DaVinci Resolve 12 is a Full Blown NLE and It Looks Incredible (and it’s free)

One of the most impressive things I saw at NAB 2015 was Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve 12. Looking back, I can’t believe that I haven’t written about this yet. But maybe this timing is actually a little better since it is supposed to become available in the next few days.

Right now, the big three video editing platforms are Premiere Pro CC, Final Cut Pro X and Avid Media Composer. All have their fans and faithful user bases. But I think there is about to be another big player with Resolve 12.

Blackmagic has been grooming Resolve over the past few years into a powerful NLE (non-linear editor). Last year, we saw the editing side of Resolve step up to be a more serious consideration for telling your story but Blackmagic didn’t go so far as to call Resolve a true NLE. Instead, Blackmagic focused on its ability to play nice with other NLEs and to import XML files for finishing in Resolve.

This year, it’s a different story. The editing prowess of Resolve 12 was the highlight of Blackmagic’s demo time and the company was in your face that Resolve is now a full-fledged NLE ready to compete against the likes of Adobe, Apple and Avid.

I’m excited to get my hands on DaVinci Resolve 12 as a potential replacement for Premiere Pro CC. While I prefer Premiere over FCP and Media Composer, it still leaves a lot to be desired. While Adobe continues to add plenty of bells and whistles to Premiere, there are a lot of issues with the underlying tech that get in the way. The title tool and the audio mixer are just a couple of examples of archaic tech and interfaces inside Premiere.

Additionally, up until this latest update of Premiere, I experienced constant crashes, which has caused me to hit Command + S after nearly every edit I make now. CC 2015 has fixed a lot of the crashing but I still don’t trust it enough to kick the constant saving habit.

Resolve 12 is sure to have its fair share of gotchas along the way, but I’m ready to kick the tires on something new that mixes some of the media management prowess that I love about FCP X but still gives me a track-based timeline that makes sense from both an audio and video standpoint.

Check out this video, which highlights some of the key new features in Resolve 12.

While there is a little overlap, the below video focuses specifically on the new editing features in Resolve 12.

The following short video dives a little more into the new multicam feature, which looks on par with Premiere’s multicam editing.

Finally, let’s not forget, at its core, Resolve is built as a top-tier color correction and grading platform. Here’s a closer look at the new color correction updates in the video below.

Blackmagic hasn’t yet given a specific date of when Resolve 12 will be available except for July 2015. So, we’re going to get our hands on it in the next couple of weeks.

Oh, and did I mention that Resolve 12 comes in a Lite version that is free. I said free.

Now, the Resolve 12 Lite is missing a couple of features but these are features most single users won’t miss or can replace with a cheap plugin. The collaboration features that allows multiple people to work on the same timeline at the same time is only in the full version. Noise reduction in the color correction module is also only available in the full version. All of the NLE prowess though is available to everyone – again, for free.

Windows or Mac.

Surely that’s worth kicking the tires a bit when it hits in the next few days.