Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, Adobe OnLocation CS4 and Adobe Encore CS4 plus My Electric Guitar and My Violin from eMedia
By Howard Berenbon
Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, OnLocation CS4 and Encore CS4
This month I continue evaluating the individual programs within Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection with Adobe Premiere Pro, OnLocation and Encore, all the latest CS4 versions.
Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 is a professional video production software package for creating fast and efficient videos in a tapeless video format. Tapeless video production is now becoming the industry standard, and Adobe is in the forefront. Premiere Pro CS4 lets you optimize your video footage and record digital video directly to your hard drive using the latest digital video cameras. This efficient tapeless work flow keeps your production quality high while saving time and production expenses. And for post production, Premiere Pro CS4 lets you add high quality editorial and visual effects to your work.
One excellent new feature is their Speech Search tool that allows editors to search the spoken dialogue and jump to a frame that matches. Speech is converted to text-based metadata synced to the video so you can search on key words to find a frame for editing. This is a great time-saving tool because the editor no longer has to play the video, and what once may have taken hours, is accomplished in just minutes or less.
Also included are some important tools of the trade like Adobe OnLocation CS4 that lets you shoot and record video directly to disk and monitor your work while you’re on location at your live shoot. It adds professional image-monitoring to help optimize footage and simplify camera calibration, focus and audio monitoring. And, OnLocation has a new and improved Shot List for production planning on site or off. The Shot List is where you add details you need to track like location, camera, actions, rights and permissions, etc. You’ll also need to save your work to the right format, and that’s the job of Adobe Encore CS4 for outputting your completed video project to DVD, Blue-ray high definition disc and SWF Flash format.
One other important time-saver tool is Adobe Media Encoder. Once you select your video files, the program will automatically create multiple encoded formats (including FLV, F4V, Windows Media Player, MPEG-2, H.264 and QuickTime) for any application including online, cell phone and the iPod.
Adobe has also improved integration between Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, Adobe Encore CS4 and Adobe OnLocation CS4 so they can work better together. And now Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 supports Photoshop files with video, and has integrated some Photoshop features including layer options and blending modes.
Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 sells for $779.99 and includes Adobe Encore CS4, Adobe OnLocation CS4, Adobe Device Central and Adobe Bridge. It’s available for the IBM PC or compatible, 2 GHz or faster processor running Microsoft Windows XP or Vista with 2 GB RAM, 10 GB Hard Disk space, DVD-ROM drive and QuickTime 7.4.5. It’s also available for the Apple Macintosh and sells for $653. It requires a Multicore Intel processor, Mac OS X v10.4.11-10.5.4 with 2 GB RAM, 10 GB Hard Disk space, DVD-ROM drive and QuickTime 7.4.5. For more information, or to order, visit Amazon.com.
Some News from Adobe
A new season of Adobe TV just debuted offering how-to tech talk, personality-driven shows and profiles of Adobe customers and employees working with Adobe’s latest technologies. New episodes will appear bi-weekly and you can subscribe to get specific programs and new episodes. Check out the latest links:
CSInsider|Design - Presented by Rufus Deuchler
tv.adobe.com/#vi+f15880v1000
Focuses on graphic design workflows in CS4 Design Premium
Taming the Web - Presented by Greg Rewis
tv.adobe.com/#vi+f1481v1003
Focuses on Web design workflows in CS4 Web Premium
Short & Suite - Presented by Jason Levine & Karl Soulé
tv.adobe.com/#vi+f1519v1004
Focuses on Video & Audio workflows in CS4 Production Premium
The Complete Picture - Presented by Julieanne Kost
tv.adobe.com/#vi+f1483v1004
Focuses on digital imaging workflows in Photoshop CS4, Adobe Bridge, and Lightroom 2
The Russell Brown Show
tv.adobe.com/#vi+f1511v1002
Focuses on tips & techniques in Photoshop CS4 & Photoshop CS4 Extended
Flash Downunder - Presented by Paul Burnett
tv.adobe.com/#vi+f1552v1004
Focuses on Flash Authoring in Flash Professional CS4, including authoring AIR applications
My Electric Guitar and My Violin from eMedia Music Corporation
Last year we reviewed eMedia’s My Guitar and My Piano, both programs designed to help kids learn a musical instrument. These courses are for the beginning musician, and include animated instructions and fun examples that help kids, 6 years old and up, learn an instrument.
Recently, eMedia released two new programs: My Electric Guitar, a variation on My Guitar, and My Violin. They follow the course of their predecessors with basic music theory, animated instruments and simple tunes that any beginner can master, making music instruction fun. Also includes an automatic tuner, metronome and digital recording tools.
With My Electric Guitar, you’ll find an animated fretboard that shows the finger position as the music plays. And, the animated guitar is narrated by a professional guitar teacher, Steve Rock, host of the radio show "Metal Shop" broadcasting from KISW FM in Seattle, Washington.
Another useful tool is the Chord Dictionary, where you pick a chord and see the correct finger positions. Then you can press a button to hear the cord.
My Violin has an animated fingerboard similar to My Electric Guitar, plus their amazing Finger Tracker tool that listens to the students’ playing and shows if their fingers are in the correct spot. And, the animated violin is narrated by a real violin teacher, Sabina Skatar who performs at Lincoln Center in New York City.
eMedia produces some great beginners music instructional programs that can help bring out the musical talent in your kids.
My Electric Guitar sells for $24.95 and is directed to kids ages 9 and up, and My Violin sells for $39.99 but is for younger students, ages 6 and up. Both programs come highly recommended, especially for beginners. They run any multimedia Windows PC or Power Macintosh. For more information, visit Amazon.com.
Software Companies Mentioned
Adobe Systems Incorporated
345 Park Ave
San Jose, CA 95110-2704
Phone: 800-833-6687
URL adobe.com
eMedia Music Corporation
664 NE Northlake Way
Seattle, WA 98105
Phone: 206-329-5657
URL: emediamusic.com
Photoshop Marketplace
Photoshop Marketplace is a centralized resource where Adobe customers can find the latest Photoshop related resources, tools, services and events.
In this initial phase, partners are encouraged to populate Photoshop Marketplace with product-related content that they can update and maintain themselves. It will be fully functional and available to all users in summer 2009. Visit photoshopmarketplace.adobe.com/
