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Using the Reference Monitor

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  19. Monitoring Assets and Offline Media
    1. Monitoring assets
      1. Using the Source Monitor and Program Monitor
      2. Using the Reference Monitor
    2. Offline media
      1. Working with offline clips
      2. Creating clips for offline editing
      3. Relinking offline medInstia

The Reference Monitor acts like a secondary Program Monitor. You can use a Reference Monitor to compare different frames of a sequence side by side, or to view the same frame of a sequence using different viewing modes.

You can cue the frame of a sequence displayed in the Reference Monitor independently from the Program Monitor. This way, you can cue each view to a different frame for comparison—to use the color matching filter, for example.

Alternatively, you can gang the Reference Monitor and Program Monitor together, so that they both show the same frame of a sequence and move in tandem. This is especially useful for color-correcting tasks. By setting the Reference Monitor’s viewing mode to a waveform monitor or vectorscope, you can make adjust the color corrector or any other video filter more effectively.

Using a Reference Monitor to aid in setting video levels

You can specify the Reference Monitor’s quality setting, magnification, and viewing mode just as you would in the Program Monitor. Its time ruler and viewing area bar also work in the same way. But because it’s for your reference and not for editing itself, the Reference Monitor contains controls for cueing to frames and not for playback or editing. When you group the Reference Monitor and Program Monitor together, you can use the Program Monitor’s playback controls. You can open only one Reference Monitor.

Andrew Devis shows how to correct brightness and contrast, and use of the Reference Monitor in this video on the Creative COW website.

Open a Reference Monitor

In the Window menu, choose Reference Monitor. The Reference Monitor opens in a separate panel. If you want, you can drag the Reference Monitor’s tab into a drop zone next to the Source Monitor.

Gang Reference and Program Monitor

The Gang functionality is a handy feature since it lets you see how a source clip compares to your sequence, and it is ideal for tasks like matching the look of one piece of footage with another. The Gang to Program Monitor button can be powerful for workflows like color correction, Multi-cam editing, or when comparing edits. 

The Gang Source and Program button gangs the Source Monitor and the Program Monitor together. Click the button to toggle the gang functionality on and off. When it is enabled, the play heads are locked together and move in tandem. When it is off, the monitors function independently from one another.

You can gang the Reference Monitor and the Program Monitor so that both always monitor the same frame.

  • In the Reference Monitor, click the Gang To Program Monitor button .

  • In the Reference Monitor’s panel menu, choose Gang To Program Monitor.

  • In the Program Monitor’s panel menu, choose Gang To Reference Monitor.

Moving the playhead in either the Reference Monitor, the Program Monitor, or the Timeline moves the playheads in the other two to the same frame.

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