These articles are on the Avid Media Composer video editing software. Learn virtually any aspect of the NLE here. And if you can’t find it here, check out our ultimate list of Avid Media Composer resources.
There are tutorials, courses, quizzes, and tons of insights from an editor with more than a decade of experience churning out videos from Media Composer.
Learn everything from bin management to restoring offline media from these articles. Here are some more things you can learn here:
How to use the Trim to Fill effect
Clip Color
Every single keyboard shortcut
How to make a template sequence
The difference between fixed and elastic keyframes
This tutorial will walk you through how to create a template sequence in Avid Media Composer. You’ll learn how to create a new sequence, add video tracks, add audio tracks, rename tracks and more so you can reuse the sequence over and over. Useful link from the tutorial: Mastering Avid Media Composer’s Keyboard Shortcuts Leave … Read more
I want you to become a keyboard shortcut master. If you know the keyboard shortcuts and understand their functions, you’ll be a faster video editor. That means you finish projects sooner, get paid faster and make your bosses and clients happier. When I was learning Media Composer I wish I had a way to check my progress. I didn’t. … Read more
This lesson in the Mastering Avid Media Composer’s Keyboard Shortcuts Series is on all the random and miscellaneous shortcuts not covered in other lessons.
This tutorial will teach you keyboard shortcuts, tricks, and tips for Bins in Avid Media Composer. Avid has a ton of Bin tricks and you can learn them here.
Please note the pre-sale is now over. Please visit this page for more information on the exam. If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been creating a bunch of lessons about Media Composer’s keyboard shortcuts and their related functions. This is because I want you to become a keyboard shortcut master. If you know the keyboard shortcuts … Read more
This is the seventh lesson in a series on mastering Avid Media Composer’s keyboard shortcuts on bins. Each lesson tackles a handful of shortcuts. By the end of all the lessons you should be flying through your editing sessions.
This isn’t just any old list of shortcuts. For many of them I explain exactly how they work and how I use them everyday as a professional editor.
If you’re just getting started, no worries. You can take this lesson and circle back to the previous lessons. You can find all the lessons here.
This is the fifth lesson in a series on mastering Avid Media Composer’s keyboard shortcuts on modes, trimming, and slipping. Each lesson tackles a handful of shortcuts. By the end of all the lessons you should be flying through your editing sessions.
This isn’t just any old list of shortcuts. For many of them I explain exactly how they work and how I use them everyday as a professional editor.
If you’re just getting started, no worries. You can take this lesson and circle back to the previous lessons. You can find all the lessons here.
This lesson focuses on modes, trimming and slipping.
Lesson 5 Shortcuts — Modes, Trimming and Slipping
Modes and Trimming Keyboard Shortcuts in Avid
Source/Record Mode
Source/Record Mode
Shortcut: Y
Source/Record Mode is the mode you’re going to be in for the most part. This shortcut doesn’t do much unless you are not in Source/Record Mode. This shortcut will leave whatever mode you’re in and put you into Source/Record Mode.
Trim Mode
Trim Mode
Shortcut: U
The first of the Trimming keyboard shortcuts in Avid is Trim Mode. Hitting U will enter you into Trim Mode putting rollers around the nearest edit point to the Time Position Indicator on the selected tracks (did you follow that?). By default you’ll have the double pink rollers. This means when you add to one side you subtract from the other.
This is the fourth lesson in a series on mastering Avid Media Composer’s keyboard shortcuts and it’s on all the editing keyboard shortcuts. Each lesson tackles a handful of shortcuts. By the end of the lessons you should be flying through your editing sessions.
This isn’t just any old list of shortcuts. For many of them I explain how they work and how I use them everyday as a professional editor.
If you’re just getting started, no worries. You can take this lesson and circle back to the previous lessons. You can find all the lessons here.
This lesson focuses on editing. By editing I mean putting clips in and removing clips from the timeline. There’s only a few shortcuts in this lesson but they’re some of the most valuable and useful functions in Media Composer.
PS – There’s a pop quiz that I need you to give me an answer to at the end of the lesson.
Lesson 4 Shortcuts — Editing
List of Editing Keyboard Shortcuts in Avid
Here is a quick rundown on locked and unlocked tracks. It is important to understand how this works to fully grasp the keyboard shortcuts in this lesson. If you are familiar with these already then skip ahead. If not, I recommend reading this section.
Locked vs. Unlocked Tracks in Avid
Watch the video and/or read below 😀
You have the choice to lock or unlock a timeline track. I strongly recommend locking your tracks. In fact, I pretty much only edit with my tracks locked. 99% of the time my tracks are locked. There are only a handful of times when it’s more useful for them to be unlocked.
There’s a rectangle on each track in between the track name and the monitor box (see image). When it’s highlighted and there’s a black slanted rectangle thing in it then the track is locked. If it isn’t highlighted and there isn’t a black slanted rectangle thing then it is unlocked. Tracks are unlocked. by default
Locked vs. Unlocked Tracks
When you “lock a track” in After Effects it means you cannot make any changes to it. That’s not what this is in Media Composer. Locking tracks syncs the given timecode for all locked tracks, locking them together so if you make changes (i.e. adding or removing time to a track by editing in or editing out a clip) to one then you make changes to them all.
Locked vs. Unlocked Tracks Scenario
Here’s a scenario. Clips are on V1 and V2. The tracks are locked. Both clips begin at 01:02:20:14 and end at 01:02:24:14 – they’re 4 seconds long. If you have V1 selected and you extract from 01:02:21:10 to 01:02:22:10 (1 second) then the clips on V1 and V2 shorten by a second. Both clips would end at 01:02:23:14. If the tracks were unlocked however the clip on V1 would shorten to 3 seconds and the clip on V2 would remain the same.
I find that more times than not I want everything on the timeline to react together. If I shorten a clip on V1 at 01:03:00:00 I don’t want to have to think about the rest of the clips further down the timeline that are synced up with clips and audio on other tracks getting knocked out of alignment.
Locking tracks keeps you from unintentionally knocking your timeline out of sync. It takes a minute (or a couple weeks) to wrap your head around it but IMO it’s the safest, quickest and best way to edit. Confused about anything? Leave a comment.
Okay, ready for the keyboard shortcuts in Avid Media Composer for editing?!
