[John Godwin]

Before any major upgrade of anything on the computers that I make my living off of, I use Carbon Copy Cloner to make 2, count ’em, 2 backups of the system drive. That way if there is a problem I can get back to where I was before the upgrade and figure out the solution to the problem. I recommend this method highly, as it’s saved me a couple of times.

Best,
John

[John Godwin]

No, adults run things there.

[John Godwin]

You’re right, FCPX is not directly compatible with FCP7, although there are third party solutions that fix that.

Remarkable that you didn’t read the simple instructions Apple provided as to how you can easily keep FCPX and FCP7 on the same machine. You’d have avoided all that hassle.

Best,
John

[John Godwin]

Day got busy, but I finally had a chance to experiment. I made dissolves on all 12 pngs with the opacity control and it worked perfectly, with very smooth playback and no beachball at all.

That’s all I tried, since it worked so well. So, again, based on what I’ve read here, too, compound clips seems to have some issues.

It would be nice to have a way to go back just a few steps when FCPX starts beachballing.

Best,
John

[John Godwin]

The iPad’s got two cameras, so that’s not an advantage for Surface. The keyboard cover does look interesting, though I have to say I’ve gotten pretty used to the virtual keyboard, after using the Zagg keyboard for a while and finding it more trouble than it’s worth. But if I need to write anything more than a few paragraphs (not very often) a find a real keyboard more practical.

It does strike me that the iPad is pretty specific and the Surface is trying to be all things to all people. And I still think in five years or less we’ll be easily editing on tablets, hence the design of FCPX.

Best,
John

[John Godwin]

If I have time tomorrow I’ll try to copy the project, uncompound the 12 clips, and try first the transparency and then staggering the dissolves instead of stacking them. I was thinking of doing the transparency before realizing compounding them was the quickest and easiest solution in this case.

Best,
John

[John Godwin]

Fast and stable on I7 iMac, close to the same on my Mac Pro tower (circa 2010, the one that has never ever been stable with FCP7) and slow and choppy on my 2008 17″ MBP. Obviously the more current the hardware the better.

And if Apple takes my magnetic timeline away I’ll have no choice but to go back in time and use something else.

Seriously, the biggest shock I got moving from Liquid to FCP was that the timeline was split into audio and video. Top and bottom. In Liquid any track could be any thing. And I wondered how a good GUI could be anything else.

I suspect this is partially why I like FCPX. More flexibility.

Best,
John

[John Godwin]

I’m just suggesting “use FCPX or not”, which seems useful, as opposed to “is FCPX pro”, which is merely endless. But it’s only my opinion.

Best,
John

[John Godwin]

“It wasn’t designed with a wide range of editing needs in mind. As I have said before I can cut paying jobs on pinnacle studio. That, within this ‘what isn’t pro about it’ reasoning makes pinnacle studio pro. But it is a consumer conceived bit off software.”

Actually Pinnacle Studio is derived from Liquid, which was designed to compete head to head with Avid. Should have won, too.

I’m beginning to think that, considering the depth built into FCPX and the obviously unfinished nature of it, that we should consider introducing what I’ll call the Pro Rule. (Also based on the considerable discussion of who is and who isn’t a pro.)

So, the Pro Rule is that when your argument is that something isn’t Pro, or that someone isn’t Pro because they don’t do the same exact things you do, you automatically lose. That way these endless circular threads that devolve into that discussion might instead stay on topic as shown in this thread, where the original question was not “Is FCPX Pro” but was “How would you handle this scenario in FCPX?”

Or not.

Best,
John

[John Godwin]

I just finished a full day of working remotely with a producer using iChat screen sharing. Not as good, but it does work, though you guys probably know that.

Best,
John