[John Pale]

[Jeremy Garchow] “Yes. Compound clips you would have to “open in timeline” first. Control-s shows audio and video in the main storyline with out divorcing (or “break apart”) the a/v.
“

Thanks for clarifying that.

[John Pale]

I did think of Time Machine, and did try it for kicks, but the problem is the media file, not the project file. I don’t backup my media with Time Machine. I did try using a “fresh” copy of the media file from the camera backup, but that doesn’t work either. FCPX is looking for whatever metadata it added to the media file when I first imported.

Bottom line… There is no re linking. If anything happens to your media file’s metadata, you have re edit from scratch. Be careful.

[John Pale]

Thanks for that too. I think the share method more than the freeze method works for me, as I needed to take it into Photoshop.

I think I missed it in the help file because my brain was thinking “export” when I should have been thinking “share”.

[John Pale]

Hmm. That does nothing. What were you expecting it to do?

Perhaps its because these are Compound Clips. Its all DSLR footage with double system sound.

I can see both tracks of audio (2 lavs on separate tracks) if I use the Clip/Break Apart Clip Items command, but then they are no longer Compound Clips….you can’t recollapse them without making them a brand new Compound Clip from the timeline individually. In order to keyframe easily, I also have to make the clip sizes gigantic, which really slows down the interface.

[John Pale]

I’m doing a very basic video for a client with it right now. I thought it would be a good test…as its all file based, not very heavy on FX, and does not require output to tape. No burning deadline. No client in the room. So far its been pretty rocky, partly due to my own inexperience with the software, and partly due to some surprising missing functionality in FCPX (lots of little things relating to editorial problem solving and not the well publicized shortcomings everyone knows about). Its not all negative though. There are quite a few innovative ideas that work well in the software, too.

Most of my work is broadcast. I could not imagine even trying to do anything for broadcast with it yet or anything with a client in the room.

[John Pale]

[TS O'Grady] “I take it you’re talking more about video clips that are opened in AE and other programs. So far I can work with still images in and out of photoshop the same as I did in FCP7.”

Yep. I’ll have to do some testing with media not in the project I am currently editing. Thanks.

[John Pale]

Thanks. I did look in the help, but i missed it somehow.

[Nick Toth] “As far as exporting a still it’s under “Sharing”. It seems to take longer than it should FYI:”

[John Pale]

[Craig Seeman] “I’m not sure why I’d have to expect that.”

Well Craig, this is FCP X v1, not NLE version 1. I think having some very basic expectations about what is required in editing software isn’t out of line. Off the bat, I can’t thing of a single NLE, at any point in its development, that would have a problem with playing its media files in another program. I’ve worked with FCP 1-7, Avid, M100, VideoCube & Sphere, Premiere. I realize no other NLE prior to FCPX has been so reliant on metadata, but isn’t it on Apple to expect that some other programs might be used in editing? While they are acknowledging its missing features..they are not calling FCPX beta software…they are, in fact charging for it. Should we have no expectations at all? Should we just be thankful it can put two shots together? Where should the line be drawn?

I actually can understand to a large degree it losing the linkage…but offering no way to relink…AND no way to provide source timecode from the timeline, is really unbelievable. I just had to re-edit a whole section based on my own memory of the edits.

Believe me…I am trying to use this with an open mind and I am giving it a long leash. The ugly and unproductive ranting on the other FCPX forum is really getting over the edge. I am not complaining about the missing “pro” features everyone knows about…but after a couple of days on it, it really does seem like the interface was not tested with anyone who has actually edited for a living. There are way too many small things that keep coming up, that clearly haven’t been thought through.

[John Pale]

Thats all well and good Craig, but I think you have to expect an NLE to deal with this somehow, even in Version 1. There is a whole host of reasons why someone editing would want to use other programs with the same media (After Effects, etc) in addition to FCPX. Its not really practical to make duplicate media files to prevent FCP from losing track of things. Mind you, all I did was open the file and play it down…I am not attempting to replace the original with its content modified.

Anyhoo…be careful everyone.

[John Pale]

I’ll have to try a re download. Seriously, I’ve never had anything crash so much. I installed on a clone of the same drive I run FCP7 on quite smoothly.

I’m not joking about the auto save though. Its really phenomenal. I didnt lose a single edit in all the crashing.

Back to the audio…. The keyframing (automation, rubber banding, or in FCPX speak “audio animation”), is really very cumbersome in it’s present form. FCP classic, Avid and Premiere are way easier. Premiere really leads the pack, having submixes and busses.

I’m really hoping they add a way to instantly show all your audio tracks (not just a single waveform on the video) and arrange them logically in the timeline using metadata tags.