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DMH79
Inspiring
September 20, 2012
Answered

Premiere Pro CS6 - Multicam is BROKEN!!! vs FCPX, (Final Cut Pro) FCP7, Avid, Sony Vegas

  • September 20, 2012
  • 2 replies
  • 21002 views

If you are thinking of switching from FCP7 or FCPX or Avid or another editing program to Premiere Pro CS6, there are MANY great reasons to do so, HOWEVER, if you deal with editing multiple cameras (multicam) then you may want to think twice about it until this issue is resolved.

How to edit multicam in Adobe Premiere Pro CS6? What is the best editing program for mulitcam or multiple camera editing? -  The answer, until the issue below is fixed, is NOT Adobe Premiere Pro! As of CS6 (version 6.0.2), this "design" flaw or "quirk" described below makes multicam editing very difficult and inefficient in Premiere Pro. Those first two questions above are what I google searched in hope of a fix to an issue that has plagued Adobe Premiere Pro for years, literally. Unfortunately, in the new Premiere CS6, with so many other great new features, the issue still remains making it very difficult to do a multicam edit compared to FCPX, Final Cut Pro 7, Avid, Sony Vegas, etc. They all handle multicam editing in different ways but, having recently switched away from FCP7, and worked on several mulitcam edits, Premiere Pro CS6 (and CS5, and CS5.5) has serious issues/problems with the multicam feature that is broken as of right now (version 6.0.2) in Premiere CS6 and makes editing multicam a VERY frustrating experience and much less efficient compared to other NLE's. If its a design, then its flawed as yes, you can get around it and fix what you've done, but why should you have to keep wasting valuble time "fixing" things like this anyway? Just doesn't make sense.


The issue:

Hitting the spacebar or pause or stop button during a multicam edit actually stops the edit, makes a cut in your edit (timeline), and then switches to a different camera (angle or shot) whether you want it to or not!

This issue has been known by Adobe for over two years but they push it aside, call it a design quirk, and ultimately avoid fixing the issue as noted in this thread: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/738084?start=0&tstart=0

Having your editing program make cuts and switch angles on you when you simply pause or stop playback is a huge issue. If this were happening in the normal timeline then I'm guessing it would have been fixed, but it hasn't been fixed and it causes the editor to have to go back and remove the un-intended cuts and switch shots back to where they should be. The PAUSE button should only PAUSE or STOP the playback as it does in other programs. But in Premiere it pauses, makes a cut in your timeline, and then switches back to the first angle or shot that you started with whether you want to or not. There is no way to stop this from happening as of right now on CS6. The other thread that talks about the issue brings up the fact that the "issue does not have the numbers" to make it a priority to be fixed and there are other "more important issues" that need to be fixed first which makes me wonder if Adobe really does listen to their user's feedback. I mean, 2 years of people complaining about this and no fixes. Their response has been "add it to the wish list" or "it's not a bug, its a quirk, so make a feature request" or "its designed that way." Designed that way? Who would actually want it that way? No other NLE does this and for good reason. If the pause button just paused playback and that's it, do you think there would be a thread lasting for 2 years about how hitting pause "should also make a cut in the timeline and switch shots"? I doubt it. Its a design flaw. I feel strange asking for the feature "please make the pause button pause" or "please make the stop button stop playback". Sounds like its broken to me.

If multicam fuctionality is a major focus for the Adobe Premiere team going forward, which I believe it is, then please start by making even the basic functions work as one would expect them to. PAUSE=PAUSE. STOP=STOP. Whew! That was tough. Done. Fixed. Moving on! Right now, this design is counter-productive, not intuitive, helps no one, and only wastes valuable time while the editor has to quickly "fix" the issue. 

Well, I figured I'd do two things here:

1) Start a thread with as many keywords as possible so that this issue gets "the numbers" both in this forum and in Google searches. Hopefully soon when you google "Premiere Pro multicam" this will be the first topic on the first page. My hope is that I can put a nice "SOLVED" or "FIXED" label on this thread one day soon (and I will for sure!). If that's the case, its a testament to the squeeky wheel theory combined with a little web analytics.

2) Make this a new thread rather than continue in the old thread because it's time to ask a new question: how long will it take for Adobe to fix an issue when its design is essentially broken causing all users to have to do a "fix" every time? Right now it's going on two years! This isn't a feature request...its a broken function within Premiere. A design...flaw. I do know Adobe listens and that they care about certain things, but how fast do they act? That's my real question.

I wonder if this thread will populate with more "we've got more important things to fix" or "it isn't that big of an issue" or "its not an issue at all, its a quirk" or "you can just go back and fix the problem every time you have to stop as it only takes a few seconds" or "its not broken, its designed to be counter-productive and frustrating to users".  Time will tell. Well, if you do as many mulitcam edits as I do then those "few seconds" add up. If it is designed that way, then Adobe, I ask you this: If you hit the pause button on your TV remote and it paused the live TV, but then also turned the volume all the way down and changed channels...would you still just call that a quirk? Would it make sense to design a remote that way? I'd say that the button on your remote doesn't work right and should be fixed. Yes, you could fix it quickly by hitting the "last" or "recall" button and then hitting the volume up button, but shouldn't the PAUSE button on your remote do just that and only that: PAUSE?

Please, do respond...we apparently need the numbers.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Kevin J. Monahan Jr.

I wonder what the benefit is for adding a cut when pausing playback.  What was Adobe trying to accomplish?


Have you tried what a user suggested earlier in the thread? Although it takes a little getting used to, it works for me perfectly.

"Before to stop the playback press the key 0 (zero) of the keyboard and then you can stop the play (with the Space bar) without the cut in the timeline."

2 replies

Kevin J. Monahan Jr.
Community Manager
Kevin J. Monahan Jr.Community Manager
Community Manager
September 20, 2012

Premiere Pro CS6 (and CS5, and CS5.5) has serious issues/problems with the multicam feature that is broken as of right now (version 6.0.2) in Premiere CS6 and makes editing multicam a VERY frustrating experience and much less efficient compared to other NLE's. If its a design, then its flawed as yes, you can get around it and fix what you've done, but why should you have to keep wasting valuble time "fixing" things like this anyway? Just doesn't make sense.

This is exactly the way I edited multicam in FCP and Avid, I live switched the multicam edit and then went back with the roll tool. It's not broken, it just doesn't work the way you want it to. File a feature request to request a change in behavior: http://www.adobe.com/go/wish

DMH79 wrote:


This issue has been known by Adobe for over two years but they push it aside, call it a design quirk, and ultimately avoid fixing the issue as noted in this thread: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/738084?start=0&tstart=0

We never called it a quirk. One of our moderators did. We made lots of updates to multicamera editing in CS6, unfortunately, not the ones you wanted. Keep making feature requests if you wish to see it operate differently.

DMH79 wrote:

1) Start a thread with as many keywords as possible so that this issue gets "the numbers" both in this forum and in Google searches. Hopefully soon when you google "Premiere Pro multicam" this will be the first topic on the first page. My hope is that I can put a nice "SOLVED" or "FIXED" label on this thread one day soon (and I will for sure!). If that's the case, its a testament to the squeeky wheel theory combined with a little web analytics.

2) Make this a new thread rather than continue in the old thread because it's time to ask a new question: how long will it take for Adobe to fix an issue when its design is essentially broken causing all users to have to do a "fix" every time? Right now it's going on two years! This isn't a feature request...its a broken function within Premiere. A design...flaw. I do know Adobe listens and that they care about certain things, but how fast do they act? That's my real question.

Please, do respond...we apparently need the numbers.

The "numbers" refer to feature requests, not amount of threads, keywords, Google searches, or whatever. We count feature requests from this form only: http://www.adobe.com/go/wish No need to create new threads, or take other actions.

Thanks.

Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community and Engagement Strategist – Adobe Pro Video and Audio
D
DMH79Author
Inspiring
September 20, 2012

This is exactly the way I edited multicam in FCP and Avid, I live switched the multicam edit and then went back with the roll tool. It's not broken, it just doesn't work the way you want it to. File a feature request to request a change in behavior: http://www.adobe.com/go/wish

We never called it a quirk. One of our moderators did. We made lots of updates to multicamera editing in CS6, unfortunately, not the ones you wanted. Keep making feature requests if you wish to see it operate differently.

The "numbers" refer to feature requests, not amount of threads, keywords, Google searches, or whatever. We count feature requests from this form only: http://www.adobe.com/go/wish No need to create new threads, or take other actions.

Thanks.

Thanks Kevin sincerely for your attention to this issue. I see your response in the other thread and I really appreciate your insight and your willingness to share this with engineers as you say you did. Can't thank you enough. Interesting thought saying that the people who work on multicam won't see this. Bummer. They should know when the functionality of things are wrong. Yes, using the rolling edit tool is the best way to do things. I agree. And yes, you did make lots of changes in CS6 that are great. But to say that a stop or pause button is also supposed to cut and change shots is an awful design choice that benefits no one (I'd love to know an example where that helps users) or its a broken feature. Why not then, if its not broken, include that great "feature" into the regular timeline so that anytime anyone is playing back anything on their timeline that stopping or pausing the video does the same thing and makes a cut and switch in video shots? (sarcasm...please don't do this)

Regarding the "numbers" reference...I know full well that making the wish request is the best way to get things done. I've done that. So have others as you see in the first thread on this topic. But, I also know that these topics are one of the first things that are referenced when people search online about different programs. Using a title that catches attention of other people will encourage more people to respond and send forth their "feature requests" as you mentioned. I also know that the first thing Adobe doesn't want when people google "Premiere Pro Multicam" is to see a post at the top that it's broken. If I saw this thread two months ago when I started I might have gone to FCPX first and never come back. So hopefully that motivates the change to happen sooner than later.

K
KGCW
Participating Frequently
September 21, 2012

Agreed.

The multicam making edit on pause / stop cannot be called any other way than a broken feature.

At the very very least, users should be given the choice of the way pause / stop act on multicam editing.

"Run though the multicam edits live"

For a one hour video that means one hour multicam editing straight without even a single pause.

What's the point of working on an NLE if you are forced to go linear and live ?

E
excited_Genie16B8
Legend
September 20, 2012

This is very far from a "serious" issue, especially if you make a very simple (and more efficient) adjustment to your work flow.

Run though the multicam edits live, then clean them up in the sequence with the Rolling Edit tool.

Done.

D
DMH79Author
Inspiring
September 20, 2012

Jim Simon wrote:

This is very far from a "serious" issue, especially if you make a very simple (and more efficient) adjustment to your work flow.

Run though the multicam edits live, then clean them up in the sequence with the Rolling Edit tool.

Done.

This is a serious issue to many people.

Some issues are more serious than others. It's not serious to you but I'm guessing you have things that bother you that may seem serious to me.

When users catch things that shouldn't happen, they should report them. That's what I'm here to do. To say that it's more efficient to go back and fix issues like this is grossly misinformed and relates only to your personal workflow. Yes, using the Rolling Edit tool after a multicam edit is the most effective way of adjusting clips and it is part of an efficient workflow, but that doesn't take away the fact that unless we use your personal workflow we're screwed due to what is clearly a broken feature that's frustrated countless users for years.

Jim, I do appreciate your feedback. You are always quick to respond and help people I've seen on many threads. But what if people didn't complain about things like buttons not working like they should, then Adobe would never know that there is an issue. You have a great idea for a workaround. Thank you for that. But the issue still remains and must be fixed. Then, it will truly be "more efficient".

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