FCP 6-7 meets El Capitan

[Daniel Waldron]

I see Dave often beating this drum and I completely agree with him. If you depend on Final Cut Pro 6 or 7 for work, there is no reason to consider upgrading. The possible downside of no longer being able to access any of your projects far outweighs the upside of a few newer features that offer no improvement for Final Cut.

Every time a new OS is released, these forums fill with people running into issues because they wanted to be the first to update. I say be patient and wait for companies to work out the bugs caused by the new OS. In your case, don’t upgrade at all if you want Final Cut to still work since it hasn’t been supported in years..

[Christopher Mcdonell]

The question stands. If it doesn’t apply to you, no need to comment. We all have our reasons.

I’m currently running Mavericks with FCP 6 and have only a few minor issues. But now that iPhoto has become Photos, it’s made a mess of trying to keep the iPhone in sync for apps like Instagram and WhatsApp. So that’s why I’m looking to upgrade. It’s not for split screens. See.. everyone has their reasons.

[Daniel Waldron]

The question has been answered. You can even look two threads down and see it does not work for someone. I’m sorry it’s not the answer you want, but the fact is if you update your OS, you run the very big risk of losing access to your unsupported software and projects. Even if someone chimes in and says it works for them, that doesn’t mean you are guaranteed the same result.

If you really must try it, I recommend making a Time Machine backup so you can revert back to what you have if need be.

[Alberto Engeli]

this guru says it works: https://fcpxpert.net/2015/09/28/el-capitan-and-fcp-x-and-7/

[Mark Suszko]

These 7-vs.-new-OS threads are the strangest things; on the one hand, you have die-hards devoted to an obsolete application, yet at the same time, feeling compelled to slavishly update the OS every time a new point version comes out. Imagine car owners who transplanted the old engine from their first car, into their brand-new car, every time they traded in their old car.

And then complaining it runs rough!

The two compulsions contradict each other.

Love seven? No problem; just back up/clone the boot drive, keep your system in a bell jar, somewhere around 10.2, and stop updating the OS, and it will continue to run the way you’re used to. Don’t expect it to deal with a future it wasn’t built to live in. Save new OS upgrades for a separate machine. You are done upgrading and updating your FCP7 system. Done. No more tweaks. No mods. Done.

Run it the way it is, until it no longer serves your needs.

It really is that simple.

[Christopher Mcdonell]

I was thinking of a car metaphor myself. My 1988 Mazda ran like a beauty, fast and quiet, and only this summer did I have to put it out to pasture. But with software, 3 years and it’s dead. Move on. Now what’s wrong with that picture?

I just know that eventually, someone who has actually upgraded their system to El Cap and tried editing with FCP 6 or 7, is going to write in. Maybe it’ll be me. For those of us to whom this matters, the foolish diehards, I guess we’ll just have to cipher through the noise until it happens. 😉

[Daniel Waldron]

“But with software, 3 years and it’s dead. Move on. Now what’s wrong with that picture?”

Video technology is improving too quickly for it to be worth supporting old software. I know it sucks in some ways, but that’s the way the professional editing world is moving.

[Jim Scott]

If you really want to know how FCP is going to work with El Capitan go ahead and upgrade. If you want a guinea pig… be the guinea pig.

If it works, great. If not, admit your foolishness and move back to the clone of your previously working system that you had so wisely saved.

[Declan Smith]

I echo what others say, to a point. There are reasons for upgrading, perhaps other apps, Web security etc, BUT, why upgrade the operating environment that your main apps work in when they are working just fine. The saying “Don’t fix what ain’t broke” comes to mind.

I still use Snow Leopard for my FCS 3 environment, works like a dream. In fact, rendering from compressor is way faster in Snow Leopard than in higher operating systems (in the tests I have done at least).

I set my machine up to boot from multiple partitions. I have the following:

Snow Leopard (for FCS suite)
Mountain Lion (For Adobe CS6 suite)
General, (Yosemite or even El Capitan) – Used for “photos” and general office stuff.

I can use 95% of what I need in Mountain Lion: FCS3, Adobe CS6, Aperture, Logic Pro, iPhoto, Safari, Mail, Pages, Numbers, etc etc. The Snow Leopard partition has Rosetta support for some of the apps I just can’t move forward (Such as older cubase files that have to be step converted if I wanted to use the latest).

The “General” partition I am free to keep up with the latest and it allows me to check for myself whether things work without losing actual working time or setup as it’s on it’s own partition.

That said, this setup will be of no consolation if my MacPro dies. New Apple hardware only supports the OS that was out on the day you buy it. So new MacPros will only have El Capitan and cannot run previous versions. This is where, in my opinion, the real problem is. You can’t always revert to a previous version of the operating system software even if you wanted to, so you can’t run up the apps that you’ve paid for and that are used to access the work that you have created.

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
After Effects CS6/ FCS3 / Canon XLH1 / Canon 7D / Reason / Cubase

“it’s either binary or it’s not”

[John Rofrano]

[Declan Smith] “I set my machine up to boot from multiple partitions. I have the following:”

+1

I maintain 2 partitions on my 2010 Mac Pro:

Snow Leopard for FCS HD suite
Yosemite for FCP X and everything else

If you want to continue using discontinued software, you really need to keep the entire environment intact because newer OS’s will surely beak things. Luckily Mac OS X makes this very easy to do.

I received an email the night before the El Capitan launch from Arturia and Native Instruments both warning me that if I upgrade to El Capitan their Audio Unit plug-ins would stop working with Logic Pro X but they are working with Apple on the problem. So even with new supported software it’s not always wise to upgrade right away.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com