[John Pale]

[Chris Harlan] “You’re f—ing joking?! Really? That’s dumb.
“

Really. I am trying to have an open mind about things, but I keep running into stuff like this…you definitely can tell they did not have any input from actual editors in creating the UI.

The auto save works great though. I’ve had 30 crashes in two days and not lost a second of work.

[John Pale]

There’s a lot of room to the right and left of the dashboard TC display for more info….its just that they decided it wasn’t important, I guess.

[John Pale]

[Dan Hayes] “Oh , please do.
“

Well, for one thing….there is no way to see the source timecode of the individual elements in your timeline.
No overlays for that, like in FCP 1-7, or anywhere else in the UI.

[John Pale]

[Chris Harlan] “John Pale’s experience seems to have not been good. What is yours? How exactly do you mix without tracks?
“

Thats a good question. An even better one, is how do you mix without a mixer? It doesn’t have that either.

Audio keyframes still exist, however in order to effectively use them, you have to “step into” the individual clips to see the associated audio tracks. Granted, its only an extra step, but in a more traditional timeline, they are always visible and can be worked with easily.

I was actually having a bit of fun getting used to the editing paradigm in FCPX. I think video wise, I can see this working well, with a bit of refinement… but I really can’t see how you can work with audio effectively within the program.

Don’t even get me started about timecode.

[John Pale]

Does not incorporate STP.

Has noise reduction, hum filter, and a fair number of fx presets. Keyframing and mixing is abysmal. Extremely cumbersome, even to do a dimple audio dissolve. The trackless timeline makes any kind of traditional mixing techniques impossible. To make matters worse, you can’t export yet for further mixing in any audio program (no AAF, OMF or XML).

[John Pale]

Hey Craig,
Didn’t realize you were in NYC too.

I finally dove in and started to try FCPX on a real, but very simple and low pressure project.

I’m finding I like the metadata approach to organization … Way more powerful than the traditional project/bin structure. I really like the handling of DSLR footage and double system sound. Compound clips are also very cool. Not totally sold on the magnetic timeline and the storyline metaphor. I keep finding it’s more complicated to do basic stuff..but maybe I need more time for my brain to absorb it.

There is a lot missing from this that I would definitely need in anything more than the simple web video I am working on. And I am not just talking about the obvious, like multicam or OMF/AAF.

Overall, it seems very unstable too. I had about 20 crashes yesterday on a very simple project without effects.

In my book, it’s a very early beta. I don’t thnk it should have been released to paying customers in it’s present
state. It has great potential, but are there enough people out there who are going to learn and use it? apple has so damaged it’s reputation, that I don’t see FCPX getting a significant user base built for many years.

[John Pale]

Just when I was starting to tire of all the ranting here, you wrote an absolute classic Aindreas.

I don’t always agree with you, but damn that was f$&”ing brilliant.

[John Pale]

I don’t know what BMD is talking about. the trial is just the full version without a proper serial number. It’s the same software.

[John Pale]

If you are on a Mac Pro 1,1 you cannot boot using the 64bit kernel. If you hold down 6 and 4 nothing happens.

This is the only Mac Pro that cannot do so. The EFI firmware is 32 bit and cannot be changed unless Apple does a firmware upgrade (Don’t hold your breath on that…its a 2006 machine..they want you to buy a new one)

You have 64 bit processors, can run full 64 bit apps and can access large amounts of RAM…so in most instances, it doesn’t matter. Your machine, however can only communicate with hardware in 32bit.

[John Pale]

While we are at it, why don’t we just go back to 1 inch VTRs in a linear bay…

I always found the best shots rewinding the damn things to the beginning to change reels….I used to do my best screening and logging making dupe reels so I could do a dissolve.

There’s a lot to justifiably complain about …. even more to be angry about in this FCPX debacle…but this is one of the things it actually does well.