Premiere CS6 Still Has a Long Way To Go

Question

I'm in commercial editing and work as offline editor, assistant editor and compositor.  I've been using Premiere Pro ever since FCPX came out, but not in the workplace as an offline tool because of certain major missing features:
- a good EDL exporter (absolutely essential in a commercial pipeline where we're bouncing sequences to grading suites and Flame all the time)
- dupe detection (essential for prepping sequences for grading)
- timecode overlays in the monitors
- colored markers
- marker overlays (to quickly see what the content of a marker is when scrubbing in the timeline)
- searchable markers (great when needing to find one line you know you had marked)
- a visual keyboard settings editor (FCP and Avid got it right, Premiere is a mess, although improved from CS5 which didn't have the ability to search for commands)
- the ability to rename clips to match file names (can't tell you how many times I use this in FCP)
- use of CMD X, C and V for cutting, copying and pasting marked selections in the timeline without adding in/out points
- match frame edit indicators
- heal match frame edit function
- timeline to timeline editing.  Not expecting what Avid offers, which is enhanced by the ability to toggle your timeline between source and record, but to be able to do what FCP7 does by letting you edit with clip data, i.e. edit your track layout and edit points from a sequence in the viewer into the timeline.
I'm super disappointed that not a single one of the above features has been addressed in Premiere Pro CS6.  I think the dupe detection, timecode overlays, and EDL export are the biggest disappointments. 
For a little clarity on the EDL issue, every editor and assistant I know renames clips after they're imported into the project.  They don't use the "Scene" and "Take" metadata tags, because they want the clip name on the far left of the project window.  This isn't so much of an issue in Avid, but that software is on a different level.  Anyways, in Premiere, once you rename a clip, that's the way the clip name is going to come out out in the EDL.  This is a massive problem for Alexa and RED jobs, which is most of what I work with, because timecode isn't going to be unique to a clip on a multi-day, multi-cam shoot.  In FCP7, you have the option to export your EDL with either clip or file names.  Alternatively, you can select all the clips from your edit and choose "Rename Clip to Match File Name."  Premiere has none of these options.  The only workaround is to go through every clip in your edit, reveal in project, bring up the properties, copy the file name that's there, then paste into the clip name.  This is not a workable solution for a 60 second commercial with an edit every 12-48 frames.
While Speedgrade is lovely, no one is going to convince Company 3, The Mill, MPC, Light Iron, or New Hat to switch from Resolve, Scratch, Baselight or Pablo.  And to get stuff into those systems, EDLs are still the preferred method when you talk to the assistants who are loading the projects.
On the good side, it's great to see improved playback stability and scrubbing, the new audio meters are great, adjustment layers are a big help, the marker tab in the project pane has a lot of potential (why not make it searchable?), and the new trim tool is GREAT and right on par with Avid.
With the exception of the playback control, though, I would trade all of the above improvements to have the hit list above taken care of.  Adobe seems to have added some very good big picture, high profile improvements.  It's the little things that you encounter every day in a long edit that really need some attention now.  PLEASE give a look to this stuff.
I had really hoped I'd be able to use PP CS6 as an offline tool in my pipeline, but that's not going to happen.  Nor do I know any editors or assistants in commercial post in LA who will want to work without the above features.
If anyone has some insights into the above features and maybe making these things work in CS6 as currently released, I'm open to hearing them and hopeful that there are workarounds. 
Thanks and have a blessed day!

Answer 1

The command copy, cut paste don't work unless you add edits to create a
discreet clip.  You can't simply copy from an in to an out point.  The
workaround is to add your markers, use lift or extract, undo to clear the
damage you just did to your sequence, then paste the clipboard contents
that you still have from the lift or extract operation.
Regarding Speedgrade, it appears to be in its infancy and has a promising
future, but what you get for free from Davinci Resolve Lite is wildly
awesome.  It does everything the $1000 version of DaVinci does except
stereoscopic color, network rendering, shared projects, and shared memories
between projects (i.e. power mastering).  So, for free, you have a blazing
fast color grade suite with the identical toolset actively in use by
Company 3 and The Mill.  Add a panel or two and you're really rockin and
rolling.  We use it at the shop I'm freelancing at now and it can burn
through dailies transcodes (still essential for Red and Alexa), at about
40fps.  Awesome.
I think choosing between Avid MC and Premiere is strictly a "what do you
need it for" question.  The main problem with Avid is now and always has
been the hard import aspect.  AMA works kinda ok, but I know no one who
starts and finishes a project strictly with AMA.  Plus it doesn't work on
an average laptop without a lot of herky jerky playback, even at 10:1, and
at some point on a long edit, you're likely going to be working off a
laptop.
The ability of Premiere to ingest ANYTHING immediately, including DPX
sequences, is phenomenal.  If you don't want to wait for AJA, Blackmagic
has some excellent and more affordable video I/O solutions that work with
CS6 right now.  The playback is so much better than CS5.5.  I think the
reason why it was a problem before was because it's trying to play nice
with anything as it is.  FCP needed everything to be a quicktime.  Avid
needs everything to be MXF.  Premiere says "come one come all!" and that's
a tall, tall order.  Now it's working great and the Adobe folks should be
lauded for whatever engineering magic they used to make this happen.  Huge
timesaver, especially in finishing when I need to bounce more complex comp
work to Nuke and back.
The second thing that Premiere kills at is effects work, even though it's
not so much Premiere as it is After Effects.  Avid has nothing there close
to this.  Animatte?  Spectramatte?  Give me After Effects any day.  So, you
can offline AND online a project with the Premiere and After Effects combo.
Awesome!
The biggest shortcoming Premiere has, I think, is it's audio filter suite.
It's a huge liability and something I hope they devote a lot of attention
to.  The way Avid can't match the Premiere/After Effects duo,
Premiere/Soundbooth cannot match what Avid has built in.  The Audiosuite
effects seemed to be designed to give you a bit of ProTools within your
NLE.
I think the best solution, at least until Smoke 2013 comes out this fall,
seems to be to choose the app that is best suited for your project.  I
don't think the conversation should be about one program wiping out another
one, which it seemed to often be the tone of Avid vs. FCP debates.
The more I play with Premiere CS6, the more I like it.  I used 5 and 5.5 on
commercials a few times and felt like the software was getting in the way,
particularly toward the end when I needed to generate EDLs and OMFs (I
haven't tried the OMF export out of Premiere CS6 yet, but it can't be worse
than 5.5 - my guess is it's no better though, based on what did and did not
get improved).  It was fine for finishing, but you'd have to work around
playback issues all the time, which got a bit embarrassing with clients in
the room.
I think CS6, for it's numerous shortcomings - none of which are
catastrophic or deal-breakers - provides an excellent foundation on which
to build something that could definitely one day pick where FCP7 left off.
Smoke 2013 is the storm on the horizon, though, if you ask me.  But
competition is GREAT and I actually hope Blackmagic joins the game as well.
The more the merrier!