[Andrew Kimery]

What, no Lightworks?

[Andrew Kimery]

[Bill Davis] “But I think those are both mitigating situations that make the post germane. “

So you making an OT post is okay because it tangentially relates to differing business approaches between Apple and Adobe which is a topic that’s been brought up in the past, but Simon making an OT post *isn’t* okay because it relates to differing GUI customization approaches between Adobe and Apple which is also a topic that’s been brought up in the past?

If it’s okay for one person to make the occasional OT post then it has to be okay for everyone else too. Even if that means that 5 different people make 5 different OT posts around the same time which pushes the number of current FCP X threads below your liking.

[Bill Davis] “They use X, they want to LEARN about X. But when they get here – that do they see? A page is dominated by Premiere and Resolve posts.

Would YOU stay and post in that situation?”

I learn more about the strengths and weakness of X here than I do following X users on Twitter, X pages on Facebook, X websites like FCP.co because this is the only forum that I can think of that has such a diverse, knowledgeable group of regulars.

I don’t understand why you keep saying it’s a bad thing that is forum isn’t the same as every other NLE forum out there.

[Andrew Kimery]

So is this where we have the spin off discussion about how LUTs were intended to be used vs how LUTs end up getting used by people that aren’t aware of what LUTs were intended to be used?

Not to mention applying preset looks is nothing new. I bought Magic Bullet Looks back in the day, pre-made looks for Color, etc.,. But I guess saying “I’m applying a LUT” sounds more impressive than “I’m applying a preset”.

[Andrew Kimery]

[Bill Davis] “AND – more than that – I’m afraid from what I’m seeing – The delta between what an onboard Camera Pre-set + LUT + whatever the AI folks are creating in the labs in terms of automatic correction can do – and a dedicated colorist can achieve – is kinda shrinking.”

That’s not what the discussion is about though. It was a discussion about the pros/cons of different human interface devices (both physical and virtual), not one about the impact of AI, computer algorithms and automation on the industry. Of course if you want to come at from the angle that complex HIDs in general are on their way out because machines will write, shoot, edit, voice, score, grade, mix and deliver content autonomously, that’s a train of thought that hasn’t been brought up yet.

[Andrew Kimery]

[Bill Davis] “That “Final Cut Pro – the Debates” string of public-facing characters up there clearly confused me. “

Thanks for the article, Oliver. Wouldn’t it be nice if X allowed such customizations?

Now the thread is squarely on topic.

[Bill Davis] “Maybe this will spread and people will become delighted to go into “The Taco Shop” and find a menu featuring mostly Lasagna?”

Said with a straight face on a cow-themed website which has nothing to do with animals in a discussion about a company called Apple that doesn’t sell fruit and another company called Adobe that doesn’t offer any earthen building materials.

[Andrew Kimery]

[Bill Davis] “Sounds suspiciously close to open mindedness – be careful here Andrew. ????????”

I’m always up for a change for the better, not so much change just for the sake of change. That’s why I try to carve out my own ‘professional development’ time when work is slow so I can either explore new tools or crack open some advanced tutorials and dive deeper into the tools I already need to use on a regular basis.

[Bill Davis] “Again, it goes back to my “forced conversion” to mobile track-pad-driven computing.”

That’s kinda my point. Because Apple killed FCP Legend you tried something new (X). Because X wouldn’t work well on your cMP you tried something new (making your MBP your primary). And it seems like you are cool to keep refining what’ve you been doing for the past 5 or 6 years indefinitely until Apple does something unforeseen that forces your hand again. Which sounds like a great place to be because you really enjoy where you are at now compared to where you were then, and if it works it works. Can’t really argue against that.

But it doesn’t really jive with saying you are always looking for better ways to do things unless by that you mean always looking for better ways to do things within X.

[Bill Davis] “I’m just one voice articulating that working WITHOUT that external stuff can sometimes be AS EFFICIENT as working with it. “

Not to state the obvious, but if working w/o it can be as efficient as working with it then the work being done isn’t of the type that necessitated having the external gear to begin with. This comes back again to my point about the power of ‘good enough’.

For example, sometimes I’m hired to do on location, same day edits at events/conferences and there’s no point in schlepping along my broadcast monitor and Tangent Ripple because it’s unnecessary. The parameters of the gig make doing extremely basic color corrections inside the NLE, on my laptop’s display, under fluorescent lights good enough to get the job done. On the flip side, when someone hires me as a colorist I do use my broadcast monitor, I do use my Ripple, I do use controlled lighting, etc., because the parameters of those jobs dictate that I do high quality grading work in a reasonable amount of time. And even in those situation I sometimes feel frustration using the Ripple (as mentioned in my previous post) because I know from experience that if I had a larger panel I could do more work with less effort in less amount of time. But thems the breaks. If I had never used a larger panel I wouldn’t know what I was missing. Just like when I first started grading using a mouse I didn’t realize just how slow and cumbersome it was until I became proficient at using a panel (which I think took a month or two of constant use before I started to really feel at home with it).

[Andrew Kimery]

[Simon Ubsdell] “A virtual knob has to be the single worst user interface known to man – why we still have to put up with this skeuomorphic abomination is beyond me.”

Oh man, I hate virtual knobs with a passion!

[Andrew Kimery]

[Bill Davis] “PERHAPS – it’s only when you accept that the new touchscreen has the CAPABILITY of being close to or equal to that tactile input device – do you can begin to achieve equivalent mastery?”

Why assume that someone hasn’t already put multiple technologies through their paces and come to a conclusion based on practical experience? For example, I had a Palm Pre w/a hardware keyboard for 2yrs and an iPhone with a software keyboard going on 6yrs. I certainly type on my smart phone today w-a-y more than I did in 2009, but as an overall experience I don’t think the soft keyboard is as good (ex. I could touch type on the Pre, symbols weren’t buried three layers deep, etc.,). Am I in the market for a phone w/a physical keyboard? Not really, because I’m fine with the soft keyboard since in my application it’s a difference that doesn’t really make a difference. It’s good enough.

Do I want the soft keyboard experience to be inferior? Of course not. An iPhone isn’t cheap and I certainly want it to be an all around better experience than the old phone that it replaced. If anything I should want to convince myself and others that the soft keyboard is marvelous compared to a hardware keyboard so I can help justify the purchase. But I just don’t think it is. Going with soft controls certainly has advantages, but it also has drawbacks as well. If I used a soft keyboard all day, everyday because I worked at the Apple Store I’m sure I’d get even faster with it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I’d be faster than if I’d been using a hardware keyboard all day, everyday.

For a more germane example, I’ve colored with a KB/M, a KB/Wacom, with a small panel (Ripple) and with a larger panel (JL Copper Eclipse, Avid Artist Color) and once you get past the learning curve you just can’t beat a control panel as a primary interface device. I’ve only used the iOS app a tad so I’m going to refrain from speaking definitely about it, though if I had to take a guess I’d say it’s probably better than a KB/M, but below a hardware panel. The lack of tactical feedback and having to constantly take your eyes off the grading monitor so you can work the virtual panel are probably the two biggest short comings. But having to avert your eyes isn’t just a soft panel problem.

I’ve found that with Ripple I’m having to shuttle a lot between the Ripple, the keyboard and the mouse as I’m using Resolve and that interrupts my flow while grading. Having just the rings and balls is certainly better than using a mouse, but it’s not nearly as nice having more controls under your finger tips. I think I’d be happier with something like the Wave2 or the BM Micro, but when I bought the Ripple neither of those products existed (and I wasn’t super excited about the original Wave when I used it). Plus I don’t do very much intensive grading these days so it’s hard to justify the purchase price for something better.

I have been playing around with the Quadro iOS app though, and I think it could turn an phone/tablet into a neat companion HID. It will take some experimenting though to see where I can fit it in.

[Bill Davis] “And what *I* don’t want – is to always presume that because I felt I had the best practice yesterday – that means that thing is necessarily going to remain the best practice going forward.”

With that being said, it sounds like you’d be trying out a variety of different hardware and software on a regular basis but for the last 6yrs, and correct me if I’m mistaken, you’ve been in a monogamous relationship with FCP X on your MBP have you not? To Michael’s point, it sounds like you are fine to keep doing what you are doing until Apple makes its next move.

[Andrew Kimery]

[Bill Davis] “This new fangled “sheat of glass” as a control surface SUCKS.”

Touch surfaces are actually pretty poor replacements for hardware like game controllers, mixing consoles, keyboards, etc., (which is why software keyboards rely so heavily on autocorrect, predictive text, etc., to be usable). We’ve traded away quality for convenience and lower cost, which is the way things tend to go. We base our purchases on our budget and our needs. We buy what’s good enough for our situation and very few of us are in the position (and/or the mindset) to buy the absolute best of something w/o regard for price or practical application.

For example, off the rack QWERTY keyboards are not the best to use for text entry, video games, NLEs, etc., yet off the rack QWERTY keyboards are the most widely used HIDs for text entry, video games and NLEs because they are convenient and they are ‘free’ (in that they came with the computer). It’s not about old vs new. It’s about what’s good enough. I mean, CDs got clobbered by MP3, not SACD or DVD-A. Even with my rudimentary, basement drummer skills if someone said, ‘Hey instead playing the drum part on your kit, would you mind doing it with this QWERTY keyboard instead?’ Unless there are extenuating circumstances (like my drum kit is engulfed in flames) the answer is ‘no’.

One of my main take aways from reading the “Innovator’s Dilemma” years ago is that existing tech is rarely eclipsed by better tech, it’s eroded away from the bottom by newer, inferior tech that’s less expensive but ‘good enough’ for some segment of the population. As the newer tech improves more people adopt it because the performance gap narrows while the price gap typically remains broad.

[Andrew Kimery]

[John Stiles] “It seems like premiere can only handle syncing 2 clips at a time? There has to be a way to do this without resorting to waveform syncing (which I’m trying to move away from since Plural Eyes has generally been pretty useless for us).
“

PPro can sync hundreds of clips at a time (select them in the Project Panel, not the timeline). PPro also has very good wave-form syncing built in.

[John Stiles] “Whenever I’ve tried to do this it just creates one long multicam clip with no gaps in the sequence.”

Multicam clips in PPro are just nested sequences. You can open the nest in the timeline by right clicking on it and selecting “open in timeline” (or something like that) and then you’ll see all your clips on different tracks. You can then copy and paste from the multicam timeline into a regular timeline and start working with the stacked clips. Though, if you don’t mind my asking, why do you prefer working this was as opposed to with the multicam clip?