[Craig Alan]

That’s what I tried to do. I expanded audio on the entire timeline. I selected all the A channel clips. I typed channel A in the info tab in the inspector on the Roles:_________. Doesn’t seem to have accomplished anything so I guess I did it wrong.

If I select Roles in the index, if I uncheck music it unchecks channel A and vice versa.

I’m going back to square one and read/watch some tutorials on creating roles. Cause I’m not getting it. And my asking here has only created a bunch of discussion that most likely belongs in the X or not forum.

This is not going a way for me. I like to record on the four channels using our P2 cams cause it gives us a reference track in case something goes wrong with the cordless connections or to use for sync on our B and C cams. But once we are editing, I, for the most part, want to mute all channels except channels a1 and a2, either a stereo pair or one pair of dual mono. Doing this clip by clip is tedious.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

True and all I was really asking about.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

I thought you ran into a snag with the XLM files being buggy?

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Hi Jeremy,

I think we are barking up the same tree.

I got this far.

But did not really create a role that would apply to a given channel of audio. It only applied to the selected instances of that channel when I named them channel A, for example. But if I edited a new clip into the timeline, its channel A would not be recognized as part of Channel A role. Not that I expected it to, but that is my need – to have a role for a channel of audio.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Hi Robin,

Any one who needs to discuss/explain/ask about an operation in FC gets caught in the problem of “project” meaning timeline. It was a stupid decision. Any one who has ever done any video editing in any app understands the concept of timeline and therefore “gets it” after the first introduction. New project means new timeline, got it, who cares; or in my case, got it, stupid. Just the same, they then inherit the need to constantly double name almost any time they use project to mean the film vs. project to mean the timeline.

Larry Jordan is perhaps the most successful FC/NLE teacher in the world. I listen to his tutorials. He runs up against this hurdle all the time.

“both are fully understood after 2 mins”

Make that <1 second every time you say project meaning timeline and any where from 1 second to 3 seconds to let the person know you mean the whole package or film you are working on (project might also include multiple versions, promos, ads, teasers, components being sent to other editors).

But aside from this unnecessary lack of ergonomics, there is another issue behind all this. Apple was using terms that they thought a consumer level end user would understand better than the professional terms being used; or put more globally, that was more ‘user friendly’. They were wrong. The more ubiquitous a term is the more someone can catch on to it through exposure. And it sent a mixed message to the pros that maybe Apple had no interest in developing an app that would serve their needs. The jury is still out on that one. Truth is there is no clear winner on this one. So the current mantra is you need to learn whatever you need to use right now and then be able to relearn as the need arises. Avid is dated and in financial trouble. Adobe’s subscription plan means you might, in the future, be unable to access your “projects” and you’d be screwed if you fell behind in payments or if there was a billing error.

[Robin S. Kurz] “[Craig Alan] “its lack of integration with the broader media production eco-system.” Huh? How so? If anything, then AVID is by far the most closed island out there. They rely near exclusively on their own proprietary standards and formats. So I really don’t see how Apple is in anyway guilty of being less integrated, sorry. Especially since FCPXML is completely open and exponentially more powerful/flexible “

Please, Robin. From day one of FCP X release, the film and television industry, who had been using FCP 7 in larger and larger numbers, complained that you could not round trip a FCP X “project” to the sound editors, the colorists, the special effect artists. In other words, even if they could get their heads around the new timeline and even if they really liked the new metadata creation abilities, they could not use the program.

[Robin S. Kurz] “We’ll see. I’m pretty sure that FCP will find back to its original “glory”. And that BECAUSE it is different.”

I agree partially. I think Adobe now has a very strong foothold in the professional NLE world and this will not go away any time soon. Hopefully when FC does catch up, the competition will mean that round tripping will be a given and subscription plans will be modified to include the ability to access old files/projects even if you do not choose to pay for new features. If a FCP 8 suite or self-contained app had been released with 64-bit support, with an updated color app, an updated sound app (logic), the library system we have with 10.1.2, the magnetic timeline with the position tool, the option to open an event viewer, with more mature use of roles, support for A/V out … Adobe might well not have gotten a foothold and AVID might have become a dinosaur.

Apple could have done this. But it was not their priority. It’s not their bread and butter.

However, the writing is on the wall – they are developing apps that beginners and advanced users can use at a price that is a bit high for the consumer but affordable and different but powerful new features for the pros. The jury will decide when the missing pieces are all in place (if they get there) and the market share either continues to expand or doesn’t. The problem for the beginner or consumer level consumer is whether they want to spend the extra cash for features they will most likely never master. I think that’s fine. Any one here use all the features of MS OFFICE? The problem for the pros is whether the program best serves their needs after an initial learning curve. And for the pros will Apple continue to develop this app and whether they will pull the rug out from under them again. Fool me once …

FCP X in my opinion is not that revolutionary. For one simple reason: it produces the same product that every other NLE produces. 99% of the tool set serves the same functions even if they do it with different keystrokes and behavior.

I like the program and I’m all in. Because I’m all in and because it’s my nature and culture to analyze things I use, I have opinions about what works and could work better. Because I am a beginner, I often assume that there is a way of doing something that I haven’t learned yet or a better way of doing something I haven’t learned yet.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

I started to write a post with iPad at lunch and after several mistakes, including the overly zealous auto spell correction that created unwanted words, I went back to reading and left my posting when I could get back to my “legacy” computer and keyboard.

Besides, Bill, no one was confused. We all got what you meant and point well taken. Except, I don’t think we should set a low bar if we don’t have to.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Hey Don, I learned a lot and then decided to just go with a black b.g. which keys just fine. I have an interview with the lead singer and will use photos she took that concern the story she tells in the song as a keyed b.g. It will be obviously be a keyed b.g. and therefore a bit more forgiving than trying to pretend its on location. It will do and I hope to reshoot with better framing, better sound, better lighting, better b.g. (the green cyc wall was too dark), and use it to teach my students what we did wrong and how to improve.

But you can’t beat a mess to learn a lot of new tools in a NLE.

Thanks again for your help.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

[Bill Davis] “No. Because the fact that a bunch of clips is on an arbitrary and totally temporary “layer” in your storyline layout is inconsequential and NOT recognized by X. “

Yes it is. If I apply the keyed effect on a clip in a timeline. What b.g. will it include in the key? If I connect a clip on a layer above the primary and play the sequence what will show up in the viewer when I reach that clip? If I move the clip under the primary instead, what will play?

I can also do what I am asking in terms of selecting what I am calling a track or layer by shift-z and then lasso. But it would be nice to have a way to do this more easily.

Yes I need to get better at assigning tags, keywords, roles upon import and before I start my edit. That said I think X is designed to modify and augment these at any point in the work flow. The index is attached to the timeline not the browser. Color correction is done with clips in the timeline. Audio mixing is done in the timeline.

I am not at this point trying to get X to behave like legacy. I am just trying to learn how to apply what I want to accomplish in X. I had created a multicam timeline of a three camera shoot of a music act. I was using it to further my skills in X. I chose camera A as my sole audio and used the angle editor to select clips on the fly. It was a blast. Had fun. But then I started working with it. I used the transform tool to fix framing. I applied a key and selected a b.g. It was a very good learning project because there was a lot wrong with the shoot. Somewhere along the way the A cam audio got changed into a mix of all three cams. So I wanted to select entire tracks and enable or disable the selected channels and or 2 of the 4 mono channels of the A channel.

Now I did learn along the way, and you pointed this out above, that the easiest way to do this (but perhaps not other adjustments if I was using a mix of all these channels) is to collapse the audio, select the entire timeline and select the two mono channels (A CAM) that I want active.

I think these started to get messed up when I reedited certain angles for others. Is there a way to reset the A audio as the default after I have already begun the multicam editing? And just for the record, I like multicam in X better than legacy. And although I understood legacy audio tracks better, I fell victim to screwing up sync more times than I care to admit. Even though I passed the certification exam in FCP 6 on my first try, I considered myself just becoming an advanced beginner when I switched to FCP X. And I feel I am getting there now in X.

Next now that I have settled on a b.g. and gotten all the keys to work and masked out parts of the shots I don”t want, I want to match all the clips to a clip that has the color that I would like.

Is there a way to do this – all the clips in the timeline matched to a single clip in the timeline?

Frankly, Bill there is no moment of enlightenment for me to realize that X is a database program or it works differently than 7. I edit and try to get the look and sound I want. If I get stuck, I do a search. If that doesn’t work, I ask here.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

active and or open timelines. I wouldn’t mind a pop up that allowed me to select others.

If I “reveal in finder” and a back up was on an unmounted drive, I do not think FC would reveal it.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Right click a clip in Browser and you can reveal in finder. Right click a clip in timeline and u can reveal in browser. Would like to reveal in timeline from browser.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.