Final Cut Pro PC Equivalent

[Aereldor]

Huge fan of Garageband, iMovie, and eventually Final Cut Pro. They allowed me to produce quality content which nobody thought I was using relatively basic programs for. They were intuitive, approachable, and were fun to work with, and held up at the professional level (I ran a small recording studio using only Garageband from raw input to finished tracks). 

What's the closest thing the Windows environment has to Final Cut Pro or even iMovie? Something that runs well, has capable features (I don't need much more than basic editing and colour grading, with perhaps some split screen stuff for more involved music projects.

Thanks,

Aereldor.

[Firewrath9]

Adobe suite

[Electronics Wizardy]

Premiere pro? Pretty simple to use, does grading well, works well with photoshop and after effects

[Aereldor]

1 minute ago, Firewrath9 said:

Adobe suite

 

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

Premiere pro? Pretty simple to use, does grading well, works well with photoshop and after effects

 

I've got the whole Adobe suite for free from school but honestly I don't want to invest too much time learning this stuff, as it's going to be almost entirely for hobby projects.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Aereldor said:

 

 

I've got the whole Adobe suite for free from school but honestly I don't want to invest too much time learning this stuff, as it's going to be almost entirely for hobby projects.

its really not much to learn once you know how to edit. Just different shortcuts mainly.

 

Why not just keep using final cut if it works well for you?

[Aereldor]

3 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

its really not much to learn once you know how to edit. Just different shortcuts mainly.

 

Why not just keep using final cut if it works well for you?

Because I used Final Cut and Garageband from 2009-2014 when I had a 2009 MacBook Pro. For the last 4 years, I've had either a PC I've built or the Alienware Laptop I have for school right now.

Using Final Cut would mean working exclusively at school, as almost every system there is a Mac.

[Aereldor]

5 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Why not just keep using final cut if it works well for you?

 

1 minute ago, Aereldor said:

Because I used Final Cut and Garageband from 2009-2014 

Correction: I used iMovie and Garageband from 2009 to 2014. I used Final Cut towards the end of 2014 for a few more serious projects.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Aereldor said:

Because I used Final Cut and Garageband from 2009-2014 when I had a 2009 MacBook Pro. For the last 4 years, I've had either a PC I've built or the Alienware Laptop I have for school right now.

Using Final Cut would mean working exclusively at school, as almost every system there is a Mac.

so then get a mac or learn adobe suite. It really isn't that hard to learn adobe cc.

[AskTJ]

Premiere Pro was the easiest to learn for me.

[Guest]

The Mac built in software has no qualified rivals. Imo. 

 

The competition on Windows is either really basic or über complex. 

 

Personally i use Lightworks but it’s VERY picky about types of file formats. There are about 4 or 6 different kinds of MP3. Who knew? Otherwise hitfilm isn’t too bad & it has a free version.

 

RANT WARNING

Premier is the “end all be all” followed by Sony Vegas but premier is subscription & personally I’ve had audio driver issues with Sony Vegas making it a bitch to fucking get working & by the time it does, i haven’t had the enthusiasm to bother. Also both those programs INSIST on installing to the C drive. 

[TAHIRMIA]

you could try Davinci Resolve which I have heard is good, Maybe Vegas or just use Premiere.

[Aereldor]

11 hours ago, fpo said:

Personally i use Lightworks

How does Lightworks stack up as a FCP/iMovie equivalent? I might check it out. However, I gather that it's a subscription model, which seems to be your issue with Premiere. I prefer a modest one-time purchase or freeware.

 

11 hours ago, fpo said:

Premier

I've got 3 more years of Adobe CC Suite access for free through my school. If your only issue with Premier is the subscription model and I get it free, is it the go-to option?

 

I also already have a cut-down Vegas, but man I don't like it. I'm proficient with using it and can work relatively fast, but it looks and feels incredibly clunky.

 

[Guest]

24 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

How does Lightworks stack up as a FCP/iMovie equivalent? I might check it out. However, I gather that it's a subscription model, which seems to be your issue with Premiere. I prefer a modest one-time purchase or freeware.

There's a free version available. You register your account and then you have limited features & also you can only export at 720p basically. 

24 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

I've got 3 more years of Adobe CC Suite access for free through my school. If your only issue with Premier is the subscription model and I get it free, is it the go-to option?

I thought schools only got you a 50~% discount. If you can use it without issue, go for it! If you get hired at a job, they'll likely pay the subscription or have another software for you. LMG uses Premier. 

24 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

I also already have a cut-down Vegas, but man I don't like it. I'm proficient with using it and can work relatively fast, but it looks and feels incredibly clunky.

I haven't had time to work in Vegas because of the driver issue every time I try to load the program. I just know it's popular and many youtubers use it instead of Premier. 

[Aereldor]

3 minutes ago, fpo said:

There's a free version available. You register your account and then you have limited features & also you can only export at 720p basically. 

My current camera is an S7 Edge, so I'd like the option to export at 4k even though I shoot at 4k and downsample to 1080p.

 

4 minutes ago, fpo said:

I thought schools only got you a 50~% discount. If you can use it without issue, go for it! If you get hired at a job, they'll likely pay the subscription or have another software for you. LMG uses Premier.  

I just downloaded it. I'll learn some in my downtime.

 

4 minutes ago, fpo said:

I haven't had time to work in Vegas because of the driver issue every time I try to load the program. I just know it's popular and many youtubers use it instead of Premier. 

I really don't like the video interface and the program itself is clunky. From what I know, Movie Studio 13 Platinum isn't very cut-down compared to Vegas 13.

 

What are your thoughts on Movavi Video Editor 14 Plus? It looks a lot like iMovie and FCPX, is $25 on Steam, has NVidia and Intel hardware acceleration, and every basic video editing tool. It's also enjoying widespread adoption amongst Steam users.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

My current camera is an S7 Edge, so I'd like the option to export at 4k even though I shoot at 4k and downsample to 1080p.

Just to start, 720p for learning isn't bad. The one time full license with the CGI stuff is like 600 USD. 

 

2 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

I really don't like the video interface and the program itself is clunky. From what I know, Movie Studio 13 Platinum isn't very cut-down compared to Vegas 13.

It does look kinda different compared to some other editors but as I said I haven't used it much. 

2 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

What are your thoughts on Movavi Video Editor 14 Plus? It looks a lot like iMovie and FCPX, is $25 on Steam, has NVidia and Intel hardware acceleration, and every basic video editing tool. It's also enjoying widespread adoption amongst Steam users.

I personally haven't used it though you should be able to return the software if you spend less than 2~ hours on it or it doesn't work on your computer. Steam is pretty good about refunds you just have to wait up to a week to have them put the money back into your account. (Usually takes 3-4 days for me when I refund games.) 

I only ever used shotcut, windows movie maker, lightworks & Hitfilm 4 express on Windows. 
I haven't edited on Mac nor Linux. I did use Garageband and Logic Pro X on mac & learned how amazing they were so I know how annoying it can be to find good software on Windows. 

[Aereldor]

1 hour ago, fpo said:

Just to start, 720p for learning isn't bad. The one time full license with the CGI stuff is like 600 USD. 

 

It does look kinda different compared to some other editors but as I said I haven't used it much. 

I personally haven't used it though you should be able to return the software if you spend less than 2~ hours on it or it doesn't work on your computer. Steam is pretty good about refunds you just have to wait up to a week to have them put the money back into your account. (Usually takes 3-4 days for me when I refund games.) 

I only ever used shotcut, windows movie maker, lightworks & Hitfilm 4 express on Windows. 
I haven't edited on Mac nor Linux. I did use Garageband and Logic Pro X on mac & learned how amazing they were so I know how annoying it can be to find good software on Windows. 

They have a slightly longer free trial, so I'll grab that and if I like it I'll hang onto it.

I'll also see if I can keep my Adobe stuff after I graduate. If I can, then it's a no-brainer. If not, I don't want to waste that much time getting familiar with Premiere only to not be able to afford it in 3 years.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Aereldor said:

They have a slightly longer free trial, so I'll grab that and if I like it I'll hang onto it.

I'll also see if I can keep my Adobe stuff after I graduate. If I can, then it's a no-brainer. If not, I don't want to waste that much time getting familiar with Premiere only to not be able to afford it in 3 years.

Honestly, you can download the normal trial version and every time it expires, if you move the file with the license key, change the key and then put it back, it'll give you a new trial license. 

[Aereldor]

On 8/13/2018 at 5:20 PM, fpo said:

Honestly, you can download the normal trial version and every time it expires, if you move the file with the license key, change the key and then put it back, it'll give you a new trial license. 

Huh, that's good to know. I'll consider it. However, given how much I love Garageband and how efficient I am with it, I might buy a cheapo secondhand Mac just for productivity unless Movavi works out really well for me. 

At this point, the transition from iMovie to Final Cut Pro and from Garageband to Logix Pro X is basically nonexistent. They're practically the same programs - just with more features on the 'pro' side; features that I'm quite unlikely to require at all (except iMovie Colour Correction, which is bollocks).

[Guest]

17 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

Huh, that's good to know. I'll consider it. However, given how much I love Garageband and how efficient I am with it, I might buy a cheapo secondhand Mac just for productivity unless Movavi works out really well for me. 

At this point, the transition from iMovie to Final Cut Pro and from Garageband to Logix Pro X is basically nonexistent. They're practically the same programs - just with more features on the 'pro' side; features that I'm quite unlikely to require at all (except iMovie Colour Correction, which is bollocks).

I spent $300 on a Mac just for GarageBand. 

I hope I helped with your movie program issues though. Personally I’d likely have spent the money on a new MacBook Air or something just for the software.