Avid to release Media Composer First for free

One more year NAB has arrived, one of the most important audiovisual fairs of the year where the big companies present their great innovations.

Among them is Avid, which has surprised everyone with the bombshell of a free version of the Media Composer editing system called First. Of course, this is a limited version of the full software, but it opens the door to new users who will have access to easily learn Avid’s tools and workflow.

Media Composer First (or MCF for short) is only capable of saving a certain number of projects, which must be stored in the cloud. This means that the computer used will always have to be connected to the Internet to be able to work. However, for performance reasons, the original media can be saved on the usual hard disks.

According to Avid, several features will be limited, simplified, reduced or eliminated with respect to the full version. Among them we can find capabilities related to menus, timeline, monitors, bins, LUTs, subtitles, import, export, titles, FX, keyboard options, multi-camera and more (are you missing something?).

Nor will it be possible to connect to other Avid systems, such as Interplay, Media Central or ISIS. For these reasons, people are beginning to question the real usefulness of the new software.

To compensate for the limitations, Avid will offer in-app purchases to unlock certain features, purchase AVX and AAX plugins, footage or music. If the user later purchases the full version, these purchases will be carried over.

At the moment this is all we know about Media Composer First, which will be officially released at the end of the year. You can also take a look at this “Five Things to Know About Media Composer First“.