(Part 2) Top products from r/editors

One of my hobbies is setting up servers. I've built a number of post systems for companies and I run my current home NAS to do a lot of home automation / media distribution tasks. I've also set up wireless editing systems based on NAS systems (offline only, of course). I've also built SAS backplane systems and custom RAID solutions. I am by no means an expert or an IT professional, but like I said it's a hobby so I've done some experimenting with a lot of what's out there.

Your question makes it sound like you already know what you want, but I'm curious how you're mentally dividing up your data.

What you should consider is the difference between 3 things:

1.) Active, concurrent backups

2.) Long term project archival

3.) Day-to-day project access

It's possible to glom these 3 tasks together into a single storage solution, but you'll hamper performance, safety, and pay more than necessary if you do. It's better to break them apart.

How would you answer these questions:

• What is the average size (in GB) of a project being worked on in my office?
  
• How many people are typically accessing that project simultaneously?
  
• How many simultaneous projects might a single editor have on her plate on any given day (and therefore need to have simultaneous access to from a given system)?
  
• What is the highest bitrate media we'll normally be cutting?
  
• Related: what is the throughput of our network?
  
• How long do we want to archive client projects after delivery?
  
• What kinds of workstations are being used, and how much data needs to be stored on them directly (i.e. not on an external drive plugged into them)?
  
• What other tasks would we like a file server to accomplish (besides just serving files)?
  
• How many blinking lights in a cabinet is too many blinking lights?
  
• Etc. etc. etc.
  
  
  Depending on your answers to questions like these you may want one set of products or something else entirely.
  
  In my experience, for most small editing shops with consumer-grade networking infrastructure, you're best off splitting archival / backups / active projects into separate storage solutions.
  
  For active projects a DAS is necessary above certain bitrates (working with ArriRAW? Not going to happen over the network. ProResLT? Yeah, do it wirelessly if you want). A good DAS on every workstation is also nice because it lets you host several active projects simultaneously in recoverable storage (RAID 1, 5, or 6). In that case OWC is a good cheap solution, but Promise or Caldigit are much, much better. I do not trust G-Drives at all.
  
  If you're working with low bitrate footage and a good network you could instead get a 4+ bay NAS (fewer than a 4 disk RAID and you may not have enough I/O bandwidth for >1 user) and let every workstation pull from the same project pool over the network. This is a completely valid setup, but I would not expect it to be free of bumps unless you're running 10gig Ethernet, fibre, or custom NICs with active teaming. For DASs, Synology is a favorite among filmmakers, but I actually prefer QNAP – I've been running them for ~3 years now and they get better and better every month (company is aggressively developing firmware & OS). Anything above the X53-Pro series can be run as a true server (buy some RAM for $20 and upgrade what it comes with), and simultaneously host a virtual machine if you need a Windows or Linux system. Don't buy anything cheaper than the X53-Pro series though, that model is where they start getting really good. I would stay far, far away from DROBO. Netgear also makes some very solid gear but with limited OS capabilities – good enough for storing files though. I've heard WD is similar but have no experience. All of these systems can run whatever backup software you want for as many machines as you can imagine. The limit will be drive speed + network throughput, and if you're sticking with consumer grade gear you'll want to get a really good router & switch.
  
  Beyond that, if you're doing serious heavy lifting, you could go for a SAN, but those are hard to build yourself. If you're doing work like that though, you should be able to afford to hire EditShare to come in and get your shit in line.
  
  Finally, you should have some other system in place for project archive. I prefer buying drive docks, OEM drives, and anti-static cases. LTO is also an option, but jesus that's annoying. The drives-in-cases plan has been working out pretty well for me over the last 10 years.
  
  Before you buy anything, you should really sit down and try to answer all of these questions, make a spreadsheet of the bitrates of your footage multiplied by num. users, test your network throughput from different workstations, etc.

>I just purchased this OWC hard drive and, upon arrival, I realized that it does not come equipped for MacBook Pro thunderbolt 3 ports.

Allow me to add this to my list of evidence that "The 'C' in 'USB-C' stands for 'Cloaca.'"

That is not a Thunderbolt drive. Your ports are not necessarily Thunderbolt ports. In the case of your Mac, yes. In every other single possible situation, all bets are off. The USB-C port in my Pixel 3a is not a Thunderbolt port, but Thunderbolt uses USB-C.

In this case you have a USB 3.1 drive. All you need to do is use a USB-3B to USB-C cable, like this one.

>First, is there a simple, reliable, adapter solution that I'm not aware of?

Yes. Since we're all living in the USB 3 world all you need is a cable with the right ends on it, or a USB-A to USB-C adapter, of which there are many.

>Second, if not, would this hard drive work well for my needs?

If you need portability, sure, but as a bus powered drive that means it'll be siphoning off power from your laptop, which will affect battery life when not plugged in.

I have a question about the best editing setup for 4K footage:

I am on an iMac so I cannot do the very cool setup that PC users are doing, with a PCI based SSD as their HD for the footage they are working with.

I am thinking of purchasing an editing dock, so I can slap my SSD's in that I use for image capture and just edit the footage right off there (for smaller/shorter videos). For my bigger projects (martial art seminars) I can use the SSD's as fast storage for the files I'm currently working with, then archive them when I am finished with that timeline and move on to the next batch.

Does this sound about right for an editing workflow? For a dock I was thinking either of these:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DJ3YEH0/?coliid=I3LVQBX3Y28PPN&colid=18MV1ZDGQIPKJ&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

or

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0759567JT/?coliid=I1S7ITYP2SKAOB&colid=18MV1ZDGQIPKJ&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

I'm going to be working with 4K Pro Res 422 60 fps footage.


Any advice on how your work flow goes is most appreciated!

Okay this whole time I thought RAID was a form of backup. But you're saying you need to have a whole separate drive as backup? Like this one? Is cloud storage a feasible backup option? Again, thanks for your help. I really appreciate it.

I would lean toward a Raid 5, as it is a more efficient use of redundancy space. You'll have to buy more drives but they can be smaller size, net working out to a similar price. A barebones DAS option might be this one: https://www.amazon.com/QNAP-TR-004-Enclosure-Attached-hardware/dp/B07K4RC7X9.

G raid and Promise also make excellent enclosures but youll pay a premium. OWC is a middle option if you have a Mac.

The color tools in MC are fine, you can probably correct your whole show there. A book like this will give you the sort of starting point you need, even though the examples are in Color.

If your show has some cash upgrading to Symphony could help as it has color tools that help you work quicker.

It's hard to find for cheap (pretty expensive on Amazon) but Selected Takes is pretty interesting. First-hand accounts of the editing process and their careers from several legendary names.

The past month I got a G13 along with a Cintiq knockoff. It's amazing. The G13 is highly customizable, you can have custom keybindings, keystrokes, anything.

With the right hand I use the tablet and my left is on the G13

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-G13-Programmable-Gameboard-Display/dp/B001NEK2GE

> And do yourself a favor and make sure you’re offloading to an SSD RAID (to dump the mags as quickly as possible and do QC), and then also a pair of backup drives are AT LEAST RAID 0 arrays running a pair of 7200 RPM drives.

> Although honestly 8K is the point where you kind of do need SSDs all the way around for any projects that are going to last more than a day or two.


NVMe SSD pricing has fallen through the floor in recent months.
Especially for 8K I just wouldn't bother with hard drives anymore.
Just buy a bunch for NVMe SSDs. Make sure they use TLC flash, not QLC.

I also do not recommend RAID 0. Use RAID 1 if you really want to, but remember, RAID is not a backup

As soon as you offload footage from a Mag, immediately make a second physical copy.

My personal recommendation would be to grab a bunch of these NVMe SSDs (as many as you would need for duplicate copies of all your footage):

https://www.newegg.com/hp-ex920-1tb/p/N82E16820326778

And put them inside these 10Gbps USB enclosures:

https://www.amazon.com/SSK-Aluminum-Enclosure-Adapter-External/dp/B07MNFH1PX/

This way at least storage transfers will not be a bottleneck in your workflow.

Alternatively, these are pricier and slower, but the Samsung T5 is a favorite of mobile editors:

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-T5-Portable-SSD-MU-PA1T0B/dp/B073H552FJ/

This book is awesome if you are just starting out.

You may also want to subscribe to r/MotionDesign for tips and tricks from the community :)

Where did you read that you can only get 4TB with raid 1? But if you're going for more than 2 drives, it's irrelevant anyway.

Also I have this running on my wife's computer (she's the photographer, I'm just the computer guy):

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07K4RC7X9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

With 4x10tb shucked easystore drives in Raid 5. Good performance, not too much lost to overhead.

I don't know how big of a cache you need for video. Maybe someone else can help with that part.

I'd switch to a mezzanine codec. ProRes, DnxHR (SQ or possibly HQX) or Cineform (3 or 4.) They will be much larger (1 GB in HD, 4 GB in 4k).

And build a preset for it for the future.

> Would switching the codec for previews have any unintended consequences?

Depends on what you switch it to.

> Is that something you would do just before exporting?

Once setup right, it becomes the new workflow.

> Then would you have to rerender anyways because you made that change?

You'd have to regenerate previews in the new codec. But once you set this up, it's taken care of.

> If the preview codec is terrible by default I'm sure that's for a reason.

Yes, MPEG2 is fast, and was (relatively) cheap when adobe set this up.

BTW, I'm not just your humble mod, I might have written this

um, why are you deleting the multicam files?

I seems like you're stringing out multiple clips for each angle and then exporting the sequence and creating multiclips from those stringouts.

Why don't you export non-self-contained files for your stringouts.

Also, pluraleyes and sequneceLiner. Just make sure that all your cameras are recording good audio and time of day timecode.

This is also a pretty good book that's cross platform on the subject of multicam shoots.

I realize this is an Avid question, but it seems you could be saving yourself a lot of headache by automating some of the more difficult tasks in FCP.

Awesome. I did manage to find this book. I'm gonna start reading it soon to see if it's what I wanted.

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Cinematography-Fundamentals-Techniques-Workflows/dp/0240817915/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406136409&sr=1-1&keywords=digital+cinematography

If desk space and finances can accommodate, you can enhance the workstation with this programmable gaming peripheral. You can change profiles and hotkeys/macros per profile, making the process a bit more open and, personally, more comfortable.

Man I know the struggle. I would suggest one of these:

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https://www.amazon.co.uk/TeckNet-Laptop-Cooling-Powered-Ultra-Slim/dp/B0164R64Y8/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=laptop+fan+stand&qid=1574280054&sr=8-5

​

I used to leave my machine on the thing all day. I would plug the fan into a seperate source so I could keep the fan on whilst the machine was off. That way when I arrived at the machine later on, it was already cooled and started cold. This dramatically increased performance on that laptop.

If your work is paying for it then a 15" MBP is a no-brainer

It will handle Adobe CC just fine, doesn't run hot and loud like a gamer laptop, and the 2019 models fixed the keyboard and throttling issues from the 2016-2018 models

I learned Avid using two books: Avid Editing by Sam Kaufman and The Avid Assistant Editor's Handbook by Kyra Coffie.

The first one comes with a DVD with some scenes I believe, and it's really helpful to use the footage they give you to cut. I had an internship where afterwards I literally just sat down with this book for a couple hours each day, taking notes and practicing on the Avid in front of me. The second one is more up to date but obviously geared towards assistant editors more, and is a little more technical.

CFast cards are basically small SSDs. That's why it's faster than your HDD. Mobile 2.5" HDDs are particularly low performing too.

I would recommend coloring off an HDD RAID or an SSD. This would easily cover you.

What frame size are you working with?

I have the exact same setup - been using on location edit. Mixed feeling - might go back to Mac very shortly. In the mean time - this thing has given me a load of extra time without lagging or overheating the system.

TeckNet 12"-17" Quiet Laptop Cooler Cooling Pad Stand With 3 USB Powered Fans, 1200 RPM, Light Weight & Ultra-Slim Design

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0164R64Y8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_p-0YBbMB0YRSX

I'm not actually a full-on color guy, just an editor who does a lot of color work when necessary, but most of my knowledge comes from reading this book and just learning from trial and error working on lots of projects. Perhaps others can point you to more useful content.

In the Blink of an Eye

The Conervasations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film

Audio-Vision

I'll add more later if I can think of others I've read but do not own.

http://www.amazon.com/Creating-Motion-Graphics-After-Effects/dp/0240814150/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417902112&sr=8-1&keywords=Creating+Motion+Graphics+with+After+Effects

I'd add Avid Editing: A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users. It helped me in the very beginning.

Here is the mobile version of your link

hi, do you mean this book?

how much cost becoming a ACI? i dont know if avid give certificates in Argentina or if i can afford it (im unnemployed and things here are pretty fucked, this is the main reason i want to give some classes)