| NewTek's SPEEDEdit | | Print | |
| Written by Brian Peterson |
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Editing in The Fast Lane Their latest innovation is SpeedEDIT, and according to NewTek, it is the "world's fastest video editor." As they have, in fact, created several revolutionary products, we'll certainly grant them the pole position. But such a bold claim begs close inspection and a few laps around the track. Interface Unlike in many other editing packages, there is no integrated or docked preview window. To preview your project on a single monitor, you'll need to either minimize the main window to give the preview window some room or juggle the preview window around areas of the main window you are not using. You do, however, have several preview options, one of which includes using a FireWire-connected display device (or simply a throughput signal to a monitor via your camcorder). While it's not strictly required, we found a two-monitor set-up indispensable. SpeedEDIT divides the default workspace into two main panes, each of which is user-configurable in both size and content. You choose each pane's content by clicking on one of five main tabs: Storyboard, Timeline, Spreadsheet, Control Tree and Filebin. If you've honed your editing skills on timeline-based editors, using a storyboard view may at first seem, well, too easy. And it is! Of course, that also can translate to "fast." SpeedEDIT's storyboard does more than just rearrange clips in preparation for importing into a timeline; it actually dynamically updates the timeline in real time. If you trim or move the order of a clip in Storyboard, it will automatically update the timeline with that change. Delete a clip in Storyboard and the change ripples through the Timeline. This dynamic linking can be a huge timesaver in itself, but you need to get used to the idea that a change in one view will impact the other. Organizing your clips visually can be very efficient, but of course you can't do more intricate operations like split edits or compositing. SpeedEDIT's timeline is a little different from most; it lacks the traditional vertical division between video and audio. Each clip, however, clearly features either a clip thumbnail image or an audio waveform, so there's no confusion of what is what. Test Drive To manipulate properties of any clip, you simply highlight it and select the Control Tree tab. Here you'll find everything from 3D positioning, Alpha Channel control, advanced color correction, chroma keying and much more. The real-time chroma keyer offers a good amount of fine control. We were able to get a very acceptable key from a less-than-perfectly-lit background. Additionally, you can fine-tune most properties with keyframes in a graphic environment. Once you've made a keyframed node, right click on it to open up a host of additional features. Like we said earlier, the interface is only deceptively basic. You access special effects and the titler through the Filebin. SpeedEDIT makes adding special effects as easy as dragging from the Filebin to the timeline. And for the most common transition of all, the dissolve, it's even easier: just slide one clip over another in the timeline, and you've got your dissolve! Some of the more advanced features also contribute to increased editing speed. We particularly liked the Inherit function. Simply hold the ALT key while dragging a new clip over one to be replaced, and you automatically associate the properties of that clip, such as titling, graphic overlays, transparency values, motion, etc. This is a great way to maintain a consistent style. NewTek has also tucked additional power into what it calls the Tool Shed. Here you'll find presets for motion control, DVEs, markers, video level and color controls, and even a wizard that helps you edit to a soundtrack. Also in the shed is image stabilization, a sometimes complicated feature of more extensive special effects programs. We loaded a moderately shaky handheld clip of a hang glider coming in for a landing, applied the Stabilize Video preset and hit Perform. It did not eliminate the larger camera movements, but the result was more stable video without the hassle. Last Laps Finally, we output our test project in several formats, including directly back to tape and various high-compression settings, such as MP4 and Flash, with no problems. We did, however, run into a few speed bumps. We discovered SpeedEDIT doesn't show drive names, only letters, in the Filebin. The drive name is even missing in the drive properties. This posed a challenge for us, as we often have eight or more drives, internal and external, physical and logical, each named for their different media types and functions. Dropdown dialog boxes are semi-transparent, making some properties hard to read. And while SpeedEDIT comes with a useful manual, it does not include a centralized Help. TECH SPECS
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