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Activity Forums Apple Final Cut Pro Organization Events vs. Libraries

  • Organization Events vs. Libraries

    Posted by Renny Mccauley on April 7, 2014 at 5:51 pm

    I’m editing a feature doc in FCPX with a lot of footage and materials. The film was started in Premiere, but we hit an unsolvable technical issue with Premiere and so we moved it to FCPX in a late rough cut stage. Compared to Premiere, FCPX is painfully slow right now.

    I’m working on some ways to speed things up. I’ll be converting the raw H264 files to Proxy and maxing out my ram. I’ve also divided the film into 20 minute segments. But I’m starting to think that a big problem is the shear amount of material in the project. What I think could help is hiding materials that I don’t currently need. Basically I have an even for interviews, an event for observational footage, an event for archival, an event for selects, an event for archived sequences. I’m wondering if placing these in different libraries is preferable?

    I know there’s a workaround to hide the events in the finder which I’m fine with, but just wondering having separate libraries for one project is a good choice.

    Renny

    Don Smith replied 12 years, 1 month ago 6 Members · 13 Replies
  • 13 Replies
  • Charlie Austin

    April 7, 2014 at 7:23 pm

    [Renny McCauley] “I know there’s a workaround to hide the events in the finder which I’m fine with, but just wondering having separate libraries for one project is a good choice.”

    Not in 10.1.1. That was possible before the Library structure. What version of X are you on, and on what machine? I know there are a bunch of folks here doing the same types of projects as you, hopefully someone will chime in.

    ————————————————————-

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

  • Renny Mccauley

    April 7, 2014 at 7:38 pm

    I’m on 10.1.1. I’m on a new iMac 3.5 ghz/24gb Ram and working off an external Thunderbolt Lacie which I think is a single drive, not a RAID, but I’ll be updating to a 3-drive Thunderbolt RAID tomorrow. I do see that hiding events is not an option. I’ve moved my main edit sequences into a new library and things do seem a little zippier. So I guess the separate library is a good idea. I’ll see how it responds to pulling clips from the other libraries.

    Renny

  • Charlie Austin

    April 7, 2014 at 7:42 pm

    [Renny McCauley] ” So I guess the separate library is a good idea. I’ll see how it responds to pulling clips from the other libraries.”

    Cool. The only downside to pulling from other libraries is an alert pops up warning you that you’re copying media from one library to another. Every freaking time – please send feedback to Apple! 🙂 . If you’re not already, I’d suggest *not* using managed media (meaning stored in the actual library) because it will make a duplicate of every clip you bring in. If media is external it’s no big deal as it just creates tiny symlinks in the target library.

    ————————————————————-

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

  • Craig Alan

    April 7, 2014 at 7:59 pm

    Unless i missed it: How many gigs of media are we talking about?

    Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

  • Renny Mccauley

    April 7, 2014 at 8:19 pm

    Yeah, the warning box is quite annoying.

    I’ve got approximately 4tb of original media.

  • Charlie Austin

    April 7, 2014 at 8:32 pm

    [Renny McCauley] “Yeah, the warning box is quite annoying.

    Yep. Please do send feedback. I’ve suggested either a standard “Do Not Warn Me Again” checkbox, or the ability to designate a Library as a “Source” Library so the warning isn’t triggered. I get why it’s there, particularly if you use managed media, but it should be able to be overridden somehow…

    ————————————————————-

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

  • Craig Alan

    April 7, 2014 at 9:34 pm

    Are the 4TB stored in the library (managed) or linked to an external location? If your importing all that media into the library, I would suggest storing it elsewhere- a fast external thunderbolt raid holding at least 20% more than the 4TB. The 3 drive thunderbolt raid should do it assuming its at least 6TB. You might try trashing FCP preferences as well.

    Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

  • Renny Mccauley

    April 7, 2014 at 9:53 pm

    Craig-The media is stored outside the library and I haven’t created any proxy or prores media yet. The new RAID will be 9tb. I plan to move the FCP library to the new drive and create proxy and/or prores media to keep on the new drive. The old drive will keep the originals.

    After I cut down the size of my library, the project started moving pretty smoothly. Unfortunately, I still need to access the slow library when I’m trying to dig up new footage.

    Renny

  • Jeremy Garchow

    April 7, 2014 at 10:14 pm

    Thumbnail and waveform creation seems to be (I have no hard evidence, just experience) what slows FCPX down.

    Once those elements are all made (and with 4TBs of media, it will take a while) performance increases.

    Also, toggling the inspector closed, and closing the timeline index helps.

    As well as this tidbit: https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/344/28466

    Jeremy

  • Renny Mccauley

    April 8, 2014 at 1:29 am

    Thanks for the tips Jeremy!

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