Issues with FCPX, mac dustbin and anecdotal resolution

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

I actually am very happy with FxFactory.

You just disable everything you don’t use, and it’s like an app store for plugins. Very easy. You buy them, just log-in with your account and they are there.

And the fact that you can try out all plugins with a watermark is fantastic. Good testing ground to see if the plugin does what you need it to do before buying.

I think, if I’m reading this thread correctly, that… software can always have trouble. Doing upgrades is always dangerous.

People here talk about an FCPX plugin, but also straight XML’s, and BlackMagic Drivers, etc.
The truth is, you often just NEED those products.

We once had a Aja Io HD and the FCP 7 update, and those 2 would be very glitchy for about 6 months. You would update one, the other wouldn’t work, etc. …
I don’t know if it is specifically an FCPX-issue, although relying on 3rd party products makes it maybe worse. On the other hand, for FCP7 we ultimately also had 3rd party products. Some 3rd party products are great and get updated very fast, others… not so.
Difficult to judge them equally.

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Michael Gissing] “X – Xto7 – FCP7 – OMF to Fairlight. Far too many steps. “

I totally agree.

Fairlight won’t take an AAF? I have had zero issues with X2Pro. It is very solid, and audio engineers have liked what I have sent over in terms of organization. Yes, it costs money.

[Charlie Austin]

[Jeremy Garchow] “I have had zero issues with X2Pro. It is very solid, and audio engineers have liked what I have sent over in terms of organization. Yes, it costs money.”

Same experience here, pretty much bulletproof. I do use the “Pro” version though. The LE version lacks a lot of the features (role sorting/handles etc) that make it useful…

————————————————————-

~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Kannan Raghavan] “Oh darn! I just had my eyes set on the SliceX/Track X bundle:(
Probably won’t buy it for now.
“

It’s a wonderful little addition to FCPX.

Coremelt is awesome. Download the demo and give it a shot.

[Simon Ubsdell]

[Mathieu Ghekiere] “I actually am very happy with FxFactory.”

Can I second that?

As far as I’m concerned, FxFactory is probably the most reliable plug-in platform there is and they take support very seriously indeed – they’ve been in business for a long time and have many very happy customers.

If you have you any problems at all, please do contact them directly – they are really quick to respond and are generally really good guys.

Every plug-in in, whatever the host application and from whatever distributor, is a potential issue, depending on an enormous range of factors, especially when Apple keep shifting the goalposts without necessarily telling everyone what’s actually going on.

There are some very unscrupulous and slipshod plug-in distributors and developers out there, but FxFactory are really not among their number.

Disclaimer – as a developer, I distribute through FxFactory and find them incredibly knowledgeable and adaptable and always trying to improve their service. And believe me, I am very quick to criticise!

Simon Ubsdell
hawaiki.co

[Simon Ubsdell]

[John Davidson] “And that’s why I avoid FX Factory and most 3rd party plugins as well.”

Hi John,

I’m not sure why you are referencing FxFactory in this context.

The issue Julian had was specifically with a product from the (shall we say?) notorious Pixel Film Studios, or whatever they’re calling themselves these days.

I am perfectly prepared to accept that there may have been issues with one of their “products” but …

How does this relate to FxFactory?

Are there particular issues you have had with FxFactory in the past?

Have you alerted FxFactory to any specific concerns you have had over a specific plug-in?

Have you discussed your concerns with the developer of that specific product?

All I can say, is that in my experience, FxFactory take customer satisfaction very seriously indeed which probably accounts for the high regard in which they are held in the industry.

Simon Ubsdell
tokyo-uk.com

[John Davidson]

There’s nothing in particular wrong with FX Factory per se. In fact, there’s nothing wrong with any plugin manufacturer. However, the more you add to a system that isn’t directly controlled by Apple and it’s programmers, the more likely you are to have issues with it. Therefore I avoid anything that isn’t home brewed by my team.

We have this program that is relatively lightweight, doesn’t require any subscriptions, isn’t dialing home every 4 minutes, and is designed to let you quickly and easily copy libraries, events, and projects to other users who can very quickly and easily open those elements as needed. While FX Factory does give you many excellent plugins to use, it basically negates everything great that I described in the first sentence of this paragraph.

It’s a hard stance for me to take, I know. However, I think one of the reasons we’ve been successfully using FCPX in a broadcast environment for over two years now is because I take that hard stance. I’ve asked Apple to consider allowing FCPX plugins to be sold in the app store, but since that would violate sandboxing rules, they can’t.

FX Factory is great if you’re a one man band, but for us I just avoid it because my system now lets me buy a new mac, sync all our home brewed generators, effects, and transitions to it, and we’re off to the races. I can then share those home built elements with any client upon delivery of their project. For me it’s all about simplicity and portability.

I hope that makes sense. Absolutely I don’t mean to disparage FX Factory and the hard work that team does – as well as all their excellent developers like you. I do follow all the apple discussion forums though, and one of the first things we look for when someone has a problem in FCPX is – “what 3rd party plugins do you have installed”. When we’re mission critical and have two hours before a delivery to a network – that is not a hunt I want to be on, you know?

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.

[Jeremy Garchow]

[John Davidson] “FX Factory is great if you’re a one man band, but for us I just avoid it because my system now lets me buy a new mac, sync all our home brewed generators, effects, and transitions to it, and we’re off to the races. I can then share those home built elements with any client upon delivery of their project. For me it’s all about simplicity and portability. “

I think this is, really, the only “disparaging” thing about FXFactory.

I generally like the FXFactory store interface. Plugins are usually the biggest drag to try and setup a new system, as well as migrate from one machine to another, or interact with multiple users.

If FXFactory had a record stored of your purchases, and allowed you to download those purchases to whatever computer (I know, it’s an AppStore model and therefore not every plugin developer’s friend) it would be a killer app. Or some sort of site license, or something. Right now, it’s a very “individual” model and I get that, but it’d be nice if it were easier for multiple users.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Jeremy, isn’t it already kind of like that? We have 3 computers at work. We log in with the same account on FXfactory and we download our plug-ins. It shows you automatically which Ones you bought.
The only one not to download automatically was the dashwood 3d plug-in, last time I installed a new computer.

We do have a separate text document with all our licenses for plug-ins listed. Just in case.

[Simon Ubsdell]

[John Davidson] “There’s nothing in particular wrong with FX Factory per se. In fact, there’s nothing wrong with any plugin manufacturer. However, the more you add to a system that isn’t directly controlled by Apple and it’s programmers, the more likely you are to have issues with it. Therefore I avoid anything that isn’t home brewed by my team.”

I can understand your position in wanting a clean, safe environment free of risk and in principle that’s clearly a sound business decision that we should all be emulating – but there’s risk and risk.

I just wanted to point out that there’s a world of difference between buying a plug-in from FxFactory and buying one from one of the very many more questionable operations that have sprung up to exploit the opportunities presented by FCP X.

Mentioning FxFactory specifically in relation to an issue raised by a plug-in from Pixel Film Studios seemed like a particularly low blow – though I’m sure you didn’t mean it that way.

FxFactory have been around for 10 years, long before FCP X was ever thought of, and have been providing plug-ins for FCP Legacy, Premiere, After Effects and Motion from a number of very well-respected developers – people like Graeme Nattress and Tim Dashwood among others, as well as Gabe’s own seriously extensive array of tools.

Gabe and Niclas have built an extremely robust and sophisticated ecosystem for the delivery of these plug-ins that is really far superior to anything else out there in my view. As Mathieu points out below, handling multiple licenses in a multi-seat environment should be pretty straightforward with this system – maybe it’s not perfectly suited to the way you work but it’s impressively streamlined, I think. If there’s something that you can imagine they should be doing better, I really do suggest you let them know, as Gabe works tirelessly to make the system better.

To extrapolate from saying that some plug-ins cause issues to saying that therefore all plug-ins should be avoided is not I think a reasonable position.

Though of course, I would say all that 😉

I also suspect that you’re not fully consistent in your avoidance of third party solutions. I can’t remember what you’ve said about this but I’m presuming you need to get audio out of FCP X for finishing and hence must be using X2Pro. As we know, Apple has left certain chunks of the FCP X environment deliberately uncatered for which means that third party solutions are a necessity for many of us.

Is there really any difference in risk between using X2Pro and, say, Dashwood’s Stereo3D Toolbox? I don’t really see it myself.

I’d also suggest that however impressive the skills of your Motion team and much as I like Motion myself, there are tasks that it’s simply beyond Motion to be able to deliver on, which is where properly designed and executed plug-ins can really speed up your workflow. (Not mine, of course – they’re all rubbish.) And as much as the avoidance of risk is an important consideration, so also is delivering the end product quickly and efficiently.

Simon Ubsdell
tokyo-uk.com