Apr 27 2009
The Ultimate DV Editing Station – Part 1– Setting Up
By: Brian Burnham
It is important to start smart when setting up an editing station. Choices made now will avoid frustration later, so follow closely.
For those of you following along at home, here’s what you will need:
- A 867 MHz G4, fresh from Apple $2499
- A Matrox RTMac $999
- Final Cut Pro 2.0 $999
Optional:
First off, I want to say that this tutorial is a free service. Anything that might happen to you, your Mac or anything you happen to have near it is in no way the fault of MacMerc or me in particular. Just be smart, okay?
Getting it Together
Well, we’ve got all the boxes unpacked and the smell of fresh poly carbonate plastics is making us a little woozy but I’m hoping you managed to put together the basic components of your Mac. We’ll pick up at the installation of the RTMac card. Open the side panel of your G4 and pick a PCI slot. Don’t forget to ground yourself by either touching a big piece of metal or putting on a ground strap. Pop it in and connect it to the desktop breakout box (via cable). Don’t worry about plugging it in to the wall, your Mac powers the box.
Software
Now we are ready to start installing the software that will make this sweet, fast new Mac fly. At this point, if you’re anything like me, you spend several minutes poking and pushing the front panel of the SuperDrive, until you snap out of your stupor and read the directions. As noted in the directions that I read AFTER I had figured things out, there is no "eject" button on the tower of the new G4. You have to use the keyboard eject to get the thing open.
Whew! That was a close one, but don’t worry, we won’t be referring to the directions again. Now that we’re rollin’, we’ll install Final Cut Pro (choosing the RTMac version under the "custom install" option). Enter in your serial numbers (they are in the documentation, on a separate sheet of paper). Now, I realize that you love to see your name in print, but you’ll notice that, in the QuickTime registration panel, you must use "QuickTime Pro" as your name, or the code will not work. After running the two installers, stop by the Apple web site for the Final Cut Pro 2.0.2 update
RT and VM
The temptation to restart your Mac and start playing with your new system is almost unbearable, but stay with me. You see, the RTMac doesn’t work with virtual memory on, and by default, your new Mac has it turned on. So, make a quick pit stop by the Memory control panel. Now is also a good time to note that RAM is at an all time low in cost, and you do need more than the default RAM provided by Apple.
Toys
Now, there are a couple of optional gadgets that will make your life as an editor easier. The two we chose are Macally’s two-button, optical wheel mouse — a must for any professional Mac, and Contour’s ShuttlePRO. This second tool will provide us with a more video-like interface, adding shuttle and jog capabilities to your Mac. After installing the drivers for your Macally mouse (provided on the CD), you will need to download your custom Contour drivers configured to work with Final Cut Pro.
This is as far as we will get in this installment. You now have a viable nonlinear editing station, ready to use. In the following tutorials we’ll look at optimizing, troubleshooting and customizing your workstation!
