[Douglas K. dempsey]

[Morten Slemdal] “The G-tech looks good, but maybe too big for me at the moment. Does it have power supply? “

Graid MINI is a pretty small drive, similar footprint to pocket drives, but twice as thick (it has two platters). Yes, it comes with an AC power block, which is necessary for example when using with a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro 13″ Retina, with the FireWire-to-Thunderbolt adapter. However, it will mount as a bus-powered disk to my older 17″ MBP, FW800 direct. And it will work with older iMacs, FW800 direct, with no AC.

[Morten Slemdal] “The Lacie Rugged get some good reviews; tried it? “

Have not used it.

[Morten Slemdal] “How does WD play with Mac. I`ve seen mixed reviews”

WD Passports seem to work well, like any comparable drive. The only issue I have heard is that the WD Utility software was not compatible with Mavericks and was causing data loss. But I don’t know that you need to use that software in any case. Simply format the drive with Mac Disk Utility.

Doug D

[Douglas K. dempsey]

I am curious about Library and Render locations on your setup.

With 10.0.9, I had numerous Event & Project folders on my iMac spinning internal (backed up to time Machine), and media on the GRaid.

But for some projects it is obviously advantageous to have Event&Project or Library on same drive as media, so you can plug an play anywhere, anytime. Does anybody work that way?

Doug D

[Douglas K. dempsey]

Have had no performance issues with GRaid mini 1TB, which is a 7200rpm RAID 0, via FW on 2012 iMac, or FW-to-Tbolt on MBPr 2013 — which means boot drive is SSD, media on the GRaid.

Of course I am not really pushing the system. Cutting either HDV (re wrapped with ClipWrap), up to four camera multi-clips … Or PR422. I have intercut native AVCHD from a Canon Rebel, but usually transcode all AVCHD etc from DSLRs, smartphones and the like, to ProRes.

I have half-dozen WD Passport USB3 drives, all set up for Time Machine or cloned boot drives. I guess I should try one as a media drive!

Doug D

[Douglas K. dempsey]

Cool. I’ve been using GRaid Mini with Tbolt-to-FW adapter and doing alright, but interested in specific Toshiba drive you’re using. Pocket-type drive or larger?

Doug D

[Douglas K. dempsey]

Bill:

You’re right, I didn’t mean to misrepresent X for people who come to the forum un-initiated. Sorry about the cloudiness of the word-cloud.

We have discussed using X with high school students in the past. This IS a low-end application of the app, in that they don’t introduce pro cameras and don’t output to an audio team, an effects group and so on. And it is usually cheap, in that the school has cheap cameras, and most students like to work with phones and cameras they have at home. And my discussion was about how THAT whole set-up works well with inexpensive USB 3 pocket drives, which many students happen to have access to.

In other words, these kids needn’t be intimidated by endless web forums on Canon C300s and C500s, $20K zoom lenses, Creative Suites, Avids, Resolve and Thunderbolt RAID. In fact, they can start out with the family DSLR or their phone, a $300 pro editing app, a laptop and a USB3 drive … and get professional-looking results.

But I NEVER meant to suggest X should exist only in that space. I would never denigrate X. It is the full-on pro app we all love. It is my favorite and only working NLE for pro documentary work.

Many students have seen and used iMovie, and can’t wait to get away from it – the free app for “my Dad’s home movies.” They all want to work in FCPX BECAUSE of their perception it IS a pro app. Students come back from Christmas proudly showing off the copy of FCPX they received as a gift, now installed on their laptops, so they can shoot and edit away from class and really make progress.

I am happy to be giving them a relatively painless entry into an app that can take them all the way to professional work, if they so desire.

Speaking to the forum topic “FCPX or Not” — I love X for the robust, pro app that will handle 4K, SAN, broadcast and feature work … but can also work out of the box, out of a back-pack, with a friendly interface and structure that allows future filmmakers to dive in and create, from day one.

I tell them that unlike iMovie, they won’t grow out of X, they will grow up and IN to its full potential.

Doug D

[Douglas K. dempsey]

Gee Bill, you’re feeling defensive today. I am NOT a critic of X and do NOT accuse the app of being suited only for low-end use. I hope everybody uses it and makes the NYU Tisch film school look silly by abandoning FCP.

My point was regarding the use of USB3 portable drives as part of a quick & dirty mobile setup. This has been working for me on my teaching and post-to-vimeo projects, which qualify as “low end” compared to the Red and Alexa workflows you’re talking about.

That doesn’t mean I am dismissing X or relegating it to hobby usage; it just means my example of using USB3 drives is admittedly a light-duty one, and I cannot speak for using those drives for high data rates. I’ve never tried it.

To paraphrase Leslie Nielsen, “Don’t call me silly.” 🙂

Doug D

[Douglas K. dempsey]

Thanks, Lance. That is good news, especially for the cheap on-the-road set-up, e.g. a MBPr 13″ with FCPX installed, an iPhone or DSLR, or even a little HandyCam … and a cheap USB 3 portable drive, for quick shoot-to-edit-to upload to Vimeo or YouTube..

This is obviously the low-end use of FCPX as discussed often on this forum, and it works well, especially when I take my high school students on location for a quick lesson.

Doug D

[Douglas K. dempsey]

Thanks, Jeremy. And this discussion is not even OT, as using FCPX inevitably pushes you to modern Macs with Thunderbolt, even though you may have a dozen FW drives on the shelf, full of footage!

Re: USB 3, I was told the one downside was the fact that it’s not full duplex, so while great for a read OR write, less than perfect for constant read/write that happens during editing.

This is something I don’t entirely understand. If you have projects, events AND media on same external, maybe an issue. But if your external is simply for original/optimized media, isn’t that read-only? Does location of your render files completely alter the equation, since they are being written while simultaneously reading original media?

I am assuming a single FCPX user, external drive with media. Where do you keep projects/events library, relative to original or optimized media?

Doug D

[Douglas K. dempsey]

Why? Does the Tbolt to FW adapter cause any known issues?

Doug D

[Douglas K. dempsey]

Simple, common-sensical things like being able to “finalize” multi-cam clips (we called it “collapse” in FCP7) the same way you Finalize an Audition pick … so you can then detach audio and such.. Being able to re-integrate detached audio, without the workaround of finding original clip and re-editing it back into the timeline. Same with cuts, being able to “heal” blade cuts rather than trimming the shot back out and overwriting the cut.

Doug D