The present and future of post production business and technology

Final Cut Pro X 10.0.6 Update

Final Cut Pro X 10.0.6 is probably the most feature-rich release since the original one. As well as the features Apple discussed at NAB ร‚ย 2011:

  • Multichannel Audio Editing Tools
  • Dual Viewers
  • MXF Plug-in Support, and
  • RED camera support

there’s more. Much more. Including a feature I wish they hadn’t put in and one I’m extremely pleased they did. I’m ecstatic that selective pasting of attributes is now an Final Cut Pro X feature, but I’m really annoyed that persistent In/Out points made it to this release. More on these later.

There’s a rebuilt and more flexible Share function; a simplified and improved Unified Import with optional list view, horizontal scopes mode (and scope for each viewer), Chapter Markers, faster freeze frames, support for new titling features inherited from Motion, more control over connection point, 5 K image support, vastly improved Compound Clip structure (both functional and for us the XML), customized metadata export in the XML (for asset management tools mostly), and two features that didn’t make it to the “what’s new” list: Range Export from Projects and a bonus for 7toX customers.

All up I count more than 14 new features, whereas Final Cut Pro X 10.0.3 had four (although arguably Multicam and Video out were heavy duty features).

Because of the developer connection, I’ve been working with this release for a few months. We have new versions of 7toX and Xto7 waiting for review in the App Store that support the new version 1.2 XML.

MXF and RED Camera Support

In keeping with their patten, Apple have supported a third party MXF solution rather than (presumably) paying license fees for each sale when only a small percentage of users will use the MXF input (and yes, output) capability. The named solutions areร‚ย MXF4macร‚ย andร‚ย Calibrated{Q} MXF Import, but apparently there are others. Working with MXF files should not feel different than working with QuickTime files.

Along with RED native support, Apple quietly upped the maximum resolution from 4K (since release) to 5K.

I don’t work with MXF or RED so I’ve had no ability (nor time) to test these functions. I’ll leave that to those with more knowledge.

Dual Viewers

More accurately, the current Timeline Viewer and an optional Event Viewer (Window > Show Event Viewer). You get one view from the Timeline and one view from the Event. I can see how this could be useful at times, although truthfully I never missed it.

Final Cut Pro X's dual viewers
One Viewer from the Event, one Viewer for the Project. (Click to enlarge)

Multichannel Audio Tools

There’s a lot of room for improvement in the audio handing in Final Cut Pro X so the new multichannel audio tools are a welcome step in the right direction. ร‚ย Initially there’s no visible change, until you choose Clip > Expand Audio Components. With the audio components open, you can individually apply levels, disabled states, pans and filters to individual components, trim them, delete a section in the middle – all without affecting the clips around.

Final Cut Pro X's multichannel audio
No multichannel audio in Solar Odyssey, so I borrowed a test file from Greg used to add support to 7toX and Xto7.

For 7toX, if there are separate audio levels, pans or keyframes on a sequence clip’s audio tracks these will be translated onto the separate audio components in Final Cut Pro X. Similarly for Xto7 the levels/pans/keyframes on the clip’s audio components are translated onto the audio clip’s tracks.

More flexible Scopes

A new layout – Vertical – stacks the Scopes on top of each other. Better still, they remember the settings from the last time used! Also good is that you can open a Scope for each of the viewers.

Final Cut Pro X's dual scopes
Dual Viewers, Dual Scopes and a stacked Vertical layout. If the brightness control was there before, I missed it.

You should note that both those images are 720P at 97% (from the Parrot A.R. Drone 2.0 FWIW). I love the Retina display!

Improved Sharing

There’s now a Share button directly in the interface. More importantly, you do not have to open a Clip from the Event as a Timeline to export.

Final Cut Pro X's share destinations
Share directly from Event or Project.

But what’s that at the end? Why yes, I can create a Share to my own specifications, including anything you can do in Compressor (by creating a Compressor setting and adding that to a New Destination). Note that HTTP live streaming is an option.

Final Cut Pro X's share destinations
Now you can create a custom Share output for exactly your needs.

Final Cut Pro X 10.0.6 will also remember your YouTube password, even for multiple accounts. If you have a set package of deliverables (multiple variations for example) you can create a Bundle that manages the whole set of outputs by applying the Bundle to a Project or Clip in Share. Create a new bundle and add in the outputs you want.

Range-based export from Projects

Another feature not seen on the “What’s new” list is the ability to set a Range in a Project andร‚ย export only that Range via Share. A much-requested feature that’s now available.

Unified Import

I never quite loved that I would import media from the cameras (or their SD cards) via the Import dialog, while importing Zoom audio files was a whole other dialog. Not any more with the new unified Import dialog. There’s even an optional List View, which is my preferred option. (The woodpecker was very cooperative and let me sneak in very close with the NEX 7.)

Final Cut Pro X's unified Import dialog
The Unified Import dialog, with optional list view like the Event list view, with skimmer and filmstrip view.

Waveforms and Hiding already imported clips are also options. The window now (optionally) automatically closes when Import begins.

Other import options.

Chapter Markers

For use when outputting a DVD, Blu-ray,ร‚ย ร‚ย iTunes, QuickTime Player, and Apple devices.

Final Cut Pro X's chapter markers
There are now three types of Marker: Marker, To Do and Chapter.

The Marker position notes the actual marker, the orange ball sets the poster frame, either side of the chapter mark. A nice refinement for Share.

In 7toX translation, sequence chapter markers become chapter markers on a clip in the primary storyline at the same point in the timeline.

Fast Freeze Frame

Simply select Edit > Add Freeze Frame or press Option-F to add a Freeze Frame to the Project at the Playhead (or if the Clip is in an Event, the freeze frame will be applied in the active Project at the Playhead as a connected clip). Duration, not surprisingly, is the default Still duration set in Final Cut Pro X’s Editing preferences.

New Compound Clip Behavior

Did you ever wonder why Compound Clips were one way to a Project and didn’t dynamically update, but Multicam was “live” between Events and Projects? So, apparently did Apple. (We certainly did when dealing with it in XML). Compound Clips now are live.

  • If you create a Compound Clip in a Project, it is added to the default event and remain linked and live.
  • If you create a Compound Clip in an Event, it can be added to many Projects and remain linked and live.

By linked and live I mean, like Multiclips, changes made in a Compound Clip in an Event will be reflected in all uses of that Compound Clip across multiple Projects.

Changes made to a Compound Clip in a Project, are also made in the Compound Clip in the Event and all other Projects.

To use the old behavior and make a Compound Clip independent, duplicate it in the Event.

The old behavior is still supported so legacy Projects and Events will be fine.

Final Cut Pro 7 sequences translated using 7toX become these new “live” Compound Clips. If you don’t want this behavior you can select the Compound Clip in the Project timeline and chooseร‚ย Clip > Break Apart Clip Items to รขโ‚ฌล“unnestรขโ‚ฌย the compound clip .

Selective Pasting of Attributes

It had to be coming, and I’m glad it’s here. This has probably been the feature from Final Cut Pro 7 I’ve missed most.

Final Cut Pro X's Paste Attributes
Looks familiar! I like the visual clue of which clip the content is coming from, and which it is targeted at.

One of the things I love about Final Cut Pro X is that there are “sensible defaults”. Not least of which is the Maintain Timing choice. In the 11-12 years I spent with FCP 1-7 on three occasions I wanted to use the (opposite) default. Every other time I had to change to Maintain Timing, which is now thankfully the default.

Persistent In and Out Points

You got them. And it’s a good implementation, allowing multiple ranges to be created in a clip. I am not a fan, and wish it were an option. Over the last two months I’ve added keywords to “ranges” I didn’t intent to have because the In and Out were held from the last playback or edit I made. Not what I want. So I have to select the whole clips again, and reapply the Keyword. It gets old after the twentieth time.

It gets in my way more than it helps, which is rather as I expected. Selection is by mouse click (mostly – there is limited keyboard support) so this gets every bit as confusing as I anticipated.

Your last range selection is maintained. To add additional range selections (persistent) hold down the Command key and drag out a selection. (There are keyboard equivalents for setting a new range during playback.) You can select multiple ranges and add them to a Project together. (I’m not sure about the use case, but it’s available.)

Customizable Metadata Export to XML (and new XML format)

Along with a whole new version 1.2 of the XML (which lets us support more features in the XML) is the ability to export metadata into the XML. These are the metadata collections found at the bottom of the Inspector.

Final Cut Pro X's XML metadata view
Select the metadata set you want included in the XML during export.

Remember that you can create as many custom metadata sets as you want and choose between them for export. This will be a great feature as soon as Asset Management tools support it. No doubt Square Box will be announcing an update for CatDV the moment this release of Final Cut Pro X is public.

The new XML format also allows 7toX to transfer a Final Cut Pro 7 clip’s Reel, Scene, and Shot/Take metadata into their Final Cut Pro X equivalents.

Flexible Connection Points

We’ve always been able to hold down the Command and Option keys to move a connection point. What is new is the ability to move a clip on the Primary Storyline while leaving connected clips in place. This is really a great new feature and one I’ve used a lot.ร‚ย Hold down the Back-tick/Tilde key (` at the top left of your keyboard) and slip, slide, trim or move the Primary Storyline clip leaving the connected clips in place.

Titling is significantly improved, including support for the new title markers feature in Motion

As I’m not in the Motion beta I’m not at all certain what this means. I’m sure Mark Spencer will have an explanation over at RippleTraining.com soon.

Drop Shadow effect

Well, a new effect that adds a Final Cut Pro 7 style drop shadow to a Clip. If you’ve got a clip in Final Cut Pro 7 with a Motion tab Drop Shadow applied, 7toX will add the new Drop Shadow effect to it during translation.

Bonus unannounced feature – XML can create “offline” clips

This is great news for developers because previously all media referenced by an XML file had to be available (online) when the XML was imported into Final Cut Pro X. With XML version 1.2 that’s not necessary, so we’ve taken advantage of this in 7toX. The user can relink the offline clips to media files by the usual File > Relink Event Files… command after translation and import.

What else do I want?

I’d like a Role-based audio mixer.

I’d like Event Sharing to multiple users at the same time, with dynamic update of keywords and other metadata between editors. (I do not think I want to share a Project in that way – more sequentially manage with a Project, like Adobe Anywhere.

 

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Comments

91 responses to “Final Cut Pro X 10.0.6 Update”

  1. Adamski

    OMF would be nice.

    1. Philip

      OMF is available via X2Pro. It will be the only solution. Do not expect Apple to add OMF, AAF, EDL or translation support. Those solutions (from third parties) are Apple’s solution.

      1. Adamski

        Yeah that’s what I figured. It’s one of the reasons I suspect that they keep the price of FCPX where it is.

      2. jbritski

        Doesn’t Automatic Duck allow for OMF export as well?

        1. Philip

          Not since 1.0.1 when they stopped the “back door” access they’d granted Automatic Duck originally.

      3. Dan

        Is OMF available through x2pro? I thought it was just AAF.

        1. Philip

          You’re right, it is only AAF but that’s best for ProTools. OMF was officially “killed” by Avid (ie end of life development) more than 12 years ago. Then it got widespread support ๐Ÿ˜‰

  2. Chris S

    How are we expected to archive a truly consolidated project? I’m still wondering why we can’t add handles to finished projects. Is it in there somewhere and I’m not seeing it?

    Also, I read on the features page on the apple site that it might be possible to duplicate a project and only the Proxies, instead of duplicating all the optimized media. Any details on this?

    Thanks for the overview!
    Chris.

    1. Philip

      Most of the features I listed are really used by a small subset of total FCP X users. So I think it’s reasonable to make them third party opportunities.

      Now that duplicate only proxies feature I didn’t hear about during my original briefing, nor have I found a setting for it but it would be a good feature.

      1. Robin S. Kurz

        Yes, XtoPro for OMF. Then there’s EDL-X for EDLs (seriously… someone still uses those?? :D) *or* you can use Resolve (for free) to export to fcpxml 1.1, 1.2, “legacy” xml, EDL and even AAF (though the latter that has yet to work for me and my current projects, I only get an error message).

        And yes, you can still use Automatic Duck (again, for free) Pro Export FCP to export the imported xml projects (that came from Xto7/Resolve) from FCP 7 to AAF or OMF (Avid).

        And if you’re luckier than ME, you might even get usable results after all that, too.

        BTW: using Xto7 (or 7toX for that matter) is FAR easier than having to go thru Resolve, so that’s definitely only an *emergency* alternative.

        1. Chris S

          hmm. 3rd party for shelfing finished projects? I’m still expected to, for a 5 min documentary which includes interviews, to backup around 300GB instead of trimming source clips and archiving 10GB? I was really hoping for that.
          On the proxy thing, at it quotes “then transfer lightweight proxies to your notebook for editing on the road.” How exactly do you transfer proxies to your laptop? I’ve only found workarounds or careful duplication via Finder, and that got me in trouble. Was hoping for an added proxy-only option.
          Thx,
          Chris.

          1. Philip

            If it’s something “everyone” uses, Apple will build it in. If it’s a niche function (OMF, EDL) then that’s a third party option. Would be nice to have a Project Archiver (and I think I know who’s working on it – not us.)

          2. Robin S. Kurz

            Chris: if you have the Event (proxies) on an external disk, you simply connect that to whatever computer and there you go.

            It’s in fact what I’m doing right now (only in reverse). Had 20 hrs. of Cineform material on a master disk. Imported (but did not copy) the master clips to an Event on my Retina, transcoded the proxies, removed the master disk, switched to proxy in the prefs (this needs to be on a *project basis* btw! Not globally!) and can now edit any and everything wherever I am. It’s absolutely brilliant.

            Caveat: AUDIO files (e.g. dual audio) aren’t transcoded, therefore not present in your proxy folder, so you need to copy all of it manually to local and use the copies, otherwise they are only available when working in “Optimized media” mode and with the master disk (in my case) connected! Otherwise they’re not available *ever*. That *definitely* needs to be fixed/changed.

            I agree the truncated media management option a lรƒยก FCP 7 needs to come back, yes. Definitely.

          3. Chris S

            @ Robin Kurz could you write me at csinclair [at] pobox.com
            I’ve got some questions I’d like to ask you about your proxy workflow, if you don’t mind. I’m looking for some help on that procedure.
            Thanks,
            Chris.

  3. Robin S. Kurz

    Well… I’m sure curious to see if this fixes my current XML problems, which are *horrendous*. I have a project that I export via (FCP)XML and just REimporting *into FCP X* gives me complete nonsense (sometimes). I’m flabbergasted. And, sorry to say, but Resolve gives me more usable XML files for 7 than Xto7 does at the moment. But again, not always. The whole thing is driving me NUTS because I’m on a deadline with an important pilot that needs to be moved to an Avid (unfortunately!!) for finishing.

    Really looking forward to those Xto7/7toX updates! ๐Ÿ˜‰

    1. Philip

      At this point a round trip to itself is still a long way off for FCP X. The XML is improved with 1.2 but still has a lot of support to be done for filter and transition settings, text attributes in titles, and more.

      1. Robin S. Kurz

        Philip, I get that there’s still going to ba a “under development” flair to X, but dude… it was little more than hard cuts and everything *was* actually imported, but… every single clip (compounds), except for two or three, was DEACTIVATED! What the…

        That obviously effed up any translation I tried *that much more* from there. And have you ever had to go into 100+ cut compounds to manually REACTIVATE the clips? I have. Not happy. ๐Ÿ™

        1. Robin S. Kurz

          You need an “edit” function.

          “… to BE AN รขโ‚ฌล“under developmentรขโ‚ฌย flair” ๐Ÿ˜‰

          1. Philip

            Compound clips have to be broken apart, not deactivated. To support Compound Clips in Xto7 will require a total rewrite of Xto7 (it’s on the agenda). To reiterate, Xto7 does not support Compound Clips in a Project whether active or not. Sorry. Break them apart.

          2. Robin S. Kurz

            Actually, to be exact, they’re MULTICAM clips that come back in as a) compounds and b) as deactivated… I’M not the one deactivating them! That’s the problem.

            Oddly, this only happens with this one project, others are, well, ok. Not perfect (some, like the one I sent you, translate as [near] EMPTY!) and I can’t for the life of me figure out what makes it different.

        2. Philip

          Don’t know where this will post but to Robin’s point aobut Multicam clips. You know we don’t support multicam in Xto7 other than to flatten to the active clip? We haven’t tested the results with deactivated multiclips so that’s something Greg can look at.

          1. Robin S. Kurz

            Oh, yeah, I knew that. And flattening is totally fine! Only… all kinds of other **** is happening. And by the looks of it, as far as I can judge, it’s not YOUR (i.e. Xto7’s) fault. But again, Resolve seems to be doing something different, since some translations will turn out better than with Xto7, others worse. Which is horrendously annoying, since that means I have to do BOTH and pick which worked better… grrr…

            In fact, ironically, I’ve used an elaborate back and forth in translations to do just that: flatten multi cams, which you can’t do any way else! Another huge annoyance at the moment. *sigh*

          2. Robin S. Kurz

            Oh, and you can’t break apart MC’s (*at least* to the active video and audio guys!) either… What… the…

  4. Piers Goodhew

    Just for the record the scope brightness wasn’t in 10.0.0 but turned up somewhere in the middle. Thanks for the overview, there’s a lot in here!

    1. Philip

      Thanks for the detail.

  5. Joe Langenfeld

    Thanks, this is great…now if only I could get the Boris 3D titles out of 7 and into 10…

    1. Philip

      It’s Boris proprietary data (not even Apple can read it without Boris code). We tried. We were not successful.

    2. Robin S. Kurz

      Wow… seriously? Boris? Yech…

  6. Jeff Lyons

    For me, the ` key isn’t working as you said, but I want it to! The keyboard customizer shows that the ` key isn’t bound to anything. Do you know what I can look for to enable this option or bind the ` key?

    1. Philip

      It just worked for me. You don’t actually have to do the shift for Tilde – it’s the backtick key that works for me. The key would not be bound to anything because it becomes an over-ride application function. LIke you can’t assign Control, Option, Shift or Command keys by themselves.

      1. Jeff Lyons

        Not using shift, that’s just the natural way that key comes out when I type it.

        Whenever I use the key now, shift or not, it just gives me the error noise and doesn’t change the behavior of what I’m doing. Maybe it didn’t make it into release?

      2. Jeff Lyons

        Found it. It’s not bound by default. I had to find “Override Connections” and bind that to the ` key.

        1. Philip

          Interesting. On the beta it was bound by default. I’ll have the release version installed soon and see what comes up with that. If your experience is confirmed I’ll update the article.

          1. Michael Garber

            I could be wrong, but I think if you have set up your own Keyboard Shortcuts list, that the new commands don’t have presets… unless you go back to the generic template. Need to confirm this, though.

          2. Michael Garber

            Yep. I can confirm that my keyboard shortcuts from 10.0.5 did not have the new keys. Once set back to default, it was all there.

    2. Philip

      Good point Jeff, I was using the default keyboard at all times. Still haven’t had time to install.

  7. paul zetter

    It’s a great update (and thanks for the helpful tips/keystroke info) but I was disappointed to see that sharing by role is still offering only multitrack quicktime file as an output which is incompatible with H.264 compression (leads to audio dropouts). So with my different language versions (I use roles mainly for titles) I’m still having to do two roundtrips – prores out to multitrack quicktime with specific roles selected, then reimport and then a standard prores quicktime export. Only then can I compress to H.264 without audio dropouts. Have you noticed this glitch or am I doing something wrong? Thank you, Paul

    1. Philip

      I think it’s just that your workflow is somewhat atypical. You may want to see if there’s any solution in the new Bundle option in Share for multiple outputs of the same Project.

      1. paul zetter

        thanks Philip, yes bundles looks interesting but no roles selectable unfortunately.

  8. Dan Svoboda

    Its strange when I go to import DSLR footage it now only gives me the option to have it imported into the FCP Events folder. Moreover it automatically changes the name to the date and time it was created. Is there a way to change this?

    1. Philip

      Preferences? Certainly the option to import to an Event (copy) is an option in preferences.

      1. Dan Svoboda

        I noticed that if you bring files in with the DSLR card structure preserved it does so weird things. First, it reads the files as mpeg 4s when they are h264 wrapped as QT movies. Second, it only allows me copy media to the events folder, not reference. Third, it changes the name of the clips from MVI_xxx to the date and time that they were created. I found this strange.

        Now if you back up your media card without preserving the file structure i.e drag the movies where ever you want to store it, FCP allows you to both reference the media as well lead the MVI name in tact.

        1. Dan Svoboda

          This is regardless of my preferences

  9. James – United By Photography

    Nice round up and explanation, the features especially dual screen much needed and no doubt a feature request, that will help with transition for many.

    1. Philip

      On the FCPX facebook page a couple of people thought how great the return of an Event viewer would be. Then they started to try and use it and discovered they really didn’t need or want it at all. I’m in that camp. Not used it in 2.5 months of editing.

  10. PaulJay2011

    Don’t forget Phantom files.
    http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/335/42886

  11. Kubrickguy

    So if I and the industry decide to re adopt FCP with all the wonderful new features, spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on edit systems in post houses all over the globe. The likes of the BBC and independent broadcasters train editors up on the new system over several years ditching old favourites like AVID in favour of FCP. Make the system an integral part of their business critical daily production facilities, with promises from Apple that they are going to support them after the switch over. Then to eagerly await the latest upgrade to suddenly without consultation or warning be confronted with a route to branch rewrite of the whole app. No backward compatibility, no forward support and a shrug from Apple as to the immense impact this is going to have on peoples lives, lively hoods and businesses. If we can get assurances that Apple is not going to do this again, and will be open and consult with it’s industry clients. Perhaps some people in the professional industry might consider re adopting FCP. Mean while, great App or not. I suspect that many may not…. Once bitten twice shy!!!

    1. Philip

      The markets you quote are about 4% of the total market for professional NLEs. FCP X isn’t a great choice if you require media collaboration, or if you work with 3D stereo (they’re Media Composer markets). But for the majority of professional editing work being done – remembering the change that’s happened with the democratization of video to being another literacy – then FCP X is an excellent choice and far, far, far, far easier to teach than FCP 7 or Media Composer or Premiere Pro.

    2. Chris Wilby

      Kubricguy you haven’t got a clue what the BBC are doing. I know the guy who trains those people and what they aren’t using is PremierPro. MC and FCP7 at the BBC. Don’t be too surprised if you see FCPX at the BBC quicker than you think… And if you wan to be taken seriously, use your real bloody name next time!

      1. Terry Wilson

        Biggest hurdle to BBC acquiring FCP X is actually finding a way to purchase it through an approved method that standard business purchasing systems can handle….

        1. Philip

          I hear you. But Apple do have a mechanism they could use for bulk purchases, unfortunately not available for 3rd parties. Big issue for us and 7toX and colleges etc.

    3. Steve Speed

      The type of work that is edited “in-house” at the BBC is an ideal candidate for FCPX. From news segments to magazine programme items by shooter/producer/editors is bread and butter to FCPX. There is very little in the way of collaborative workflow and these multi-skilled producers work like many of us do on their own making their own stories.

      I’ sure there are a lot of switchers from FCP7 to Avid who saw the latest Avid financial report and are hoping that Randy Ubillos and crew build collaboration into FCPX before the lights go out in Avid towers.

      BBC Sport news desk is shot against their studio space and there’s a Mac in the background running FCP7. It wouldn’t surprise me to see that change over to FCPX. The reason it hasn’t is more likely due to the glacial speed things change over in the BBC.

      A friend of mine was a producer at the BBC until recently and he said he’s seen just about every NLE ever produced in various corners of his building. There was no great change over to Premiere Pro or Adobe just one department that said they’d buy into the Adobe bloatware for a while. Then the story gets spun and before you know it the whole BBC has gone over to Adobe bloatware.

      The slight perturbation to business caused by Apple creating a brand new product is nothing compared to backing the wrong and lame horse. It’s going to be interesting to see what the “professional industry” that Kubrickguy is so concerned about does when their NLE of choice goes down the plug hole.

      The percentage of the 4% that use Avid are not enough, Avid’s bottom line has been showing that for years.

      As for 10.0.6, most of the features that are getting the plaudits such as RED support are of no interest to me although yet again Ubillos and co have produced the best in class implementation. The event monitor just proves Apple were right in ditching dual monitors in the first place. Persistent in/out marks are fine, unnecessary but fine. I hope we don’t get a succession of features aimed at the boo-boys and those that just didn’t get FCPX.

      Love the boost to rendering, FCPX is so much more responsive and renders are done by the time I put the mug of tea down.

      All I really want now are curves in the Color Board and more audio mixing tools. The new keying and masking tools in development based on the colour cube in Apple Color look mighty powerful and up there with the best of Autodesk keyers. Can’t wait for that feature to arrive.

      I guess I’m most amazed how much Apple have done in 16 months and for no extra cost. Long may that continue!

      1. Chris Wilby

        Yep… I second that motion!

  12. Jeremy G

    Philip-

    Thanks for the write up. I couldn’t agree more about the persistent ins and outs. It is now more confusing and obfuscated. It seems, though, that we are in the small group of people that could figure out how to do without persistent ins and outs. I am very glad Apple is listening to their customers, but I do hope that they make persistent ins and out an option or a preference. I won’t hold my breath on that, though.

  13. patrice freymond

    License fees for MXF? I was under the impression that it was an “open” format since it was mostly developped by EBU/SMPTE until it started to get usable.
    Looks more like the niche/mass market thingy to me, but i am not versed in copyrights and such things.

    Anyway, competition(MOG? MXF Solutions?) in that field would be good for us as prices would probably come down.

    1. Roger Suski

      I think Philip was talking more about licensing the already available MXF solutions and making those available in FCPX rather than writing their own.

  14. David Bailey

    it would be nice if the next version of 7 to x would let you swap out proxies or pro rest for r3d clips

    1. Philip

      I’ll take it on board but it’s a highly specific need. we’d need more requests before it got on the development agenda.

      1. Brian Timmons

        That feature would have my vote.
        If you mentioned such a feature on reduser.net I imagine you would
        get appreciable interest. FCP X seems to be turning some heads there lately.

        BTW, your book “The New Now” is quite informative.

        Brian

        1. Philip

          OK, noted. Thanks for the kind comments about the book.

          1. Chris Wilby

            Go for it Phil and put others to shame…

  15. Terry Wilson

    The other big deal (although it sounds small) is that all the existing and custom metadata fields are now SEARCHABLE (albeit the global search). For me, all the metadata in the world is pointless unless you can find it again….waiting for CatDV et all to do some cool stuff now…

    1. Philip

      How did I miss that? (because Apple didn’t mention it in any briefing or documentation) That’s very good news.

      1. Ben Balser

        No one has mentioned that for DVDs (SD and Blu Ray), Chapter Markers can be used as sub titles. I’m already using multiple ranges in the Browser for speeding up my workflow. I’ve an article coming out about it at macProVideo.com eventually (publishing lag, ugh). I am disappointed in the number of major bugs. Lots and lots and lots of major bugs. Also Motion’s “Text Edit” marker is great, as is opening multiple projects and copy/paste layers between them. Here’s a trivial, but useless, trick. Copy a layer in Motion 5.0.5, launch Text Edit, new doc, paste. Poof, all the XML data for that layer! HA! Not sure what that will do for anyone. But I can change parameters in the RED RMD file inside Text Edit, and FCP X will read that new metadata when launched again. Wonder if that opens any possibilities? But one thing I’d really like to point out here, is that if anyone could program 200 features in 3-6 months, Apple would have made FCP X full feature right off the bat. So its good to see them going in a good direction. Although with no hints of updates for Logic Pro, Aperture’s market is niche now, I’m not sure we’ll ever get more audio support than some strange mixer inside FCP X, Logic Pro could possibly die along with Aperture, who knows?

        My consulting clients are all moving to Avid and PPro even with the 10.0.6 update, as they RELY on Final Cut Server, it is now dead, and FCP X shows no movement towards that direction at all. So big production houses that rely on central, cataloged, shared storage will be moved to other systems before Apple can ever get this back into FCP X.

        Motion, what the heck is going on there? Is there any serious development to it besides the trivial eye candy we’ve gotten so far? I’m just going to assume it is relegated to being the every-man’s plugin dev tool, and not a true 3D motion graphics app it originally started out to be. Any evidence to the contrary?

        Well, it is all speculation until Apple officially says something. And as much as I love FCP X, there are major market segments that are leaving Apple and hurting lots of us trainers and consultants really bad. My income has be slashed DRASTICALLY due to the sudden (and as yet unexplained) dropping of Final Cut Server. I can’t even consult for those folks in moving to another system. They’ve got Avid and Adobe reps in their offices constantly. And Apple’s sales reps in the field don’t so much at all, IMHO. I mean, what can they do? There’s no real product or support for what their media production clients need the most.

        10.0.6 is a great update, but the market segment folks like me used to make a living off of it simply gone. They will not be coming back. They’ve already committed to other systems. It may only be 4% of the overall market, Phillip, but it’s the segment that spends the big bucks, and keeps us independent engineers in business. Apple just blew that. What’s up? Where is evidence for me to show my clients FCP X will get there in time for them to stick with Apple products?

    2. Terry Wilson

      Oops – I jumped the gun. The metadata is still not searchable. I’ve just tried it with some custom fields and it hasn’t worked. Apologies for the false info…

      1. Philip

        That’s what I found. Wondered what I was missing. Thanks for the clarification Terry.

  16. Ariane

    Excellent and thorough synopsis! Persistent i/o’s is going to totally mess with my workflow, but I’m incredibly excited about the ability to reconnect clips. I would save a ton of time if they would add the ability to export reference movies, so that I could use Qmaster when compressing videos. It uses too much space/time to export full movies.

    1. Philip

      AFAIK AVFoundation does not support QT reference movies, so it’s unlikely FCP X will get that capability until AVFoundation. One of the underlying assumptions of FCP X seems to be that drive space is abundant and cheap (which it pretty much is).

  17. Willard Jansen

    When exporting a range, make sure to set in en out points and not select clips. the latter doesn’t work. You might think exporting works, but in my experience the first clip in the time line gets exported.

    1. Philip

      Good to know.

  18. TvProf53

    These changes/revisions are all well and good, but two years too late. The Final Cut suite was well liked and broadly used. Since the release of X, the shift to Premiere and Composer has been seismic. I’m not convinced Apple will ever again devote appropriate resources to their pro apps.

    1. Philip

      I don’t know where you’re getting your data but the *shift* has been anything bus seismic. Media Composer sales hardly increased – and Avid have had another negative quarter, to make 20 losing quarters of 21. Premiere Pro has definitely picked up a few sales, but – as I already wrote in the follow up article – most people on FCP 6 or 7 are still on FCP 6 or 7. Apple have almost certainly sold more FCP X in 18 months than Media Composer in its entire life. Pro Apps has support within Apple at the highest level.

      From your email address I guess you’re within an educational institution. I know from the demand for a non-app store version of 7toX from educational institutions that there will be a lot of FCP X trained students coming out very soon.