{"id":197008,"date":"2025-09-01T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalproduction.com\/?p=197008"},"modified":"2025-12-09T12:35:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T11:35:54","slug":"goodbye-adobe-premiere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalproduction.com\/2025\/09\/01\/goodbye-adobe-premiere\/","title":{"rendered":"Goodbye Adobe Premiere"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hello DaVinci Resolve<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Now I had six months to leave the Adobe ecosystem and transition away from Premiere, Audition, Encoder, Photoshop and Lightroom. Those tools are embedded into my workflow like no other. Every single video and image was created in these packages but now it was suddenly over. What happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Adobe Premiere<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A quick background to who I am and how I use those applications: My name is Alexander Richter<\/a>, I\u2019m a Technical Director and Coach for Visual Effects, Animation and Games who worked at Weta FX on Avatar: The Way of Water. I\u2019m also a YouTuber who creates educational masterclasses, especially for Python scripting<\/a>. Over the years, Premiere has become my go-to editing software. I’ve used it to edit two-hour podcasts, ten-minute YouTube videos<\/a>, hour-long coding masterclasses<\/a>, trailers, short films, and social media clips. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve a mobile setup with a laptop paired with an additional screen, nothing resembling a dedicated suite. For me, the on-the-go experience is crucial. The machine itself is not an overpowered workstation, but a professional-grade mobile device, powerful enough to handle real projects, yet light enough to keep my setup flexible and portable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this test I used DaVinci Resolve 20 (free and studio) and compared it to Adobe Premiere Pro 2025 using a  Dell<\/a> XPS 15 9510 Laptop (11th Gen Intel Core i7-11800H @ 2.30GHz with 32 GB RAM pushing a Nvidia<\/a> GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU) in a Windows 11 Home System, showing on a 3.5K OLED display and an additional Full HD ProArt monitor. My clips are usually HD to 4K, Desktop recordings and the output of a Sony A6600. Just so you have a reference when talking about performance and things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Premiere Pro 2025: Same Old, same old …<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My use case is very common for any type of content creator nowadays. However, Premiere has always felt heavy and clunky, and that feeling has intensified over the years. A quick edit was impossible due to its cumbersome structure and long loading times. Still, Premiere mostly provided a reasonable editing experience until everything started to crumble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Death by a thousand cuts.”<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I first realized something was wrong a year ago when the audio waveforms didn\u2019t align with the actual audio. Since audio plays a crucial role in editing (D\u2019uh!), I had to start guessing where to cut. The correct waveform appeared when I zoomed out but it was far from optimal. “That’s new!<\/em>” I thought to myself and deleted the cached files, which fixed the problem temporarily, but the error came back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was then that I noticed a few things in quick succession: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. an unchanged clunky interface<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. missing simple audio and video features (Who needs sharp videos?!<\/em>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. lack of actually functional AI tool integration<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. and more and more bugs. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Adobe updates introduced half-baked features that are prominently displayed on the splash screen while neglecting functionalities. With each year and missing update, Premiere slowly became a dinosaur until it was overtaken by a free software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Why DaVinci Resolve<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    DaVinci Resolve by Blackmagic Design<\/a> is an editing software that began as a color grading program and is still used for that purpose in many professional productions. It now <\/strong>occupies a similar niche as Premiere, and with its latest releases, it has significantly caught up to the editing giant while offering incredible value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    You might be wondering: Why DaVinci Resolve and not one of its famous competitors like Avid and Final Cut Pro? Adobe Premiere is editing software for personal and professional videos which doesn’t require a degree to use or master. Whenever I expressed my dissatisfaction with Premiere, the most common response was: “Why don’t you try Resolve<\/a>?!<\/em>” so I did, but it took multiple attempts before it finally stuck. DaVinci Resolve covers a similar audience as Premiere and is also used in major film and series productions, such as Netflix’s Stranger Things<\/a>, though less frequently than Avid or Premiere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Honorable mentions are: Avid Media Composer<\/strong><\/a>, which is probably the most famous and used for professional filmmaking while leaving others behind including amateur editors. If you ever use Avid you know how well it performs but it is also unintuitive for a beginner. Then there is Final Cut Pro<\/strong><\/a> – a staple in Mac editing which dropped the ball in the last years, especially for professionals. Additionally it’s focused on the Apple ecosystem, and as a Windows user this won\u2019t work for me. Finally there are Autodesk Flame<\/strong><\/a> (No chance) and Assimilate Scratch<\/strong><\/a>, which are not primarily editing systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Editing the newest version of our Python Advanced masterclass<\/a> in DaVinci Resolve.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    First impression<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    First I downloaded DaVinci Resolve from the Blackmagic Design website<\/a>, installed it, and it was ready to use – no registration or payment required. The process was very straightforward and seamless. After being greeted by the project manager, I created my first project and was ready to start editing after a few minutes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here are my first impressions of working with DaVinci compared to Premiere:<\/p>\n\n\n\n