Scratch disks and organization

Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

Scratch disks and organization

Posted by Peter Joslin on January 30, 2010 at 4:05 am

Hello All,

I’m new here so please bear with me if I make a mistake on any part.

So I just bought a new iMac and 1TB Lacie External hard drive as an upgrade from my 2 year old MacBook Pro.

I’ve decided that I would really like to keep all my Final Cut Pro projects super organized as I have had headaches and regrets for not doing so in the past.

Now I have a few things that I’m not quite sure of. First of, When I’m setting my Scratch disks do I want to set Waveform Cache, Thumbnail Cache and Autosave vault on my system drive or my external with the captured and rendered footage? I remember in school we would set them all to the same folder but I’m still uncertain if that was because the macs were shared by multiple students…I’ve been told those should be saved on a different drive.

The other thing is I always used to create a new folder on my external specifically for the project I was working on. I would then set the scratch disk to that particular folder. The thing is whenever I would open a different project I would have to immediatley reset the scratch disk. This wasn’t that big of a deal since it only takes a few seconds, but I noticed on a recent project folder of mine that the capture scratch and render folders have a sub folder with the name of the project.

So I ask this…does FCP have it set like this so we can set the scratch disk to one particular folder and let it do the organization for us?

I appreciate any help on this subject. I know this post is most likely confusing but basically I would like to know the easiest and most efficient way of organizing my media and projects.

Thanks,
PJ

Kai Cheong replied 15 years, 7 months ago 4 Members · 6 Replies
6 Replies

Tom Wolsky
January 30, 2010 at 11:00 am

Leave the cache folders on the system drive. I’d put the autosave on the external.

“The other thing is I always used to create a new folder on my external specifically for the project I was working on.”

You’ll hear different views on this; in my opinion it’s not necessary. FCP is already segregating your captured material into separate folders based on the project name.

All the best,

Tom

Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP7,” “Basic Training for FCS” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 4 Editing Workshop”
Kai Cheong
January 31, 2010 at 4:23 am

Hi PJ,

I used to do the manual setting of scratch disk for my projects – but that meant having to manually set up/check the scratch disk settings every time I open a project. Which gets a bit cumbersome when I usually work on a few projects in a day.

Since I’ve moved up to a new Mac Pro system with external RAID, I figured it’s more efficient that I just left FCP sort out the Capture folders for me. So far so good for me – and definitely less hassle; just launch and edit.

But on my internal drive, I create separate folders for each project, so that I could organize my .fcp file and the VO/music/images/ripped DVD files.

Kai
FCP Editor / Producer with Intuitive Films
https://kai-fcp-editor.blogspot.com
—
Now ‘LIVE’! Check Out The Intuitive Films Blog @ https://intuitive-films.blogspot.com
At Intuitive Films, We Create: TV Commercials, Documentaries, Corporate Videos and Feature Films
Visit us @ https://www.intuitivefilms.com
—
MacBook Pro 2.4GHz | 4GB RAM | FCP 5.1.4 | Mac OS X 10.5.7

8-Core Intel Mac Pro 2.26GHz | 8GB RAM | FCP 6.0.2 | Mac OS X 10.5.6 | 3.0TB CalDigit VR | 2 x 24″ Dell S2409W
Lew-ann Leen
October 17, 2010 at 4:40 pm

So, if I forget to set my scratch disk at the beginning,FCP will do it for me?

I was going to ask if I can reset in the middle of a project but, now I am thinking I might be okay.
Kai Cheong
October 18, 2010 at 1:25 am

FCP has a default setting for scratch disks and render folders etc. It’s usually on the system drive – which is not a recommended place to store these things.

If you have not captured anything yet, it’s best you set the scratch disk to a dedicated media drive, be it external or an additional internal HDD. Even if you have, it might be good to do so – but you’ll need to do a bit of transferring and relinking.

You’ll probably need to re-render but unless you’re working on a massively big project, it usually shouldn’t take more than a lunch time 😉

Kai
FCP Editor / Producer with Intuitive Films
https://kai-fcp-editor.blogspot.com
—
Now ‘LIVE’! Check Out The Intuitive Films Blog @ https://intuitive-films.blogspot.com
At Intuitive Films, We Create: TV Commercials, Documentaries, Corporate Videos and Feature Films
Visit us @ https://www.intuitivefilms.com
—
MacBook Pro 2.4GHz | 4GB RAM | FCP 5.1.4 | Mac OS X 10.5.7

8-Core Intel Mac Pro 2.26GHz | 8GB RAM | FCP 6.0.6 | Mac OS X 10.5.6 | 3.0TB CalDigit VR | 2 x 24″ Dell S2409W
Lew-ann Leen
October 18, 2010 at 11:55 am

I think the top setting is right by default. What would happen if I just leave it? I am pretty far in to the project. Is there a way to test it?
Kai Cheong
October 18, 2010 at 2:53 pm

What codec are you editing in? Are you experiencing drop frames, the spinning beach ball or frequent crashes?

If you’re almost done with the project and not experiencing any peculiar troubles, then maybe you’ll be fine pushing through till you finish up this project and sorting out your scratch disks later.

Kai
FCP Editor / Producer with Intuitive Films
https://kai-fcp-editor.blogspot.com
—
Now ‘LIVE’! Check Out The Intuitive Films Blog @ https://intuitive-films.blogspot.com
At Intuitive Films, We Create: TV Commercials, Documentaries, Corporate Videos and Feature Films
Visit us @ https://www.intuitivefilms.com
—
MacBook Pro 2.4GHz | 4GB RAM | FCP 5.1.4 | Mac OS X 10.5.7

8-Core Intel Mac Pro 2.26GHz | 8GB RAM | FCP 6.0.6 | Mac OS X 10.5.6 | 3.0TB CalDigit VR | 2 x 24″ Dell S2409W

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