Setting Up FCP X keyboard for an Avid Editor?

[Oliver Peters]

It’s not just a matter of terminology, but also that many of the functions have changed or don’t exist in the others. For example, none of them have the equivalent of “Q” to create a connected clip. In the case of MC, that would involve both track patching and an edit command. I think you can get close for some, like a simple overwrite or insert, but a lot of the rest will be tougher.

Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Noah Kadner]

Yep I would instead invest in a labeled custom FCPX keyboard. Remapping everything to Avid would be dicey at best plus everytime you go edit on a stock install of FCPX you’ll be completely lost. That said if you *insist* on the square peg into round hole approach- I’ll bet a Google search for Avid FCPX key mappings might yield something.

Noah

FCPWORKS – FCPX Workflow
Call Box Training

[David Powell]

Actually , I find that FCPX lines up like Avid better than Premiere of FCP7. I find it very easy to jump from MC to X than any of the others the way I have my Keyboard setup. For instance, in media composer “890” will patch Video 1 audio and audio 2. In FCPX 8 will patch Video/audio, 9 will give me video only and 0 will give me audio only.

I have “p, [, and ]” switch trim sides like MC, and U will give me a roll trim like MC. “V and B” insert and overwrite “E and R” for I/O…you get the idea. I Use “C” for connecting clips, “W” for range, “4” for disable, “esc” for clip animation “5” for match frame. My FCPX keyboard is exactly like my MC keyboard with a couple differences. But my MC keyboard is also customized and working with FCPX gave me better ideas on creating a better Keyboard for MC.

Also you’ll find that FCPX is extremely mouse reliant. For this reason I switched the transform to the left hand side ala Steve Cohen, but the JKL remained the same as well so when I went to using a Wacom Tablet (I pen with my left hand), nothing really changed on my keyboard. Of course I had to take quite a bit of time to program my Wacom to work seamlessly between MC, Premiere and FCPX. But now its a breeze.

[David Powell]

If you’re interested shoot me an email, and I’ll send you my FCPX Keybord setup. I think its quite intuitive and crosses over extremely well for Avid Editors. I’m a keyboard Jockey so pretty much everything you’d use in Avid on the keyboard is mapped. Its a good baseline and you could switch a few commands that I left FCP (like I don’t use “\” for transitions in X) back to original Avid spots. Though I generally have a good reason why I didn’t cross it over to FCPX.

[Andy Neil]

As Oliver said, it’s going to be difficult because there are plenty of edits in X that are not compatible with Avid. Connected and appended edits do not exist in Avid, and track patching doesn’t exist in FCPX.

However, you can get a few key ones down that might make the switching curve easier. If you’re right handed, and use E and R for IN/OUT, you can map those easily enough. Make V Insert, and B overwrite. For Connect, make it SHIFT+V and Append can be SHIFT+B. Then at least the majority of your edit functions are on keys you’re used to hitting. Personally, I almost never use overwrite on FCPX so I’d probably make B=connected, but YMMV.

Remap zoom in/out to the pg up and down. There’s no toggle between source and sequence monitors because there’s only one monitor, but you can make the ESC key into a shortcut for the event browser so you can jump back to your clips after messing around in your timeline. You can move the Select Edges shortcuts so they’re at P [ and ] instead of [ ] and \.

And though there’s not a “trim mode” like in Avid, you could map U to the Precision Editor and trim that way.

Wherever your special shortcuts for things like matchframe and such, just map them to the same place in X. That’ll get you some of the way there.

Andy

https://plus.google.com/u/0/107277729326633563425/videos

[Scott Clements]

Thanks for all the great feedback, guys. If I was going to completely jump ship and go FCP X all the way, I would just learn all the FCP X shortcuts, but I basically want to jump around all the NLEs and maintain muscle memory…no matter how much time passes between projects. I basically have my Premiere set up like my Avid and it’s very helpful. FCP X is trickier, but I want to get it close.

Film Editor, London UK
http://www.scottclementseditor.com

[Scott Clements]

David, I would love to get your FCP X keyboard setup…how do I email you? I can’t find an email or message link. Thanks!

Film Editor, London UK
http://www.scottclementseditor.com

[David Powell]

davidpowelledits@gmail.com

[Phil Lowe]

I’ve spent the past 20 years using and building Avid systems (Xpress Pro, Media Composer, and Newscutter.) I continue to use Media Composer today, but am having to learn FCPX, as this is the NLE my new employer will start using in December.

I’ve read the cautionary tales about remapping the FCPX keyboard to resemble a Media Composer workflow, but – at least in my case – I’ve found remapping my most frequently used keys has made the learning curve so much easier. More importantly, it’s made me more productive sooner than I would’ve been had I tried to “tough it out” learning a purely “X” workflow. And, since I intend to continue working with Media Composer in the future, keeping the keys consistent across both systems means I can continue to be fast in both as needed.

Bottom line: do whatever makes you productive and proficient as fast as you can be. After all, that’s why they put keyboard remapping in all these NLEs in the first place. 😉

P.S. I never liked the default Avid keys either, and have always imported my own keyboard layout on every machine I use.

[Bill Davis]

Of course you should do what works best for you.

That said, I suspect that in the long run, you’ll significantly slow your mental transition – so you’ve just got to accept that you’ll be a slower X editor longer – the longer you *think* like an AVID editor, the less you mentally migrate to thinking like an X editor.

Part of it (my opinion only) is that in X – since I can precision pre-trim so much in the browser via range keywording, I end up doing a LOT less timeline trimming that I did on FCP Legacy. So those traditional NLE skills – to the extent they are focused on just getting clips “in the timeline” and THEN ding all your trimming and editing there – will keep you thinking in that orientation.

Basically, the quicker you fully embrace the X centric keys like the X “home row” AQWERT – which is focused on both switching modes (Select Mode, Range Mode, Trim Mode) and “insert” modes – (Connect, Insert magnetically, Append magnetically) etc. the slower I suspect you’ll fully adapt.

I recommend new editors study these “single key” commands first, then move to the double key commands later – Does AVID do that? (I’m not an AVID editor) but if not, re-mapping those functions to something else, means won’t be editing with X the way editing with X was designed.

Again, it’s absolutely up to you to do things the way you like. But most of us feel that Apple didn’t change the editing paradigms just for fun – they re-thought how it needed to work in a magnetic system with new thinking.

To make it work as much as possible like AVID might be to significantly rob it or working like FCP X.

And if you go that way, just understand that you’ll NOT really be making the entire mental switch.

Good luck with whatever you decide. And I hope it works out for you.

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