isn't part of Autodesk's pricing strategy as well. As for the Boris bundle, I do like it and plan to upgrade, but the upgrade price--unless I am misunderstanding something--is much cheeper than the price of Symphony.


[Walter Soyka] "DS would be Avid's competitor to Smoke, and Dermot could talk a lot more about that. From my outsider's perspective on DS, I'd be nervous about investing in it today. Avid doesn't seem to be paying it a whole lot of attention."

I have no interest in DS; I think its the walking Dead. My quandary, as I look at these things arrayed, is that I can reasonably budget this year for, say, Symphony and CS6, or Smoke for Mac, but not for all three, without just being stupid about it. The Symphony upgrade ends about the time the Smoke for Mac trial is set to begin. So, I'm trying to juggle this all in my head--Smoke has tools I crave, and may be the NLE I've been looking for, but will also maybe/probably be limited/hobbled to iMac and and Macbook Pro use. Both Symphony and CS6 can be put on future workstations that will have the guts to do some of the compositing I like, but without the neat-o tools I've been dreaming of for some time. Oh, for a new Mac Pro, which the coming of 2013 Smoke for Mac has convinced me--oddly--we shall not see.