Download Avid Media Composer 8.9 from our software library for free. This software is an intellectual property of Avid Technology. The program lies within Multimedia Tools, more precisely Editors & Converters. You can execute this PC program on Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10 32 and 64-bit. Visit developer's site Download Avid Media Composer 2021.6 Windows 2355MB Win Download Avid Media Composer 2021.6 Mac 2355MB Mac Software License Freeware/Trialware (Free download but some features are limited to pro/premium version $1300) Supported operating systems. Avid Media Composer 8 is a 64-bit non-linear editing system that allows you to work – without transcoding – with most file formats and resolutions, including SD, HD, stereoscopic (3D), 4K, and beyond. It also features built-in effects, transitions, and titling tools. With Media Composer 8, you can mix and match different formats, frame rates, and resolutions in the same timeline without.
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Media Composer First is a free and “limited” version of the industry-standard NLE, but is it worth a download?
Top image via Avid.
Avid has released the free version of the Hollywood film- and television-standard non-linear editor: Media Composer. With Media Composer First, you have free access to use a light version of this powerful tool.
Avid announced Media Composer First back in 2015, and it is just now seeing its release. Avid spent the past two years tuning the features they would be willing to make available in a free version of their NLE.
Perhaps it was the growing competition with younger editors learning on Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro, or even industry competition with Blackmagic’s release of a free version of DaVinci Resolve (which now includes its own NLE), but Avid saw it fit to make their tools more accessible to novice users.
What Is Avid Media Composer First?
Image via Avid.
Avid Media Composer First (properly known as Media Composer | First) is the free, entry-level version of Avid’s flagship Media Composer NLE. It’s the non-linear editor standard for countless blockbuster film productions and major television series.
Whereas Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro have dominated the indie and online video markets, Premiere Pro is just now inching its way into feature production. Neither program comes close to the massive industry user base Avid has always maintained.
Many claim that this is just a stripped down version of Media Composer, but that is not a hinderance. This is still a very powerful program — and at no cost it’s foolish to immediately downplay Media Composer First. This is a serious tool that is now accessible to everyone.
How to Download Avid Media Composer First
The process of downloading Media Composer First is easy, but there are a lot of steps to start the download.
- Visit the Media Composer First website.
- Create an Avid Master Account.
- Verify your email address.
- Fill out your name and physical address.
- Take a survey about yourself and how you will use Media Composer First.
- Download Avid Media Composer First.
- Install and restart your machine.
Media Composer First is available for Mac and PC. On the download page, you will also be prompted with some links to “Get Started Fast” video tutorials, a quick start guide, the community forums, and your Avid Master Account where you can access downloads and updates.
Avid Media Composer First Features
There are positives and negatives to Avid Media Composer First, if you can even really call them negatives considering this is a free program.
While this is touted as a stripped-down version of Media Composer, it really isn’t. Most of the tools are still there, you just don’t have access to unlimited workflow tools.
Image via Avid.
Here are some Media Composer First limitations:
- Maximum of 4 video tracks
- Maximum of 8 audio tracks
- Export in only Quicktime Movie H.264, DNxHD, PCM, WAV (Max 1080p at 59.94fps)
- Graphics export limited to TIFF and JPEG
- Maximum of 5 bins per project
- Requires you to log in to Avid Application Manager before launch
- Cannot open existing Media Composer (full version) projects
- Media Composer First projects also cannot be opened in Media Composer
Other than those limitations, just about every other tool and option is still available. From trimming clips to color grading, you have access to just about anything you’d need to cut and export an indie-sized project.
Image via Avid.
Media Composer First Available Tools and Settings:
- Work with 4K, HD, and SD footage
- List of Available Formats
- Multiple Project Specs
- SD PAL, SD NTSC, 720, 1080
- 23.978p, 24p, 25i, 30i/p, 50i/p, 59.94i/p
- Mono, dual mono, stereo audio
- Video Effects
- Limited core set
- Source Side Motion Effects
- TimeWarp
- Stabilize
- Color Correction
- CC Effect
- Predefined CC Effects
- HSL Controls
- Hue Offsets
- Luma Range
- Multicam editing
- 601/709 color spaces
- Audio mixing
- Audio ducking
- Classic Title tools
- AVX and AAX plugins from the Avid Marketplace available
- Social media exports: Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo
My Review of Editing on Media Composer First
I’ll go ahead and issue this disclaimer: I haven’t personally cut on Media Composer in over a decade. I first learned how to edit on the likes of Windows Movie Maker and iMovie as a kid. I didn’t cut on Avid until college, but at the same time, I purchased my own student license for Final Cut Studio 2 and was an FCP7 editor pretty much until I wrote “It’s Time to Stop Editing in Final Cut Pro 7” in 2015. These days, I hop between Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve, depending on the project. Very rarely do I even find myself opening FCPX anymore.
A lot has changed in that time, but from the looks of the interface, Avid really hasn’t changed all that much. That’s been the biggest plus and minus for the program. Avid is built to support major motion pictures and television series that are rarely cutting on the latest tech. Studios have relied on the ability to constantly edit projects without ever needing to update their hardware or software, which could risk a delay of production.
On a mid-2015 MacBook Pro, Media Composer First lagged to the point that I infuriatingly just had to walk away to write down my notes for this piece. You’re going to have to adjust some settings to fine tune Media Composer First to best work on your individual machine.
As most editors should admit, I was forced to Google my issues to find any type of resolution. Vuescan 9 6 32. Much like my early days ending up on sites and blogs like this very one, the Avid forums, or CreativeCow, I once again found myself digging through the same forums and comments sections of other blogs. Many of the issues I had with the current version of Media Composer First are the same issues people have been running into for years with the regular version of Media Composer.
At launch, you are immediately prompted to log into the Avid Application Manager. This is nothing new, as editors have always searched for ways to turn off this “helper” program. It should be noted that as long as you are logged in, you can still cut in Media Composer First if you are offline.
Right away, you’ll notice that if you were listening to music on your headphones, you’ll be blasted with audio right at launch. If you go in between programs, you’ll hear the audio levels constantly change. This is something I fixed with another visit back to Creative Cow.
Where other NLEs have made major strides in working faster on limited machines, like laptops, Avid Media Composer puts my computer into a stranglehold and never really lets go. I tried editing a 4K clip, and my computer just couldn’t handle the workload. I ended up having to force quit Media Composer First and try again.
Avid Media Composer 8 4 5 Download Free Windows
Despite the issues I had in the beginning, the issues were rather minor once you are able to actively start cutting. You may also benefit from watching a few of the beginner tutorials that Avid provides on their site.
It can’t be said enough: this is a free tool and has the ability to edit serious projects. It’s just going to be on the user to be willing to take the time to learn the quirks of Avid -- something I just didn’t have the time to do for this review.
Final Thoughts
Image via Avid.
I’m curious as to whom Media Composer First is really for. It’s a great option for current Premiere and FCPX editors to at least learn Media Composer, should they get called onto a major production job. For any non-editor just running a Google search for “How to I edit a video,” this is going to be overkill.
If you find yourself low on cash and at risk of losing your Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, you may be tempted to switch over to Avid Media Composer First, but you also have the option to download DaVinci Resolve 14 — also free. Blackmagic is currently touting the fast speeds Resolve 14 offers on machines like laptops. You also aren’t restricted to limited audio and video tracks, so you could really go crazy with sound design in DaVinci Resolve.
I will leave it with this. I’m glad that Avid is making the move to appeal to younger editors, even though it took two years for this program to come together. Avid is a few steps behind, but it’s still an actively used program worth investing some time in. Having a basic understanding of Media Composer will never hurt you. It’s worth the time to download and at least explore Media Composer First.
What are your thoughts on Media Composer First? Let us know in the comments.
The most recent release of Avid Media Composer is now up to version 8.4. (8.4.5 is the latest patch) Some of the headline new features include the ability to create projects with custom frame sizes, native support for Pro Res 2K/4K/UHD media, timeline text search and much more. You can check out the full details in this official pdf and all the other documentation here. One thing to note is that Media Composer is not yet supported on OS X El Capitan (10.11).
It’s also worth noting that Avid’s free version of the software Media Composer First, is still not yet available, hopefully it will appear in 2016, but you can check out the details and sign up to be notified of it’s release here. I want to download roblox. The catch with ‘MC First’ is that all projects will be saved in the cloud and the software will be severely limited, though hopefully still useful for acquiring a taste for how it functions.
Media Composer | First saves all projects to the cloud and includes a limited number of cloud projects and cloud storage, with more project and storage capacity available on the Marketplace. That said, the media is still stored locally, largely to ensure the best possible playback performance.
In this first LACPUG presentation from LA based TV editor Shane Ross, you can check out the new features in Media Composer 8.4, from the perspective of a working editor, and the things he feels are the most important to know about, for better every day life in the edit suite.
Available today in the Media Composer 8.4 update—XAVC-I and ProRes Native Support.http://t.co/1AcDps1pNT#Avidpic.twitter.com/0BGQNCzMCJ
Best ps1 emulator for wii. — Avid Media Composer (@MediaComposer) June 25, 2015
If you scroll to the bottom of the post you’ll see a bunch more animated gifs, explaining some of the new features, and this tweet from Chris Ostertag points out an important ‘default’ option in MC 8.4
Watch yourselves in Media Composer 8.4 – 'export inactive audio tracks' is on by default. http://t.co/AubNwW73Qt
— Chris Ostertag (@videograndpa) June 25, 2015
Editing Star Wars The Force Awakens in Avid
Matt Fury and the team at Avid take you behind the scenes on Star Wars: The Force Awakens, with an extended conversation with a fistful of the post-production crew at Bad Robot (JJ Abram’s post-house) in this on-demand webinar. You will have to sign up to view it, but with the opportunity to spend an hour with the two editors (Mary Jo Markey and Maryann Brandon) plus their two Assistant Editors (Robert Stambler and Matt Evans) as well as VFX Editor Martin Kloner and Sound Designer Will Files.
Here are a few tid-bits from the conversation, which largely focused on Q+A from the live-stream viewers. The Making of Star Wars.net has it’s own breakdown of the webinar here.
- How close to the wire the post-production schedule runs
- JJ Abrams uses macros to email his editing assistant
- Bad Robot run an ethernet based Avid ISIS system
- Star Wars was cut on DNxHD 115
- JJ Abrams created a temp VFX shot for the film
How do you decide who edits what? Do you divide the movie scene by scene or pick and choose what you want?
Mary Jo: We divided up the script according to page count and did it in very large pieces so we had a good run at a section. That way when J.J. was editing with us he didn’t have to be bouncing back and forth between rooms. I cut the beginning and end of the film and Maryann cut the large middle section. We also watched the dailies together and talked about the movie incessantly.
Mary Jo: We divided up the script according to page count and did it in very large pieces so we had a good run at a section. That way when J.J. was editing with us he didn’t have to be bouncing back and forth between rooms. I cut the beginning and end of the film and Maryann cut the large middle section. We also watched the dailies together and talked about the movie incessantly.
Brady Betzel from Post Perspective interviews Mary Ann and Mary Jo, plus associate editor Julian Smirke, on various elements of their creative process and a collaborative editing team. It’s a very enjoyable read that’s well worth a few minutes of your time.
Do you have any favorite Avid shortcuts?
Mary Jo: Copy to Source monitor.
Mary Jo: Copy to Source monitor.
Maryann: Fit-to-Fill for quick speed ramps.
Julian: Because I live so much in the sound world with temp sound design, I would have to go with Option + Command + U, which allows you to insert any type of audio track in between other tracks. During large scenes like the Falcon chase we would use up to 20 tracks or more and need to insert a stereo track into the middle of that with that shortcut.
Mary Jo: I feel like we should have a meeting about all of this because I don’t know the ones you are talking about!
8.4 Aba
Maryann: Me too, I was like copy? We can copy?
Mary Jo: We’re going to have put a pamphlet together.
For possibly the most comprehensive write up on the editing of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it’s best to head over to Tim Wilson’s excellent article over on Creative Cow.net. Tim does a great job of setting up the wider historical and creative context before ploughing into a very interesting conversation with the two editors. If you only read one of the articles in this round up, read this one, as it’s clearly been lovingly written by a real Star Wars fan.
Creative COW: What are some insights you gained from working on this that you might take into your next projects as editors?
Mary Jo: It’s funny, I was just thinking about J.J. and I struggling with the structure of the village raid, the opening set piece of the movie, but we finally got it when we put all of the scenes with Finn together, and all of the scenes with Poe together, and I just turned around and looked at J.J. and said, “Mission Impossible.” It was a reference to something that we had figured out during the bridge shootout in Mission Impossible III, that sometimes these things just work better when you don’t intercut too much.
The Editor’s Guild has a nice little write up of a post-screening Q&A with the duo of editors, with a few choice quotes, largely focused on working with director JJ. Abrams.
J.J. doesn’t give us any direction in how he wants us to put a scene together. He doesn’t want to see anything until he is done with shooting. So you can cut something, put it aside and, weeks later, you can go back to it to take a look. You have this opportunity to fix things, find things, do any version. There’s so much freedom in being left alone with your footage for a long period of time before you have to present anything. – Mary-Jo Markey
UPDATE: Editor Steve Hullfish continues his excellent Art of The Cut series, with this extended conversation with the two editors, over on Pro Video Coalition. As always it’s a must read article, packed with lots of great Star Wars insights as well as detailed technical editing insights too!
On the editing schedule:
HULLFISH: What was the rough editing schedule?
MARY JO: It was long. They shot from May to November of 2014. We really did not finish cutting until sometime in November of 2015. Near the end of the schedule on a JJ film things are moving simultaneously. The DI is happening and changes get passed on to DI. The sound is being built. Changes keep getting fed to the mixing stage. John Williams re-recorded several cues because our changes were so extensive on some scenes that it just wasn’t going to work to just edit them.
On their editing process:
HULLFISH: One of the things that you guys do that is a bit different from the other editors I’ve spoken with is that you really don’t try to put the whole movie together until each individual scene is cut. A lot of other editors say that as soon as they can string a couple of scenes together they do.
MARY JO: Really this is a process that’s driven by JJ. He, from his experience working in television, learned that it felt too overwhelming to watch a full first pass. And when I hear of people watching a first cut that’s like three hours and twenty minutes long, I can really see his point. Really in a way, “why?” Why put yourself through that? His method is, “let’s pick a scene. Let’s work on this scene.” And on this film, he tended to go chronologically. On a lot of projects, he’ll just pick a random scene.
MARYANN: Sometimes the order is driven by visual effects.
MARY JO: Yeah, that’s true. But I think it takes an onus off of everyone’s shoulders. We’re just going to look at scenes. We’re not going to assume that we have anything that we’re going to remotely call a complete film because we know we don’t. We probably have way too much material and …
MARYANN: … and we’re going to change the order.
More interviews with Star Wars: The Force Awakens Editors
In these two older interviews, Ricky Young interviews both of JJ’s editors at NAB 2015, which includes questions about their collaborative working relationship, working with JJ Abram, their editing sensibilities and the difference between editors who have cut on film and those who have only cut on digital.
These last two interviews from AOTG.com interviews Mary-Jo Markey A.C.E. at length on her work on Super 8 and Star Trek, which both contain some great editing wisdom.
Avid Media Composer 8.4 Tutorials
In this second LACPUG video, twenty year Media Composer veteran editor Steve Kanter, shares his top tips for anyone looking to work faster and make smarter decisions when working in Media Composer.
The kind of tips Steve shares, are the kind of insights you can only acquire after two decades of working in a piece of software, and not the kind of thing you’ll see in Avid ‘how-to’ tutorials. You’ll definitely learn something new, no matter how well you already know Media Composer.
Benjamin Hershleder, author of Avid Media Composer Cookbook, has put together this handy video that demonstrates how to create a custom transition effect, with a sound effect, and then re-use it quickly within the same project, all the while detailing several key Media Composer concepts like Sync Point Editing, Subsequencing, Collapsing and Numeric Entry.
Josh Short from Edit Video Faster has been creating handy Media Composer tutorials for quite some time now, and in this playlist above you can check out the 18 tutorials he’s released so far. It’s also worth reading through this detailed Avid blog post on his markers based workflow for tracking revisions.
With Media Composer you can choose the color marker you want to use. I use cyan (light blue) for everything that I still need to do. Go through with the cyan marker and add a new one each time there is a change to be made. Write exactly what needs to be done so you don’t have to go back to refer to emails or sticky notes. When I make a change, I change the marker’s color to blue and write the word “done,” my initials and the date before my comment; for example: ‘DONE JMS 06.12.15 – Fix Dissolve‘.
Michael Phillips has a great Avid related blog over on 24p.com, which includes this handy post about working with ‘over-sampled’ media – for example shooting 4K for a 1080p project, so that you can stabilise shots, reframe and more, without losing quality. The trick is that in Avid “any effect applied to an image is only getting the scaled output format from FrameFlex which is your project type. So if you are linking to a 4K UHD size source clip and are in a 1080 HD project, any effect applied is to the already scaled image and is 1080 HD.”
Michael goes on to explain how you can work around this and stabilise your shots without losing resolution, which is very handy to know. It’s also well worth rummaging in the rest of his posts for more great tips and solutions.
New Features in Media Composer 8.4
You can watch this short video from Avid to see all of the new features in Avid 8.4 to see everything in action, or skim through the tweeted gifs below to find out more.
Available today in Media Composer 8.4 update—REFORMATTING LINKED MEDIA.http://t.co/1AcDps1pNT#Avid#postproductionpic.twitter.com/c6nwlifWgD
— Avid Media Composer (@MediaComposer) June 25, 2015
To round out this post here are a bunch of
Available today in Media Composer 8.4 update—TRANSCODING MEDIA ORIGINAL FPS for HD projects.http://t.co/1AcDps1pNTpic.twitter.com/ND7ArpxN5U
— Avid Media Composer (@MediaComposer) June 25, 2015
Available today in the Media Composer 8.4 update—VIEWER MASK OPTIONS.http://t.co/1AcDps1pNT#Avid#postproductionpic.twitter.com/ouiEfauAQN
— Avid Media Composer (@MediaComposer) June 25, 2015
Available today in the Media Composer 8.4 update—RESIZING MONITORS.http://t.co/1AcDps1pNT#Avid#postproductionpic.twitter.com/2jStZBZwms
— Avid Media Composer (@MediaComposer) June 25, 2015
Available today in the Media Composer 8.4 update—ALPHA SUPPORT for QUICKTIME DNxHR.http://t.co/1AcDps1pNT#Avidpic.twitter.com/Zcd2v2XjgN
Avid Media Composer 8 4 5 Download Free Pc
— Avid Media Composer (@MediaComposer) June 25, 2015
Available today in Media Composer 8.4 update—timeline ADAPTER DISPLAY.http://t.co/1AcDps1pNT#Avid#postproductionpic.twitter.com/fXC2pemE5n
— Avid Media Composer (@MediaComposer) June 25, 2015
Available today in the Media Composer 8.4 update—timeline QUICK FIND.http://t.co/1AcDps1pNT#Avid#postproductionpic.twitter.com/etQwlgXBDt
— Avid Media Composer (@MediaComposer) June 25, 2015
Available today in the Media Composer 8.4 update—CUSTOM FRAME SIZES.http://t.co/1AcDps1pNT#Avid#postproductionpic.twitter.com/2SpoaKuq0g
— Avid Media Composer (@MediaComposer) June 25, 2015