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FCP X – steady as she goes.
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[Michael Gissing] “Touch screens for mixers and DAWs have been around for a long time as well and not compared favourably.”
I think the question of audio mixing really helps to highlight the inadequacy of using anything other than dedicated hardware.
Even the simple question of faders makes it obvious enough. Trying to slide your finger smoothly over glass is an almost impossible task – the moistness or dryness of your fingertip will create a completely unpredictable effect that will adversely affect the result, either too resistant or too lacking in resistance. And then there’s the question of not being able to locate the “fader” without looking for it. More or less the same issues apply to using a mouse (or other pointing device) to control a virtual fader – you simply won’t get a completely smooth result to compare with a physical fader, and again you have the issue of having to hunt for the fader rather than have your fingers remember where it is. And of course you can’t manipulate more than one fader at a time.
But faders are almost the least of the problem. Virtually everything else is controlled using virtual knobs, including panning and almost all major effect parameters. A virtual knob has to be the single worst user interface known to man – why we still have to put up with this skeuomorphic abomination is beyond me. In no way could it ever replicate the usability of a physical rotary encoder, which of course mimics the analogue “pots” of old. Again the speed of use and accuracy of physical rotary encoders is a huge advantage that I don’t see any virtual interface getting remotely close to.
It’s not to say that the future doesn’t hold something superior to the current hardware conventions, but there is not even the remotest sign of it on the horizon.
Audio mixing so obviously benefits from the tactile feel of physical hardware and is always compromised by virtual simulations. And virtual simulations is all that we are currently offered.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
[Simon Ubsdell] “A virtual knob has to be the single worst user interface known to man – why we still have to put up with this skeuomorphic abomination is beyond me.”
Oh man, I hate virtual knobs with a passion!
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[Andrew Kimery] “[Simon Ubsdell] “A virtual knob has to be the single worst user interface known to man – why we still have to put up with this skeuomorphic abomination is beyond me.”
Oh man, I hate virtual knobs with a passion!”
Completely agree!!
Shawn
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I know the folks at CakeWalk show that program working really well with touchscreens. Some of the other DAW seem to work well with touchscreens. I am not saying the whole editing process is done with touch screens but using the mixing board portion of the GUI seems to work really good in the demonstration videos. I think it is good to have the option of touchscreen as well as control surfaces.
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[Andrew Kimery] “I have been playing around with the Quadro iOS app though, and I think it could turn an phone/tablet into a neat companion HID. It will take some experimenting though to see where I can fit it in.”
Sounds suspiciously close to open mindedness – be careful here Andrew. ????????
[Andrew Kimery] “With that being said, it sounds like you’d be trying out a variety of different hardware and software on a regular basis but for the last 6yrs, and correct me if I’m mistaken, you’ve been in a monogamous relationship with FCP X on your MBP have you not? To Michael’s point, it sounds like you are fine to keep doing what you are doing until Apple makes its next move.”
I’m actually just in the exact same boat as everyone else. I have a well conditioned “normal” that drives efficiency for me. The only real difference, is that the array of technologies that forms my “normal” are largely stuff that’s arisen over the past decade – and I’ve been surprised by how much of the stuff I relied upon before that has dropped away.
Again, it goes back to my “forced conversion” to mobile track-pad-driven computing.
I did NOT seek that out. It SHOCKED me that it happened.
I expected to be working with the desktop-bound large screen editing systems that I spent two decades chasing – for the rest of my career.
Then I got intrigued with X immediately on it’s launch – and it wouldn’t run on my desktop system.
So to learn it, I HAD to run it on my (slightly newer era) laptop that COULD run it. And low and behold – as my efficiency increased – I found myself loving how much more efficient as a laptop editor I was becoming than I’d been as one using a desktop system.
There were many facets of that change.
Ending the CONSTANT reaching for an external device. Getting multi-touch myelinated as an expected set of actions. The geometry of ONE place to rest my hands that allowed ALL the data entry AND the cursor control to happen “above the wrist” rather than having my elbows and hips moving around all day while I was engaged in content creation.
One change was that I had to re-orient my acceptance of “breaks” to get up and move around – because while I”m “in the zone” I’m now at a “steady state” for longer periods – and that means I have to willfully break and move and not allow myself to stay lost in my focus zone for hours.
I didn’t expect this whole transformation to be as pervasive as it has been. But to be able to open a bag and re-create the EXACT edit space anywhere and at anytime has felt like a HUGE liberation to me as someone who enjoys creating content.
Other’s will differ. They will want wrap-around walls of monitors, multiple specialized input devices, and for all I know – a bespoke footrest in place in order for them to feel comfortable at their edit station. (seriously, it’s apparently a big issue for some people who are chair bound for hours in offices.)
I just don’t.
I’ve moved WAY farther away from needing ANY of that – than I used to be. I’m not saying it’s bad to want or prefer or even need that stuff. Everyone IS different.
But that’s the point.
I’m just one voice articulating that working WITHOUT that external stuff can sometimes be AS EFFICIENT as working with it.
It’s just another idea to consider.
That’s all.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Bill Davis] “I’m just one voice articulating that working WITHOUT that external stuff can sometimes be AS EFFICIENT as working with it. “
But you’re not quantifying how it’s more efficient, which means it’s hard to gauge whether you’re right or not.
I don’t know whether or not you have ever graded with a control surface, but if you have, I cannot believe you would claim that grading with your laptop controls is anything even remotely as fast, flexible or accurate. My estimate is that my Artist Color makes grading 3-4 times as fast as I could possibly ever grade without it – perhaps faster.
I’d be happy to be proved wrong so I could clean up my desk and not bother with the hardware that clutters it, but the reason I accept the clutter is that in each case it makes me exponentially faster. I tried doing without the hardware for a number of years before realising it wasn’t helping at all. “Faster” means not only that I can get the work out of the door quicker but also that I can make it better. The relatively modest investment pays off over and over and over, every day of every week.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
“I’m just one voice articulating that working WITHOUT that external stuff can sometimes be AS EFFICIENT as working with it.
It’s just another idea to consider.”
Obviously depending on the work you do and most people here who argue against your “a laptop is all I need” postings are possibly doing very different work to you.
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[Bill Davis] “Ending the CONSTANT reaching for an external device. Getting multi-touch myelinated as an expected set of actions. The geometry of ONE place to rest my hands that allowed ALL the data entry AND the cursor control to happen “above the wrist” rather than having my elbows and hips moving around all day while I was engaged in content creation.”
You have just described why dedicated ergonomic hardware is better. However, you are using it to describe an ASCII keyboard and mouse pad which is so far from designed hardware that I suspect you have never had the experience of editing with dedicated hardware connected to powerful computers. I really do wonder if your speed is in any way comparable to those that do.
The fact that X has made things faster and more fun for you is great and I see your enthusiasm is warranted but really Bill, I have always wondered about your experience and perspective. Have you, like many here, used various systems that offer alternatives like dedicated ergonomic hardware or have you always just used keyboard/ mouse?
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[Bill Davis]”All that virtual acrimony and ink spilled by the clueless – bellowing that it was useless out of the gate ”
Assuming that the complaints were only by the clueless offends many skilled and experienced editors and post people who were not wrong in saying that X out of the gate wouldn’t replace Legend for the work they were doing. You really do have a problem with accepting that there was then, and remains for many, absolutely valid criticism of the X software.
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[Bill Davis] “Sounds suspiciously close to open mindedness – be careful here Andrew. ????????”
I’m always up for a change for the better, not so much change just for the sake of change. That’s why I try to carve out my own ‘professional development’ time when work is slow so I can either explore new tools or crack open some advanced tutorials and dive deeper into the tools I already need to use on a regular basis.
[Bill Davis] “Again, it goes back to my “forced conversion” to mobile track-pad-driven computing.”
That’s kinda my point. Because Apple killed FCP Legend you tried something new (X). Because X wouldn’t work well on your cMP you tried something new (making your MBP your primary). And it seems like you are cool to keep refining what’ve you been doing for the past 5 or 6 years indefinitely until Apple does something unforeseen that forces your hand again. Which sounds like a great place to be because you really enjoy where you are at now compared to where you were then, and if it works it works. Can’t really argue against that.
But it doesn’t really jive with saying you are always looking for better ways to do things unless by that you mean always looking for better ways to do things within X.
[Bill Davis] “I’m just one voice articulating that working WITHOUT that external stuff can sometimes be AS EFFICIENT as working with it. “
Not to state the obvious, but if working w/o it can be as efficient as working with it then the work being done isn’t of the type that necessitated having the external gear to begin with. This comes back again to my point about the power of ‘good enough’.
For example, sometimes I’m hired to do on location, same day edits at events/conferences and there’s no point in schlepping along my broadcast monitor and Tangent Ripple because it’s unnecessary. The parameters of the gig make doing extremely basic color corrections inside the NLE, on my laptop’s display, under fluorescent lights good enough to get the job done. On the flip side, when someone hires me as a colorist I do use my broadcast monitor, I do use my Ripple, I do use controlled lighting, etc., because the parameters of those jobs dictate that I do high quality grading work in a reasonable amount of time. And even in those situation I sometimes feel frustration using the Ripple (as mentioned in my previous post) because I know from experience that if I had a larger panel I could do more work with less effort in less amount of time. But thems the breaks. If I had never used a larger panel I wouldn’t know what I was missing. Just like when I first started grading using a mouse I didn’t realize just how slow and cumbersome it was until I became proficient at using a panel (which I think took a month or two of constant use before I started to really feel at home with it).
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