[Bill Davis]

I’m absolutely sure it convinced me the same way your starting your post with a declaration of your personal ignorance of the entire subject upon which you were commenting was convincing to me…to paraphrase your own post:

“I didn’t see the presentation, nor have a clue what was shown or discussed – but I’m sure it’s terrible and Apple hates all of us.”

That was the tenor of your post.

I mildly derided it because I felt it was worthy of mild derision.

Plus in your own post you seem to sing the praises of the 3.5mm stereo plug as the sin que non of modern audio interfaces. Wtf??? When did valuing ubiquity over dependability become a thing?

Then again, maybe I’m old fashion. Know where I can pick up a nice 64 point patch bay with all 3.5mm stereo connectors? I don’t want to get behind the times, you know.

Mind boggling.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

[Herb Sevush] “And for the privilege of fixing something that was never broken you get to spend money on wireless headphones, wireless home speakers, and hey – wireless car radios. Yeah, so buy a new Iphone and then drop another $500 + just so you can listen. And, by the way, Apple is very specific in saying that the iPhone 7 is “splash and water resistant” – NOT waterproof.”

Nope.

The iPhone 7 has a lightening to 3.5mm female adaptor included for free.

So you don’t have to spend a penny on anything to use EVERYTHING you could use the day before they removed the gaping hole from the unit.

So YOU AND I can listen to all the “dinosaur music” we have each loved since our halcyon youth – cost free.

Ain’t life GRAND!

(Oh, and while not strictly “waterproof” the intro video showed that they’ve designed in a subsystem to actively EJECT water that might get into the Lightening connection. Oddly, last week I was in Hawaii and found myself on top of a dormant volcano on Maui with some friends taking pictures when some of the big winds and rains from last weeks pacific storms came along. My iPhone nestled in my shirt pocket survived, but if I’d accidentally put it in the pocket with the headphone jack pointing skyward… – I kinda wonder. Safer is BETTER. Period.)

A panorama from the top – enjoy!

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

[Herb Sevush] “It’s a lot easier to build your own PC.”

You may want to take the study time to keep your “system integrator” hat well-brushed these days – I sure don’t.

I personally take comfort that if someone ever hits me over the head and steals my carry-on bag at an Airport heading to a gig – A brief stop at the Apple Store and a couple of hours of decent WiFi access will get me up and running again as if nothing ever happened.

Nowadays I see human effort as the ONLY difficult to replace thing in a good production chain.

ALL the “gear optimization crap” I used to obsess about I will gleefully consign to the dust bin of history.

Others mileage will most certainly vary.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

Oh for heaven’s sake….

A) Apple includes a Lightening to 3.5mm adaptor with the new phones.
So you can still do exactly what you can do today.
No changes at all except you have to be bright enough not to lose the adaptor.

B) The new connector is highly water resistant – up to expelling water mechanically if the phone gets wet. So RELIABILITY of the unit is improved. Big WIN!

C) Did you notice what the new wireless Airbuds do?
Right now, they’re initially marketed as a stereo listening device that like many iPhone earbuds also work for phone calls.

Now think differently…

With a tiny bit of imagination applied – hasn’t Apple maybe just engineered something that could conceivably turn into a killer instant basic wireless audio and IFB system? Think about it. With the right App to drive the system, what’s to stop someone creating a system where giving the talent a SINGLE AirPod – puts a monitor AND a mic on them which can connect to an iPhone taking the place of a wireless body pack – which could then Bluetooth into the directors system for monitoring?

No, it won’t replace a $3000 body pack system and a sound cart for on-set audio – but don’t you wonder how useful something like that might turn out to be?

The iPhone already has a WAY better than expected video capture capability. What if this is the first step to WAY better than expected on-board wireless audio as well?

Nothing I’ve just imagined is out of the realm of possibility and requires NOTHING more than two people with stock iPhones investing another $149 on the Airbuds.

We’re supposed to be the CREATIVES around here.

That includes THINKING creatively doesn’t it? And not just remaining stuck in always presuming things will always be the same as they’ve always been.

The market for audio for video and IFB may be too small for what I imagined above to ever happen – but the point is that the possibility is inherent in what Apple just released. The only difference is that you have to see a thing that’s supposed to be for listening to tunes – and imagine what else it might be able to do.

That’s the fun of the new evolving tech world, isn’t it?

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

Au contraire,
More than a year ago we had a discussion of what we’d all like to see in X on one of the small boards I frequent. I had a list too. But even I knew it was lame and un-inspired. Because all I can think up is limited by my weak experience of what I’ve already seen elsewhere. And the vast majority of what gets complained about here is exactly that. Over and over I hear “make it more like what I’m used to!” And sorry, but I think thats BORING.
Geez, people STILL show up here and pine for freeking TRADITIONAL audio TRACKS. Wtf?
In the end, what I wanted was for Apple to surprise me the very same way they did with range-based keywords and the magnetic timeline. Implement things that move the whole game forward.
That’s interesting.
Oh. I don’t have to get a whole new phone because I left mine on the deck and it started raining? Because Jony Ives team figured a way not to need the same headphone hole they’ve been using since the 1950s.
OK. Let’s see what you’ve got.
Same with the software.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

Apple is always right where it wants to be.
Announcing company products very close to when they are actually ready to deliver them in the real world.
Adobe, OTOH is doing what they have long done. Telling you what they are planning to do in advance of actually doing it.
Tim made a compelling case that it’s due to their differing accounting systems – and the restraints of not being able to announce features that may affect future value in a current period.
Whether or not that’s the reason, Apple largely tells you what you can get now, not someday.
In fairness, Adobe has largely (perhaps even always – I don’t track it) shipped what it has promised – so it seems to just be the way the two companies differ in how they choose to play the marketing game.
I suspect when Apple unveils whatever they’ve been working on in the video production space, it likely won’t be months more of wait for editors to be able to put whatever it is to use, but that’s pure guesswork in my part.
Time will tell.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

[Michael Paul] “Anyways I am just really curious and I would love to hear it from you because the Apple page isn’t very convincing. It lists features like “you can add audio and EDIT your footage” – oh wow…
“

Okay, back from vacation.

Here’s some of what I would have written back when you posted this.

First comes the fact that while the core concepts of “editing” (storytelling, pacing, guiding the viewer, etc) remain the same as they ever were – the vast majority of our editing workflows have changed and reacted to advancements in the modern era. That’s just a fact.

Traditionally, the technical process of video making was piecemeal and disconnected. Audio was a thing. Principal Photography was a thing. Graphics was a thing. Organization was a thing. Different departments and different teams did their jobs at different times. But now, in many cases, it’s all converged. ALL digital editors regardless of their NLE, manage sound AND are required to organize and manipulate files across the spectrum of a project. Most NLEs before X simply virtualized that traditional process while remaining as close and as comfortable to the traditions so that editors would remain “familiar” with the new digital tools.

Then Randy Ubillos was given a gift by the culture at Apple. Remember, as the father of Premier and then FCP Legacy, he was the guy who had – more than anyone else in history – spent his career putting professional digital NLE concepts in more hands than anyone else. He KNEW the pro side well, but also always respected those that just wanted to communicate, via video, on all levels. The key Randy (and the whole X development team) was given, IMO, was the gift to not just iterate, but to conceptually IMPROVE the tools of modern video editing.

I personally think he took stock of what was POSSIBLE rather than just what was expected. And I’m glad he did.

He didn’t go totally “wild.” – which is the blessing and the curse of X, IMO.

It “looks” familiar. There’s a central timeline-ish area, and lots of familiar stuff. BUT – not all of the familiar stuff works the way it used to. Expectations do not translate directly for skilled editors. You try to drive it, and your preconceptions start to fail. Not in Huge, catastrophic fashions – but in too many small, medium-sized frustrating ways.

But if an editor can get beyond that frustration – something starts to emerge that is surprising and actually, quite glorious. You start to realize that things that you felt were “required” as a part of your workflow – that you’ve long stopped noticing (like track patching) are gone. Dozens and in time, hundreds of small decisions that were rote and actually meaningless have disappeared. You notice that while you once spent the VAST majority of your career thinking horizontally – you’ve started thinking vertically, in magnetic assemblies. And notice that once you have a vertical assembly done – it’s DONE. You can move it and ALL your work stays intact. That and a hundred new X specific ideas start shaving minutes, hours and eventually whole DAYS off your editing schedule.

I could go on talking about the database and keyword trimming etc, etc, etc, but I won’t. If you adopt X you will find this along your own journey.

And If you decide NOT to systematically learn X and just grudgingly use it when forced – you’ll have an annoying time coming. But that’s OK. Not everyone gets it. We’re all different. That’s fine.

I just happened to look at it and instead of getting stuck on the negative like so many others – I just got fascinated with it early.

Due simply to my early finding merit in the X ideas and being a web blabbermouth about my feelings, I now have pretty good X industry contacts all around the world. From HUGE enterprises to small agencies. I watch the flow of X sharing and ideas from everywhere. Globally, X is kinda on fire. (And likely to accelerate soon, I suspect!)

I know it’s doing great because I chat with the actual people using it. And the growth and breadth of the group globally is STUNNING. I think it’s far and away broader than anything AVID and/or Legacy ever achieved, not necessarily because of the tool itself, but because the world is smaller today. My friends now include a young lady cutting tasteful weddings and learning in the shadow of the Taj Mahal – to my friend who’s huge company just moved him from the Czech Republic to Ireland to manage massive corporate visual content for a major global consulting firm. The globe is definitely being digitized. And video is useful everywhere. And X exists because there’s a need everywhere. And that need is NOT basic, nor trivial. It’s complex, professional and RELENTLESS. Video fuels the information transfer of the world like never before.

X is an awesome video tool. Period. If you’re still thinking in terms of “is it pro” I think you’re asking the wrong question. The actual question is “which of the tools provides the most advanced capabilities for digital manipulation in the ways I’ll need to manipulate digital data in the present and for the future.”

The magic about X is that the same tool that my young friend Surabai, in Mumbai can use to make her living in a small team of editors cutting weddings ALSO can totally cut a major studio motion picture out of the box, no handholding, nothing different from what you can I get from the App Store. Stop and think about that for a second. Why? Perhaps because digital is digital and content is content and the way programs develop today is NOT how they used to? The zillion dollar tape machines are gone, right? Heck, the smartphone captures light nearly as well as some of yesterdays high-end cameras could. The same NLE codebase can be EXTENDED into particular use groups with specialized needs IF the CORE code is strong. And the X code is young and very strong, IMO. Apple sells a modern digital digital editing core in two flavors. iMovie for modest needs – and a highly extensible and stunningly robust FCP X for heavy duty commercial and industrial users needs. The core of both is modern, fast, and agile. And developing.

My global friends also have learned what Hollywood is also learning. The cutting is ONE thing. Critical, seminal, and transcendent. The work has to ROCK. But in the modern era – the cut isn’t the only thing that needs to ROCK. Taming the data whirlpool that gets bigger the more people who are involved AROUND the cut is also ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL. From weird incoming sources to managing tablet screeners for big-wigs, it’s not enough to do the work, we all need to manage the work efficiently. And the built-in tools in X are absolutely amazing at that.

The point of the spear in editing is one brain in one seat. Alway has been – always will be. Collaboration and sharing is great – but the tool has to let one brain at a time connect to the material AND to their collaborators, no matter where they may be – at home, on the road, or in the seats of a fixed facility. Metadata, sharing, revision, – basically the AGILITY necessary to manage the inflow and the outflow is every bit as critical as the cut today. And to echo my earlier thoughts, THAT is another area where Apple has created a singular tool in FCP X.

FCP X helps a single editor “fit in” to the swirl, I’d argue, better than any other tool out there. Interestingly, that same tools – because it’s steeped in metadata handling – makes collaboration possibilities incredibly robust as well – and I know a lot of “shop” editors who work in teams who love the X system as much as any solo guy like me. Yes, I get it. All NLEs do metadata. But only X was purpose CREATED to manage it – from the ground up. It’s not an overlay to a program designed as an overlay on top of a direct reflection of 1980s A/B roll techniques – it’s the CORE of the program.

What X editors know, is that it’s not the timeline alone that has to make sense to the editor to be proficient in X. It’s the entire X system. And when it clicks for an editor – it brings a sense of ease and fluidity that is pretty special.

To the OP.

Actually learning X isn’t easy, but wrapping ones brains around powerful things usually isn’t.

Regardless, I wish you well with your journey.

That’s enough for now.

Sorry it’s another long post. Blame it on over-rested fingers.

And here we go again…!

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

I did a bit of consulting at the local Scrips/Howard/ABC TV station who’s currently doing national programming in X, and one of their longtime editors had positioned their second monitor with the Event Browser on the right side of their Main Monitor and it just looked and felt to me REALLY weird.

For me, the layout Apple created mirrors metadata flow in the software.

Incoming files and pre-work on the left – assembly in the center – outgoing on the Share side to the right.

I believe in editor choice – so I didn’t push it, but it seems to me that this “FLOW” process in X is conceptually very real – and it reminded me that this particular editor was very new to X.

FWIW.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

[Douglas K. Dempsey] “You should solicit the opinion of Bill Davis on this forum, for a more forceful defense of FCPX’s capabilities and utility, “

Would love to- but I’m staring at this right now waiting for sunset with my wife. It’ll be a few days til I get back to you.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

Man I’m so bummed to be leaving on vacation Thursday.

I love a good re-run.

And this sure reminds me of the good old days.

New guy stumbles into the neighborhood chock full of “expertise” he’s sure nobody here in the minor leagues has ever had before him, and proceeds to school everyone on how editing is supposed to work and why the gizmo we’ve been using ain’t worth much to a “real” serious type editor like him unless they “fix it” to be more like what he expects.

It’s like the WayBack machine has dumped us all in 2012 all over again!

Might even entice me to log in from the beach now and then.

Have fun.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.