Why the Magnetic Timeline is Good…

[Jeremy Garchow]

It is also great, when you know how it moves, when you can absolutely separate horizontal movement where you can ripple the whole timeline, or just the part you want, with no collisions or mistaken overwrites.

I totally hear you, Charlie.

I, too, really really like the magnetic timeline. I don’t want these fundamentals to change, and I really hope Apple continues development in this area instead of halt it and change back to a tracked method.

[Charlie Austin]

[Jeremy Garchow] “I, too, really really like the magnetic timeline. I don’t want these fundamentals to change, and I really hope Apple continues development in this area instead of halt it and change back to a tracked method.”

I have it on fairly good authority that that will never happen. 🙂 They’ll enhance it, beef it up, whatever, but Track Tetris will not be coming back. Thank God.

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

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Charlie Austin] “I have it on fairly good authority that that will never happen. 🙂 They’ll enhance it, beef it up, whatever,”

Excellent.

[Marcus Moore]

I also think this is good news. It’s good to have some choice in the market. Even a couple years down the road with enhancements, the magnetic timeline will undoubtably not be the preferred tool for every editor, or for every job. But it’s good to know there’s more than one paradigm being developed.

[Charlie Austin]

I should add that I have no top-secret insider info here, but I’ve had the occasional conversation with folks at Apple. When I mentioned “track tetris” in other NLE’s, I was told that that’s what the developers call it too. I think that’s a pretty good sign. 😉

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

[Richard Herd]

[Charlie Austin] “”track tetris””

^Classic!

[Warren Eig]

Of course I’d like the option for tracks. Sort of a preference turn on/off magnetic timeline if I am editing a feature film. Not sure I’d attempt a feature yet in FCPX as it is now 🙁

Warren Eig
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[Charlie Austin]

[Warren Eig] “Of course I’d like the option for tracks. Sort of a preference turn on/off magnetic timeline if I am editing a feature film. “

I think (hope) we’ll get the option to color code Roles, and/or get the ability to have Roles “stick” together, and possibly get routed/comped to a separate audio bus. Sort of an invisible compound clip… Something like that. Also maybe the ability to selectively disable connections on the Role level, rather than all or nothing as it is now. I honestly think that would bring back pretty much what everyone misses about fixed tracks. IMO, anything that brings back non-magnetic fixed tracks would be an enormous mistake. And I don’t see it happening.

Using the combo of Roles and the timeline index is really pretty amazing. It doesn’t matter where anything is in the timeline, you can find it, select it, and then do whatever you want to it. Zoom in on a clip at the front of your timeline, add some effects/eq etc. Copy it. Find and select all the similar clips in the index. Paste effects. No need to zoom out or even look at the timeline. Is there room for improvement? Yep. 🙂

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

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Warren Eig] “Of course I’d like the option for tracks.”

Not me. I don’t miss them in the least bit. I do miss some of the organizational functions, but I don’t need tracks to do so. I just want to see FCPX continue down the path it seems to have started.

In short, more please.

[Warren Eig] ” Sort of a preference turn on/off magnetic timeline if I am editing a feature film.”

Features like the tilde, in my opinion, are what we need more of. The magnetic timeline is “turn offable” for the most part. It requires some practice, and I am not saying it is easy or even straightforward, but it does work with a combo of tilde and position tool. There does need to be sync markers, though, and there should be an easier way to roll audio separate from video. There are some details that need to be worked out, but the ripple and magnetic timeline is much easier to manipulate once I got the hang of it, just as Charlie’s post alludes to.

[Joshua Pearson]

I have no problem with the horizonaital magnetism, but I really don’t like the vertical gravitational pull of clips to the timeline… if i have music track that is “down” a few “lanes” because there are other audio tracks between it and the timeline, and for whatever reason I want to cut it at the very end, I really would like that new little end piece to stay where it is and not float up toward the timeline… that is unnecessarily confusing, visually… i currently like to use tracks to visually “feel” the organization of the cut… i understand how roles does the same thing, but i.e. i like my music all to sit on 11,12,13,14, not checkerboarding all over the place like it might do in FCPX…