Warning: Premiere Pro 2015.3 removes Speedgrade integration and has no backward compatibility

[Seneca_lives]

The latest PPro update (2015.3, updated today) creates project files that can't be read by the latest version of Speedgrade (not updated today or since whenever). It also removes the "Direct Link to Speedgrade" option from its menus. This means, that as of today, Adobe is effectively without a color grading solution.

The new PPro does provide support for Tangent control surfaces - including full customization through the Tangent Mapper application - which is in itself a very good thing. However, this was apparently enough for Adobe to decide that Direct Link and Speedgrade are no longer needed and this is simply not the case.

This leaves any remaining Speedgrade users and colorists in general with very few options:

1. For now, I recommend you reinstall the 2015.2 versions of Premiere/AE/AME through Creative Cloud to finish any current projects - they can exist side by side, at least - but that still means missing out on any new features and compatibility with client files. This is clearly not a sustainable solution. And Premiere versions are linked to After Effects versions, so you'll also lose out there...

2. Use Speedgrade the old-fashioned way, in native mode, using EDLs or exporting DPX. Which was never an ideal solution back in de CS6 days, but the world has moved on even if Speedgrade hasn't, and Speedgrade has no way of dealing with many more recent file formats (MXF being the most prominent). Sad to say this is simply not an option on many projects. Never mind that the roundtrip functionality and flexibility of Direct Link is gone, which was really Speedgrade's biggest selling point.

3. Try to grade in Premiere. Not really an option for serious work: Premiere's Lumetri implementation currently lacks support for layers (other than by clumsily stacking Lumetri effects), grading shadows/midtones/highlights separately as well as setting their ranges, and basic 2-up/3-up/snapshot functionality. I'm sure I can think of many more. Point is, as a color grading application the Lumetri Panel is a joke, a slightly better version of the plug-in effects that amateur colorists used to apply per-clip.

4. Jump ship. I've resisted this for a long time, as it would mean investing in new control surfaces, but Adobe's neglect has gotten to a breaking point. I'd resigned myself to the fact that Speedgrade would continue as a zombie application, never updated and slowly forgotten. Alas, even that was too much to ask.

[CineCicale45]

Just spoke to Adobe Support and while they couldnt give me details on the fate of Speedgrade, they did say Direct Link would not be making a comeback. So my guess is if you have Speedgrade 2015, you can put it on the shelf next to Final Cut Pro 7, cause neither look to be getting updates in their lifetime.

[tclark513]

CineCicale45 wrote:

Just spoke to Adobe Support and while they couldnt give me details on the fate of Speedgrade, they did say Direct Link would not be making a comeback. So my guess is if you have Speedgrade 2015, you can put it on the shelf next to Final Cut Pro 7, cause neither look to be getting updates in their lifetime.

What a major CROCK!  I don't subscribe to the CC model but like to check in once in a while to see what the new versions bring and I can't believe ADOBE would remove this feature let alone not tell anybody in advance.

If I remember correctly that was a huge selling point when announced.

I feel sorry for the people who used that major feature and have it ripped from them.

Let's hope there is more to the story.

[Kevin-Monahan]

TClark,

I can't believe ADOBE would remove this feature let alone not tell anybody in advance.

If I remember correctly that was a huge selling point when announced.

I feel sorry for the people who used that major feature and have it ripped from them.

Let's hope there is more to the story.

Most of the basic functionality with Direct Link is available in the Lumetri panel. You can still use SpeedGrade via traditional import methods (EDL, etc.). We know we still have work to do to make the Lumetri panel more workable. File bugs and feature requests here.

Thanks,
Kevin

[jsulley]

Kevin:

If Adobe knows they still, as you put it, have a lot of work to do, why kill it before you get a solution for working professionals in place? I have been a big advocate of CC, especially to the non-believers, but with this unannounced move it's hard to be a supporter. I understand that products evolve, but Adobe has to keep their stakeholders informed and allow them to prepare for changes. I now know how all the FCP7 people felt.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi jsulley,

Why kill it before you get a solution for working professionals in place?

I'm in support and not at the heart of those decisions. You can ask the product team.

Thanks,
Kevin

[steamdigital]

You nailed it, jsulley. 

[JasonVictorious]

I work on a time critical weekly Television show. Direct link to Speedgrade was part of our workflow. Thanks for the headaches. Next time please include a changelog.

[AKbuttercup]

Dear Kevin

Can you just tell the management, if we have to do the EDL export thing to use SG, I might as well export to other color grading software like Davinci Resolve which is free and more powerful.

Please help them to bring the Direct link to SG back

Thanks

Buttercup

[Kevin-Monahan]

AK Buttercup,

Can you just tell the management...

Please include that info in your bug report. My telling someone doesn't count as a "vote." Your report does.

Cheers,
Kevin

[Coresmith]

Im new to speed grade, i was just watching a tutorial about it after things didnt work as I expected from my own logical(!!!!) point of view and I noticed that even your tutorial division havn"t cope with the new "stupidity records" that your development division always try to achieve.

Knowing you guys in Adobe, the first thing I did was going in to google and this is what I wrote: "premiere pro 2015.3 speedgrade", and here I am.

WHY WHY, is it always seem logical to you people in Adobe to take out an option or a whole pipeline/workflow and just write broken new options?

I dont know what happen to Adobe since CC has begun, But its a rack! It always feel like working on a construction site that never reaches its goals, with no protective gear not knowing what might fall over your head.

and Please Kevin, if it is so important to your company, copy/Paste the so called "Shortcomings" yourself. Most of the stuff talked about doesn't even considered as "bugs", Do you want a bug report: Start working!!!

[Kevin-Monahan]

Coresmith,

the new "stupidity records" that your development division always try to achieve.

WHY WHY, is it always seem logical to you people in Adobe to

It always feel like working on a construction site

It sounds like you are very upset. I am sorry for that. Kindly direct your comments and file bugs to the folks that actually build the application. File those here.

copy/Paste the so called "Shortcomings" yourself.

It doesn't work that way with our system and I cannot change it just to incorporate your specific bug, comments, or feedback. These bugs have to come from individual customers with individual case notes. That way, we can determine the specific issues and their origin a bit easier. If this is too much trouble, I'm sorry about that.

Regards,
Kevin

[R Neil Haugen]

Like you, I'm frustrated with the decision to drop the Direct Link tech between PrPro & SpeedGrade. When it first appeared, and until now, I've felt it the most useful and productive feature of their entire video apps for me.

These forums, btw, are seen by Adobe as primarily a user-to-user operation, so the heavy-lifting is quite often carried by fellow users like me who are willing for various reasons to put time into these forums to help ... and in so doing, to learn. That's how my ACP 'ranking' came about, helping out here on the forums. Voluntarily. As so many others do. However, no one within the Adobe sphere any higher than Kevin will probably ever look in here on a regular basis. The PrPro team management may individually do so occasionally, but it is NOT defined as their job to do so. Whether we like this or not, neither Kevin nor the PrPro/Sg team is responsible for the way Adobe designs their internal systems.

If I recall ... within the Adobe system, he's not even (I don't think) technically within the PrPro development "team". He's a Support Manager for the DVA forums ... digital video & audio ... so he oversees the efforts of himself and the few staffers he's given to monitor & help out on these forums. He does report back to the teams on the major issues crossing these forums. He's an accomplished editor and teacher of using editing programs in his own right, and a fascinating person to talk the workflows and processes (let alone history) of the editing/grading/audio applications.

I've been to the last three NAB's in Vegas, and have met Kevin and a goodly number of the people on the PrPro, SpeedGrade, and Ae/Audition teams. The team members are pretty much a thoughtful and helpful group of people who are as much a user of the programs they work on as any of us.

But they do NOT make the decisions about what they do with the programs ... from what I can tell, that is the job of someone/s farther up the 'food chain' of supervisory capacity, and THEY are the ones who get tabulated results of the user-filed bug/feature reports that are used as one part of their decisions as to what is fixed ... what is changed ... what is added ... and what is dropped, within each 'iteration' of each program.

So ... be grateful for Kevin, who routinely sticks his neck out for the user-base and is one heck of a nice guy besides rather hard-working and knowledgeable.

And file those bug/feature forms, complaining as specifically as possible about the issues the changes to the program have cause your work to suffer. Those ARE the way to effectively complain with the Adobe business model.

It seems frustrating at times, but ... those reports DO get results. I was one of numerous Sg users who complained of the horrid scopes Sg used to have, and still recall meeting Dennis Weinmann for the first time, in the Adobe booth at NAB, as he demo-ed to me the new scopes in the 2014 roll-out Adobe was previewing at NAB that year. He was rather familiar with quite a few of my bug/feature reports, still very pleased to meet me in person ... and I was rather thrilled with the scopes he'd been part of building that resulted from all those bug reports.

I'm not thrilled with the changes to the relationship between PrPro & Sg, and yes, I've filed my reports. I can only hope enough other do that it seems wise to the upper level folks to change their minds on the Di-Link process.

Neil

[Coresmith]

I am aware of that, Thank you Kevin and all the people that help in these forums, and I do mean that.

I work with other products of Adobe, and these kind of problems are not rare, I used to file bugs although I dont think things like that should qualify as ones.

When you use a software you consider that there will be problems, and you feel oblige to help in fixing or to improve them. What I feel is that we had became a Beta testers/QA not a customers, and yes I am very frustrated especially that I knew Ill find a thread like that.

By the way, Post 75/76, worked for me, Thank you.

[Kevin-Monahan]

CineCicale,

Just spoke to Adobe Support and while they couldnt give me details on the fate of Speedgrade, they did say Direct Link would not be making a comeback.

Right. We in support can give no info on the future of any application, feature set, etc. and that's under NDA. Sorry about that.

So my guess is if you have Speedgrade 2015, you can put it on the shelf next to Final Cut Pro 7, cause neither look to be getting updates in their lifetime.

We haven't made any announcements along these lines. You can still file feature requests and bug reports. Feel free. You can also contact support for any issues.

Thanks,
Kevin

[David Bullock]

Er, well I guess I'll un-install Sg then (which is still offered by my CC panel as being an app worth installing after I'd installed the latest Pr), and I'll forgo watching the rest of the tutorial (which links to this forum, but contains no notice that it is not possible to use Sg with the latest version of Pr).  And generally just curse Adobe wasting my time with its poor communication?

Seriously, I DO expect a note somewhere saying something like 'Recent releases of Pr are moving away from the Direct Link technology, which has the consequence that Sg will no longer work as described in this tutorial.  While we are working furiously to improve the grading experience in Pr, we recommend using the native grading tools available in Pr for new projects.  If you already have an active project which relies on Sg, we suggest you downgrade Pr."  That's just common courtesy.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi David,

Seriously, I DO expect a note somewhere saying something like 'Recent releases of Pr are moving away from the Direct Link technology, which has the consequence that Sg will no longer work as described in this tutorial.

Thanks. I've forwarded your concerns to the product team.

Regards,
Kevin

[norman.leto]

Abandoning speedgrade will cause my drift for davinci resolve and canceling cc subscription (exept ps perhaps). Speedgrade direct link was the most powerful tool for real speedgrading. Current state of lumetri in premiere is not enough, and there will never be multiple playheads in premiere. So many people is now raging about your decision to ditch sg direct link, you will surely see it in sales' statistics. Perhaps there is some adobe's internal financial problem with sg team, optimization of dev costs, or some legal issues generating too much costs of keeping sg an active piece of CC, but end-users will never know the real reasons... Direct link made grading lightspeed. Now it is clumsy and premiere will need 5 years to recover this great asset with lumetri. Good bye Multiple playheads guys...it was such a great invention. And most recent reports with huge lumetri memory leaks in 2015.3 makes premiere such an crippled tool. Someone in your company will be fired for this decision, in 2017, I presume 😉 Ive filled feature request, but I am certain that sg direct link is dead forever. What is the next step? To make photoshop an nle soft? There is timeline already there and more video features in PS... Who knows the plans of Adobe, premiereshop perhaps? Sure, You can make a hammer with a chainsaw feature, but...

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi lukaszbanach,

Ive filled feature request

Thanks for your feedback.

Regards,
Kevin

[ryana68401696]

This is a huge downgrade in functionality and disrupts the professional worfklow without any advance notice or simple rollback. The fact that this snowballs from SG to PR to AE makes it even worse as time spent rolling back to previous versions is time away from productivity. I suspect this to be in the name of mobile app trending - i.e. let's sacrifice real functionality for the possibility that people will use this software on tablets some day - but regardless of reason it is a disservice to us.

Additionally, I've noted new crashes on my system that are hard to tell if they are from my environment, GPU or CC. With this other information about changes, I suspect it is really related to updates in CC.

Please pass on the importance of dynamic link and keeping these applications synchronized. While you are at it, please let them know that keeping the settings is also important. Having my saved workspaces disappear reduces my productivity as well.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi ryana,

This is a huge downgrade in functionality and disrupts the professional worfklow without any advance notice or simple rollback.

My apologies. To give this feedback directly to the team about that, do so here.

Additionally, I've noted new crashes on my system that are hard to tell if they are from my environment, GPU or CC. With this other information about changes, I suspect it is really related to updates in CC.

Please provide system and media details in a separate post so we can assist you in troubleshooting.

Please pass on the importance of dynamic link and keeping these applications synchronized.

I will, but Direct Link (not dynamic link—a different tech) is no longer being developed. Sorry.

Thanks,

Kevin

[taeke63]

It's sad to see this Directlink disappear, as I prefered using Speedgrade above Lumetri. It's also possible to do an export to Resolve, so I think that'll bemy option from now on. It's really a shame though.

[capitalk]

it's really a shame, as much as I appreciate adobe and the efforts that they put to better their products. I could have used a bit of a heads up. I could see that they were trying to transfer all the tools to premiere but at least they could have tried to let speedgrade be compatible to these new updates and on top of that               no heads up.                          Come on guys please dont become apple

[gjamesmoore]

This is absolutely wild...to my mind, I cannot think of another time when Adobe downgraded their products with an update.  Always been pleased with upgrades.  Direct Link was the ONE thing Speedgrade had going for it over Resolve.  This will force 100% of our color grading into Resolve.  Absolute lunacy.

[Seneca_lives]

I’ve been getting a sinking feeling that Speedgrade was about to be ditched or deprecated for a while now, but I figured it would still be usable, like other abandoned Adobe software (Encore).

And sure, Adobe still provide the old version of Speedgrade to finish existing work in - but since Creative Cloud comes with free updates, most Premiere users will soon be working in 2015.3 and there's just no way to get a 2015.3 Premiere edit into Speedgrade.

Resolve, meanwhile, is pretty much free. I can see why this may seem a threat to Adobe and I completely understand why they'd want to compete with Blackmagic's "grading application that now doubles as an NLE" by turning Premiere into an "NLE that now doubles as a grading application". Problem is, it's just not there yet.

[nathaningalls]

I think that the best route to take now is to send our feedback to Adobe via the "Feature Request" form. Perhaps if they get enough backlash to this downgrade they will rethink things. I agree with gjamesmoore that this is totally crazy and will force almost all of my projects into resolve, even smaller ones. The lumetri controls in Premiere just aren't anywhere near up to par. In case anyone is interested, here is the feature request that I sent to Adobe:

"Why is this feature important to you?

My name is Nathan and I am a filmmaker (primarily documentary and short form) based in Los Angeles. I felt the need to reach out to the Adobe CC Premiere/Speedgrade team to voice my concern for the most recent update (2015.3).

Our generation remembers Final Cut 7 as a wonderful piece of editing software. It was a fantastic interface that created an awesome editing experience. It was an incredible tool. Then Apple introduced Final Cut X. They abandoned the professional (and even semi-professional) editor in favor of an editing system that allowed you to take your vacation videos and add some really cool, pre-built titles, transitions and filters. This slight exaggeration is sad because it is just that - a slight exaggeration. Final Cut became a joke, and the fact that it was once a space that embraced filmmakers rather than repulsed them certainly marred its legacy. 

In the midst of that dark time - filmmakers around the world began to search for an alternative. And you, Adobe, stepped in. You rallied behind filmmakers and created an editing suite that embraced the Final Cut community while remaining your own platform. You truly innovated - creating tools that worked together so seamlessly. CS, and eventually CC, allowed us to create things within different programs each designed to expertly accomplish one part of the creation process. Individual, specialty parts that combined to make a beautiful whole. This truly was innovative.

I think that innovation is an important part of any company's product. Innovation often allows for more imagination, more creativity and better art. But there comes a point, if a company caters more to "the new" than "the effective," that innovation ceases to inspire. It instead tears a hole in a healthy, functioning system.

This is my current frustration with CC 2015.3. I work on many different projects at any given time. I appreciate some of the elements that have been brought into Premiere to make it a one-stop shop of sorts. Some projects really benefit from this. However, your decision to remove the "direct link" between Premiere and Speedgrade is proving detrimental to my workflow (as well as many others based on your own forums). And not only did you remove the direct link between these two programs that worked so well together, but you failed to incorporate many of the elements that make Speedgrade an effective coloring solution.

If I am unaware of a new feature that allows the two programs to integrate as seamlessly as they did before, I would really love for you to bring it to the CC community's attention. If not - please consider reincorporating this feature. The need for excellent coloring on a tight schedule is so important in this age of different cameras, different media formats, log, RAW, etc. Premiere's coloring capabilities are not sufficient to create a quality, final product.

I don't mean to rant and I hope this is read as an earnest request from a customer who loves the work that your team does. Thank you for hearing my request.

Best,

Nathan"