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My Adobe Days
In the 2000s, the high-end of film and ad work was largely dominated by Avid. Getting time on an Avid was very expensive, hundreds per hour if memory serves. And then even more if you needed an editor. The only reason I happened to get time on it was because I knew the fellow who opened the very first Avid room in NYC, in partnership with the huge Post Perfect production house in midtown. I did his early advertising work, and he cut me some time in one of his two or three Avid rooms.
I no longer recall all of the issues, but let me say, working with an Avid back then was not easy. Getting static images from Photoshop into the Avid was a royal pain. So when Adobe released their re-written "PRO" version of Premiere, a version that we were told would actually work compared to the original incarnation, well, we were all happy to give it a whirl.
For Adobe, "The Social Network" was their intro to Hollywood. Plus, Premiere Pro could integrate with the other gem in Adobe’s offerings: After Effects. And with their "Adobe Dynamic Link" functionality that came out some time later, we could shuttle clips back and forth from editor, to compositor, and back again. And hey, on good days, it actually worked. And on great days, it didn’t crash our systems!
Why We Change Tools
When tools are a major part of your business, you don’t change them out without good reason. This is true with construction tools, farming tools, and our own digital tools. You have to have a sound basis for taking that risk. Usually, you have to have more than one lone reason.
For me, the initial reason I even began to consider moving off of Adobe editing tools was my long-term goal of moving off Windows and on to Linux. And Adobe simply isn’t an option on that platform. But as I type this, I realize that is a bit disingenuous, right? I mean, if Adobe and its tools are that important to me, I would just stay on Windows, or move back to a Mac, right? So there has to be more to it, and there is.
What I Noticed About Black Magic
I do not jump fast. My move to a new platform started by putting Ubuntu Studio on my laptop almost two years ago. Then building a new Linux workstation this past year. Along that time I was also learning more about DaVinci, yes. But also about the company that makes it, Black Magic.
I learned that the difference between their free version of DVR and their paid one was, amazingly small. They were not, excuse the expression, yanking anyone’s chain as is so often the case. The free version was totally and fully usable.
And that should someone really need the few extra functions of the paid "Studio" version, purchasing that was only $300. A ONE-TIME cost. Those extra functions were so few, that I have been playing with it on smaller projects for about a year, and only just decided to install the Studio version because I needed to import using its 265 codec, only available in the studio version. Otherwise, I would have stayed on the free offering.
Just $300 for an application like this? There must be a catch, I assumed. But talking to friends, I was assured, there was no catch. And in fact one told me he jumped on almost a decade ago and they have never once even asked for any upgrade fee for any of the major releases across all those years.
Jumping In
As mentioned, I had only done very small, short form work in DVR until now. A project that I just recently did in it involved more. Still under 10 minutes, but it involved far more color correction, audio sweetening, and video/text treatments. Nothing I had done in DVR yet.
In the Adobe suite all of this would have meant jumping from Premiere, to some After Effects work, and over to Audition for the audio work. All of that jumping around from one application to another, and back again sounds really daunting. And I can tell you that after years of that being my normal workflow for video work, I still held my breath before each leap. Knowing that there was always the possibility it may not work, it may crash one or more apps (save first!), or the data may corrupt along the way.
DaVinci Resolve has all of those capabilities, editing, compositing, audio and more. And all within the same application. Each specialty is represented across its seven "tabs". They include:
- Media: A bit like Adobe’s Bridge, where you can select, manage and import your media.
- Cut: This is a quick cuts timeline designed for on location and dailies. Much like another app Adobe killed off some years ago, Prelude.
- Edit: The main editor, which is very similar to Premiere, and was easy to jump on to.
- Fusion: A video compositor, akin to After Effects. But node based like the high-end Nuke.
- Color: The industry’s top color correction and sweetening software, with endless controls. Much like SpeedGrade, the package Adobe killed.
- Fairlight: A very capable audio editing application.
- Deliver: Much like Adobe’s Media Encoder app, which controls the final rendering for delivery.
Working on my recent project in DVR, as I kept adding more 6k clips to the project, and started moving back and forth between Edit and Color and Fairlight, I kept waiting for a hiccup. But not one ever came.
I should mention that my aging Windows box is a whopping decade old! Yes, it’s been upgraded with SSDs and large hard drives, and has 32 GB of ram, and is on its third GPU. But it is still a decade old.
Not only was there no hiccup, there wasn’t even a pause. DaVinci took everything in stride. And everything worked as I would have hoped it to work. Change the color or sound in their respective editing tabs, and it all looked and sounded just as it should when I went back to the Edit tab.
If Only It Were Open Source!
As mentioned, I’ve been wanting to go all open source. I no longer want to play all the silly games big tech continues to foist upon us day after year. But this Black Magic company is making me think I may make an exception.
After all, I can’t see that they play those games. They seem to have been playing it straight with their user base for a long time now. Free software that actually works, and isn’t bait and switch. A crazy low ONE-TIME purchase price for the Studio version. And no upgrade costs as they roll out new versions.
I’m going to make just one exception to my "All Open Source" decision. And of course, they make it for Mac, Windows and yes, even Linux. So I may break my plans of going fully open source and include DaVinci Resolve. Because if my experience has been this good on my aging Windows box, I can’t wait to see it fly on my much faster Linux machine. I’ll keep you all posted.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I’ve had a wonderful experience with DaVinci Resolve. It’s an incredibly capable toolset, with a surprising lack of bugs or hiccups. And at a price point that is just crazy low, especially considering it’s not subscription-based. I’m seriously considering making an exception to my "All Open Source" decision and sticking with Black Magic’s software.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is DaVinci Resolve worth the switch from Adobe Premiere Pro?
A: Yes, especially if you’re looking for a more affordable option with fewer upgrade costs.
Q: Is DaVinci Resolve compatible with Linux?
A: Yes, it’s available on Mac, Windows, and Linux.
Q: Is DaVinci Resolve as powerful as Adobe Premiere Pro?
A: Yes, it’s a very capable toolset with a surprising lack of bugs or hiccups.
Q: Is DaVinci Resolve open source?
A: No, but it’s not subscription-based and has a very reasonable one-time purchase price.
