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My major beef
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[Jeremy Garchow] “FCPX could be better. We all know this. It’s OK to criticize it, I am still going to use it everyday, it’s still my favorite NLE to use, and I hope it gets better.
There is no reason to have audio follow video on a dissolve by default. Maybe it can be an option, but not a default.”
My thoughts exactly. This is just a guess, but perhaps there is a large number of people who feel that an audio fade should be included with any transition, as it is now, that is not a cut. I can understand this viewpoint, to a reasonable extent, for more efficient editing. On the other hand, this is not the best approach.
I always prefer to have video and audio transitions as separate rather than combined. Look at Avid or Premiere Pro, they don’t slap on a audio cross dissolve when adding a video transition. Earlier versions of FCP was the same way. They kept the two separate like it should have been from the beginning.While expanding audio and video is the only method that “works” now, I find it annoying to do an extra step.
Perhaps it is the overall design concept of the magnetic timeline or Apple listening to people who are consumers not experienced editors or exposed to editing as we see it, not trying to belittle anyone here. Feel free to disagree. It just seems as Final Cut Pro X was made to be professional but made for consumers. Nothing wrong with that approach but there is room for improvement. -
I think that all NLE’s would benefit from increasing the ability to choose default behavior. These choices shouldn’t be forced on activating a feature — too much lost time and xtra clicking and confusion to light users — but stored and accessible to the experienced editors who want to tailor the tool to match their workflow. Most NLE’s have modifiable “default” transitions, this type of control should be used throughout the UI as much as possible. I don’t know of any NLE that wouldn’t benefit from more user control.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin\’ attached to nothin\’
\”Deciding the spine is the process of editing\” F. Bieberkopf -
Part of the inherent problem in Apple’s approach is often that they tend to not deploy a feature or tool precisely because someone else already has. Even if an Avid function would be beneficial, Apple will avoid using it because they “think different”.
OTOH – Adobe unabashedly admits that they will borrow good ideas from anyone if it helps make Premiere Pro better.
Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Oliver Peters] “Part of the inherent problem in Apple’s approach is often that they tend to not deploy a feature or tool precisely because someone else already has. “
Don’t skate to where the puck has already been? Or something. LOL
[Herb Sevush] “I don’t know of any NLE that wouldn’t benefit from more user control.”
I actually get what Apple is up to by eliminating user choice in as many areas as possible. It’s the most fundamental Apple ethos. It has been since Jobs got rid of that openness freak Wozniak and welded the case of the Mac shut in 1984. He conceded that people need to open their own computers when he returned, but there was certainly a relentless march to eliminate choice in as many other areas as possible.
It’s certainly the basis of iOS, and the most fundamental way to describe the difference between “the Apple way” and everyone else.
The larger issue is that if Apple is the one making the most important decisions, they have to get them right. Here, they got it wrong….
…but I still think they’d argue that they got it right. Don’t they always? LOL
Moreover, I think they’d argue that they’ve made a better NLE by in fact providing fewer options than it used to have, by eliminating workflows that it used to support, and closing off entire avenues of interop.
I certainly don’t see anything in their 21st century experience that leads me to believe that more options are coming, even for something as simple as setting more kinds of defaults yourself. Those are usability and design decisions, and Apple has already decided that they want to be the ones making those decisions.
They don’t want your filthy options cluttering up their elegant prefs pane, Herb. LOL
Not that I’m arguing that you’re wrong. I’m just saying that I think Apple would say you’re wrong, categorically. I’m amazed that anybody puts up with this kind of condescension from a company they pay, but, I can say as an Apple customer since 1979, it’s the bargain that every Apple user makes: trading off respect for delight. LOL
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[Herb Sevush] “Most NLE’s have modifiable “default” transitions”
So which don’t? Because FCP X sure does. Even meaning “modifiable” in the true sense of the word, unlike any other NLE I’m aware of.
[Oliver Peters] “Part of the inherent problem in Apple’s approach is often that they tend to not deploy a feature or tool precisely because someone else already has. Even if an Avid function would be beneficial, Apple will avoid using it because they “think different”.”
That sounds awfully “matter of factly“. So I guess you have definitive proof of this?
[Tim Wilson] “by in fact providing fewer options”
So you think that FCP X overall has fewer options than 7? Okay. Would one be correct in assuming that you don’t use FCP X or possibly never have beyond maybe a “test drive”? Because I couldn’t disagree more. Unless of course you merely mean the preference pane. In which case, yeah… thank Maud for that. 😀
[Tim Wilson] “even for something as simple as setting more kinds of defaults yourself. “
One of the many things they just did with the 10.2.3 update, yes.
– RK
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[David Mathis] “Look at Avid or Premiere Pro, they don’t slap on a audio cross dissolve when adding a video transition. Earlier versions of FCP was the same way.”
Now, I haven’t had an Avid gig in years, and I try to avoid Premiere, but isn’t this based on what tracks are active? I seem to remember that if you had any audio track selected and added the default transition for a video dissolve, you got a dissolve on the video AND that audio track (which was a pain when you had a boatload of audio tracks). It’s been a while but I seem to remember it that way.
Scott Witthaus
Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
1708 Inc./Editorial
Professor, VCU Brandcenter -
[Robin S. Kurz] “One of the many things they just did with the 10.2.3 update, yes.”
and it only took them 5 years 🙂
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[Robin S. Kurz] “So which don’t? Because FCP X sure does. Even meaning “modifiable” in the true sense of the word, unlike any other NLE I’m aware of.”
Since I haven’t tried every single NLE there is I didn’t want to say “every” so I went with the more modest “most.” I apologize if my dislike of hyperbole rubbed against your sense of victimization.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin\’ attached to nothin\’
\”Deciding the spine is the process of editing\” F. Bieberkopf -
It has been several years since I used Avid so I am mistaken about transitions in there. If my understanding is now correct one can choose whether the transition is applied to audio, video or both. I admit confusion on my part. I would like this option in FCP X as well. So it is no longer a major beef, just a mild irritation.
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[Bill Davis] “I think it’s Mitch Ives who’s signature notes something along the lines that Friction – and it’s accompanying squeaks – draw attention to things we often take for granted.”
true enough…
“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.” – Winston Churchill
Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.” – Winston Churchill
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