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FCP X and Premiere Pro CS
Just the other day as my mind was going around in circles I was thinking does it make sense to have both installed on the same system? In some aspects X does have its advantages but sometimes I feel Premiere might be a more appropriate tool.
For me sometimes tracks make more sense because I have greater control of where a clip goes in relation to everything around it. Granted it is possible to do the same thing X but seems to require more steps than really necessary. As an example, most of the clips are on the bottom “track” above it is some light leak footage and on top of that is a title. I want to have all my graphics on the same “track” but X connects it to what clip is below it. The same can be said for audio. Perhaps there is something I am not understanding on a clear basis. I could even fighting the interface but to me tracks are more useful.
I just want certain clips to share a common space and not have the software dictate where it goes. That is just my honest opinion and welcome any feedback or thoughts on the matter.
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92 Replies
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One of the issues I really have with X is not being able to ‘connect’ clips in secondary lanes to other clips in secondary lanes. Forcing every clip to be ‘connected’ to the primary lane sometimes creates real and needless hassle. A good example is when I am cutting up music to lay down. I want all my bits of music connected to each other and ideally to anchor them to the start of the timeline without them being dependent upon a primary clip.
Sure, I can create a compound, but having to do so means I have to enter the compound window to make any changes, changes which then occur without the rest of the timeline in view.
If I could connect them all to themselves and then anchor them to the start i’d be happy.
I come across other times when moving or deleting something from the primary simply breaks my edit and it is most annoying when I don’t realise it is broken till further down the line.
Again, being able to connect secondary clips to other secondary clips and being able to anchor them to the start would be a good addition.
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[David Mathis] ” I was thinking does it make sense to have both installed on the same system?”
It does if you need or use them both. It’s not like keeping a wolverine and a tasmanian devil in the same zoo cage.
My big moment of realizing I had been fighting the magnetic timeline was after having to go back and forth between X & 7 for so long that using tracks started to feel tedious. It really just comes down to personal preference.
If you don’t like the messy spine look, there are ways to open a shot ‘in timeline’ and add titles, overlays, whatever you want in there and then click back to your main project. If you ever want to expand them, then shift-command-g will expand them. That’s what I do, there are other ways.
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Regarding your first question, there’s no reason not to have both if you own both. I personally have Avid MC 7, FCPX, and Premiere CC installed on the same partition. They all connect properly to my Kona LHI and I can use whichever one I need for the project.
Concerning the rest of your post. Everything you’re discussing is completely relevant to you. But objectively, in your example, having the title on a specific track has absolutely no bearing whatsoever in the result of the exported file. In other words, the “usefulness” of tracks or track-based workflow is entirely in your head.
Most people who prefer tracks with the reasoning that they “just want certain clips to share a common space”, do so because it allows for at-a-glance understanding of what you have. Perhaps you feel more in control or more organized in your edit. Nothing wrong with that. But it doesn’t change what the file looks like when you’re done.
If you’re doing it so you can keep track of your assets for selection or other manipulation, well, the timeline index and roles feature can help you with that.
Bottom line, either you can learn to enjoy the freedom of not having to assign tracks to clips and play track tetris with your sequence, or not. But I’ve never not been able to complete a project in X simply because the titles weren’t in the same “track” with each other.
andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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I think the bottom-line is if you need tracks then FCP X is not for you. I don’t think they are going to bring back tracks. If they do, it will be something like organizing clips by role which is not exactly tracks.
For me, I don’t miss tracks one bit. Where I used to have to have a minimum of 10 audio tracks in FCP 7. Now I have a couple audio tracks below the primary. Every once in awhile I run into a conundrum with the connected clips, but not very often. There are different conundrums you run into with a track-style editor. I’m not sure you could say one is better than another in that regard.
What I wish they would allow is transitions between clips not in the same storyline. It would be easy to do. You would just add an transition to the clip on the top. It would transition to whatever is below it. Right now they have to be in the same storyline which I find requires me to break the organizational structure of the video. If I want to transition from section A to section B of the video, I don’t want their clips in the same storyline.
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[Julian Bowman] “A good example is when I am cutting up music to lay down. I want all my bits of music connected to each other and ideally to anchor them to the start of the timeline without them being dependent upon a primary clip.”
Use a secondary storyline, not a compound clip. It does everything you want it to and you can even edit directly into it from the event browser.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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Don’t put the music in a compound. Put it in a secondary and connect it wherever is most appropriate. Which is actually an advantage over a track based system. Suppose you’re working on a video and the only thing that is important is how the music timing ends in conjunction with those last 4 shots. Have your music edit in a secondary, connected to the last clip. Then you can edit earlier parts of the video and audio without worry of how it’s going to ripple the music down, screwing up the important end timing.
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And how would you transition from a clip on track 3 to a clip on track 2 in legacy? It functions exactly the same. Add a dissolve to the clip on “track” 3 and it fades to the clip below. In fact, in X, certain effects will actually pull the background (the clips below) into the effect. Something legacy can’t do. So I really don’t understand the comment.
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What if the audio tracks overlap, which they often do?
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Fine for that specific example, but i tend to get to the end, at the end. I start at the beginning then work through the middle.
To be honest no responses to my issue have offered a more viable solution than allowing secondary clips to be connected to other secondary clips. Without that option (and ideally the opportunity to anchor them to the start of the timeline and not the first primary clip) then it will be one workaround or another.
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Audio tracks CAN overlap in the secondary storyline. It works the same as it does in the primary. Here’s a picture of what it looks like.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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