While Synaesthesia was originally conceived as a single-user application, it was built using the Filemaker framework. Filemaker is a popular database software solution, and is most typically used in a server/client environment. That is, multiple people can log in to a single database (hosted with Filemaker Server) and make changes simultaneously. It’s a very effective system (and very popular within the film industry).

We now feel Synaesthesia is mature enough to be used in a multi-user environment, and with that in mind, we are in the process of optimising the current version for use with Filemaker Server. With that in mind, we are going to be rolling out a limited beta version of Synaesthesia specifically for Filemaker server.

If you are interested in the power and capabilities of Synaesthesia and already have a Filemaker Server system, we want to hear from you. Go to our Synaesthesia for Filemaker Server beta signup page and let us know some details about your setup. We aim to start the beta programme in a few weeks time.

Lots of fixes and tweaks in this version. I’ll let the release notes speak for themselves on the majority of fixes and additions, but I want to focus on one little button:

You’ll now see this button in the Reel Breakdown and throughout the Asset Manager. The purpose of this button is one of the reasons I created Synaesthesia in the first place, and it’s a considerable milestone for it to be included.

Here’s the scenario: during the lifetime of a production, reels (and other assets) that are created will be sent out to post facilities, loaned out to people, and so on. How do you keep track of all of this? Until now, you could do this by simply changing the reel’s (or asset’s) location. The problem is, that doesn’t tell you where the item belongs.

With the check-out system, you still have the original location stored, but there’s a record of who it was checked out to, and when. Nothing earth-shattering, but useful when you later try to track down that reel that’s gone missing. And it’s as easy as going to the reel breakdown and clicking a button (or via the Asset Manager).

Also, Apple today released Final Cut Pro 10.0.1 which has a brand-new XML format. So expect support for that in the next version of Synaesthesia (maybe…).

Current Synaesthesia users will be notified of the new version when running the application during the next few days, otherwise it can be downloaded as usual.

Synaesthesia has been in beta now for almost 2 years, and I believe, is almost production-ready.

This new release of Synaesthesia removes EDL and Final Cut Pro XML support, and adds “Publish to Facebook” functions…

…Um no. I was thinking of something else there.

This is just a very minor update to fix some bugs and tidy up some loose ends. It also extends the trial period through the end of September.

Read about the changes here.

Download the new version.

Speaking of everyone’s favourite editing system, Apple have officially announced that there will be APIs made available soon. Hopefully this will allow a future version of Synaesthesia tie directly in to Final Cut Pro, and thus restore some of the missing functionality.

Beta 10 of Synaesthesia has been released.

As usual, there’s a bunch of stuff added and fixed. This release focuses particularly on making editing a little bit easier, with some “real-world” tools added.

What do I mean by “real-world”? Well, they were put in specifically to address a problem during some post-production I was involved with. A problem I’ve had to deal with many times in fact, and that I’ve never been able to address with any software at all.

The problem is this: let’s say you have an EDL from somewhere. For whatever reason, you need to swap the source and record timecodes (or copy one to the other). How can you do it? The low-tech solution (editing the EDL with Notepad) works, but due to the way EDLs are formatted, you have to edit them line by line. Yes, it works, but it is painful. I defy anyone to look at an EDL with more than 100 events and not wince at the prospect.

Enter Synaesthesia. Or more specifically, enter the new Transpose Time feature. Choose Modify > Transpose Time… from the Sequence Breakdown, and you’ll get this shiny new dialog:

Transpose Time Dialog

This dialog allows you to set any timecode of an event to any other timecode. You can swap timecodes, set them all to be the same, set them to zero, and so on. You can choose whether to affect the entire sequence, or just selected events. Import an EDL, transpose it, and then export it. Very handy (and fast). And while we’re at it, you can now also add handles to sequences from within Synaesthesia.

As if that wasn’t enough, there are also a couple of other new features and some more bugs fixed. See the release notes for more information.

Download Synaesthesia Beta 10

Just a minor update this time, Beta 9 improves performance and reliability of Google Maps integration.

View the release notes

Download