[David Lawrence]

[Lance Bachelder] “The LOCK and GROUP features would be awesome to have in FCPX and ease the pain of not having actual tracks. For instance once you have your music edited you can then LOCK it in place and cut away with or without the magnetic timeline – this makes it easy to cut to music similar to locking a track in FCP7.”

You already have grouping with compound clips, it sounds like you’re asking for grouping more like Premiere Pro’s, where the group of clips doesn’t get nested, yes? I agree that would be useful in FCPX.

As far as locking in place, that brings up the question of what place to lock to.

I guess you could derive relative sync relationships between connected clips and lock them relative to one another; then slide clip connection points as any changes are made in the primary.

I think that would do what you’re asking for but it seems like it breaks the notion that connected clip relationships to the primary have any real meaning. At that point it’s also fighting the notion of relative time as defined by the single primary. Locking is easy with absolute, external time as defined by tracks but it starts getting weird when time is relative.

I find these questions really interesting and am curious what the solutions are in FCPX. This thread is a great example of the kind of real-world problems that I don’t think the FCPX engineers and UI designers thought about when they designed the FCPX timeline. Maybe it’ll all be fixed 10.0.5.

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David Lawrence
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[David Lawrence]

[Tero Ahlfors] “You can set up track selection shortcuts in the keyboard shortcuts menu. They aren’t used by default. Also the automatic playback can be disabled in preferences -> general -> play work area after rendering previews.”

In addition to this, if you’re using the mouse to drag clips to the timeline, holding down the shift key lets you slide the audio to any track you wish while keeping the video on the track you initially placed it on. Try it. It’s very cool.

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David Lawrence
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[David Lawrence]

[Jim Giberti] “I say again, the ball’s in Apple’s court. If they come back quickly with a real functionality upgrade, then what could be better for the creative world than a genuine competition for our allegiance. A year from now we might have two apps that look very much like what we’ve all wanted for a number of years, actually developed and refined through this dynamic tension.”

Well said!

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David Lawrence
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[David Lawrence]

[Chris Harlan] “Actually, me too. That thing can be a nice little problem solver when it wants to be.”

Oh yeah. I can’t tell you how many times that little gimmick has saved my butt!

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David Lawrence
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[David Lawrence]

[Chris Harlan] “Hey, man. I find a decent use for that inside cube spin once every year or two.”

I’m actually quite partial to the cross zoom effect. It’s useful!

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David Lawrence
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[David Lawrence]

LOL, EPIC WIN!

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David Lawrence
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[David Lawrence]

[jp chan] “I’m surprised more folks haven’t missed this feature from FCP7 — it was a great way to collaborate remotely.”

Agreed. It’s an essential part of the way I collaborate with my partners in LA and has made our working together way more productive (not to mention saving on travel). And it’s made me a rock star in the eyes of several clients. You should see them light up when they watch me make their changes in real time from the comfort of their offices.

iChat Theater is one of the biggest things I’ll miss leaving FCP7.

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[David Lawrence]

Thank you, Bill. Very much appreciate the sentiment and wish you the best with your path as well. It’s been an insanely disruptive year but all things considered, looks like it’s turning out well for everyone. Nice to know there’s more choice and possibility than ever. I feel good about the opportunities. Interesting times, indeed.

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David Lawrence
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[David Lawrence]

[Jeremy Garchow] “For instance, I make lots and lots of versions per day. Export is a big deal to me, it might not be for some.”

I’ve had projects like that and I do take that ability for granted. So yes, this will take some major rethinking in PP.

[Jeremy Garchow] “Remember, you are talking to one of those dork bags that actually doesn’t mind the direction of fcpx. PPro is absolutely more powerful in it’s usability (and familiarity), but in terms of UI, I really don’t mind learning new ones. I don’t mind new approaches to things, and I don’t mind if I have to adjust. It’s part of the process and helps makes decisions, even in my editing.”

LOL, maybe we’re all dorks, we just dork out on different things. I like learning new UI too, and you can be sure I’ve been doing that a lot the past week. But the difference is that I feel like I’m moving forward.

I do like parts of FCPX. My main gripe with the magnetic timeline is with what I see as unnecessary lack of control, and frustrating inconsistencies and limitations within its own conceptual UI model. Plus it runs like a dog on the exact same machine that PP6 can cut RED 4K on. What’s up with that? I’m sure it’ll improve but I’m not willing to wait out or work around the growing pains. I am curious and interested and will keep an eye on it though. I’m super curious how they’ll fix multi-track audio, for example.

[Jeremy Garchow] “Cutting does feel very similar, yes. You’re right. Switch to fcp7 hotkeys, and you’re up and running pretty quickly, i/o f10, blade, etc, but to me that’s just the surface.”

I hear ya. I guess for me, that surface and its UI mechanics are the instrument itself. With so many choices, it’s gonna be an interesting Summer for everyone.

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[David Lawrence]

[Jeremy Garchow] “DavidL, I appreciate your enthusiasm for Red @ 1/16 resolution on an older laptop,mand you know what, I never thanked you for your article either. Thank you.

I have to say though, try 1/16 for a whole project, it gets pretty tiresome. Even 1/2 is tough. It’s awesome for quickly checking shots, but it’s not sustainable through a project, at least for me. I personally need more detail (I also use external monitors most of the time).”

Jeremy, thanks. And I appreciate your comments in the article thread as well.

I hear you about the limits of 1/16 res, I think I’m just shocked to see full-motion 4K playback on a machine this old. One nice thing is Premiere snaps the picture back into sharp focus when paused so you do see all detail. I was able to see the nuances of the actor’s micro expressions and the differences between takes well enough to cut the scene. But I agree you wouldn’t want to cut a feature (or even a short) this way. I’m just amazed that it’s even possible.

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