Note: Watch the QuickTime streaming version of “Beat of the Mesozoic, Part 1” (download not available) here.

July 13th, 2005, a warm summer’s evening in Boston. A crowd coming directly from MacWorld Conference and Expo Boston a block away starts filling the lobby and theater of the Berklee Performance Center, for a free concert of the Berklee Techno-Rave Ensemble and the legendary Birdsongs of the Mesozoic.

Berklee College is the largest school for contemporary music in the world, with over 4000 students. And each one of them enters with a fast Apple Powerbook, a MIDI keyboard, software and creative ambition.

The Techno-Rave Ensemble, directed by Dr. Richard Boulanger,  throbbed from performers conducting several Powerbooks, each timed to the millisecond with each other, a tight and captivating sound. Several attendees wanted to see what Danny Patterson, Tanner Ross, Christina Chatfield, Eric Peterson and Won Seok Choi were actually doing behind their laptops, but that may be a trade secret. The sound was utterly scintillating and demonstrates entirely new ways to generate group music.

For the second set came the incredible Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, directed by Michael Bierylo. BOTM is a progressive new age eclectic fusion jazz group (okay, at least I tried describing them) from this area who’s been around for over 25 years. This group has probably fed inspiration to everybody from Blue Man Group to regional drumming circles. Once you experience them you don’t forget the sound. Founder Roger Miller, who also plays with Mission of Burma, made a special appearance with the group, which included Berklee faculty Michael Bierylo on guitar (expertly coping with a cranky Powerbook mid performance!), crazed pianist Eric Lindgren, versatile Ken Field on sax, woodwinds and percussion, solid Rick Scott on synthesizer and percussion, with special guest Jason Marchionna on drums and percussion.

BOTM reserved their last tune of the evening for a very special demonstration by the BOSFCPUG of tapeless, Direct to Edit video production workflow, conducted by Don Peebles of Apple Computer and Don Berube of noisybrain., in association with David Mash, Berklee’s forward-thinking Vice President of Information Technology (see separate profile article here at BOSFCPUG’s website), made possible with special support from Reggie Lofton, Berklee’s Associate Director, Video Services, and his camera and audio mixing crew.

The entire concert was filmed with three video cameras by Berklee Video. For the last piece, “Beat of the Mesozoic, Part 1,” each camera feed was connected by Don Berube to a FireStore hard disk recorder—a tapeless, Direct To Edit recording solution from Focus Enhancements. Each angle went to its' own FireStore hard disk for the six-minute piece, immediately becoming a QuickTime file and ready for editing.

The idea was to grab each FireStore hard disk at concert’s end, rush out to the lobby where Apple and the BOSFCPUG had set up a fast G5 tower and 23” monitor and a pair of Roland speakers; connect each drive, transfer each stream, synch and group the angles together in Final Cut Pro 5; and edit the piece in realtime using the new FCP MultiCam feature while the audience emerged from the theater and passed by.

Don Berube of noisybrain. hands Don Peebles a FireStore FS-4 with footage.

It went like clockwork. While the audience applauded BOTM, the hard disks were pulled, relayed to the lobby, and connected at the workstation.

There was no common timecode between the cameras, only a blackburst reference signal. Yet Don Peebles easily managed to synch the three streams using visual and aural cues in each video – Don is musical and actually attended Berklee a while back-- marking In points on each stream.  He generated an In-point-synched  Multiclip in less than two minutes, and while he was pulled away to talk to curious onlookers about the system, I put down my camera, sat down and using the keyboard exclusively, began cutting.

Don Peebles shows a removeable hard disk from a FireStore FS-3 Recorder.

The app was responsive with no latency I could detect, laying down an angle-switch marker each time I hit Command-1, -2 or –3. This was not my quiet cutting room, it was a noisy theater lobby. Yet I found myself easily concentrating on content and making split-second edit decisions while watching ever-changing angles—like any experienced TV director. Display in the quad-split Viewer window was absolutely smooth, thanks to FCP’s new Dynamic RT. When I came to rest at the end of the piece and hit the spacebar, all the blue timeline switch markers transformed into edits. All the angle cuts were preserved. I had just completed my first-ever live-switched Final Cut Pro MultiCam edit.

If I’d wanted to, I could have merely marked each switch with a surface keytap and revised or committed afterward—even committing to a cut on the fly as I did, it could be easily revised later.  I could have used Option-1,-2 or –3 to have the audio from each clip follow its video, for accurate sound perspective. Or I could have used Shift-1, -2, or –3 to lay down switch edits with transitions. By switching to the provided MultiCam Editing layout, I had immediate keypad control of up to 9 available angles.  Or… I could even have used the mouse, clicking on and switching to the desired angle.

FCP 5 supports up to 128 streams in a multiclip, up to 16 at a time on display! Capabilities like this brings FCP ever more evenly in line with Avid systems, which have had MultiCam for many years now. It’s a real milestone for the application.

Don then exported the piece to DVD Studio Pro to complete the workflow.

From stem to stern, from concert theater to broadcast quality edited piece ready for DVD burn took by my estimation less than 17 minutes. This even allows time for breathing! Even while a part of the workflow, I was astounded.

Berklee’s Reggie Lofton (L), Dan Berube and others look on as Don exports.

The demo clip, “Beat of the Mesozoic, Part 1” is available here as a QuickTime stream.

Don Peebles with David Mash of Berklee during the tapeless workflow demo.

There’s also a nice description of the process by Dan Berube and Don Peebles on Phil Hodgetts’ Digital Production BUZZ radio show at www.digitalproductionbuzz.com. Click “Archives” and download the July 13th episode (QuickTime file or podcast) originally generated from the MacWorld Expo Boston show floor.

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When he isn’t switching angles from Camera 1 to 2 to 3, Loren S. Miller edits “film style” for clients ranging from useful NGO’s to broadcast series to independent feature producers. Loren offers KeyGuides to intermediate and advanced keyboard users worldwide, with select editions available here at BOSFCPUG at discount. Reach Loren anytime at .