[Charlie Austin]

[Mike Warmels] “And when you forget to do something (and FCPX will allow you to forget things) you’re in a big mess.”

Not really… the biggie is setting Roles when you import media, but that effectively negates all the work you need to do with tracks in Avid or Pr. Meaning no track patching, setting up different sequences for multitrack export etc. Do it on import and you’re done. And X generally assigns correct Roles on it’s own, but for multichannel sources you need to do it.

[Mike Warmels] “If I just add up from import in FCPX to AAF export:”

No, it’s actually much more like what you describe for Avid, Couple extra steps up front, but it saves a lot of time later…

1. Create Library
2. Import media
3. Check Roles and Set Roles on Multichannel Audio
4. Disable unwanted tracks in the Master Clips (you can always re-eanble at any time if you need them)
5. Order media in Events using KW Collections
5. Create Project with project settings (or let project settings be set by the first clip cut in)
6. Edit (enable/disable stuff here too, but it really is less “work” than track management)
7. Export to AAF, Check settings and Save.

Obviously not the same, but it’s pretty easy. X is certainly not all skittles and unicorns, but it’s not brain surgery either, just a different way of doing things. You need to pay attention to them, but Roles are an enormous time saver for a lot of reasons///

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

[Charlie Austin]

[Mike Warmels] “So does this mean if I have an 8 track audio track from recording on location (or a four track audio included in XD-Cam video), I can disable tracks in FCPX but it will still all go into the export and end up in Protools?”

I believe you need to disable components in the inspector or they just come across muted. I’ve been wrong before though. 🙂 I’ll run an experiment and see…

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

[Charlie Austin]

[Mike Warmels] “Actually, I was referring to a music track where left and right ended up separated. But in the clip Robin just displayed there seems to be something you can do to prevent that.”

There is… You can set “track” order quite easily by just dragging Roles to re-order before export.

Also, a bunch of pretty important options are found in the preferences, not just in the window you’re presented with. My guess is this is where something is mis-set. Particularly disabled Roles vs. muted Roles.

You can set it so that anything you really don’t want to transfer doesn’t, and you can include tracks you might want (alt mics etc) by leaving ’em enabled and muting them. FWIW, muting clips in the timeline (V key) does not disable/exclude them for X2Pro. You must explicitly deselect them in the inspector. If you can see it in the timeline, it’s gonna be included, muted or no. Maybe that’s what’s happening?

For posterity, there are 3 different ways to “disable” clips and/or components, all of which have different results:

-Turning off the Role in the Timeline Index mutes it for playback, but it will still play if you export the Project with a comp mix. You can of course exclude Roles if you export a multitrack Quicktime (for stems, mix minus etc).

-Disabling (Muting) an audio clip or component (multichannel track) in the Timeline (V key) will do what you’d expect, you won’t hear it, and it won’t play in an export. However, it will be shown as enabled in an fcpxml export, and will appear in anything that uses that xml for translation. The pref in X2Pro lets you choose to exclude or include it in the AAF.

-Disabling a clip or component in the Inspector makes it inaudible during Playback and export, it will not be shown in the timeline, and the fcpxml will indicate that it is disabled and it shouldn’t be included in any translations

With multichannel clips, the only way to not have all the components appear in an AAF, is to disable individual components in the Inspector. If you only want CH-1 & 3, you need to uncheck all the others. Even if you tell X2Pro not to include “disabled” clips, disabling multichannel components in the timeline won’t work, as the clip enclosing the components is still enabled.

Saying FCP X is simple is… not entirely accurate. lol Same with setting up a network. People think it’s easy so they read some online info, or just wing it. It often won’t work well, the network needs tuning just like you would for Avid or anything else.

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

[Charlie Austin]

[Robin S. Kurz] “Very entertaining and concise.”

Thanks… 🙂 Doing another one at NAB… no idea what I’l say, but I didn’t for this one either really. 🙂

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

[Charlie Austin]

[Mike Warmels] “And it’s so nice, that you’re acting a little condescending. I don’t think I gave any cause for that.”

Yeah, some people get a little crazy on these forums. Not everybody is so… strident. 😉 I’d be interested to see an fcpxml from something that’s getting screwed up. Because it shouldn’t end up as you describe.

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

[Charlie Austin]

[Mike Warmels] “I just wish I’d know how to include a pic in here and I could show you.”

I can kind of picture it… I was a post mixer for years before becoming an editor. it sounds like what you get when you directly import fcpxml into Logic. Works fine if all you have is stereo clips, but multichannel stuff ends up a horrific mess.

However, that’s not the case with X2Pro, it all comes across just as you’d expect… assuming you’ve set your Roles correctly on the multichannel clips, and actually set the preferences in X2Pro. If you just hit Export without checking whats getting included, I can imagine it could come out pretty screwy…

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

[Charlie Austin]

[Mike Warmels] “where only the actual audio used gets exported.”

You can choose what does and doesn’t get included from X2Pr. Specific Roles/SubRoles, disabled or muted tracks, whatever. Very granular. Sounds as though omething isn’t being done properly somewhere…

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

[Charlie Austin]

[Mike Warmels] “Well, I don’t make the AAF’s myself. All I get is the complaints from the sound editors (when I come in to check the mix or direct narrative work) and the FCPX editors. I’d really like to help them out and figure out what the trick is to make them work so neatly. Because what Tom is showing is exactly how the AAF’s look if we make them from AVID (without third party software).”

What kind of media are you guys working with? Red or something? Because my experience (going to ProTools) is the same as Tom’s. Clean splits, with tracks all labeled, without manually arranging everything beforehand as with other NLE’s. If you’re one of the folks that has the luxury of carefully arranging tracks in your NLE as you cut, then god bless you. 🙂 For me, I just need to fit stuff in the window while I madly cut for a deadline and then I, or an assistant, has to to spend a bunch of time figuring out what every clips is and splitting it properly. No need to do that from X.

X2Pro is a way better workflow than any internal output for that reason alone. You may not agree, but snarking about “3’rd parties” is disingenuous at best. I have a sh*tload of 3rd party apps/plugins for X. Some work in other NLE’s, some are X workflow specific. All of that costs less than my MC perpetual or Pr subs And the latter 2 just keep costing me more $$. Not the X stuff. I also get better support from the 3’rd party devs than I get from Apple, Adobe, or Avid.

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

[Charlie Austin]

[Mike Warmels] “Like the audio display. When it comes to audio only tracks (like music) the waveform in the browser doesn’t match the music or sound when you get to the end of the track (in the single clip browser video). Or… levels on clips vary greatly in the display hone you zoom in or out. I find the graphics nice looking, but often a little dodgy when changing views.”

Yeah, the zoomed waveform thing is annoying, but they know about it. In practice it’s not a big deal to me, and the ability to see all the waveforms without need to load and/or play every clip when hunting for SFX etc more than offsets the keystrokes to zoom in to see the correct waveform. Like, way more. 🙂

[Mike Warmels] “Like when you are in browser with a single clip, which is quite long, I switch to the thumbnail view and… where is it? It’s not directly visible, it’s somewhere below or up. So I end up looking for it by scrolling.”

This seems (for me anyway) to only be an issue on a large, second monitor if you have only the Library/Browser on it. In single window mode, the clip/playhed snaps to the center of the viewer as soon as you hit play. For the large second monitor situation, zooming all the way in usually “centers” it. It would be nice to have a “center selected clip” command or something for that scenario.

[Mike Warmels] “I like FCPX best when I start on a new project. Then it’s fast and snappy. After a few days, as the Library grows, new cuts are made, graphics get added it gets worse and worse.”

Size of the Library seems irrelevant for me… Sometimes it’ll get a little laggy after a few hours, especially when using bunches of Motion templates or compositing titles/generators etc. A quick relaunch solves it, and X launches faster than anything else. Also, as it saves every keystroke as you go, if I ever need to force quit, or the power goes out… I just pick up where I left off. I’ve had to go to a backup exactly once in the last 3 years of using X. In other NLE’s? I’ve lost track. That’s a huge timesaver when it occurs, and it occurs using all NLE’s. So a relaunch of X, for me, is a complete non-issue. YMMV of course. 🙂

[Mike Warmels] ” Especially when suddenly my skimmer stops working, or clips on the browser suddenly stop displaying while the project still show picture. Then I know it’s time to restart FCPX again… or even the entire computer. And that several times a day.”

That’s weird, I honestly can’t remember ever needing to reboot the computer because of X. My Libraries are generally huge, and my projects are not… uncomplicated. Seems like something else is going on? I mean, I have X, 7, PrCC, MC 8.5, R12, Motion, Logic, Reaper, Plugins from mObject, RG Universe, FxFactory, Coremelt, and tons of other random crap on my 2012 iMac at work. And that’s just NLE/DAW related. The list of other system add-ons/background utilities etc is too long to list. And I’ve “never” done a clean install. If anything, I’ve done the opposite. I install so much stuff it’d make your hair curl. 🙂 I do stay on top of regular maintenance though. So far so good. :knocking wood:

Point being… there’s nothing wrong with preferring one NLE over another, and you make some valid critiques, but as to the stability/usability of X our experiences seem vastly different. There certainly are things in MC/Pr etc that I miss when in X, but honestly, I feel like I’m constantly doing more workarounds in other NLE’s to do things that are dead simple in X. Matter of perspective I guess..

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

[Charlie Austin]

[Steve Connor] “however the ability to expand any panel to full screen with a single keystroke is incredibly useful and certainly something I would like to see in FCPX”

Yep, or at least recallable window layouts…

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