About the new Mac Pro-X

[Charlie Austin]

[Michael Hadley] “We switched to FCPX 18 months ago. I’ve been very happy with it, but the constant flow of negative commentary in the press and on forums like this about X and Apple has been harsh. “

Yep. 🙂 And ironically, much of that commentary comes from people who would probably really benefit from a lot of the stuff, current and coming soon, in FCP X. There are some whose workflows/styles are not a good fit for X. And there are alternatives. But there are quite a few people who won’t give it a shot because “Apple has abandoned pros”. Turns out that’s not exactly true…

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~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Dan Stewart]

Hey when Apple get around to putting back in the things I need to do my job (which they arbitrarily removed a couple of years ago)- and if this box is priced at the current macpro price or better, then I’m interested. Otherwise I’ll stay on Avid/Win.. until Avid take their turn to rewrite MC into a crippled version of express- or try to blackmail the customers for a monthly payoff..

[Lance Bachelder]

Exactly – having a killer machine doesn’t make FCPX a killer app. The perception here in L.A. is still extremely negative toward FCPX and it will take a serious upgrade and some “celebrity” endorsements to get back to the standing FCP7 had…

With Adobe CC available in the next few days and even MC 7 beating both the uber Mac Pro and upcoming “pro” version of X to market, it’s gonna take some time to see how this all shakes out…

Lance Bachelder
Writer, Editor, Director
Downtown Long Beach, California
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1680680/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

[Marcus Moore]

I didn’t realize CC was launching that soon.

I’d be surprised if we don’t see an update to FCPX in the near term. June or July is my guess.

[Charlie Austin]

[Lance Bachelder] “The perception here in L.A. is still extremely negative toward FCPX and it will take a serious upgrade and some “celebrity” endorsements to get back to the standing FCP7 had…”

True, but in my experience that perception is largely coming from folks who haven’t really used it “in anger” as Aindreas would say. Doesn’t change things, but I’ve gotten a couple inquiries about X (based on random forum posts on the tubes…) from some folks who are quite interested. And there will be major, and minor, upgrades… 🙂

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~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Michael Hadley]

FCPX may not be the best choice for your workflow/client base. If you have something that works well for you, no reason to change.

For me, FCPX is quite good (not perfect. Nothing is). And the fact that I’ll soon have a killer box to run it on–specifically, to run FCPX and Resolve at optimal speeds—is terrific news.

If you don’t use X, the new box (or tube, actually) may not be a good choice. Fair enough. But it looks like it will be a great one for those who have made the switch to X. (And those who use Davinci Resolve—at least according to Blackmagic’s CEO, who has had a chance to fully evaluate it).

[Jamie Franklin]

[Michael Hadley] “no reason to change…..(And those who use Davinci Resolve—at least according to Blackmagic’s CEO, who has had a chance to fully evaluate it).”

This to me is the most puzzling…we’re working off 5 year old tech on 2 year old rigs with another 6-8 months away from the “refresh” that can’t exactly integrate…

Davinci…? Who is this for? The basement pro who has a 6k Sony trimaster el? Maybe one fell off a truck? Once he shells out probably 5k for the tube, another 600 for the rocket chassis? I guess everything will be handed off to him via thunderbolt drive filled with trims that his client has to pay for? Or will he? Maybe a drobo…another 750$? Tipping over 12k now…

Is the facility going to integrate this tube for Davinci without cuda’s…? Are they going to have to buy chassis’ for fibre, rockets, output 16 tracks of audio? What chassis do I need for that? aja’s, decklinks? $$$$$…more power captain! Perhaps all they need is a thunderbolt chassis to fit the cards. Not a bad idea…ok, there’s an argument for a facility. But there are many questions remaining until it’s released. Moving on.

When all is said and done, why would anyone upgrade or buy this for professional grading as a stand alone?? Is this really for stand alone projects which seems like massive overkill and hugely expensive to chassis…Stand alones are in HD…R3D? Trim>Set HDR>Render DPX>realtime playback on an imac.

Is this for a shared environment? You know, tv series, films, broadcast, which seems hugely expensive to chassis when a 5.1 will more than do and can expand on a whim at a fraction of the cost.

Is it for 4k? Time to move to HP at that point…8k isn’t far behind…

I sincerely want to know who this is for? That an Imac can’t accomplish for the average FCX user, or the HD Davinci stand alone user…

I think we all know who this is really for and going to benefit, comping and animating. I think people are drooling over something they want, not what they need, in the FCX verse.

I like the specs. I want the thing too. But it’s shiny and pretty and lonely and will kick butt…but for twice the price of what is needed.

I think there are a lot of diminishing returns to consider on this thing if it costs over 5-6k for FCX or Davinci. To start.

If this is 1500, loaded$ I’ll eat this post. With Tabasco.

[Jim Wiseman]

I don’t think anyone believes it will be $1500 loaded, so you can put the dinnerware away. I imagine it will fall in the same ballpark as the current Mac Pro. If so, I’m getting one. They will sell. Big LA facilities aren’t everything.

Somehow I remember FCP Legacy was largely about bringing real editing power to a larger market. I should know. I was the Hawaii Avid dealer. I know what it did to my sales. And expensive proprietary hardware. Went back to production soon. On what? FCP. Also some Media 100. I think the larger facilities will adapt to it as well, the same as they did with FCP legacy and the Power Macs/Mac Pros. But will it change things for the individual operator or small facility? Absolutely.

Jim Wiseman
Sony PMW-EX1,Pana AJ-D810 DVCPro, DVX-100, Nikon D7000, Final Cut Studio 2 and 3, Media 100 Suite 2.1.3, Premiere Pro 5.5 and 6.0, AJA ioHD, AJA Kona LHi, Avid MC, Hexacore MacPro 3.33 Ghz 24Gb RAM GTX-285 120GB SSD, Macbook Pro 17″ 2011 2.2 Ghz Quadcore i7 8Gb SSD, G5 Quadcore PCIe

[Jamie Franklin]

[Jim Wiseman] ” I think the larger facilities will adapt to it”

Sure. At a huge expense. Thunderbolt is not cheap and we can now start looking to somewhat affordable cloud based solutions on dummy boxes with quad ethernet and fibre at expected costs that are manageable until thunder loses some of it’s monetary potency. I’m surprised you think larger facilities will move to it. I keep seeing moves away from Apple.

If the price is right, this will move and FCX can move boxes. But it still doesn’t answer the question. Who is this for that can’t get results for half the price on solutions now, even mac solutions…?

Maybe the question should be, where in the chain could this integrate in a cloud solution? And how, since, you know, it really is just a Mac Pro Mini

[Jim Wiseman]

I think they will adapt to it because many of their clients will be using it. In every suite? Probably not. You note I said that LA isn’t everything. By that I meant the very largest facilities. But for where these things will sell in quantity, they will do very well, smaller facilities, but primarily one or two man operations. Also photographers, artists, semi-pros, anyone who would have bought the current Mac Pro or a maximum iMac but actually wanted more and is committed to the Apple ecosystem. And for some who aren’t. This is one powerful unit. It could turn some Windows users heads. Windows 8 isn’t exactly flying out the door.

It wouldn’t be the first time Apple changed everything.

Jim Wiseman
Sony PMW-EX1,Pana AJ-D810 DVCPro, DVX-100, Nikon D7000, Final Cut Studio 2 and 3, Media 100 Suite 2.1.3, Premiere Pro 5.5 and 6.0, AJA ioHD, AJA Kona LHi, Avid MC, Hexacore MacPro 3.33 Ghz 24Gb RAM GTX-285 120GB SSD, Macbook Pro 17″ 2011 2.2 Ghz Quadcore i7 8Gb SSD, G5 Quadcore PCIe