This gets a double check mark because it’s huge. Track patching has been vastly simplified and improved. It’s much more like Final Cut Pro 7, only more customizable.

This was my explanation of the problem in previous versions:

If you’ve switched to Premiere from Final Cut Pro, you know what I’m talking about, and you’re pissed. The source track/target track/selected track system at the head of the Timeline and at the heart of Premiere’s basic editing operations is remarkably overcomplicated and inconsistent. Since it’s clear that Adobe has been listening, there must be some licensing issue, some esoteric use, or some bizarre nostalgic embrace of this craziness by John Adobe himself that has allowed this mess to continue to exist.

In order to target a track to insert or overwrite a clip (V, A1, A2, etc.), you also have to separately select it at the front of the Timeline (Video 1, Video 2, Audio 1, Audio 2, etc.). In many cases, you also have to individually unselect every other track that you don’t want to target, because Premiere will just pick the top selected track as the target regardless of the one you have targeted.

I’ll try to break it down with an example, but there are so many permutations, it’s difficult to be concise.

So you have a clip open in the source viewer and you want to perform an overwrite edit. Being accustomed to FCP, you slide the clip over the Program viewer and drop. Simple enough. It will land in the Timeline in whichever track is the lowest of those that are selected. Okay, weird, but no biggie, and yes, you can select multiple video tracks, although only one will be used. (The selected tracks are the ones in the wider of those 2 columns at the head of the Timeline.) Just ignore the source track indicators (the V, A1, etc.). I know what you’re thinking. It would be easier just to slide those into place, rather than all the clicking it takes to select your target track and unselect the others, but the source track target makes no difference in this operation.

Of course, you’re a pro. So you want to learn the keyboard commands as quickly as possible. Try the same exact thing, only this time, press the period key. That’s the overwrite shortcut. At this point, any number of surprising things can occur. One possibility is that nothing will happen. That’s because you have to slide the source track indicator to your target track AND make sure the track is selected in the next column. Forget the whole lowest selected track thing. That no longer applies.

It used to be even worse. Try repeating those same steps in CS5.5 using the Insert button instead of the associated keyboard shortcut, and you’ll get a third set of entirely distinct behaviors.

Thinking this was still too simple, Adobe threw in “sync lock” for good measure. It’s kind of like a reverse track lock, which is a nice idea. The supposed function is to push all sync locked tracks down the Timeline after an insert edit and keep the others in place, but turn it off for a track and you’ll find it makes no difference — unless you also deselect the track. Be sure to select at least one of the tracks that is supposed to move as well.

I won’t even get into more insert edit nonsense.

Finally, just as a final fuck you, it’s actually possible to click on the source track indicators (as opposed to sliding them) and select or deselect them, much like the target tracks. What this abominable combination of unselected, yet kind of selected, source track and selected and/or unselected target tracks can accomplish, I don’t know. Frankly, I don’t want to know.

The “slideable” V and A1, etc. markers should set the target tracks both in function and name. Personally, I would get rid of the track selection altogether (We never missed it in FCP.), but at the very least, those selections shouldn’t have any impact on standard insert and overwrite edits, regardless of whether an editor prefers keyboard shortcuts, mouse clicks, or telepathy.

Even if the behaviors were consistent, what’s with all the track selection/deselection? You can assign keyboard shortcuts to some of these behaviors (e.g. to select all tracks), but why make such a fundamental element — no, the fundamental element — of editing so convoluted?

Lastly, the two columns of Source and Target or whatever, take up more space than necessary. There’s nothing I hate more than a waste of perfectly good pixels!