Total Training Essentials
Earlier in the week, I made mention of the Total Training Essentials series for Adobe Encore and Adobe Audition. Today I’ve gotten around to reviewing them. Why so fast? These aren’t those monster training series from years past, but rather an essentials series to get you up and running fast.
I’m not trying to be funny when I say, within a day, you will know nearly everything you need to know about Adobe Audition and Adobe Encore from watching these DVDs. The new Total Training Essentials series are short 1 DVD (approximately 4 hour) sets that are designed to get you up to speed in as short a time as possible. This is done by giving you only the information essential (clever huh?) for you to author your first DVD or compose your first soundtrack. I really like this concept! [an error occurred while processing this directive]Like other Total Training videos, the Essentials series kicks off by giving you a quick look at the interface and the major areas you should be concerned about. Again and again the hosts of the two programs tell you how to easily find additional information should you need it. And they even hint in a couple of places that there may be expanded versions of these series in the future.
Following the “Nickel tour” of the interface (as opposed to the Grand Tour), the hosts quickly get into making things happen. For the Essentials of Adobe Audition, host Jason Levine walks you through creating a multi-track score using the Loopology collection that ships with Adobe Audition. He then goes on to explain mastering and mixdown in a way that even I (a non audio-phile) can easily comprehend.
On the Essentials of Adobe Encore, host Daniel Brown takes you through the process of creating a Timeline, subtitles, building menus (in Photoshop as well as in the application), as well as the proper steps you need to go through to properly author the disc.
While these two titles may seem rather sparse, both hosts do a fantastic job of giving you the information you need, when you need it. While they don’t move as fast as Jacob Rosenberg (host of the Total Training for Adobe Premiere Pro series), both hosts cover more information than I thought possible.
There are two very specific things I like about each series:
In The Essentials of Adobe Encore DVD I really like the included media. Few of us who are using Encore probably have the occasion to use subtitles, but Daniel has included several different formats and explains how to use them with ease. Multiple languages are another element many of us may not have the pleasure of using on a daily basis and having access to multi-language audio tracks to experiment with are a big help.
On the Essentials of Adobe Audition, the best part of the entire disc is when Jason Levine spends an hour showing you how the application can be used in a daily situation. In this section of the disc, he shows you exactly how he builds a multi-track loop, applies effects, and mixes it down. While it may seem like a glorified product demo, these real world examples, give the viewer/student a chance to see how practical the application ease and to study the workflow of an expert.
This is the second series in which Total Training has started using real world examples for the viewer to play with and learn from. In the past, many of their titles would have small example projects that focused on the topic of the moment. Many times these would have no bearing on a project or process you need to undertake. However, with this new direction, a broad project that covers every or many of the features in the application gives the user a greater glimpse of how powerful the application is. I really hope Total Training continues this in future training series, as I think it is DVD training done right.
I give The Essentials of Adobe Audition a Must Buy recommendation for anyone using this application for the first time. If you are migrating from Cool Edit Pro, you may not find it as useful. I give The Essentials of Adobe Encore DVD a Strong Buy recommendation. At $99 each, these are a steal.
For more information on these two products, visit Total Training at www.totaltraining.com.
When not working deep in the labs of the DMN Central Division testing the latest and greatest software/hardware products Stephen Schleicher can be found at the local university teaching a few courses on video and web production. He can be reached at schleicher@mindspring.com. You can also visit him on the web at www.mindspring.com/~schleicher
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