This request for advice is coming from someone (me) who's edited in Avid for years (Avid Xpress Pro), on a Mac... and who ignored audio for the most part... until now. Now I see/hear how important the audio is (well I always knew that, but someone else always did the audio mix, and fixed my mistakes - - now I'm on my own), and I want to do a better job mixing my projects (short documentaries, usually with 8 audio tracks... interview clips, bg sound, wild sound, music).
I can't afford expensive software/hardware solutions, so Pro Tools is out. But I do edit in Avid, so I see that's a problem. What I'm thinking I could do (but I'd like advice from all of you) is edit my project, doing just a rough mix so I can hear all the tracks, then export each audio track separately (and mixdown all the video tracks to one), and import them into a good audio-mixing app.
I'd mix it and fix it here, and then export the finished project.
Now, as a long-time Mac user, I could buy Final Cut Studio, and use Soundtrack (I think that's what it's called), or Logic Pro or Logic Express... or should I use Adobe's Audition... or something else?
I'd like something that's not too overwhelming (I end up burning the docs and videos to DVD for clients... they're not for broadcast), and something whose interface is friendly to video editors (and in which I can see the video while I mix the sound).
Please... I'd love your advice. I've purchased a pretty good set of monitors, and an Apogee Duet to connect them to my powerbook (soon to be a MacBook Pro). So I'm a little ways there... but still a long way to go, I know.
Cheers,
malch