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FCPX Newbie – is learning FCPX worth the time?
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Here are some general observations I’ve had in working with X and I feel that these points are part of the reason that many have had such wildly different results.
1. X loves RAM. Load your machine up to the max. The difference between 16GB and a full 32GB is significant and noticeable, especially with effects that are left unrendered.
2. X does not mix certain codecs and frame rates well. Place Animation codec over a ProRes codec and the playback chokes. Place a 720p/59.94 clip inside a 23.98 timeline and the playback chokes.
3. The more junk you have in your timeline (like H.264 files straight from a Canon 5D), the more issues you will have in large projects. Stick with ProRes variations for best results.
4. The translation utilities do not work consistently. When they do, it’s great. When they don’t, there’s no workaround to fix it. Right now I’ve had routine Xto7 translation problems with any clip from a C300 that’s gone through conversion using either FCP X’s Import from Camera or FCP 7’s Log and transfer (and imported as an MOV file into X for editing).
5. The difference between how actual timeline editing functions using the magnetic (A), trim (T) and position (P) modes is very significant. Magnetic and Position have absolutely no parallel in any other NLE. These are two different editing styles built into the same software. All three modes are needed to use X well.
6. The better performance you get from the drives where Projects and Events are written (not necessarily the media), the better the application will respond to you.
7. Some UI feedback to the user is inherently slower in X than other NLEs because of the built-in UI animation. Sometimes you have to slow down to let X do “its thing”. It does not react well to being “slammed around” as you can with FCP 7 or Media Composer for example. Maybe also Premiere Pro.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Oliver Peters] “5. The difference between how actual timeline editing functions using the magnetic (A), trim (T) and position (P) modes is very significant. Magnetic and Position have absolutely no parallel in any other NLE. These are two different editing styles built into the same software. All three modes are needed to use X well.”
I read your list and also the threads you opened which Franz now pointed me at.
On your list are several obvious recommendations that have nothing to do with X, but NLEs in general. Of course a fast drive helps (SSD or Thunderbolt), of course it is better to optimize h.264 material before editing especially in long projects where you end up with hundreds of GoPro, Contour and DSLR clips in between high-qulaity broadcast formats.And the editing modes have to be used in all NLEs. Every NLE needs a slip, a ripple and sometimes a position tool. It is a mix of your subjective preference and your project and the state of it (rough layout or end tuning) if you like ripple trimming or the position tool (which is simply wild dropping of content into the timeline). I see no difference.
The difference in the magnetic timeline is that you don´t have to worry about the connections up and down the line. A trim here doesn´t affect sync 30 minutes later. There are no clip collisions and everything stays in correspondence to each other as you left it. And you don´t need to lock or select tracks for all that. So to me this is a feature, not a problem. Because if I want to have sync with a audio track or want to keep a static project-duration I either use “P”, “T”, secondary story lines, compound clips or other measures. X is very flexible to achieve exactly what I need no matter if it is a 50-minute doc, a music-video or a corporate same-day-edit. But it takes a bit of time to get used to it of course. But it took me more time to “get” FCP5 when I started with it coming from Fast and Edius.
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[Franz Bieberkopf] ”
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/335/37972#37972
This one is about “massive amounts of footage” (by which they mean only 700 Gigs) and “long timelines” (over 30mins as well as discussion of the events folder getting too bloated (from 75 scenes).”In this project the problem was (from flying over it, I have work to do also ;-)) that the OP had 700 gigs of media that wanted to be transcoded.
I had an event with 1,2 Gigs without problems. Of course when you tell your Mac to process 1,2Gigs while you edit with the same data it will cause problems in any NLE. In many workflows the material gets transcoded or re-wrapped before actually ingesting it into the NLE. X allows you to do that on import or later. I often Import the native material and the over night tell X to optimize the event. The fact that background-processing is not really background-processing is probably more a Mac OS problem than anything else. Where´s my Amiga these days?I see no reason to split events into two just to keep them smaller. I have 16GB RAM in a octa-core-2009 Mac Pro (Lion) and it works even with FW800 drives. My colleague uses an iMac, 32GB, Thunderbolt drives and X is flying even faster on his machine. Skimming is very responsive on that machine even in big libraries with Waveforms on (I turn waveforms off in the event, because I miss the extra RAM).
I can recreate a bloated Project with massive Compound clips, but so far have not seen an issue with it. But to be honest I usually have compounds of max. 20-40 clips (e.g. the sound-effects of a timeline for final mixing). Usually my compounds are just a handul of clips. But I can have dozens of these small compounds without issues.
X demands hardware. Mine is probably the lowest limit. Many of the problems I read are found there (especially RAM). 64-bits take their toll.If Apple adds audio-mixing and MXF-export I will be happy and the feature set will be pretty much complete for me 😉
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[Franz Bieberkopf] “ie vast archival resources that are on tape.”
This makes sense. There is a ton of old footage still on beta and other tape formats.
Wescam offers Red and HD files also so I’m thinking much of their new stuff they shoot would be file.
What will folks do with all their tape when they stop making those beta machines at some point.
Shouldn’t people start digitizing their stuff for the long run?
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[alban egger] “On your list are several obvious recommendations that have nothing to do with X, but NLEs in general.”
Sure, but I feel some of these affect X more than others. I see a marked difference in X with 32GB of RAM versus 16GB with unrendered effects. I don’t see this same difference with Media Composer or Premiere Pro, even though they are all 64-bit NLEs. SSD should help X more, since the app has to write to the databases far more frequently than the others. For example, at one facility, I cannot write project/events to the SAN volume without serious issues. Not sure why. Writing to the local drives (with media on the SAN) is fine. No such problem with Premiere or FCP7. My point is, that when some editors indicate problems with X, it often has to do with the system.
[alban egger] “And the editing modes have to be used in all NLEs. Every NLE needs a slip, a ripple and sometimes a position tool.”
I agree, but just feel that A, T, P are completely different modes and affect your editing practices in ways that comparable functions don’t in other NLEs. Not a judgement, just something newcomers need to understand.
[alban egger] “The difference in the magnetic timeline is that you don´t have to worry about the connections up and down the line. A trim here doesn´t affect sync 30 minutes later. “
Yes and no. Here’s a situation I frequently deal with. I edit a music bed as a connected clip. Then I make a music edit to have the piece end properly, which creates a minimum of 2 connected clips. If I do a “magnetic” trim between where the two halves of the music are connected, it will change the music edit point. A standard NLE doesn’t cause this to happen, because of tracks. So with X, I also have to think about whether to compound the music or make a secondary storyline. Or I have to alter the connecting point of the second portion before doing the trim. Again, not a matter of better or worse, just different and something to understand.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Oliver Peters] “Here’s a situation I frequently deal with. I edit a music bed as a connected clip. Then I make a music edit to have the piece end properly, which creates a minimum of 2 connected clips. If I do a “magnetic” trim between where the two halves of the music are connected, it will change the music edit point. A standard NLE doesn’t cause this to happen, because of tracks. So with X, I also have to think about whether to compound the music or make a secondary storyline. Or I have to alter the connecting point of the second portion before doing the trim. “
Well in these cases I use compounds, because often I end up with three music parts (Intro, Music extension or shortening piece and ending). I can freely move the parts until the rhythm and the bars fit to each other, fee them as needed, select them all, OPT-G, Done.
In track based this was more complicated. I usually had atmo in 3+4, music in 5+6 and VO in 7. Now when I have 3,4 and 7 occupied I couldn´t align the music parts above each other to align their waveforms to find the bars/rhythm quickly. And this is the reason why I find track based more constrained once all tracks are occupied. You need to move the music-pieces down or sideways to be able to align them on 4 or 6 tracks. In the magnetic timeline everything moves out of the way during the process and then you compound it and that seems way more intuitive than tracks (to me!!!)
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Oliver,
Nice post.
These are sensible and useful observations and will definitely help people clarify their thinking.”
Well done, IMO.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
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[Herb Sevush] “The same could be said of X. Some of us need the other 30%.”
No argument.
There are always those who have to use specialized tools for efficiencies in specialized circumstances.
But that’s certainly no reason to argue that the larger group that can be helped by the more general purpose tool are less worthy of having a solution that better fits their needs.
That’s all I’ve really been arguing here for the past year plus.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
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[alban egger] “Well in these cases I use compounds, because often I end up with three music parts (Intro, Music extension or shortening piece and ending). I can freely move the parts until the rhythm and the bars fit to each other, fee them as needed, select them all, OPT-G, Done.”
Correct. Except that when you make changes in the middle, then you have to change the music relationship. If you have already created a compound, you then have to break it apart again in order to make the changes in context to the rest of the material. Adjust the length/overlaps and then compound again. Extra steps, IMHO. I’m not saying it’s bad, just a matter of each editor figuring out what works best for them. In all cases, though, it completely deviates from standard design in all other NLEs and DAWs.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Bill Davis] “These are sensible and useful observations and will definitely help people clarify their thinking”
Thanks.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com
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