[Mathieu Ghekiere]

No there isn’t (to my knowledge), and I’ve sent Apple Feedback a couple of times about this. I advise you to do the same, so they know I’m not the only one asking for better timecode support 😉

What about having
– LTC on an audiotrack supported?
– Having a Timecode Viewer /HUD like we had in the Viewer/Canvas (I use this all the time to check if everything still is in sync!)?
– Being able to cut and copy timecode… The Dashboard now only allows you to manually put in timecode, but not copy it .So going to exactly the same timecode in FCP X now on different source clips is a pain right now if you have to do it a lot, and fast.
– Having a Timecode Reader/Generator Filter?

Let’s hope the 10.0.6 update brings a lot of goodies… We are dependent on some of these features, and as long as FCP X doesn’t have them, we can only use it to cut quick trailers and promos, but not for many of our bigger work.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

I’ve often made some titles in FCP X, exported them as Prores 4444, and used them in FCP 7 above other layers, works perfect.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Well Paul,

I do have to admit, the moments that it works great and you use its strengths (tagging all those hundreds of clips was a dream after how it’s done in FCP 7, quickly changing an order of something in the magnetic timeline and doing lots of speedchanges), it really feels clunky going back to any other NLE.
But no doubt about it, Apple still has lots of work to do, and like you, when I got serious performance issues in FCP X with XDCAM, I also sometimes doubted: was it a good choice to begin this project in FCPX?

The 10.0.6 update is already at least 120 days since the last one, which is the longest period ever. On top of that, the last really feature-filled update was since the end of january.
This actually makes me pretty hopeful that the next update for FCP X will be pretty big. Let’s hope I’m right.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Good question;

As Jeremy said, FCP X is built on AV foundation instead of Quicktime framework.

What I am wondering though is this:

In FCP 7, if you wanted to use XDCAM format (MXF), you had to go trough Sony’s Transfer tool, which would rewrap (not re-encode) in a .mov, in a Quicktime container for use.
I never had problems with it, and performance in FCP 7 generally was very good. Okay, when I had to render out 5-hour long timelines with 6 layers of XDCAM materiaal and timecode filter on it, we could get errors (we still do), but never any other problems.

With FCP X I don’t get as good a performance with the same Quicktime-wrapped XDCAM material. Even with just one layer. I tried to do a 3D edit, and I got really really significantly worse performance in FCP X then in FCP 7. And that was again, just messing with one clip, and using the same 3D plugin in FCP 7 as in FCP X on the same hardware.
If I do multicam, I can play back 4 angles of XDCAM Quicktimes effortlesly in FCP 7, but I kept getting (serious) dropped frames in FCP X until I let the software make Proxy Prores.
I did a short film for a company recently on FCP X, and it was all shot on XDCAM. In the beginning I had a wonderful time tagging all the clips, how the magnetic timeline works (except for a couple of instances) and how easy it was to make speed changes in it.
But after a while I really got the worst performance ever. And I only worked on it for 2 days, but after a while the software would just respond only after 30 seconds of pressing a button. And this was one short timeline, no color correction at that point, no special graphics or titles, …
I had to transcode to Proxy Prores (again… and with a short deadline, costing me a lot of precious hours) to use it again (still was pretty slow, but much better at this point). And this was on a i7 iMac from 2 years ago, with 8GB of RAM. The same hardware did not have any problems doing the same (and much more complicated) edits in FCP 7.

So I sent a lot of feedback to Apple about this, and I *really* hope that MXF native support ALSO means that general performance with XDCAM (Quicktime wrapped or not) will be much better in FCP X then it has been.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Tony,

I can be wrong, maybe I overlooked a setting, but in my experience, Mpeg Streamclip, although it converted faster then Compressor, it didn’t retain the original timecode of the original clips.
Which is deadly, if you are relinking, I would think…

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Not ‘or’.
Both should be added. They are long due, especially the sync-markers…

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

I sent feedback to Apple about this a couple of times:

what they should do is:

the current system of expanding audio (NOT detaching! Just expanding!) and then being able to do J & L cuts, together with the magnetic timeline works brilliant and often with a lot less headache then it used to be in FCP 7.
BUT
what I hate about the implementation is that you always have to double click the clip, or click everything in the timeline, and expand then. If you do the last, the problem is, once you add more new clips to the timeline, you have to expand them again, etc.
You have to do a lot of clicking, where, in FCP 7, you just could have your audio and video unlinked and just go ahead, without first clicking everything.
Premiere Pro works in the same way as the current FCP X does, and I hate it, to be honest.

So what I suggested to Apple was:
if you go to the menu VIEW – Expand Audio/Video – FOR ALL, make it as such that it expands it for your complete timeline INCLUDING every new clip you put on the timeline (or replace or whatever) after you have pushed in that command. You would have all the benefits of cutting J & L cuts with the magnetic timeline, you still wouldn’t go out of sync (like you potentially would with detaching audio) and you only have to do one menu-command to be able to make J & L cuts in your complete timeline.

Let’s hope they listen to the feedback…

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Have people also sent Apple feedback about this?
I didn’t know about these issues, and I can only hope that people that do know, provide feedback so the chances that Apple fixes them, is bigger.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

An Audio-only crossfade still is difficult (impossible) to do standardly in FCP X… Unless you first detach the audio (I’m not sure if it’s possible by only expanding the audio).

Luckily, Alex4D, made an audio-only crossfade available for free on his website:
https://alex4d.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/fcpx-transition-sound-only/

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Is this of any help?

https://www.rippletraining.com/using-the-rt-drop-shadow-in-final-cut-pro-x.html

Ripple Training made this available for free.

Unbelievable Apple, still a year and a half into FCP X, doesn’t have a way of putting a drop shadow on a video.