[Mathieu Ghekiere]

I used it on a project with about 750GB of Prores material, spread over 2500 clips in 3 Events. Not long form though, a half hour of edited material.

It could Be slow at times but I was editing on a 8GB RAM 13″ MBP from a 5400rpm FireWire800 drive.
Can’t Really remember it being so unstable, although the app had its moments.

I’m working now at work on a retina MBP and Pegasus R6 raids. Getting great performance.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

You are confusing 2 commands:

– Detaching audio: where indeed, the audio file becomes green, and the only way to get it back with the video again is compounding it again. Also, if your audio and video get out of sync in this way, you will never know (there are currently still no out-of-sync markers in FCPX).

– EXPANDING audio and Video: this is what you mean. There, you double click on the waveform of a clip (but be sure not to be on the volume-level line, it can be a but clumsy sometimes) to expand it for that clip. You can there make a J-cut or L-cut. Double click it again, and FCPX shows it as one clip again (called collapse audio-video). (which can be misleading, if you make a J-cut where the audio starts a lot earlier than the video, and collapse it again, you won’t see anywhere that your audio is starting a lot earlier – although you will hear it – unless you expand it again). The easiest way to get what you want is go to View – Expand Audio/Video – For all. After you are done, click Collapse Audio-Video.

I’ve asked Apple multiple times trough the feedback form for one change, where if you click the menu item: Expand Video/Audio – for All, that FCPX would always show that expanded view also for clips that you put in the timeline AFTER you have clicked on that menu-command. Oh well.

Since 10.0.6 there is also an Expand Audio Components command, to get all your channels seperately.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Contact Apple Support? That’s how some people have still been able to buy upgrades for FCP 7, if the rumor was/is correct. You can always try?

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

If you are on Mountain Lion, look for the update in Apple’s archives, you can find it online, Pro-Apps updates.
Then download and install it manually.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

I think it is, slowly.

I see it on one hand on forums, like REDUSER, where no one wanted to touch it, but with all the updates, people are getting more and more interested, toying with it.

I also notice it around me. To give my own example: I didn’t want to use it in the beginning, tried it again after 10.0.3, and liked some parts, hated others.
Tried using it more and more, liking it more and more, and now I’m responsible for letting my work switch over completely to FCP X.
We just had our first project on FCP X.

We had one colleague who never had worked with it before. After I had given him some lessons, he said: “I like it. FCP 7 already feels old.”
Yes, we both have a wish list, but the program is very good on other areas. I think it also helps that I gave him lessons from someone who already used the program for about 10 projects, making all the ‘first-time’ mistakes for him minimal. I clearly explained how media management etc is in FCP X, and it’s there that often people use FCP X without first reading about it, or looking at some tutorials. It minimizes the bad experience with X.

Another editor came from another country, and both him and our bosses hiring us were all raving about the speed and the quality of the multicam + quality of the chroma key.
There are some things that are easier on 7, but those feature-lists are getting smaller with every update of X.
I’ve noticed that as more and more editors use it, tell other people about it, those give X another change. And most of the time they find some very interesting things. And I notice that as more and more people use it, it’s more and more difficult to ignore it.

I’m sure it’s still far from an FCP 7/Avid market share in the professional world, but I’m having the feeling that with every ‘big’ update (10.0.3, 10.0.6) more and more people come up and say: “maybe I should give it another look.”

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

A friend of mine shot his documentary with an older JVC HDV camera (one of the GY-HD101 or so series, the small shoulder-models with interchangeable lenses), and shot in 50 progressive frames a second, and edited without problem on FCP 7 on an iMac that was from 2007 or so. So I think you shouldn’t worry too much.

It’s maybe different with an H.264 codec though, and I don’t know if FCP X supports 50p editing at this point.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Feedback to Apple, sounds like a bug!

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

You don’t need a third party plugin to have an adjustment layer in FCPX.
Dozens of people and companies offer them free on their website If you don’t have motion. If you have motion, there are Dozens of tutorials how to make one for yourself in 3 minutes.

And although I think the round tripping with Motion could Be better, I advise you to check how all the publishing and rigging features work in Motion5/FCPX.
Because If you are working with lower thirds, I think the new workflow is much better.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

I noticed the same thing, and mailed to Apple about it. I suggest you do the same.

That being said, have you rendered out already to test how it looks?
I remember when having a problem like that, the rendered out version looked fine, so I think FCP X WAS taking from the original source size, and not making it smaller and uprezzing it again.
I should check again if it worked indeed so.

The thing is: it’s pretty non-intuïtive in this way because, as you said, the clip says 100 procent, and you don’t have an IDEA anymore as editor of how the software is working with the footage.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

I sure will.

Very tricky.

I both made the selections in a 1,2 order, as they are also chronological in that way. Very strange that FCP X puts them as 2,1 on the timeline.