I've now been working with VV3 for several months. I've worked with both FCP and Avid systems, and I am extremely impressed by what VV has to offer. Many of its features are far superior to FCP and Avid.

There are two areas that I find lacking in VV as far as ease of use for the work-a-day editor. These are VV's implementation of the Ripple Edit, and its lack of support for the dual-preview window paradigm which both Avid and FCP have.

I find VV's implementation of ripple editing inconsistent and confusing. In order to use it, one must copy/paste from the trimmer, or use the trimmer's dedicated [->|] and [|<-] buttons. Simply dragging a selection from the trimmer to the timeline does not work in the same way.

Another inconsistency is the fact that changing an event's length in the timeline (with ripple edit enabled) does not automatically adjust the events that follow.

Also, it would be extremely nice if I could drag an event from the timeline into the trimmer, make changes to its in/out points, and if in ripple edit mode, have the timeline adjust appropriately.

Finally, if I could optionally open a second preview window, one for the trimmer, and one for the timeline, the paradigm would be complete. I could then select a cut in the timeline, edit it freely, and be assured that all events past it would adjust to the lengthening/shortening of the trimmed event, and all grouped events would follow along in perfect order.

I know there are ways around these problems, and that once you learn how to do it in VV, it becomes a muscle memory, but these operations are done so often by an editor, that it would seem like an obvious enhancement, and would reduce keypresses and mouseclicks significantly. Both Avid and FCP seem to think they're a good idea...

Thanks for listening.

Mark Indictor
Cafe Productions
Los Angeles, Ca.