[Joe Marler]

I haven’t noticed that but it wouldn’t surprise me – there are various little UI quirks in that area.

If you click on the “Projects” library smart collection, does that ever mis-sort the results? Is that in filmstrip view or list view?

Inside the library each project exists as a separate folder and CurrentVersion.fcpevent database file. Each .fcpevent file contains several SQL tables containing all the metadata, media pointers and edit history for the project.

The browser must enumerate the projects to display the list. This doesn’t seem that difficult but there is some kind of non-obvious overhead. We can deduce this from the “deferred project loading” behavior sometimes seen. That is random and unpredictable.

The internal SQLite database must be opening each project database file to obtain some info. It’s not a client/server system but an “in process” library. It’s possible for a large group of projects that deferred loading behavior might interfere with enumerating those to produce a properly sorted list. This is just speculation.

[Joe Marler]

If you have scratch audio you can batch sync using PluralEyes, generated an XML then FCPX can load that which produces a single long multicam that you can then cut up: https://www.redgiant.com/products/pluraleyes/

If the file dates are roughly correct you could use this method to sync each day’s work as a separate multicam. I have synced about 500 clips in one batch using PluralEyes.

Within FCPX you can also do a multicam sync of many A/V clips in one pass, just not as many as PluralEyes. However PluralEyes can do continuous correction of sync drift. Before the sync attempt, FCPX requires each batch of clips from each camera to be labeled with a camera name or angle name in the Inspector.

If the files are offloaded into folders named for the camera or camera+operator, etc, these can be auto-keyworded during import using the import preference “keywords from folders”. Then all files from a given camera or recorder can be quickly isolated to assign a camera name or angle name in the Inspector.

Overall I usually sync in FCPX but I sometimes use PluralEyes to generate a visual sync map to quickly ascertain what group of clips to select in the Event Browser for the FCPX sync attempt.

If you forget a clip or angle this can be later added by opening the multicam, clicking on the drop-down menu at left of the timeline, dragging in the new clip then and using the option “sync selection to monitoring angle”.

With FCPX it’s important to sync the material before it ever gets put on a timeline. However there is a procedure to frame-match existing single-cam timeline edits and replace with a synced multicam range. This is laborious and must be done clip by clip but once you’ve done a few hundred it gets faster ☺

1. Use skimmer to get starting timecode of parent clip in timeline.
2. Observe clip length in yellow numbers below viewer
3. Open multicam (MC) and skim to timecode for clip obtained in step #1. Note: it won’t show the clip timecode if that’s the monitoring angle, so select a different monitoring angle before skimming the clip.
4. Place marker; playhead jumps there
5. Move skimmer up so timecode from start of MC container clip displays (vs clip timecode).
6. Go back to timeline
7. In Browser, skim in MC clip to timecode obtained from step #5.
8. Mark range with length obtained from step #2. Expand view as needed using CMD + and CMD -. Use skimmer for rough position then JKL and IO keys to mark the range.
9. Select parent clip in timeline
10. Do OPT+R for replace edit of timeline clip with marked range of MC clip which contains other angles and good audio.

[Joe Marler]

High frame rates like 100fps are for slow motion. Put the clip in a standard frame rate project, like 24, 30, or 60 fps, and pick menu choice Modify>Retiming>Automatic Speed.

You can insert clips with different frame rates in the same project. They will be “conformed” to the project frame rate. However you normally don’t want to mix two non-multiple frame rates if intended for standard-speed playback. E.g, don’t mix 24 and 30 fps. This is because there is no perfect way to conform non-multiple frame rates.

For mixing 24 and 30 fps for normal speed playback, select the clip with a frame rate that differs from the project and use optical flow rate conforming. This is a different menu choice that optical flow retiming. In the video inspector at the bottom under “Rate Conform”, pick “Optical Flow”. Render that and observe the playback. There is significant CPU cost and increased render time when doing this. Therefore you ideally want to shoot the same frame rate for all cameras except for high-frame-rate cameras intended for slow motion only.

The timeline gets the frame rate of the 1st clip you insert. You thereafter cannot change it while clips are in the project. You can create a new project, pick “Use custom settings”, pick the desired frame rate, then copy/paste all the clips from the old project. CMD+A in the timeline selects all clips, switch to new project timeline, CMD+V pastes them.

[Joe Marler]

Use the “R” key to draw a yellow range box in the timeline for the part you want to export. Then do File>Share, etc. and it will only export the portion highlighted by the range box. You can then do that on other portions.

It is not necessary to cut the timeline or delete part of it for this. See https://support.apple.com/kb/PH26141?locale=en_US

You can also use a similar export method to export multiple ranges or clips from the Event Browser as a single batch. Each will be given a unique name. See https://larryjordan.com/articles/final-cut-pro-x-10-4-4-batch-export/

In FCPX the optimal workflow is spend lots of time in the Event Browser marking favorites, rejects and keywords. Then use the various filters to hide rejects, show favorites, show keyword collections, etc. For multicam or material with external audio that should all be synced in the Event Browser, not on the timeline.

Only after careful organization and curation of the material do you move to the timeline stage of editing.

[Joe Marler]

From KB article “Cut and switch angles in the angle viewer”:

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH12660

“Press any number key to cut and switch to the corresponding angle of the current bank. For example, press 5 to cut and switch to angle 5 of the current bank.”

[Joe Marler]

[John Watts] “when I type favor into search filter I get them…
If I type favorite…it doesn’t work…how weird??”

It’s true typing “favorite” or “rejected” into the query box will show the entire clips containing a favorite or rejected range. I never noticed that before; I’m not sure if it’s documented or expected.

You’re supposed to either use (1) The filter at the upper right of the Event Browser – switch it from “All Clips” to “Favorites”, or (2) The library-wide Smart Collection in the folder directly beneath the library name in the left sidebar. Either of these show the favorite *ranges*, not the enclosing clip containing the favorite range.

FCPX has two different search scopes: library-wide and within a single event. The library smart collections in the folder under the library are library-wide. Smart collections or keyword collections within an event return only marked ranges within that event.

A library-wide keyword collection can be created by making a new library-wide smart collection, selecting + and picking “keywords”, then selecting the desired keyword. If you use the same keyword in multiple events this will return those ranges across all events.

If you want to show only the favorites within a given Event, just drag/drop the favorite smart collection from the “Smart Collections” folder to your event. Or you could enable the Favorite filter and click on the Event.

The way FCPX works: favorites, rejects and keyword collections are *ranges* not just clips. You can have multiple ranges marked within a single clip, and use various commands to navigate between the marked ranges. See “Manage multiple range selections in event clips”: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH12533?locale=en_US&viewlocale=en_US

Note there is a quirk whereby SHIFT+O is supposed to go to the end of the range selection and repeating it should go to the end of the next range selection. This does not work — it only goes to the end of the current range selection. You have to step forward one frame so you’re past the out point and then use Shift-O.

[Joe Marler]

[Daniel Scherl] “at 23.98 fps as that’s what the 5D, Mavic, and most of the iPhone footage was shot at. However, there are some iPhone clips that were shot at 29.97 and some at 120 fps for slow motion. Since the bulk of the footage is at 23.98, I was assuming I’d edit in that. My question is that I noticed when I drop some of the 29.97 clips onto the timeline, they don’t “look right.””

This is because there is no perfect way to conform non-multiple frame rates. Fortunately FCPX has a feature called “optical flow rate conforming” – which is a different menu choice than optical flow retiming. Using this method non-multiple frame rates can usually be combined without great problems.

To use this, select the 29.97 clips in your timeline, then in the video inspector at the bottom under “Rate Conform”, pick “Optical Flow”. Render that and observe the playback.

The render time will be longer but it will usually be fairly smooth and without motion or optical flow artifacts.

Ideally it’s best to use either the same frame rate or a multiple frame rate (eg 30/60 or 24/48) on all cameras which avoids this.

[Joe Marler]

[Steve Connor] “Day to day I edit using FCPX on a top spec 2015 MacBook Pro, very happy with the speed I get with XAVC material shot on FS7 and FS5’s, I also use a lot of library material which is mostly .h264 – never have any speed problems at all.

Last couple of weeks I’ve been forced back to editing on Premiere Pro and I’m genuinely shocked by how slow the performance is, even scaling down to 1/4 or 1/8th res I don’t get great playback at all, have Adobe not caught up yet?”

Each codec behaves differently on each NLE. Sony’s XAVC, esp XAVC-S is somewhat sluggish in FCPX on an iMac Pro, but that is nonetheless lightning fast relative to Premiere on the same hardware. Resolve 15 and later is also much faster than Premiere in terms of decode and scrubbing latency.

Part of the perceived performance difference lies in how you edit. If you drag the playhead and wait a second, then Premiere doesn’t seem so bad. However if you use JKL commands a lot, then Premiere is very slow on that codec. Moving between fast forward and reverse via JKL can cause lags in the program monitor of several seconds, even with the display at 1/4 resolution.

This might be an issue with Premiere not supporting Quick Sync or other hardware-based decode accelerators such as T2 on the Mac platform. Supposedly Adobe is working to improve this. At least they support Quick Sync for export in some cases. If you are not on the latest version of Premiere and MacOS it makes sense to upgrade these.

However I just tested the latest Premiere 13.1.4 on my 10-core Vega64 iMac Pro running macOS 10.14,6, and several common H264 codecs are all slow. This includes 4k XAVC-S and similar 4k 100 mbps 4:2:0 material from a DJI drone and a Panasonic GH5. The XAVC-S variant seems a bit slower than the others.

It didn’t make any difference whether using OpenCL or Metal in the playback engine. In all cases I had the program monitor set to 1/4 resolution.

You could test whether re-wrapping the Sony codecs with EditReady then importing with “Leave Files In Place” helps any. In a few cases external re-wrapping seems to help.

You may have to just create proxies. Fortunately Premiere now supports those. Even on FCPX I must create proxies for those codecs if doing multicam.

[Joe Marler]

[Steve Connor] “Day to day I edit using FCPX on a top spec 2015 MacBook Pro, very happy with the speed I get with XAVC material shot on FS7 and FS5’s, I also use a lot of library material which is mostly .h264 – never have any speed problems at all.

Last couple of weeks I’ve been forced back to editing on Premiere Pro and I’m genuinely shocked by how slow the performance is, even scaling down to 1/4 or 1/8th res I don’t get great playback at all, have Adobe not caught up yet?”

Each codec behaves differently on each NLE. Sony’s XAVC, esp XAVC-S is somewhat sluggish in FCPX on an iMac Pro, but that is nonetheless lightning fast relative to Premiere on the same hardware. Resolve 15 and later is also much faster than Premiere in terms of decode and scrubbing latency.

Part of the perceived performance difference lies in how you edit. If you drag the playhead and wait a second, then Premiere doesn’t seem so bad. However if you use JKL commands a lot, then Premiere is very slow on that codec. Moving between fast forward and reverse via JKL can cause lags in the program monitor of several seconds, even with the display at 1/4 resolution.

This might be an issue with Premiere not supporting Quick Sync or other hardware-based decode accelerators such as T2 on the Mac platform. Supposedly Adobe is working to improve this. At least they support Quick Sync for export in some cases. If you are not on the latest version of Premiere and MacOS it makes sense to upgrade these.

However I just tested the latest Premiere 13.1.4 on my 10-core Vega64 iMac Pro running macOS 10.14,6, and several common H264 codecs are all slow. This includes 4k XAVC-S and similar 4k 100 mbps 4:2:0 material from a DJI drone and a Panasonic GH5. The XAVC-S variant seems a bit slower than the others.

It didn’t make any difference whether using OpenCL or Metal in the playback engine. In all cases I had the program monitor set to 1/4 resolution.

You may have to just create proxies. Fortunately Premiere now supports those. Even on FCPX I must create proxies for those codecs if doing multicam.

[Joe Marler]

[Greg Ball] “if I have 6 minutes of regular interview footage and 3 minutes of 4K Broll footage, do I just edit the entire project as a proxy video project? If so, can I just highlight all of the clips in the project and transcode them to proxy without having to do that in the browser? All of the interview clips are also ready razor bladed and laid out perfectly.”

For mixed 1080p/4k material proxy is 1/2 the linear resolution and 1/4 the pixel resolution. Since FCPX proxies are ProRes 422 this equates to about 50% of the original H264 size. For optimized media it’s about 6x the original H264 size. The tradeoffs include size of generated media, I/O rate for optimized media and display resolution.

You can create proxies for everything, but with 1080p this is 960 x 540. That is usually enough for editing decisions but can be a little coarse. Proxy of 4k is 1080p (1920 x 1080) so that’s sufficient in almost all cases.

The issue with mixed 1080p/4k media is FCPX has a single global proxy/regular switch, so it can’t display proxies for 4k and orig. media for 1080p. It’s all or nothing, forcing you to either (1) Accept 960 x 540 for 1080p proxies or (2) Generated optimized media for everything which is about 6x the size and I/O load.