User interface seems very similar to Avid Express but limited video tracks do cramp your style. Also, buggy imports have a tendency to crash the program, so watch out!

Back in April 2017, Avid released a free version of the classic Media Composer software called Media Composer First. Free is a pretty attractive price, compared with the $40-$70 monthly subscription. Media Compser First (or MC First) is a stripped-down version of the professional editing system, intended for students and up-and-coming filmmakers. For a complete comparison of MC First’s Features compared to Avid Media Composer, please consult this chart.

I finally got the opportunity to check it out in early August. Usually, I edit animated content into short videos for delivery to our clients. These edits aren’t too complicated but I just don’t have the best editing tools available to me at the moment. I have Final Cut Pro 7, but sadly it’s becoming more and more buggy as time goes on. I love working in Premiere, but I don’t have access to an active license right now. So Avid Media Composer First seems like a natural fit for the kind of work I need to do. Presently, I have 2 projects that are 2 minutes in length which I have been editing with MC First. I’ve probably spent about 8 hours using this software so far – long enough to formulate a few opinions.

First of all, remembering the Avid tools and interface was a little bit of a learning curve – It’s been a number of years since I edited on an Avid system with any regularity. Our studio back at HHS had an Avid Unity system, and I was trained in my university’s Avid Express media lab. So I was definitely a little rusty. Attempting to perform a slip edit, for example, was very frustrating, because you first must master the art of “lassoing” the clip, which is a feat in and of itself. But I found that after only about half an hour the controls started to come back to me.

Once I got into the rhythm of the cut, I found it to be a pretty robust editing system. The software manages memory well, and seems to be pretty snappy and responsive on my MacBook Pro laptop. The tools have been scaled back, and there are supposedly some limitations to the effects, but so far, I have not noticed any important features or tools missing. I have read that MC First also limits you to 8 audio tracks, but so far that has not affected me much. Both of my projects are really just voice over and some music and occasional sound effects, so I haven’t needed more than 3 audio tracks so far. There is no ProTools integration, which is disappointing because it would be nice to be able to seamlessly supplement the limited on-board audio features with another software. But again, this is not critical for a majority of the projects I work on.

There are a few drawbacks that have become a bit of a hassle. The most notable drawback is that MC First limits you to 4 video tracks. Four tracks are usually enough to get by, but one of my projects required 5 layers for a stylized transition. I ended up having to use Apple Motion to create the transition effect and then rendering it out with alpha channel so that I could apply it to my timeline on a single video layer. MC First also limits you to only 5 bins. While this hasn’t been a problem on my current projects, but when working with footage from multiple sources, this limitation could become a real nuisance. Another drawback that grinds my gears is the limited set of export options. It appears that one can only choose from a limited set of file formats on the “Media Creation Settings” menu. Then, you have the option to “Publish to…” YouTube, Vimeo or the local drive. When you choose “local drive,” you can create a filename and set the export location, but not much else. Resolution settings are disabled, and there are only 2 codecs to choose from in my case. I have found myself having to convert my movie file with Quicktime after export to achieve the settings I want. I also find that the exports take much more time than I am accustomed to. Finally, I have experienced a handful of crashes which have resulted in lost work, mainly while importing a large clip, or exporting a timeline. This could have to do with sub-optimal project settings vs. export settings, so it may take some time to suss out a solution. I also frequently experience crashes when closing one project and opening another.

There are some features that I know will be useful in the future and I’m anxious to test them out. the Group Clips editing for multi camera shoots and Grouping by Audio Waveform are both fantastic features which I would not expect to be supported on a free software. I also hope to test out the stabilize effect and the color correction tools. MF First is also supposed to provide some kind of connectivity to a collaborative community called the “Avid Artist Community.” This is not something that I have explored (nor do I intend to). But this feature may be very appealing to other users.

Overall I found MC First to be a very useful tool. This software will probably be sufficient for the vast majority of projects that I will work on in the near future, and in the rare instances it is not, I can supplement with a motion graphics tool such as Motion or After Effects. I think the thing I like the most about this software is that the learning curve is worth the effort, because as you become more and more comfortable with the interface, you can still use those skills if you graduate to a professional system. Other free editing tools such as iMovie seem to try to re-invent the editing interface visually, and fluency with that interface does not necessarily carry forward into more advanced editing systems as your skills improve. If you’re interested in Avid’s Media Composer First, I would encourage you to give it a try. You can’t beat the price! Just try to make sure to save your project before importing a clip or exporting a timeline, and you should be all set.