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Premiere Pro: No More Compromises
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 | | (Click graphic for enlargement) The new Premiere Pro timeline can now handle multiple sequences and let you adujst the vertical height of each track independently. |
I also like the way it's easier to maneuver around the timeline. I'm always finding myself zooming in and out of the timeline, so anything making that easier is a big deal to me. The old way of hitting the plus and minus keys still works but now when you hit plus sign to zoom into the timeline, the minus sign to zoom out or the backslash to see the whole timeline, you can do all that while your video is playing. Alas, if you move a clip around, the timeline will stop playing, another feature that I like in Vegas but miss in Premiere Pro. While on the subject of Vegas, another feature that Premiere does have that I first saw in Vegas is the ability to zoom in and out of the timeline by using the mouse wheel. With Premiere Pro, if you hold down the Alt key while scrolling, you're zooming in and out. I'm delighted that Adobe added this feature to Premiere Pro, a nicety that you get used to quickly and miss when it's not there. In addition to that, there are so many other quick 'n' easy ways to zoom in and out that everyone can be happy. For instance, there's a new, Photoshop-like zoom control that helps you move all over the timeline with one click or with a slider. Or you can slide the edges of the new Viewing Area Bar to smoothly widen or narrow your view. Gone is the Navigator window, though, which won't be missed because of these excellent new zoom controls on the timeline.
Another big difference becomes apparent when you start editing. Drag a clip from the project window to the monitor window and you see a little overwrite edit symbol by default -- your clip will be added wherever the Current Time Indicator is parked, overwriting anything underneath on that track. But hold down the Control key and your clip will be inserted at the time indicator, rippling the other shots to the right. This Control key business works for other things, too, like the convenient Ripple edit when you hold the Control key while dragging the edge of a clip that's already sitting on the timeline. The cursor turns into a bigger arrow, and you're off and ripple-dragging. And here's another Control nicety: Control-D inserts whatever default transition you choose. Adding this control-click functionality is a major improvement. The Alt key isn't left out of these spanking-new festivities, either, and its new trick will certainly make your editing life easier. Click on a clip while holding down the Alt key and you can select either a track's video or audio only, letting you put together an L-cut or J-cut in a flash. Best of all, with this new version of Premiere -- in which product manager Richard Townhill says "synch is holy" -- the only way to break synchronization between the audio and video is by hitting the Alt key. Then, a la Avid Media Composer, a little number tells you how many frames out of synch you are. Bingo. There's some justification for the "Pro" name right there. Adding to that well-deserved Pro nomenclature is the newfound ability to edit your audio all the way down to the level of an individual sample, great for removing those annoying clicks and pops. I also like the way Premiere Pro lets you decide whether you'll monitor audio through your DV deck or through the computer speakers, with either one synched perfectly with the video..
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 | | (Click for enlargement) Premiere Pro's Trim Window has also been significantly improved |
When I saw a late Beta version of this software in an extensive press preview in New York last month, the Trim Window wasn't entirely finished and had some stability problems while attempting loop playback, but now that problem has been completely solved. What an improvement! Heck, I really liked Premiere's trim window before, but now rolling edits and ripple trims on each side are now child's play with this juiced-up interface. With one exception that I'll mention later in this paragraph, I think tt's now the best trim window in the business. When you're in the Trim window, you hit Page Up and Page down to step between each edit on the timeline. Then, take a look at those three thumbwheels at the bottom, which let you adjust the incoming clip's out point, the out point and in point together, or the incoming clip's in point. That's a great metaphor for those of us who came up through the linear editing ranks. If you're a heavy mouse-user, you can still drag between the windows or drag back and forth inside each clip as you could before, but I like the thumbwheels better. But then -- here's that exception I mentioned -- I wish I could put the current edit in a loop and adjust the points while it's playing. The way it is now, if you're looping the clips and make an adjustment, playback stops. The ability to get interactive feedback makes a big difference. That seemingly small detail makes it so you can easily see the edit over and over, changing it as you watch. Maybe there's some way for Adobe to implement this in a later version. It would be a great improvement to the Trim Window, which I think is one of the most important functions of any nonlinear editing system, especially if you like to really tweak your edits into that special slot where they belong, plus or minus zero frames.
Another nice touch I noticed is the way you can hold down the S key while hovering a clip, and Snap to Edges is turned off. Before, you had to go and click on an icon to make that happen. That's just one example of where Premiere's designers have improved usability by eliminating excessive button-clicking. Throughout this new interface, there are many operations where you would have needed five or six clicks to perform a function before, where now one or two clicks will do the same thing. These improvements make you feel like you just sprouted an extra arm. And, I also like the way the clips look transparent when you're hovering them over the timeline -- an effect Adobe calls "shower curtaining" where you can see what's underneath before you drop a clip.
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