Magix, known as a manufacturer of audio and photo editing programs such as Magix Video deluxe and - since the acquisition of Sony in 2016 - also Vegas Pro , is insolvent. On March 1st, the Berlin district court opened the self-administration proceedings after Magix had already filed for bankruptcy in December. According to the press release, business operations will continue without restrictions - the aim is to restructure the entire company by selling it to an investor, which should be completed in the next 2-3 months.

About 1 year after the 600d Pro was released, the wattage has doubled yet again. The 1200 watt LED COB is going for the HMI lights.

Specs

• 20.1mp FF sensor
• 4K 60p with 10-bit 4:2:2 Canon Log (No AF in 4K 50p/60p recording)
• 5.4K RAW internal video recording (No AF in RAW)
• No crop in 4K or RAW video recording
• Movie Digital Image Stabilisation (IS), image area reduced by 10%
• Dual CFexpress card slots
• 16fps serial shooting with shutter
• 20fps serial shooting in liveview mode
• 191/155 point AF, -4 EV
• ISO 100-102,400 (extends up to 819,200)
• RAW Buffer: 1000+
• RAW + JPEG Large buffer: 1000+
• RAW + HEIF Large buffer: approx. 350
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
• GPS / GLONASS / QZSM built-in
• Built-in stereo microphones
• Up to 2850 shots battery life (OVF, 23C)
• $6499 USD
• Available at
  • https://www.adorama.com/ica1dxm3.html

Since it's Friday I decided to make a color grading tutorial for you guys on how to create the cinematic golden look as you can find in the beautiful film A Very Long Engagement.

I'm doing this all inside of Adobe Premiere Pro since that's the most common software you guys asks me to do a tutorial on.

Hope you'll like it!

What changed?

• Good things - added curves, improved HEVC (including encoding)
• Since October 2016 added support for 10-16bit videos and color correction for them
• Not so good - for main page offer they removed Mercalli V4 and moved it in to Vegas offer
• Normal price at around $399, 399 EUR, better see offers below
• http://www.magix.com/int/video-pro-x/

Note that since middle of 2016 all versions are called Video Pro X, and it upgrades just like Adobe products regularly, but without all this monthly stuff and it will work indefinitely.

Good offer that still includes Mercalli V4 and more for 199 EUR

• MAGIX Video Pro X8 (+free one year upgrades including major versions)
• proDAD Mercalli V4 (now best soft stabilizer)
• Video Sound Cleaning Lab (this one has spectral cleaning ala isotope RX, just simpler)
• NewBlue ActionCam Package
• 199 EUR total

http://www.magix.com/index.php?id=22659&L=25&utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Display_Sales&utm_campaign=VideoProX_2016_DE_REM

Upgrade offer

• MAGIX Video Pro X8 (+free one year upgrades including major versions)
• Custom keyboard
• HitFilm plugins
• 199 EUR

http://www.magix.com/index.php?id=22659&L=25&utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Display_Sales&utm_campaign=VideoProX_2016_DE_REM

I was dubious about the memory bandwidth and CUDA cores, but, in fact, no worries, the newer design more than compensates. Playback and export in Premiere only uses 60-70 percent of the card, even with 4K clips with a ton of filters, so this card is fine for most people. You can step up to the 20 series but it is an incremental gain. Normally I buy these cards on eBay because gamers upgrade so often, but I had to plunk down $270 for a new one and overnight shipping to keep working.

Using Neat Video, interestingly, the optimum frame rate uses only the GPU! That frees up the CPU. Getting over 6fps render in Neat video with 4K clips using GPU only. Not great, but slightly better than what I had before. The 6GB ram seems OK for 4K, I doubt it will handle 8k but whatever. Has display ports and HDMI 2.0

MSI terminology for the flavors of these cards is confusing, and Ventus sounds like a coffee term, and you may have to install the USB C driver even if there is no port. There's a "super" version of the 1660 which has a few less CUDA cores that is also a bit cheaper. Knowing nothing, I went for the higher CUDA core model. Overall, a solid card.

Key New Features:

• Logic Pro X includes Drummer, a virtual session player that automatically plays along with your song in a wide variety of drumming styles and techniques
• Flex Pitch provides integrated pitch editing for audio recordings. This is way beyond AutoTune – Flex Pitch analyzes your audio and then lets do Melodyne-style audio editing. You can move the pitch of individual notes up or down, for pitch correction, or use it as a creative tool.
• Logic Remote lets you play and control Logic Pro X from an iPad, letting you create and mix music from anywhere in the room. (Screen shots below).
• Retro Synth is a new virtual instrument that emulates some of the most popular classic synthesizers from the 70s and 80s.
• Vintage Keyboards offer realistic models of electric pianos, B3 organs and clavs.
• Track Stacks lets you organize and collapse multiple tracks into one. It can also be used to create complex layered instruments.
• Smart Controls allow you to manipulate multiple plug-ins and parameters with a single move for quick and powerful sound design.
• An improved Mixer helps manage mix sessions more efficiently, with increased visibility into signal flow and dynamics and faster ways to manipulate channel inserts.

New tools for songwriting and music production:

• Drummer delivers professionally produced, realistic drum tracks that can perform millions of unique grooves in rock, alternative, songwriter and R&B genres. Drummer is powered by the performances and sounds of some of the industry’s top session players and recording engineers, including mixer/producer Bob Clearmountain.
• The new Drum Kit Designer plug-in lets you build your own custom kit using a diverse collection of professionally recorded snare drums, toms, hi-hats and cymbals that you can mix, match and fine tune to get the right drum sound for your song.

Logic Remote is a new way to extend the creative power of Logic by using your iPad. Designed to take full advantage of the iPad Multi-Touch display, Logic Remote gives users new ways to record, mix and even perform instruments in Logic Pro X from anywhere in the room.

Synthesizers and keyboards with more new instruments:

• The Arpeggiator is one of nine new MIDI plug-ins. It can transform a simple keyboard chord into an elaborate sequence.
• The new Retro Synth emulates some of the most popular classic synthesizer tones from the 70s and 80s.
• Vintage Keyboards offer realistic models of electric pianos, B3 organs and clavs, with sophisticated tone-shaping controls.
• Bass Amp Designer allows bass players to play and record using vintage and modern bass amps, with cabinets and microphones that can be configured to build a custom bass rig.
• Logic Pro X also features a new Sound Library with an updated loop collection and over 1,500 instruments. It also includes effect Patches that make creative use of Track Stacks, Smart Controls, the Arpeggiator and other new plug-ins.

Availabilite at:

• Logic Pro X is available today from the Mac App Store for $199.99 (US) https://itunes.apple.com/app/logic-remote/id638394624?mt=8
• MainStage 3 is available from the Mac App Store for $29.99 - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mainstage-3/id634159523?mt=12
• Logic Remote - free download from the App Store.

Searching for some editors with FX suite that reported to run OK on these specs, decided to contact Magix about their Vegas Pro and Video Pro software.

The reply came:

• Video Pro is a semi-professional software to advanced videographers
• Vegas Pro is a professional software to production companies

So, ok it does give the idea of how the company place the two, but would the people here on the forum know about the effective difference of the software? What are the main things that set them apart in terms of function and integration?

Here's the background. While shooting, we obviously got camera mike sound for all takes. But we'd rented and used a couple of shotgun mikes with a Tascam recorder for many scenes, and the sound we got from those is marvelous. Obviously, my question is about making the camera mike tracks sound a bit more like the fuller, shotgun-mike tracks. Or vice versa, if that's what's needed.

I'm not much of a sound person, so I'd have to understand the principles involved, and then learn to use the Premiere Pro or Audition tools to accomplish the job. Can anyone point me to some good tutorials that might help?

Vegas Pro produced an HEVC HDR10 video playable on any HDR TV and playable on Windows 10 computers capable of HDR (I have a 10bit, HDR monitor).

Resolve creates an Avid 10bit 4K HDR video with the correct HDR10 metadata. It plays on no hardware of any kind in HDR and does not play in HDR using any software I know about, but the file is recognized by YouTube as HDR. Resolve has no HEVC or even H264 10bit render options!

For the exact same HDR10 4K video the Vegas-produced file size was 408Kb. The Resolve-produced HDR10 4K video from the same clips was 8.6GB. Yes almost 9 gigabytes versus half a megabyte! The Vegas Pro video took 25 minutes to render, the Resolve video 7 minutes (because the file is only lightly compressed).

Here is the Resolve version:

Here is the Vegas version:

I do not see much of a difference. The Resolve video is brighter (more DR) because I was able to use the scopes to max out the DR.

I think I understand the scopes (designed specifically for HDR) and the controls in Resolve. But I understand neither in Vegas in ACES for HDR, yet (I have mastered them outside ACES and in SDR).

These HDR10 videos were both made essentially only using the built in (ACES or ResolveCM) transforms from Slog2 to HDR10 for 1000nits screens with little tweaking by me, except for increasing the DR a bit in Resolve.

This is me attempting story-driven filmmaking for the first time, as previously I've mostly done landscape and travel content (a seen on www.eaglewoodfilms.com). Shot on the trusty Sony A6500 and Phantom 4 Pro for aerials. Did all the shooting, editing, grading and sound design myself.

Comments? Feedback? Fire away!

• Electronic Variable ND (FS5)
• 10 assignable buttons
• New Lens Lock Ring (Lever Lock Type) No rotation of lens anymore to detach.
• MPEG 2 Cache Recording
• BT 2020 Color Space
• New Arm Grip Position and Adjustments
• New 1/4 Full HD LCD (960/540) and rod ergonomics improvements
• $9999 price

Product page https://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/show-highend/resource.solutions.bbsccms-assets-show-highend-fs7ii.shtml

I need some advice here, can I somehow adapt my workflow to stay in AdobeRGB profile of the Dell monitor, and to have an accurate representation of colors in my editing and grading software (resolve)?

I don't have an external grading monitor, nor I plan to get one anytime soon. I don't need absolute accuracy here, only some decent reference point.

First of all, captioning requires that each line be associated with a timecode, which determine when the caption appears and disappears. In the past, this would have to be hand-entered, but the latest release of Premiere Pro allows users to move sliders to adjust the timecodes. So the main hurdle here is getting the captions into Premiere Pro, where we can fine-tune the timing.

Still, the transcript we're importing has to have some time codes in it. So we have to convert the script to a format that does. Here's a method that I use that isn't perfect, but it accomplishes a lot. 1) Paste the script into an Excel spreadsheet, so that each line of dialogue is in a separate row. 2) Insert columns before the dialogue. In one column, insert a number sequence (1,2,3, etc.) This will help you preserve the original order if you resort the list for some reason. You will probably have to break some longer stretches of dialogue into several rows, so these numbers come in handy. 3) Use two columns for your timecode, and use the format "hh:mm:ss". This can only handle timecode as far as hours, minutes and seconds. (Don't worry about frames for now.) 4) Take the duration of your video (say, half an hour) and divide it by the number of lines of dialogue. That gives you an average length of time for an average line of dialogue (say, three seconds). You can fill in the Timecode columns with timecodes that increase by three seconds.

Basically, if you're good with spreadsheets, you can use Excel to reconfigure your captions pretty effectively. You can now use this spreadsheet with a word processor to merge this data into a format that works as a captions file. The easiest to use is the *.srt format, which looks like this:

1 00:00:01,1 --> 00:00:06,1 ACT ONE

2 00:00:07,1 --> 00:00:12,1 JULIANA: They’re not even up yet!

3 00:00:13,1 --> 00:00:17,1 BERTA: That’s just what I said, Miss Juliana. Remember how late the boat got in last night. Yes, and once they got home, the young bride had so much to unpack before she would go to bed.

The format is simple. The first timecode, followed by ",1" to signify frames. The two dashes and an arrow. And then the text of the caption, which ends with a double linefeed.

Premiere Pro's Problems - Open versus Closed Captions. Now, you'd think that you could simply Import this file, apply it to your tineline, and adjust those timecode sliders to time the captions right. But that's not correct.

You see, Premiere Pro cannot import SRT files as Closed Captions. It interprets them solely as Open Captions, and you can't change them afterward. (Converting Closed to Open, and Open to Closed, would be a great feature to request.) So you need to take this SRT file, and convert it again to a format that PP imports as Closed Captions. Such as SCC format, which looks like this:

Scenarist_SCC V1.0

00:00:00;00 942c 942c 9420 9420 94ae 94ae 9476 9476 c143 5420 4fce 4580

00:00:01;03 942f 942f

00:00:06;03 942c 942c 9420 9420 94ae 94ae 9452 9452 4ad5 4c49 c1ce c1ba 94f2 94f2 5468 e579 a7f2 e520 6eef f420 e576 e56e 2075 7020 79e5 f4a1

00:00:07;03 942f 942f

00:00:12;03 942c 942c 9420 9420 94ae 94ae 97d0 97d0 91b9 91b9 c245 5254 c1ba 2054 6861 f4a7 7320 ea75 73f4 20f7 6861 f420 4980 9770 9770 91b9 91b9 7361 e964 2c20 cde9 7373 204a 75ec e961 6e61 ae20 52e5 6de5 6d62 e5f2 10d0 10d0 91b9 91b9 68ef f720 ec61 f4e5 20f4 68e5 2062 ef61 f420 67ef f420 e96e 13d0 13d0 91b9 91b9 ec61 73f4 206e e967 68f4 ae20 d9e5 732c 2061 6e64 20ef 6ee3 e580 1370 1370 91b9 91b9 f468 e579 2067 eff4 2068 ef6d e52c 20f4 68e5 2079 ef75 6e67 94d0 94d0 91b9 91b9 62f2 e964 e520 6861 6420 73ef 206d 75e3 6820 f4ef 2075 6e70 61e3 6b80 9470 9470 91b9 91b9 62e5 e6ef f2e5 2073 68e5 20f7 ef75 ec64 2067 ef20 f4ef 2062 e564 ae80

00:00:16;11 942f 942f

00:00:17;03 942c 942c 9420 9420 94ae 94ae 94d0 94d0 91b9 91b9 91b9 4ad5 4c49 c1ce c1ba 2057 e5ec ec2c 20f4 68e5 6e20 ad20 ece5 f480 9470 9470 91b9 91b9 91b9 f468 e56d 20e5 6eea ef79 20f4 68e5 e9f2 20f2 e573 f4ae

00:00:18;15 942f 942f

00:00:23;03 942c 942c 9420 9420 94ae 94ae 1370 1370 c245 5254 c1ba 2049 2073 f7e5 61f2 20f4 68e5 f2e5 20e9 736e a7f4 94d0 94d0 6120 62e9 f420 efe6 2073 7061 e3e5 20ec e5e6 f4ae 2049 20f4 68e9 6e6b 9470 9470 49a7 ecec 2068 6176 e520 f4ef 2070 75f4 20e9 f420 68e5 f2e5 2c20 cde9 7373 ae80

00:00:25;00 942f 942f

Luckily, there is a website (https://www.rev.com/captionconverter) that enables you to upload an SRT file and convert it to SCC.

At that point, you have to place the captions into your project, and then use the sliders to adjust the timecodes.

I just bought a GH4 and I am trying to get it to work with my FCP 7, but is does not really work well yet. I prefer to film in FHD 100Mbps 25P, and I need to film longer than 30 min..The camera is bought in US and does film continuously more than 30, but it chops up the files in small pieces of 4.27GB (6.40 min). There are 2 problems in this: 1) When importing in FCP7 it imports well, but when put on the timeline, "General Error" appears and it will not play it. I have tried to convert to ProRess HQ, and this plays well, but a second problem appears: 2)every 6:40 min I lack 2 frames both audio and video, and this is really not what I need, I need a continuos file for more than 6.40 min...

What can I do?

I'm having some trouble doing this in Premiere Pro. Any suggestions?

This film was shot entirely on a Sony A7s II with no lights, tripod or crew, just me as director - DP. For my day job, I work with full size crews and camera packages (Alexa, Red, etc) for TV and commercials. But this project, took place in the bush of one of the poorest countries on Earth. The entire camera / sound package had to fit in a small back back and never leave my sight. For sound I used a Rode Video Mic Pro for almost everything and a Sennheiser G3 kit for interviews. For glass, I used a Canon 24-105 and a Rokinon 20mm Cine as well as a full set of Tiffen White Water 77mm Filters and BW Polarizer.

Initially, I ran with a Movcam cage and top handle as well with Wooden Camera handgrips and an F&V Spectra 4.3" on board monitor. But after a few hours, I realized the paramilitary look of the camera attracted too much attention and undermined my subject's candidness, I stripped it down to just the camera body, metabones E mount adaptor, lens and Rode Mic and used the camera's EVF or LCD. It's amazing how a small change in gear, changes people's behavior around you. If I came in with a proper "pro" rig, I would've been mobbed at every turn.

For settings, I tried the EOS Pro Settings. Big mistake. Contrasty and red. Fail for sunny conditions and skin tones. You'll can easily see which shots used that. I then switched back to my reliable Cine 4 settings with black level pushed up, magenta down, sharpness all the way down, etc. Despite the settings mistake, it was definitely a blast and a learning experience.

Post was done on FCPX. With the latest updates, I find this to be the best doc editing software out there. Took me a while to make the switch but once I figured out the language, it saves me at least 30 % more time over Premier or Avid. Transcoded A7s II 4k footage to Pro Rez LT to cut and finish on.

Anyway, enjoy the film.

Also, i am using Filmconvert (GH4+VLOG) to grade. The WB parameter (in Film Convert) is an offset rather than a setting in my past experience. Would it then actually wreck my clip if i dialed the Film Convert WB parameter over to 3200K from it's default position on Daylight if the footage was shot on 3200K too?

Well, it turns out to be pretty simple. It seems that when the GH2 is power cycled, it makes a new playlist in the AVCHD structure (you can tell because there are multiple .MPL files in PRIVATE/AVCHD/BDMV/PLAYLIST/), and FCPX only sees clips from the most recent playlist with no way to switch to another playlist.

After a little hunting with a hex editor, I found that PRIVATE/AVCHD/BDMV/INDEX.BDM tells the importing software (at least in the case of FCPX) which playlist to look at. There is a number at the end that matches the number of the most recent playlist file (eg 00001) for 00001.MPL. So if you import the visible footage, you can then backup INDEX.BDM and use a hex editor to change that last number in it to the number of the previous playlist. You're just changing a single byte! Save, then open the FCPX import window again (maybe you need to relaunch FCPX? - don't remember) and the clips that were missing will probably be there. I assume you could repeat the process if you had 3 or more AVCHD playlist files on the card.

for a free hex editor on mac, I recommend Hex Fiend: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/22589/hex-fiend

Don't use a normal text editor – more than that single byte will probably change and you'll be sorry.

So to summarize

If missing clips in FCPX import:

• import what you can see
• check for the presence of multiple .MPL files
• change the 5 digit number (eg 00001) in INDEX.BDM to refer to a different .MPL file
• import again in FCPX - missing clips should show up

attached are some screenshots of changing the contents of INDEX.BDM.

Hope this tidbit of knowledge helps some people out. I wish I had discovered it a year ago – would have saved me some aggravation for sure.

I'm considering upgrading from a GH2, mainly due to the slightly better audio abilities of the GH4 (headphone jack, 3.5mm input). I shoot a tonne of interviews so it would come in handy. I've just got a few questions about the GH4 which I'm finding difficult to find answers on...

FYI: the audio devices I'll be using with the GH4 are the Rode Video Mic Pro or a Sennheiser wireless lapel mic (e3 kit).

1. Is it possible to adjust audio levels via a function button or some kind of PHYSICAL button on the camera?
2. If not, is the touch screen audio level adjustment actually useable during shooting or is it very fiddly?
3. Assuming I buy a GH4 that doesn't have the buzzing issue, is the audio quality acceptable?
4. Are there any random quirks to the audio of the GH4 I should know about?
5. Does the GH4 have any issues like the GH2 where the audio levels change slightly once the 'record' button is pressed?
6. How is the audio level meter? Is it accurate / helpful etc...?

I'd be keen to hear from anyone shooting and recording audio with the GH4 and get their feedback and opinions. It'd be great to ditch the Zoom H4n recorder that I use with the GH2.

Cheers!

• Panasonic GH2 Body only: $350.00 + 3 batteries, two chargers. Two battery are genuine Panasonic. Other is off brand. $70 for 2nd Panasonic and $40 for off brand. (Original Box is available if you'd like
• Nikon Nikkor 50mm F1.8 AIS: $70.00
• Nikon Nikkor 24mm F2.8 AIS: $150.00 - protrusion filed down to fit RJ Lens Turbo. Operates perfect! Original buying price. $250
• RJ Lens Turbo - Nikon F/G reducer speed booster turbo adapter to m4/3 mft GF5 GF6 GX1 EM5 EM1 BM - $100 (Comes in original box)
• Lowell Pro SlingShot 102 : $60.00 TOTAL: $860

Original price for all totals over $1000.

You can opt to BUY ALL for $700. I'll put it all in the Lowell Pro Sling Shot 102.

PM me if interested. US only. Paypal only. Buyer pays shipping. All equipment is well taken care of and maintained. Here are some videos I've made with this little powerhouse!

The TRANSITION DESIGNER, the plug-in for professional transitions, is now a free-of-charge lean version in addition to the Full und Lite Version for Adobe Premiere Pro available with the following features for Mac and PC:

High-quality wipe effect with a lot of adjustable parameters such as angle, transition easing (linear, easy in & out), feathered edge, blur and glow effect. Many of the parameters support keyframes and we also included the powerful time remapping function. All transitions are GPU accelerated for real-time playback!

Get your free version here: bit.ly/accevolution