What is A/B editing?

[gomez799]

I hear alot of people talking how Adobe Premier 6.5 is good becuase it has
a/b editing. So, what is ab editing and what do people use it for?

[Zarxrax]

I think it means Premiere has an A and a B video track, with a "transition" track between them. And then all the "normal" video tracks are above those.

The alternative, I think, is when every track is a "normal" track, and you can put transitions directly on them.

Personally, I can't remember a single time I've ever had to use a transition... so A/B editing seems kinda pointless to me. Even if I needed to use a transition, I would prefer the other method just so I didnt have screen space wasted by the 3 almost useless tracks.

[Qyot27]

I could never figure out the differences between the two modes, although I used to use the crossfade transitions fairly often (and occasionally still do if I'm remastering an old video) and never liked having to put it onto the video clips themselves so I went with whatever mode had the separate transition track, like Zarxrax said. Now, of course, I just use the rubber bands if I want to do stuff like that.

[TaranT]

I hear alot of people talking how Adobe Premier 6.5 is good becuase it has
a/b editing. So, what is ab editing and what do people use it for?

"A-B editing" - or "A-B roll" - is a carry-over from the old days of linear editing. Earlier versions of Premiere emulated the technique on the timeline. Some people who were trained in the old methods prefer it. With PC-based non-linear editing it's almost irrelevant (as Vegas users know).

A/B roll editing - In a traditional tape-editing suite, any transition other than a cut required two sources: an A roll and a B roll. As the two taps played, a video switcher could mix the signal from tape A with tape B to record on the master tape. This way, you could create dissolves, wipes, and other effects.

[DJ_Izumi]

I edit almost exclusively in A/B. ^^;;;