[Mike Warmels]

I doesn’t have to scroll… it just has to center when you stop. Because when you’re watching you canvas when you go over a sequence and you see something you don’t like, you hit the spacebar. In AVID the playhead centers at the point you stopped, at the spot where you want to make changes.

In FCPX you have to switch to HAND TOOL and find where your playhead has gone. It certainly doesn’t center for me. So I either have to zoom out a lot and zoom in again (usually ending up with the playhead somewhere far left or far right in the timeline). Pressing buttons… a lot.

Is it so strange to want your playhead in the centre when you stop playback? AVID does it, Premier does it, FCP7 did it… When I start changing things I’d like to see what clips are before and after the spot I want to change.

I would prefer to use the sideways functions of my scroll mouse, but moving left to right is extremely slow using the left-right function of the scroll wheel compared to the hand tool… (why? I don’t know).

[Mike Warmels]

I work on a brand new MacPro, 6 core, D700 graphics card and 48GB of RAM. That should suffice, I would say.

But it’s not just me. There are two editing facility houses that I work with and they to have this issue that FCPX slows down after 1-2 hours of editing. Maybe we’re working too fast on it or something. 😉

And yes, I run the AVID and FCPX on the same computer. And to be honest, waveforms build really quickly on this machine in AVID. I just use the other method (or work around as you would have it) because I kinda like that I can see them when I need them.

But to be honest, I think FCPX is Work Around Central. In general I run into some very weird stuff. Some examples

1.Reveal in browser (a favourite option of mine in all NLE’s – others call it Match Frame). I press reveal in browser (for which I have to select the clip first) and the browser opens up, needs time to load everything and for the waveforms (takes a little time). But then… I can’t directly see the clip I wanted revealed. So I press ‘reveal in browser’ again and then it goes to the particular clip. Again: it’s slowish and I need to reveal it twice…
2. Using XD-CAM stuff (or any MXF material like footage from the Canon C300). For some reason you can’t import this. I looked this up and what I found is that Apple wants you to use XD-CAM material als native. So it cannot import it and convert it to Apple Pro Res. But… when handling non-Apple Pro Res footage, FCPX uses only one of your cores… And then I think: WHAAT? I thought this was a 64 bit machine? Why can’t I use it now as it should.
3. Export (or “Share” – rolls eyes 😉 ). Exporting to different codecs is limited. You need Compressor to make a HUGE work around, but Compressor is a really outdated program. Plus the hassle of making profiles in one program and then importing that in FCPX is downright silly. FCP7 didn’t have that, AVID or Premiere don’t have that. IT’s silly. So I now make an export and use my trusted old Quicktime7 to convert it to the size I want. And this is something I use a lot to get viewing versions out of the door.
4. Keyword are great. I think that works very nice. But what I don’t get is why the browser sorts everything on date or something else I don’t need. For instance, I am using lots of music sorted by kind. Say “funky”. So I have like 50 track of funky music. But I have only two options to see them: as blocks with waveforms or as a list sorted bij date folders… I can’t see just the list. I have to open all these folders, or minimise the clip browser where I see them al. Why can’t I just see the list of tracks??

It’s a lot of these things. And as I said: it works, it has some very powerful tools, there’s a certain elegance…. but it is extremely clumsy on other counts. And to me it says: FCPX is immature… it’s an adolescent at best.

Now, AVID may be a bit of an old geezer. But in my kind of work I prefer AVID for a few reasons:
1. The mediamanagement system is great. Yes, you have to digitise your footage first to make it work, but then: you have to transfer everything to Apple Pro Res for FCPX as well to really benefit from it.
But AVID’s mediamanagement system makes the media work very direct plus a lot of effects and stuff are real time in the sense that it either is really REAL time or doesn’t stutter, like FCPX does when effects ae involved.
2. It works great with color grading, audio mixing studios. The export features are excellent.
3. The ISIS network system when working in a larger facility works very well and is very solid. The SAN system you need voor FCPX is… well… not entirely developed.

To make sure, AVID isn’t perfect. It has it s quirks. But so has any NLE I have worked on or with. the major redeeming factor for FCPX is it price: you get a lot of money worth. But my main point is that I don’t really understand why the ‘new paradigm’ was necessary, what it added to workflow for professionals (so far)… but I can see it suits the need something that looks like could actually work on a iPad kind of device: it looks modern.

But if FCPX was priced like AVID used to be, I’d wonder if people would bother all the hassle.

[Mike Warmels]

That’s all nice and dandy if you work alone. But once you work with color graders or audiostudio’s, it’s kinda nice to have a language we all understand.

[Mike Warmels]

Yes, I gotta agree with you. I could deal with the sometimes more elaborate ways, if FCPX would’t slow down so often as it does. It seems to devour memory… After about an hour the thing gets so slow…

And I wonder: why does my external hard drive start rattling like crazy every hour or so, slowing the FCPOX down? Is that OS indexing (and if so, what then) or FCPX doing stuff?

[Mike Warmels]

Well, that is where my experience is different. I have no delays. I don’t use a full waveform, only where I select it with in and outpoints and that works fine.

I find FCX slow in its build up wave forms because there you can only choose between on or of. At least AVID allows you to choose how you use it.

I have no delays in AVID. I remember cutting in HD using four different external hard drives hooked up with USB2 cables… worked perfectly.

And trimming: you don’t have to select. I have my smart tool of trimming always ON… and then it just click with the CTRL and you can trim by hand immediately. If you want to do it differently, go to trimming mode. AVID allow for several methods.

When it comes down to delays FCX uses so much memory. It’s constantly doing stuff while the background window is idle, that it slows down after an hour of so… I don’t have these issues with my AVID system. It’s very smooth, stable and consistent, in fact.

[Mike Warmels]

Yes, I agree completely. That’s why I said it was silly they changed the lexicon. It’s one of the first things I hated because I couldn’t find how to do certain things: because they were named completely different. Why? I don’t get it. It certainly is made for a new generation, not taking into account that the stuff we do also has history.

But what I also meant to say was: they’re not gonna change it. This is what they came up with and they’re gonna stick with it. We have to deal with it one way or another.

[Mike Warmels]

Ha, interesting. I am happy if I can do AVID again.

I find AVID much faster and sleeker than FCPX on hardcore editing and cutting, shaping and reworking: you can see everything at one glance. The timeline centers on your playhead the moment you stop, you know where you are. In-Points in your timeline make you go back to where you were instantly, audio work is much directer and faster and present ON your timeline (no opening up and closing audio), you can customise your window layout depending on what kind of work you do (color, audio, editing) with one key stroke and most of all: I think the AVID mediamanagement system is much, much better: it always runs smoothly, while FCPX is doing all these things in the background and gets very slow after 1,5-2 hours of editing. Especially if you have several layers of video/graphics/titels etc…

FCPX is an adolescent in the NLE: frivolous, fun, elegant sometimes, but also erratic and undeveloped.

But it’s a different time. I’ve recently worked with several FCPX editors who hated FCP7 and love FCPX. But they never ever editing in a three-point editing system. It’s hard comparing then. I used FCP7 in an AVID like set-up and it could work faster on it than on FCPX.

[Mike Warmels]

In AVID you can.

You forget you have to select the clip first (action no.1). Then CTRL-bracket (action no.2), trim (action no.3) And you have to tuck it back in again (action 4.) If it’s video a few more. And then I am not counting the audio fade business if the cut needs to sound a little nice.

In AVID: Ctrl-MOUSE click on ANY cut and you can drag the track (or tracks if it’s audio) you want immediately – ONE move by mouse. By keyboard: one keystroke for trimming mode, select left or right and then nudge. And you don’t have to be ON the cut exactly… just anywhere near will do. Plus you don’t have to tuck it in again. Audio crossfade: two key strokes.

I know it feels like nitpicking… but after four weeks of editing straight on a few shows back to back… it feels tiresome in comparison.

But I do like the fact that FCX can be very short-cutty by keyboard. At first glance it’s very mousy… and that doesn’t do the wrist much good.

[Mike Warmels]

Oh I am not battling the software. I thought I was doing something wrong because if feels so slow so often. But after working with professionals who have been doing professional work on FCPX for two years now, I think I am working it the way you should.

I don’t think FCP7 is the best comparison, an old lady now. But AVID for me certainly is. In many ways it’s a lot more direct. And yes, it asks a certainly discipline in putting things in your timeline, but when it’s there, it’s there.

My main gripes are that FCPX gets slow. It does a lot of calculations in the background that I cannot see or even wonder what it’s doing. I have to, just like many colleagues of mine, restart it three times a day so I clears its chaches or whatever it’s doing.
I sincerely doubt the quality of its mediamanagement and its libraries, which are, in my humble opinion, excellent in AVID. Part of why AVID handles so solidly. So I wouldn’t mind the extra button pressing in FCPX if it would respond immediately. But it doesn’t. Pressing the spacebar gives me reaction times in payback between 0 and 2 seconds… varying…. 2 seconds to start playing is ridiculously long if you ask me.

FCPX is here to stay, that much is certain. But the whole thing seems very undeveloped and immature at this stage. And that includes (I honestly really agree with you) naming everything. (Projects, Libraries, Event, Start Range Selection, Skimming…).

[Mike Warmels]

When I cut my shows I get a certain amount of time to make it in. Say for a 30 minute show about fashion (a children’s series), I get 4 days to shape and structure each episode. If FCPX means it takes me an hour extra a day to do that, so four more hours for the whole show, then I have, by my calculations, four hours LESS time to think about story, pace, shape and structure because I have to spend so much time on getting the NLE to do what I want.

Thinking about story, structure and pace is crucial, but I want my NLE not to be an obstacle. I don’t want to lose precious time on pressing buttons. I want to be able to change, shape, try, form and shape. So speed in trying and shaping IS important, I want to see if it works or how it can work better. And I am beyond the time in my life that I do those four hours extra in my own time. Producers and broadcasters skim so much of the top already.