DaVinci Resolve is THE video editor on Linux. Unfortunately the libre apps for it don’t get even close, to the point that even with all the limitations in the free and paid versions, it still is the best option.
Also shout out to Bitwig Studio, although I don’t use it.
If you haven’t done it yet, please consider contributing by writing down what you believe is currently missing, either as your own blogpost or via https://community.kde.org/Kdenlive#Contact
Honestly IMO it’s not even a comparison whatsoever. Kdenlive cannot be used professionally for any real work, it will just crash on you before you even find out it can’t even do what you want. I’ve tried it off and on for many years and it’s always a massive disappointment compared to pro solutions.
In the past 5 years stability has improved significantly, like I haven’t had a crash in the past year of casual use. ymmv but I would recommend it to new users at this point.
I had to switch from kdenlive to DaVinci Resolve recently and it breaks my heart. I’m by no means a professional, but I am a heavy user who is frequently sifting throughout footage. Unfortunately, crashes are still very common for a power user. After encountering a memory corruption bug for the second time that resulted in lost project work (despite saving to disk!!!), I had to switch to something better.
I see it has two different products for two different use cases. Kdenlive is for those who missed Windows Movie maker or iMovie. Something to stitch together videos, or split apart videos.
DaVinci Resolve is for those who need stable professional software like adobe.
Not saying that kdenlive can’t be used professionally but I found its stability lacking, its tools unpolished and its functionality limited. The only benefit is that it can handle aac audio, and export it too thanks to ffmpeg.
KDEnLive is a good “editor” for simpler projects, but not a good video editing “suite”. It comes nowhere near Resolve’s color grading ability, or even audio editing ability these days. And it has no compositing ability at all. In fact, except Natron on Linux (that gets updated once every 2-3 years with just bug fixes and not many features), there’s nothing about compositing. Blender’s compositing is unusable btw.
You misunderstand the word “editing” in this case. It’s not a matter of adding a few plugins and cutting audio. It’s a matter of having the tools to normalize human voice in a way that it’s expected in a movie, or to have automation about it, or envelopes that tracks the volume and fixes it for you. That’s the stuff that neither audacity nor kdenlive has, because they’re very specific to the movie industry. They have more generic plugins instead.
Where can I learn more about how human voice is normalized for movies? I’ve noticed a big difference in the audio of old movies and some shows, and modern high-budget movies. But I can never pinpoint the difference
DaVinci Resolve is THE video editor on Linux. Unfortunately the libre apps for it don’t get even close, to the point that even with all the limitations in the free and paid versions, it still is the best option.
Also shout out to Bitwig Studio, although I don’t use it.
KDEndlive is pretty solid, imho
It is, but when it comes to more complex needs, it falls short. It is really good for simpler editing needs and it is getting better fast.
If you haven’t done it yet, please consider contributing by writing down what you believe is currently missing, either as your own blogpost or via https://community.kde.org/Kdenlive#Contact
Honestly IMO it’s not even a comparison whatsoever. Kdenlive cannot be used professionally for any real work, it will just crash on you before you even find out it can’t even do what you want. I’ve tried it off and on for many years and it’s always a massive disappointment compared to pro solutions.
In the past 5 years stability has improved significantly, like I haven’t had a crash in the past year of casual use. ymmv but I would recommend it to new users at this point.
I had to switch from kdenlive to DaVinci Resolve recently and it breaks my heart. I’m by no means a professional, but I am a heavy user who is frequently sifting throughout footage. Unfortunately, crashes are still very common for a power user. After encountering a memory corruption bug for the second time that resulted in lost project work (despite saving to disk!!!), I had to switch to something better.
Older versions may have had issues with that, but I haven’t encountered any crashing in over 2 years. (And I i do 6 youtube videos per month with it)
I just tried to make some subtitles with the most recent version and it still crashes on me.
Still a complete nonstarter for me, sorry
Save often.
I see it has two different products for two different use cases. Kdenlive is for those who missed Windows Movie maker or iMovie. Something to stitch together videos, or split apart videos.
DaVinci Resolve is for those who need stable professional software like adobe.
Not saying that kdenlive can’t be used professionally but I found its stability lacking, its tools unpolished and its functionality limited. The only benefit is that it can handle aac audio, and export it too thanks to ffmpeg.
KDEnLive is a good “editor” for simpler projects, but not a good video editing “suite”. It comes nowhere near Resolve’s color grading ability, or even audio editing ability these days. And it has no compositing ability at all. In fact, except Natron on Linux (that gets updated once every 2-3 years with just bug fixes and not many features), there’s nothing about compositing. Blender’s compositing is unusable btw.
Is it really too hard to import audio tracks after editing in audacity. I’m glad kdenlive doesn’t waste time trying to be an audio editor.
You misunderstand the word “editing” in this case. It’s not a matter of adding a few plugins and cutting audio. It’s a matter of having the tools to normalize human voice in a way that it’s expected in a movie, or to have automation about it, or envelopes that tracks the volume and fixes it for you. That’s the stuff that neither audacity nor kdenlive has, because they’re very specific to the movie industry. They have more generic plugins instead.
Where can I learn more about how human voice is normalized for movies? I’ve noticed a big difference in the audio of old movies and some shows, and modern high-budget movies. But I can never pinpoint the difference
That’s mostly due to the difference in recording equipment rather than editing.
Solid? I’m a casual user for occasionally editing video and it crashes all the time. It’s easily the least stable Linux application I ever use.
I personally use Shotcut but i only do basic editing.