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Why I Now Believe DaVinci Resolve Is The Best Editing Platform On The Market

Blackmagic has been working long and hard to make their flagship color grading software (Resolve) a full fledged NLE and finishing system. While previous iterations of the software offered solid editorial functionality, it wasn’t until version 12 that everything changed. Personally speaking, I’ve had such an amazing experience editing projects on Resolve 12 that it’s quickly becoming my go-to editing platform.

As I’ve mentioned on this site many times before, I’m pretty much software agnostic. I’ll use whatever tool suits the task best, regardless of brand. I run FCP X, Premiere Pro, and Avid (in addition to Resolve of course), and understand that they each have their place.

Up until recently, I would run the majority of my projects through FCP X as it was by far and away the fastest system for me to work on – especially given the type of projects that I’m often tackling. That said, I would still often choose Premiere Pro for certain jobs or even Avid (very rarely) for others. But now, more and more of my projects have been running through Resolve, and I don’t doubt that trend will continue.

DaVinci-Resolve-as-NLE

Resolve no longer feels like a dedicated color grading app. It now feels like a full blown finishing system that has the best color tools available, built right in… With that in mind, I’ve listed 5 of the main reasons why I believe DaVinci Resolve is the becoming the best editing platform out there.

It’s worth noting that this post isn’t intended to outline a comprehensive list of Resolve’s features. The point is really to focus on the experiential elements of using Resolve as your editing system, so you can understand the true benefit of running your projects through it:

Speed

For me, speed is king when it comes to editing software, and there’s no question that Resolve’s unique toolset and structure allows you to work extremely quickly.

A huge amount of the new tools that Resolve offers (such as Optimizing Media for instance), are designed to enhance your editing sessions, simplify your workflow, and most importantly – speed up your process, and they definitely deliver on all accounts. Above and beyond the tools themselves, the fundamental structure of Resolve is designed in a way that will get you to the finish line more efficiently than ever. From ingest, to editing, to color, to delivery, your entire pipeline can be contained within the Resolve eco-system.

The render speeds on Resolve in particular are hard to beat.

For the purpose of this article, I ran a quick test in which I converted an MXF file using Apple Compressor, and then outputted the same file via Resolve. Needless to say, Resolve was able to convert it to ProRes 422 file in under 10 seconds while Compressor took 55:

Resolve

Resolve-Render-Speed

Compressor

Compressor-Render-Speed

This definitely wasn’t a scientific test, but it was an accurate representation of speed under pretty normal working circumstances.

Best Of Both Worlds

Blackmagic seems to offer many of the best elements from several different NLE’s, all housed in one package. For instance, FCP X-style features like Compound Clips, Optimized Media, .fcpxml support, Optical Flow and many more are all present. Yet at the same time, more traditional Premiere/Avid trim tools, timeline functions, and UI elements help to round out the overall experience.

In many ways, I feel like Resolve 12 is the NLE that FCP 7 users had been waiting for all of these years. It offers the same track based system that many editors are most comfortable with, but also provides truly innovative tools that feel very forward thinking. The bottom is line is this is a very easy software to transition to. It may look daunting at first – especially once you hit the color page, but I assure you that the editorial tools are highly intuitive and within a few minutes of using the app you’ll feel right at home.

Versatility

One my favorite aspects of DaVinci Resolve has always been it’s versatility… And this is something I appreciated just as much even when strictly using Resolve as a color grading app. Now that my editorial workflow is largely moving into Resolve as well, the versatility of the software is even more obvious.

When I say “versatility”, really what I’m saying is that Resolve plays well with others. It can accept just about any file format or translation file you want to throw at it, and can output those same formats just as easily. When in a pinch, I’ll often use Resolve as an intermediate step in my editorial workflow for that reason. For instance, I’ve had situations where I needed to bring a Premiere project into FCP X (or vice-versa) and used Resolve to import and export the XML files, allowing me to port the project back and forth.

Resolve-Compatibility

I know without a doubt that I’ll make very good use of this ability now that I’m editing so much directly in Resolve. When I need to collaborate with other team members that are working with other NLEs, send out translation files for VFX work, or tackle any other cross-platform task, I’ll be confident in Resolve’s ability to step up to the plate.

No Sacrifices

Some people in the past have had the misconception that certain sacrifices would need to be made in order to use Resolve as an NLE. They thought familiar tools would be missing, the editing capabilities wouldn’t be as robust, and the learning curve would be really steep. In reality though, none of this is true. In fact, the tools couldn’t be better and it’s a very straightforward platform to learn.

It’s not a question of whether or not Resolve can do what other NLE’s can do, it’s what it can do that the others can’t. Features like multi-cam editing, motion paths, trim tools, audio mixing and many more, not only get the job done well, but excel at it.

It’s Free

I’m using the full “Studio” edition of Resolve on my main system since I already own it, but I could easily get all of my work done with the free version if I had to. Blackmagic generously offers both options to it’s customers and they are very wise for doing so.

One of the biggest issues I have with the Adobe subscription model isn’t just the price, but the inability to install the software on more than a couple machines. I understand that a software company can’t give out unlimited licenses just because you purchased one copy, but there needs to be an effective solution for working on multiple machines as a single user. DaVinci Resolve solves this problem entirely by offering their free version.

At my post facility, I have Resolve Studio installed in my main color suite, and the free version installed on my other machines. That way I can easily send projects through to my “B” and “C” systems on the network and work on them seamlessly, before eventually outputting on my main machine if I need the added tools offered in the Studio version.

Final Thoughts

I never would have thought that so many years after FCP X hit the market, the post-production world would still be so fragmented. Premiere Pro may have stole a lot of ex-FCP 7 users, but Premiere certainly doesn’t dominate the market like FCP 7 once did.

That said, if things in the post-world are ever going to settle into place, I believe Resolve is the one application that could make that happen. The price alone is going to entice a huge slew of editors on a budget, and the unbelievably powerful feature set and color capabilities will make it a no-brainer for professionals that haven’t yet given it a chance.

If you’d like to learn more about Resolve’s tools, tech specs, and other relevant info – please visit www.blackmagicdesign.com

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About Author

Noam Kroll is an award-winning Los Angeles based filmmaker, and the founder of the boutique production house, Creative Rebellion. His work can be seen at international film festivals, on network television, and in various publications across the globe. Follow Noam on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for more content like this!

51 Comments

  • Brandon Lazovic
    at

    Nice piece! I talk about this in my own review for DaVinci Resolve, but a few of the pros that make it a great video editing option are that it’s free and multi-platform with no watermarks; it has a slick and intuitive user interface; the software offers a strong compositor, sound editor, and color grader; and the large variety of tutorials that are out there to overcome it’s steeper learning curve.

    Reply
  • …and I should have added that using the correctly formatted Optimized media really speed up the tool and allows using a second monitor on a decent laptop…

    Reply
    • iAnonGuy
      at

      Optimized Media is just Proxy Image Sequences.

      Using Proxy in any NLE makes the editing faster, so I’m not sure why this is worth mentioning.

      The issue with Resolve is that it is too heavy on the GPU, which is why a lot of people get bottlenecked… 2GB VRAM isn’t even going to work with a decent 1080p project in this NLE. It basically requires 4GB VRAM at a minimum, with 6-8GB+ for UHD/4K.

      On my Windows system, Premiere Pro CC feels like FInal Cut Pro X compared to Resolve… and I don’t have a low end system. The time I’d waste in Resolve, Optimizing Media that plays back natively at real time in Premiere Pro, basically pays for Adobe Creative Cloud.

      Even if I have to Proxy Media in Premiere Pro, I can literally work while Media Encoder does it in the background. REsolve makes you sit there and wait for everything.

      That cool for a hobbyist with only 10 minutes of footage. Less so when you have an actual professional shoot to inject and start editing. Those YouTube folk seem to be the people most excited about Free/Cheap Resolve…

      I am far less impressed.

      Reply
  • Hi!
    to all of you wanting to try DaVinci Resolve and find it unstable… make sure you use “Optimized Media”, just right click your media and select “Generate Optimized Media”. Do this after having set the Optimized Media format in Project settings / General Options / Optimized Media to DNxHR LB (or to SQ, HQ , HQX or 444 HDR depending on your computers capacity).
    When I did/discovered this a very unstable 14 Beta version became steady as a rock… I don’t say the beta is bug free but with Auto Save set to “Live save” I have not missed a a second of my edits and it rarely crashes.
    I hope this helps!

    Reply
  • Jeff Scott
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    Hey Norm, I just stumbled upon this article while researching Resolve. In the comments you mentioned that you might do another post about your workflow and I’d love to see that. I am specifically curious about the use of AVCHD video. Do you happen to know how Resolve handles that? Do you transcode or re-wrap it to ProRes 422 first, and if so how do you do that?

    Also, someone here asked about editing on more than one system, such as a desktop and laptop. Dropbox was mentioned as an option but I’m wondering if you could just save the project and media on an external SSD drive and use this on either system. And will this work if the desktop is a PC and the laptop is a Mac? Thanks!

    Reply
    • Hey Jeff! You can edit AVCHD natively on Resolve, so no need to transcode (unless you want to).

      Also – I haven’t tried sharing projects between mac and PC, but you could certainly save the media and a .drp project file on an external drive to share it with other systems…

      Reply
  • Emil
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    Which platform better for Davinci Mac or Windows and what about graphic cards Nvidia or AMD?

    Reply
  • JF
    at

    I just fell in love with Resolve (12.5.5) and it indeed feels like FCP 8 should have felt. The grading app is amazing, but I feel the editing component still feels very primitive. It’s missing many tools such as a magnifying glass, a close gap feature, the forward/back track(s) selector, sub frame audio editing and more.

    It also crashes VERY often. However I love where it’s headed and I’ve decided to stick with it and se how it evolves.

    Reply
    • Good to hear you’re giving it a shot! I’m sure with time the issues you pointed out will get ironed out, but you are right in that it’s headed in a great direction… Looking forward to seeing what comes next.

      Reply
    • bjarne Nilsson
      at

      Well try resolve 14 when the final release comes, better performance znd the Fairlight oudio dnigine (with a whole new audio page) sopfrsme audio edit, dynamics compresors snd gate on each track or in individual clips if you need ut

      Reply
      • bjarne Nilsson
        at

        Sorry foe replying to myself but I forgor another pece of good news : the studio version has dropped to USD 299

        Reply
  • Stephy
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    i have MBP 13″ (mid 2012) with spec of i7, 16gb ram with an internal SSD as my main drive…will Resolve 12 runs smoothly on my machine?
    Im a video editor…currently using grass valley Edius 8 as my main editing platform…

    Reply
    • I believe that it should run well! That said, the overall speed will be somewhat dependant on the resolution/codec of the footage you are editing, and how well your machine can handle it. Resolve itself should be fine… I would try downloading the free version to see if it works for you.

      Reply
  • I can only agree With Noam Kroll. FCPx is still letting me down on lacking several key features. FCPx is powerful but when it comes down on precise editing and finesse editing… I took a look on Resolve and have the same feeling as Noam. Premiere is not stable enough, Avid is so old-school. Resolve gives me speed and finesse where I want it. Starting from now on with my projects. Can’t tell much about how stable the platform is.
    This is my experience as an editor for already 20 years. I’ve cut documentaries, tv-shos, promo’s and corporate movies.

    Reply
    • Glad to hear you’re enjoying it too Christophe! Thanks for the note.

      Reply
  • Shane
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    I’m currently RTFM for Resolve 12.5 with the intent of grading my current short film project which I edited in Premiere CS6. I completed the 5.1 sound track in Audition CS6, and had planned to use Speedgrade CS6, but after many failed attempts to get footage into, and back out of, Sg, I decided to learn Resolve. Besides, it seems Adobe can’t seem to decide what to do with Sg and looks to be just putting a Lightroom interface to the Lumetri engine into Premiere, and may kill off Sg altogether. Not hip on learning a EoL product.

    At any rate, I’m very impressed with Resolve Color, and am trying to decide if the NLE is up to par with Premiere (and whether I should move my entire project over NOW). I know the Titler in Premiere has much more functionality then Resolve, so I’m hoping that gets some attention at BMD for a future release. The Premiere integration with After Effects is attractive, but I’ve found it far from perfect, with weird artifacts introduced to footage when Ae projects are rendered directly in Pr. Also, I wouldn’t choose to edit film soundtracks in either Premiere or Resolve, but use a dedicated DAW, and Audition worked fine. I’ll import that back into my NLE to finish. Finally, I’m not a fan of renting my SW, so my CS6 Master Collection will be the last Adobe product I buy, thus I’m on the hunt for alternatives. Resolve could be it! I’m seeing lots of forward thinking in Resolve 12.5 and can’t wait to see what they do next.

    Reply
    • Thanks for the note Shane! It’s definitely worth testing out some more projects in Resolve. I’m sure it will only continue to improve as the updates keep coming along. Let me know if you like it once you’ve had some more time to experiment.

      Reply
  • Campbell
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    Hey just wondering what your workflow is for moving projects between different systems. I’m used to editing with Avid between a desktop PC and a Macbook. I keep my projects in a synced Dropbox folder and have a copy of the media on each computer and … it just works!

    With Resolve I can only see exporting a project (which means creating a new version of the project every time you switch computer) or using AAF/XML and I’m not sure if all the sequence/grade info will go with it.

    How do you do it?

    Reply
    • Hi Campbell – that’s a great question. At this point I haven’t had to move my projects from system to system often, as my shop is fairly small and typically the projects live on a single system until they are completed. That said, as far as I know right now your best bet would be to export your project (.drp file) and import it into a new session. As you said, the AAF/XML won’t translate all the color info, so for now you will likely need to export the entire project. I hope we will see more collaborative features integrated into the software in the future, so hopefully this will become more streamlined down the road.

      Reply
  • hossein
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    Thanks Noam for all you share. I have some problem to fade with resolve 12, Is there any option to fade-in or fade-out without inspector window and the opacity adjustment?

    Reply
    • Yes of course! You can just add a cross dissolve. One way to do this is by clicking on the handle of your clip (on the left or right) and hitting command T. Hope this helps…

      Reply
  • varun g
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    Thanks Noam for such a detailed guide!. If i haven’t missed that note, i have a doubt to clear up. I am planning to use DR as my main video editor for my short films.And i am planning to do the VFX with After effects. But i am stuck with the workflow!!. How should i go at it? , without loosing the quality of rendered files, when i am taking it from one to the other software ?

    Reply
    • Hey Varun! I would recommend exporting ProRes files. They are essentially lossless, so you shouldn’t see any quality difference when exporting your shots to After Effects. The only exception would be if you are shooting in RAW on a RED, Alexa, Blackmagic, etc. In that case, you might want to export to a DPX sequence instead of ProRes to maintain as much quality as possible.

      Reply
  • Stuart
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    You clearly must not actually MAKE MONEY editing, since otherwise there’s no way you could come to such conclusion. Resolve is still VERY far from being a professional alternative to apps such as FCP X or even Premiere. All the above posts concerning its utter lack of speed and stability cases in point. (“as long as I optimize I’m good!” LOL) They mirror my exact experiences as well. And by the time it IS usable as more than a superb color corrector others—especially FCP X—will have left it even further behind whilst they continue to copy X feature for feature from two versions ago.

    One thing most certainly will keep it from ever surpassing FCP X. One word: TRACKS. Welcome to the 80’s.

    Reply
    • Hi Stuart! Believe it or not, yes – I do make my living editing… And directing, and shooting. I think all editing platforms have their strengths and weaknesses, and every editor/filmmaker has different needs. I personally love FCP X and have been a big advocate for it for a long time, even when virtually everybody else I knew hated it. But now, for my professional needs, Resolve is my go-to solution. Thanks for the note.

      Reply
  • Kellen
    at

    Hey Noam. Love the blog and all the info you share. I had a question about the specs to run Resolve properly. I just bought a mac pro (late 2013) with 8 cores, the d700 graphics cards, and 64gb of ram.

    Yet I add a couple of nodes with color corrections and it starts slowing down and getting weird horizontal lines flickering on my footage. I was under the impression that this beast of a mac would be able to handle pretty much anything. I love the way resolve is laid out, but I can’t even use it with the way it’s handling my footage. Are there some settings that I need to apply or is there something I’m missing?

    Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

    Reply
    • Hi Kellen! Thanks for the kind words. I haven’t seen this issue before, but wouldn’t expect you to have these kind of playback problems given your setup. What version of Resolve are you running?

      Reply
  • Jube
    at

    Markers as timecode….and I use time to the millisecond vs. samples. Then, when you import your audio back in to whatever NLE, your sync is at worst a matter of nudging. Plus Ableton’s video preview engine is hardly taxing on even a low spec system…

    The Mix buss in Live is also very “musical” and “creamy”, as opposed to PT. Ideally (and obviously), you would want to run your mix through an analog mix buss – I love Neve, but there are other great options for an in-house setup. Dangerous 2-Mix is amazing for mix buss, which compares with high end analog studio consoles…At the end of the day, if you’re going to bounce out stems for a production house that deals primarily with audio mixing for video, you’ll have your 88.2khz/24Bit Wavs, which if anyone prefers can easily import into PT. 88.2/24 is the way to go BTW.

    I know I’m getting quite audio oriented, but that was my forte before getting into all of this. Anyways, just my 2 cents about audio integration and management with video through my own interpretation…Personally, I think using audio plugins in any video NLE is crap.

    Please share your thoughts!

    Reply
  • Jube
    at

    Ableton Live.

    Reply
  • Bdemenil
    at

    I’d like to make the shift from premier to resolve, but premier has some useful video effects tools that I’m not sure exist in resolve. Premier for instance can handle opacity blending in a variety of ways. Is Resolve able to do that?

    Reply
    • Yes, you can use Resolve to blend your footage in the timeline. It has lots of powerful compositing features built in, and as a finishing tool it’s far more evolved than Premiere. Hope you enjoy it…

      Reply
  • Adrian Mathie
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    Actually, I was trying to export an AAF for Nuendo from the file menu and I couldn’t get this to work but by using the ProTools export Quick Preset from the Deliver page I was able to export an AAF file with a bunch of MXF files, each representing the media for every audio clip. The reference video that is automatically produced wouldn’t open in Nuendo, but that was simply because the preset format/codec isn’t supported in Nuendo – an easy work around was to export a QuickTime ProRes video separately. So, I can see for ProTools it is likely to work well.
    The Resolve development team confirmed that clip gain, automation and panning etc isn’t supported but that it has been added as a Feature Request. I’ve also requested the facility to export Audio EDLs for use with conform/reconforming programs like Titan and Conformalizer.

    Reply
    • Varun
      at

      I followed the same procedure by using the quick preset and selecting an option ‘Export to avid protools’. Have a bunch of mxf files representing all my media plus a reference video (without the audio) plus an AAF file. Is this data useful for a sound guy to design and mix everything on protools? If he imports the aaf in protools, do all the files get automatically linked? Thanks a lot

      Reply
      • It sounds like you have everything you need here… The audio files will automatically be rebuilt in protools by way of the AAF, but the video reference will of course be dropped in separately. As long as you’ve locked picture and exported your film in it’s entirety, you shouldn’t have any issues with his workflow, which is quite standard. Hope this helps!

        Reply
  • Adrian Mathie
    at

    I’m interested to hear everyone’s experiences.

    I’m trying to work out how best to move a project from editorial to sound but haven’t been able to get an AAF file, exported from Resolve to import correctly into Nuendo. So Jamie, it sounds like you are able to move from Resolve to ProTools. Any tips? …

    … and Noam, any experience of exporting sound out of Resolve?

    Reply
    • Hey Adrian,

      I have sent out files for mixing in ProTools with no issues at all. Did you encounter a problem?

      Reply
  • Hi All,

    My first look at the free resolve 12 was quite impressive. I was hesitant at first to even consider it, but am waiting for the right project to jump in fully. Like many, originally a FCP7 guy, then off to Premiere Pro and am well pleased there. Nevertheless, I believe blackmagic has got something great here, time will tell. Best to all. Lou

    Reply
    • Thanks Lou – like anything else I think it will take time to transition to, and there will be some bumps along the way… But it’s well worth it considering the features and overall value of the product.

      Reply
  • Hi!
    Great article! In the free version of Reolve you can work with 4K-clips but you can’t output 4K, is that correct?

    Best Regards
    Lennart

    Reply
  • I would have been in complete agreement with you two weeks ago. Then, Resolve 12 Studio bit me hard on a project with a tight deadline. It simply failed to be a solid NLE. At first, I was getting pops in every single one of my audio cross fades. No problem, I thought, I’ll just export the mix to ProTools and keep on editing. Then, on top of the audio issue it then started to crash, repeatedly every time I attempted to make a cut. Ugh. So, three days into a four day deadline I had XML out all my sequences, reconform in Premiere Pro and then get back to work 4 hours in the hole. Note this happened using supported media file types on one of Blackmagic’s recommended Mac Pro builds and fast RAID drives, not a random laptop with underpowered GPU working from a bus-powered USB 3 drive. So, be warned folks. Resolve 12 is still version 1.0 as far as being a fully fledged NLE is concerned. I agree that the feature set is great, but I recommend everyone test it on low pressure projects for a long time until it proves its stability and reliability.

    Reply
    • Thanks for sharing Jamie. I haven’t had any stability issues myself, but then again it will be very dependent on the system you’re running. Appreciate the heads up and you sharing this with us!

      Reply
    • Pieterpauwel Beelaerts
      at

      Thank you for posting. I deleted resolve lite after it made my (underpowered nvidia 750m gpu) imac crash/freeze 2 Times on a light student project. Going back to première pro and creative cloud for all projects.
      If the software of blackmagic is not ok hopefully the hardware is…

      Reply
      • Sorry to hear it didn’t work out for you! At the end of the day, you just have to work with what’s best for you…

        Reply
  • claude
    at

    as much as I have tried to use resolve instead of premiere I found that its impossible maybe its my system but whenever I try to get serious i found that tresolve crashes. Im still having having issues playing back footage properly and the other I tried to export a simple file so that I could see how fast it would go compared to ame and it didnt go too well

    as much as I want to get familiar with resolve. I found it to be like a hot new girl next door and premiere is the faithful wife that raises my kids and keeps me happily fed…

    maybe its my system… if you have any specs you would consider minimum to run resolve properly I would love if you could share it with us
    i have a hp z400 16gb and gtx650ti

    Reply
    • Fair enough! Although, I’ve been running Resolve 12 on my 3 year old Macbook Pro with no issues… In order to get realtime playback, I did need to adjust some settings (such as selecting “optimize for playback”), but I would do something similar in Premiere or FCP X too, to allow for smoother playback. Have you tried adjusting some of the settings to give you smoother results?

      Reply
      • claude apollon
        at

        i didnt im currently following a course on resolve to get myself familiar with it. hopefully in the long run i ll get better computer. i really want to get into better color correcting for my work but if one day you can find the time to give us your recommendation on how to get resolve to work smoothly. I would appreciate. love your blog by the way

        Reply
        • Sure thing! I will be sure to write a blog on best practices for setting up Resolve for editing at some point soon.

          Reply

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