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NewTek Toaster [2]: TV Studio in a Box
 | | (Click for enlargement) Here's the virtual breakout box, which looks very much like the optional physical one. |
I got a kick out of working with this virtual switcher, too. To patch sources to the switcher, there's a graphic of the virtual breakout box, where you click and drag, auto patching any input to any bus on the switcher. An actual breakout box is also available ($1995), so you're able to plug in component and composite video, S-Video, RS422 control and optional SDI into the system as well as audio ins and outs and up to 24 composite inputs. If you want to input DV, you'll have to have a DV I/O card in your computer, no big deal since these cards cost less than $40. A big plus for the switcher is the ability to expand the switcher to as many inputs as you need.
 | | You won't believe the level of control you can get with the advanced proc amp settings. Click for much larger image. |
So there you go, doing a live switch on a video program, where all inputs are stable, each having its own built-in frame sync. It's remarkable to see the level of control you get over any video with this proc amp setup. You're able to right-click on any of the sources and adjust almost anything on any source. Engineers, take heed: You'll love this. Keeping things on a pro level are waveform and vector scope monitors that refresh at 60 fields per second, something that's quite rare in software. Of course, you have to have a computer that can handle this speed of processing, but it doesn't really require that much processor speed to accomplish this. Another convenience is the ability to save your settings for each piece of equipment you own, assuring you that each tweaking session only needs to be done once.
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Another impressive feature is the file bin, which works in a similar way across all the modules. As you mouse over an icon, it begins to play. Move your mouse over a video clip, and as it's playing it shows you both the length of the clip and its current time code location. Then, hold down the Alt key, and it plays backwards; hold Shift/Alt and it plays backward 10x, hold Shift and it plays forward at 10X. It's a big time-saver to be able to quickly navigate large numbers of clips, animations and graphics this way.
 Once you've selected a clip, you either double-click it for an instant play on Line, or drag it to a virtual DDR (see graphic at left), and Toaster auto-patches it onto an available bus. The DDR allows you to place a clip into "Cue" mode so when you hit the space bar, it takes and rolls at the same time (We dreamed of this in the days of five-second pre-rolls using two-inch quad machines!). And, any clip can be loaded into a DDR this way, including an entire timeline sequence you created in Toaster Edit.
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Related sites: • Creative Mac • Digital Post Production • Digital Producer • Digital Video Editing • DV Format
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