Setting Up FCP X keyboard for an Avid Editor?

[Phil Lowe]

“…the longer you *think* like an AVID editor, the less you mentally migrate to thinking like an X editor.”

Which is quite fine by me. I will be editing news in FCPX, but production-oriented pieces, especially green screen work, in Media Composer. My MC keyboard was originally created to cut news on Xpress Pro and Newscutter systems, so my muscle memory is adapted to having all my most frequently used keys under my left hand. I have the 1 & 2 keys mapped for back and forward 10 frames, the 3 & 4 keys mapped for back and forward 1 frame, the E & R keys mapped as Mark In and Mark Out, and the V & B keys mapped as Insert & Overwrite. I don’t use the JKL keys because between the mouse and left hand, I can navigate precisely to any point I want very quickly. I have maintained most of the native FCPX keyboard mapping, but only because I probably won’t use many of the features in FCPX for cutting news: straight cuts with occasional dissolves are about all I’ll ever need in this app.

That said, I’m frustrated that I have not found a way to mark takes while voiceover recording on the fly. And the lack of a quick effect (dissolve) key that works for audio as it does for video, a la Avid, is disconcerting.

Muscle memory is the key to speed in any NLE, and keeping the keyboard mapped consistently across platforms and programs is where I feel I will be most proficient. YMMV. 😉

[Bill Davis]

[Phil Lowe] “Muscle memory is the key to speed in any NLE, and keeping the keyboard mapped consistently across platforms and programs is where I feel I will be most proficient. YMMV. ;)”

Oh well.

I kinda think you’re insisting on mentally welding a set of training wheels on your brand new racing bike, but you’re the only editor who you need to make happy.. So I wish you good fortune with your chosen approach.

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.

[Phil Lowe]

Thanks. From my perspective, however, Avid is my racing bike. 😉

[David Powell]

I’m going to have to completely disagree with Bill on this. Remapping your keyboard has nothing to do with thinking like an Avid Editor. Apple keyboard layout was never fantastic. F9 and F10 for a repeatable function like overwrite and insert? Pleeez! Many of the Apple commands are laid out for mnemonic memory (“C” for Connect, “T” for Trim”) and have nothing to do with actual muscle function. Avid layout is not that way, but still Avid editors (like myself) remap their Avid keyboards as well as it is not perfect. I’ve been using FCX every day for the last 3 years. I learned their keyboard first, and it’s not great for me. One of the great things about Apples design is how deep the keyboard customization is compared to the competition. And Avid and FCX function surprisingly similar modally which makes it easier to bring the commands from Avid to FCX than it would be to Premiere, which has that worse command execution of all the NLE’s imo, though it’s been improving.

[Bill Davis]

[David Powell] “I’m going to have to completely disagree with Bill on this.”

Extremely pleased to be civilly disagreed with.

That’s what debate is supposed to be all about.

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.

[Bill Davis]

[David Powell] “Many of the Apple commands are laid out for mnemonic memory (“C” for Connect, “T” for Trim”) and have nothing to do with actual muscle function.”

Seems to me that some thought went into making the cluster of “mode and operation keys” left hand accessible (and to allow the right hand to remain free for mouse targeting.) And all of that might be a part of the X command layout design?

QWERTASD all do “global level” type of operations. Right hand honors the original AVID tape days transport stuff (whether you use it or not) and then it’s kind of a mish-mosh of fitting the rest where they make at least some sense – sometimes.

I don’t think the fact that it doesn’t “fit” muscle function is any weirder than the fact that we still largely rely on the inefficiency of the QWERTY layout overall.

And so it goes.

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.

[Oliver Peters]

Keyboard mapping is such an idiosyncratic and personal thing and I’ve gone through a lot of it! When Avid first came out, the only keyboard mapping anyone cared about was that of linear controllers, like CMX. At the time I questioned why Avid mapped it the way they had, since completely new editors would learn anything and people who were experienced video editors would know CMX (or GVG, Sony, or Paltex, which were similar). Of course, Avid didn’t listen and editors are probably better for that 😉

The basic Avid MC layout is designed as a two-handed typing operation. Mark in/out/clip are repeated on the left and right side, with JKL used to drive the timeline. Then either thumb or the left hand can hit insert or overwrite. In addition, mapping is largely limited to keys (including function keys) and the shifted keystroke – not nearly as many as was introduced with FCP “classic”. Yet somehow MC’s “limited” approach seems just right while the multitude of option in FCP seems more confusing than helpful. Of course, opinions will vary on that one.

– Oliver

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

[Oliver Peters]

[Bill Davis] “I don’t think the fact that it doesn’t “fit” muscle function is any weirder than the fact that we still largely rely on the inefficiency of the QWERTY layout overall. “

Just for you 😉

https://mentalfloss.com/article/27938/why-qwerty

– Oliver

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

[Bill Davis]

Thank you!

I had read (or been told) long ago that QWERTY was designed specifically to slow down typists so that mechanical keys wouldn’t get stuck together – but I didn’t have the entire back-story until you posted it.

This paragraph in the story also struck a chord with me…

“SO WHY DON’T WE USE THE DVORAK KEYBOARD, THEN?
Same reason we don’t use the metric system. We embrace its inefficiency and prefer it to the pain of switching to something better. By the time the DSK was introduced in 1932, several generations of typists had been using QWERTY. It was by far the most readily available layout, and the one that was taught in most typing schools. So even after technological advances solved the key jamming issue, we kept the relic of the problem – the QWERTY keyboard.”

Seems like in the middle of all our NLE arguments – history rules.

In for a penny, in for a Euro, after all. : )

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.