MoviePlus X5: Moving from Adobe Premiere Pro

[somerleaze]

In a previous life (before I retired) I had use of Adobe Premiere Pro CS5. It was very complex but it could do a lot, 70% of which I never needed. I have a couple of questions about how to best use MoviePlus:

1) PP has something called Sequences where you could put clips into for things like "On the Beach" "Warwick Castle" etc and only display the timeline of clips relating to that subject instead of hundreds all on the same timeline. Is there an equivalent thing in MoviePlus?

2) Adobe has a program called Soundbooth where you could edit your audio clips and cut out things like wind noise. Anyone know of an similar prog I can use?

So far I am finding MoviePlus easier and quicker to use even if it hasn't got so many bells and whistles.

Phil

[artyman]

Not sure if it has the tools you require for wind noise but Audacity is a pretty good sound editor.

[somerleaze]

Thanks Artyman. I had forgotten Audacity, the last time I tried it, it wouldn't work on Win7 64bit. The latest version seems to. I don't think it will let you remove a specific frequency range from the audio but I will have to live with that but it will do some noise removal and has some useful effects. So that's question 2 sorted. Anyone know what I mean in question 1?

[emmrecs]

Originally Posted by somerleaze In a previous life (before I retired) I had use of Adobe Premiere Pro CS5. It was very complex but it could do a lot, 70% of which I never needed. I have a couple of questions about how to best use MoviePlus: 1) PP has something called Sequences where you could put clips into for things like "On the Beach" "Warwick Castle" etc and only display the timeline of clips relating to that subject instead of hundreds all on the same timeline. Is there an equivalent thing in MoviePlus? 2) Adobe has a program called Soundbooth where you could edit your audio clips and cut out things like wind noise. Anyone know of an similar prog I can use? So far I am finding MoviePlus easier and quicker to use even if it hasn't got so many bells and whistles. Phil

Hi Phil.

Soundbooth was quite a good, simple audio program. Unfortunately for you, as you may know, when Adobe introduced CS5.5 and, later 6 (the current version) they dropped Soundbooth in favour of Audition (having made the latter cross-platform Windows and Mac.) So, if you want one of the best audio editors currently available I would recommend Adobe Audition. However, it isn't cheap (though there was some upgrade path from Soundbooth when CS5.5 was originally released, I think.)

Wind noise is a real "pain" to remove from video soundtracks. I have no wish to be seen to be advertising a "competitor" product on a Serif forum, but one of the best (cheaper) programs I have used for precisely this task is "Magix Video Sound Cleaning Lab". It does take some "getting in to" but the results can be staggeringly good. It is a product clearly designed to "clean" the audio; as such, I personally think it would be much better than Audacity. Even a "high-flyer" like Audition, or indeed "iZotope RX2" (specialist noise reduction software) each have problems with wind noise.

HTH.

Jeff

[MikeR]

Originally Posted by somerleaze I don't think it will let you remove a specific frequency range from the audio but I will have to live with that but it will do some noise removal and has some useful effects.

Audacity's equalisation effect will do that.

[somerleaze]

I see I will have to do much more experimentation with Audacity. I like the feel of it and the fact that it will take the audio from an avi is good. I don't need an additional prog to split it out first. Just got to use MPx3 more now to find a way round having all the clips visible on the timeline at the same time.

Thanks all for your help

[elaric]

Hi Phil
I do not have an answer to your question 1 but I too am a convert from Premiere. Movieplus does most things Premiere does but easier and with less fuss. I agree with Jeff the Magix "sound cleaning booth" is very good I have used it for a few years.
Apart from the fact that Movieplus is an excellent editor at the price a big incentive to use it is the fantastic user forum,
I have asked many questions, most answered within a few hours, sometimes an answer from a Movieplus development boffin. Thats service.
Hope you enjoy it Richard

[ggrussell]

I've used SOund Soap a few times. Had a special edition that came with another piece of software. It's made specifically for filtering audio in a video file. Easy to use and works fairly well.

[Jon White]

Originally Posted by somerleaze 1) PP has something called Sequences where you could put clips into for things like "On the Beach" "Warwick Castle" etc and only display the timeline of clips relating to that subject instead of hundreds all on the same timeline. Is there an equivalent thing in MoviePlus?

The nearest thing to sequences in MoviePlus is Video Groups. Each group has its own set of tracks, and can be collapsed when you're working on another section. But you can't change a group's position in time; you have to select and move all the clips (tip: select a group and press Ctrl+A to select all its clips). And you can't transition between groups.

[somerleaze]

Thanks elaric, I am finding that out. You don't get this sort of assistance from Adobe.

[somerleaze]

Thanks for that info ggrussell, I will look into it if Audacity fails me.

[Ali]

Originally Posted by somerleaze Thanks for that info ggrussell, I will look into it if Audacity fails me.

Please use the Quote button when responding to posts to make the thread easier to follow. Thanks!

[somerleaze]

Originally Posted by Jon White The nearest thing to sequences in MoviePlus is Video Groups. Each group has its own set of tracks, and can be collapsed when you're working on another section. But you can't change a group's position in time; you have to select and move all the clips (tip: select a group and press Ctrl+A to select all its clips). And you can't transition between groups.

Thanks for that info Jon, I am giving that a try. The other idea I was wondering about was to have a project for each section pointing to the same dir of captured clips, exporting the edits as avi's, then starting a new Master project pointing to these exported avi's to link them and write the DVD.

I assume MoviePlus doesn't movify the captured clips and only saves the changes?

Thanks