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I need to vent
I’ve edited several projects for our daily tv show on FCX, and the experience has been a bit of a roller coaster… highs and lows.
I’m optimistic about the future of this thing, and I don’t know why I keep starting projects on it when there’s obviously so much they need to fix.
Today has been filled with frustrations, so I need to vent.
Why can’t I slip a clip without moving the attached clips?
Why are there attached clips? Why can’t I unattach them, make an edit then reattach them? In other words why can’t I lock my tracks.Why doesn’t this thing remember my ins and outs? Must I make everything a favorite?
Why can’t I lock the time position of a clip when I move it vertically?
Why can’t I lock the vertical or horizontal movement with the shift key when I apply a transform in the viewer?
If I build a bit of my timeline with some transitional effects, why can’t I pull that out of the primary storyline and place it in a secondary storyline? Why do I want to do this? Because I can’t slip my clips in the primary storyline without moving my connected clips. ARRRRRGH!
Why do I need to go into two nests just to animate my opacity on a clip? Open video animation, then click the most miniscule box to see the opacity animation. FC7 shows this directly in the timeline.
When I expand the video animation tab, why is there space wasted for parameters I can’t animate?
Why can’t I extend a clip to cover up some gap next to it, without leaving a zero frame gap?
Why does this thing default to 5.1 surround sound for new projects?
Why do I need to wait for all of the projects to load when I only want to use one?
Why is there no versioning, or a convenient way to save snapshots of the timeline at various points in time.
Why is there no attic, or autosave vault?
Why is there no way to relink clips that appear to be offline, even though I can see them on the hard drive.
Why doesn’t it add a keyframe when I change a parameter? That’s how FC7 works. When I have one keyframe and I make an adjustment further down the timeline, it should create a new keyframe.
There should be a way to paste an effect and scale the effect to the duration of the new clip.
Why can’t I copy and paste just one effect from one clip to another without copying every other effect, audio keyframe and filter as well?
When I click on an audio keyframe and hit OPT-UP or OPT-DOWN, why doesn’t it always adjust the level one db at a time? It seems to make larger adjustments if the timeline is shrunk very short and smaller adjustments if the timeline is tall. How does this make practical sense?
Why does this thing crash so much?
For every cool thing, there are 5 uncool things. For every efficiency they’ve added, there are 7 inefficencies. For every little bit of enjoyment that I have with this thing, there are 8 or 9 stomach-cramping, tooth-grinding, bowel-tightening frustrations.
It’s August 27th. Where are the fixes we were promised?
Thanks. I feel better now.
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32 Replies
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sorry to waste bandwidth, but agreed on every single point.
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I assume you’ve posed every one of these to feedback. Otherwise you’re wasting your time.
All the best,
Tom
Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP7,” “Basic Training for FCS” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Coming in 2011 “Complete Training for FCPX” from Class on Demand
“Final Cut Pro X for iMovie and Final Cut Express Users” from Focal Press -
[Tom Wolsky] “I assume you’ve posed every one of these to feedback. Otherwise you’re wasting your time.”
Tom… I have indeed posted all of these and more to the feedback page.
However, if that’s all I need to do to make sure I’m not wasting my time, I’d feel a lot better.
I’ve put much effort into trying to master this monster, and after all the hours I’ve spent I’ve certainly earned the right to vent.
I’m counting on Apple to fix this thing, otherwise we’re all wasting more than our time.
———
I’m calling it FCX. They took the “pro” out, so I will too.
I’ll reconsider after the first upgrade.Mark Morache
Avid/Xpri/FCP7/FCX
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
blogging at https://fcpx.wordpress.com -
If Apple would had payed any attntion to our feed-backs, FCPX would have never hapend.
rafael -
Most points are valid.
You can lock your clip´s time when moving vertically when pressing SHIFT while dragging the clip to another “track”. At least works with me and even offers yellow guidlines to where the snappoints are. Maybe you have to have SNAP turned on for this which would only make sense?
Also if you want certain B-roll as connected clips in fixed positions you can put a secondary storyline on top of the primary one with a GAP all the way through. Then use the position tool “P” when moving in this storyline. It is also a way for multicam.
Versioning is a problem, because if you have a large event with thousands of clips and make timelines with hundreds of them the loading times get longer with each duplication. I hope they clean this up soon, because it gets annoying especially with the betalevel crashes, which wouldn´t be a problem if you hadn´t to wait for the restart of your events……
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I think Mark means dragging a clip in the Viewer to change it’s position. Shift-drag to maintain vertical or horizontal movement does not work.
Could you explain the second paragraph? I’m not seeing this as a solution.
All the best,
Tom
Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP7,” “Basic Training for FCS” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Coming in 2011 “Complete Training for FCPX” from Class on Demand
“Final Cut Pro X for iMovie and Final Cut Express Users” from Focal Press -
It’s pretty clear this doesn’t work for you. And since there was no trial or demo version, what you really should do is ask for your money back. Money is the only thing apple seems to understand, so everyone with an experience like yours should just get a refund. If they have enough of these ‘customer service events’, they may be a little more motivated to fix this. Leaving feedback is futile. They have a long history of ignoring it, and the release of X is the most glaring example. And if in the future they ever fix this, you can just buy it then. Who knows, by then the way apple works the price will go down. They also have another tradition of making early adopters pay heavily for the privilege, only to quickly release newer improved versions at much lower prices.
Slightly OT, I have heard people making the “summer isn’t over” excuse for the lack of progress, notably that the end of summer is defined by the autumn equinox, which is true. However in America, which is where apple is headquartered, this often means Labor Day weekend, or when schools start back in session, not the equinox. Well school is back in session and all I hear is crickets. And the clock is running on Labor Day which gives them 8 days to get it done. Even the equinox is less than 30 days away.
On September 22nd, if there is no release of any significant update, I wonder what the new excuse will be?Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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[Tom Wolsky] “Could you explain the second paragraph? I’m not seeing this as a solution.”
He’s providing a workaround to my difficulty in pulling a chunk of primary storyline to a secondary storyline. If there are transitions in the clips, you can’t pull the series of clips out of the primary storyline.
I was thinking that if I put my timeline into a secondary storyline, that I could roll my clips and not worry about the connected clips, but I couldn’t easily do that. His idea of creating a secondary storyline with gap, then using the P tool would work for this.
Hopefully Apple will come up with a way to roll clips without affecting the connected clips.
[Scott Sheriff] “It’s pretty clear this doesn’t work for you.”
Actually it works enough to make me keep pushing it. I like the color effects and the real-time nature of editing with mp4 footage. I also like the way psd files work with it. I can re-edit a psd and it automatically updates in FCX. Cool
[Scott Sheriff] “Leaving feedback is futile. They have a long history of ignoring it, and the release of X is the most glaring example.”
Maybe. I can’t believe that they don’t read the feedback, and I expect that they even look at the forums to see what people are saying, even if they would never admit it. I’m sure they’re dismissive of many of the rants from people who haven’t made the investment to work with the program, beyond just noodling around.
In the end, we’re the ones using these things, and if they don’t work for us, they won’t sell any. The FAQ, and the promotional videos on their website were a direct result of the uproar.
I’m still planning on buying CS5 while it’s still half price. A higher-up at Adobe actually read one of my posts and emailed me, we had a chance to meet and show me what they want to be “the Photoshop of NLEs”.
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I’m calling it FCX. They took the “pro” out, so I will too.
I’ll reconsider after the first upgrade.Mark Morache
Avid/Xpri/FCP7/FCX
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
blogging at https://fcpx.wordpress.com -
i’m creating a sizzle reel today, and trying to re-open 3 month old projects i created on fcp 7; even though i’m directing fcp right to the folder, i still have to reconnect media ONE FILE AT A TIME. after i do that, i stare out the window as the mighty 16-bits of processing power churns through my work. etc etc etc.
this is my last project on fcp, and nearly lost in all the barrage about fcp x is the fact that fcp 7 is still a year and a half behind on basic updates and functionality. it’s slow, it has idiosyncracies galore,and the people that make it don’t give a flying crap about their customers.
three more days left on the adobe fifty percent off sale, i’m getting mine this afternoon, and good riddance to fcp. i’m premiere pro, starting tomorrow.
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[Mark Morache] “Actually it works enough to make me keep pushing it.”
Mark, you are one brave soul. I’ve been following your issues and hit many of the same myself. These are all clear examples of what FCP X is very ill-suited for at this point in time. How’s that bruise on your forehead? 😉
[Mark Morache] ” I can re-edit a psd and it automatically updates in FCX”
Except that aren’t PSDs only imported now as flattened and not layered files? I have always been able to alter and re-save graphics files with FCP “classic”. It would update them in the project and timeline. What’s new about the way FCP X is doing this?
[Mark Morache] ” I can’t believe that they don’t read the feedback”
They absolutely read them and this has been verified to me at numerous times by product management. On very, very rare occasions some folks have received a private follow-up from QA engineering if it’s an issue that requires technical triage, like a show-stopping bug. They won’t publicly respond and may or may not implement the feedback, but it is entered into a database, reviewed and prioritized.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com
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