Customer Reviews

Editing with Avid Xpress Pro and Avid Xpress DV

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Few books are written by *educational* departments. Most software books are written by people who managed to land a book deal.

Avid's own books is focused on *how to make the software work*. Editing aethetics come from you...not this book.

When finished you'll know what's important - soup to nuts how the software works. You should also pick up the Intro effects and the color correcting book.

In other words, each book of the series goes into how to make the tool work - having consulted with editors, Avid presents the materials in a logical, concise method to learn how the software works in the most efficient manner.

Like an onion, in layers, the difficulty increases throughout each of their books.

This is not a good introduction to Avid editing software. All sorts of important little details are left out of the explanations and examples, making a sophisticated interface fairly incomprehensible. I have begun the tutorial several times, and have not been able to go through even the "basic editing" sections.

I suggest looking elsewhere.

This is a great disappointment.

I bought this book because I was having several technical issues for a long form project and I was hoping to get some insight into solving those problems. However, there was no pertinent information for trouble shooting my issues.

This is probably a great book for a beginner but if you are experienced at all, you won't find any useful information here.

This book is suprisingly bad, considering that it's put out by Avid. I agree completely with the other reviewer who compared this book unfavorably with the Final Cut Pro books put out by Apple's Training Series. Those books have clear exercises and go through the processes you're learning in a thorough step-by-step way. This book doesn't even explain the interface clearly. Then, suddenly you are instructed to hit keys that have never been mentioned before. The writer doesn't even tell you what footage he's working with most of the time. A real disaster.

Editing with Avid Xpress Pro and Avid Xpress DV is a terrific book for beginners and for intermediate editors as well. It doesn't waste time trying to interject "personality" into the text, it dives straight into teaching the Avid interface, buttons and basic editing techniques. It's organized well and can be used for quick reference, but it also contains exercises and short quizzes at the end of each chapter. The exercises contain real world footage that ranges from a PSA on the rainforest to an emergency room drama. The book gives you two ways to go through the exercises as well: 1. with detailed step-by-step instructions perfect for beginners or 2. with an outline of basic instructions that allows an intermediate editor to hone his/her skills when those step-by-steps plod you into a state of hypnosis.

It's a terrific guide with good sample footage and clear, concise explanations.

This book is put out by peachpit and frankly I'm surprised at the mediocre quality of it. I also purchased the Visual Quickbooks Xpress Pro book (also put out by Peachpit) and found it to be superior in every way but one. The single area in which the official Avid book stands out is the inclusion of a dvd of source material to be used in exercises. I consider this to be an absolute necessity when learning any complicated piece of software. However, the Avid book disappoints in its implementation. The Apple pro training series Final Cut Pro book incorporates the exercises directly into the chapters, meaning that you follow along as you learn. The Avid book on the other hand is laid out so that you read a chapter on how to do something, quiz yourself on your knowledge retention and then are provided an excersise section in which to practice what you have learned. Personally, I find it extremely difficult to read about a software interface without using it simultaneously. For this reason I greatly prefer Apple's layout. If this book didn't come with the DVD, I would have given it 2 stars.