[Mike Warmels]

I’m having the exact same issues. And it’s so infrequent that it often drives me crazy. I have to check, double check all synchronised audio during editing: if everything there, is nothing merged, if it is, how can I fix it…

It’s quite the horror show when dealing with a lot of footage.

[Mike Warmels]

Yes, I agree.

Well, for me the problem is that once something is in the timeline, it cannot automatically be corrected. You have to do everything again. If it’s a small sequence, it’s okay. If not… a lot of work.

[Mike Warmels]

Good point.

I can imagine certain situation where you don’t want ripple effects on roles. Like when you use an ambient as a sound effect. But on the other hand: music is always music… and sound effects are always sound effects.

Especially with the whole X2Pro, third party exports where correct roles are VITAL… I think it would be a necessary feature.

[Mike Warmels]

Well, Bill, you’re absolutely right. I just want to edit and not fidget around. And to be honest, it’s me that has the slightest problems. Unless I have to battle all the weird audio synching issues (which is often unexplained and causing slowness in the system).

It’s a lot of editors finalising my projects and running into very similar problems (and not just on my projects).

But I did take up Ronny’s generous offer. I hope to figure out how to up the performance. But as you point out: “Maybe its how the files are configured, maybe some hardware glitch, perhaps some workflow process that’s configured in a way that’s slowing things down…” , that is basically my main frustration. We often can’t figure out what’s causing the weirdness. As I said before: it feels like an NLE with so many little pitfalls that I never know what’s next.

And I keep repeating it, similar issues are (on the exact same set and configuration) in AVID are almost absent. It has it quirks an quips, but it’s always stable. And the settings of the project dictate what happens to all the media, how it’s configured and how the project performs. And that is what’s does it for me.

But… I have a lot projects that have to be cut and finished in FCPX. So, yeah… hopefully Ronny’s advice will help me out.

[Mike Warmels]

Well, sound editors often show me what they get. And mostly it’s a big mess. Someone must be doing something wrong, no doubt. But often they’re getting somewhere between 36 and 96 tracks, where 14 should be sufficient. And they use the roles, that kind of works, but the amount of tracks and the organisation is often still messy. Compared to an AVID AFF, where the sound editors only get what was used.

Partly that may have to do with the workflow. A lot of television director precut their shows, add their own music etc. And they forget to add roles for instance. Which means changing them in the timeline. We’ve discussed this before, but I find it strange that if you change the roles in the source clip, it doesn’t change it in timeline.

And… same thing happens when some people import MP3 music (44 Khz). When they use X2PRo all that music ends up being 44 KHz in a 48 KHz show. Now, of course, people should first convert the audio, track by track before importing it. But you know how it goes.

The thing is: you don’t notice it in the timeline that the frequency is different (only in Inspector but you’d have to check every used clip, one by one). If you don’t leave FCPX it’s never a problem. But it’s strange that in a 48KHz project or library the audio doesn’t get converted upon import. Or that FCPX doesn’t convert it either. Plus, to change the frequency, you have to import new tracks and put them all back by hand. I wish you could just replace them (like you could in FCP7).

So for me, that’s major difference between AVID and FCP7. In FCPX you have to do a lot of thinking yourself on stuff like codec, audio frequencies. In AVID and FCP7 you have specs on the project and the application converts everything to the specs of that project. Which is, if you ask me, a much more convenient way of working if you’re editing, adding footage, music, stills etc. while you’re on the go. I mean, that’s what machines are for, right? To do the heavy lifting.

[Mike Warmels]

Yeah, me too. FCPX has a lot of do’s and don’ts, many little pitfalls you have to avoid. And with this huge knowledge base of experienced editors helps one learn about this little things. They can help prevent a lot of trouble.

Of course, I wish things would just WORK without having to avoid all these little pitfalls, but I am grateful to all the helpful advice.

[Mike Warmels]

I didn’t say that, Bill.

I have been coming here, hoping for some resolutions for these issues that we’re having. And I have taken aboard all the advice you gave me so far. A lot of it was very good, but in the end the net result wasn’t huge.

I spent well over $6000 on a MacPro trashcan and another $1000 on external Thunderbolt hard discs. It’s nice and easy to say it’s mediocre stuff. But I don’t think it is: it’s Apple’s fastest computer, it’s Apple own editing system. I use media and FCPX set up everything exactly the way you (and many others here) advised me to do on this very forum. But performance wise it’s just not great. And I can’t find what the problem is.
Now I can keep pouring money into it, buy another MacPro for $12,000 with 12 Cores (although generally it’s only using one) but I doubt that will solve the problems.

Maybe, just maybe and that’s just a though I had, FCPX is at it’s heart not designed to work on PAL. I set up this reportage show by putting up titles for every clip with the exact required length, so I wouldn’t get confused what item to cut next. Every clip was at a rounded number of minutes, it’s total was 35 minutes. But when I selected all the title blocks FCPX gave a total of 34 minutes, 59 seconds and 23 frames… TWO FRAMES missing! That is bizarre. Of course, it has no impact on the actual editing but it did make think there’s something wrong with FCPX’s calculating skills features. Maybe it doesn’t work well on PAL…

Again, just a thought. I’m not blaming you or anything. I just wish that after a year of getting dozens and dozens of consultations here and from editors in my country, it’s just not up to par. And with some advice, I just can’t work, like this one I got from a company selling and installing FCPX systems: “you should disconnect your AJA T-tap and work without your broadcast monitor…” At moments like that I can’t stop thinking: “WTF… what’s Pro about that?”

Comparing that to a much more complex NLE like AVID… it works like a charm on my set… always! And I keep wondering, why can’t I get FCPX to work that way, while so many of you can…

[Mike Warmels]

You are right, Ronny. The projects ARE very simple. That’s why I am so disappointed with it.

And my system is pretty simple: late 2013 Mac Pro trashcan, 6 core, D700 video graphics card. I use AJA T-tap to feed video to my Flanders broadcast monitor and I use Thunderbolt 4T La Cie external hard drives. Libraries and cache are on the internal hard drive. All the footage is HD Apple Pro Res. I don’t import media into the library, I leave everything where it is.

But again, when working on projects with little footage and few projects (or duplicates of projects) it generally runs fine. But when more footage (20 hours plus is relatively normal for a short reportage like series) is being used, I get the feeling all that all the application is doing is generating wave forms… endlessly. I think that is what is causing the delays.

A simple thing like PLAY or PLAY AROUND… it usually takes almost a second before it actually plays. It’s not instant. But that is the least of the problems. After a few hours of editing, everything gets slow.

I am a director and I cut his shows into rough cuts, working a lot with exchanging projects and media (not at the same time), but the 20+ editors I work with battle with these issues everyday in a different facility working with SAN. So it’s not just me.

There must be some trick to make FCPX work like a charm, because a lot of you are happy with it. I’ve basically followed every advice I got on this forum, but the improvements are slight. To me there’s nothing intuitive about waiting for beach balls to spin before my eyes. Or trying to figure out why sometimes clips mysteriously go offline, or only half of a clip can be viewed in the browser while it’s fine when viewed in Finder, or why synchronised audio gets mysteriously compressed into one track… I have to keep Inspector open to check all audio that is synchronised, but keeping it open, makes FCPX even slower (wave forms!!!).

So I fight my way through these edits, it has nothing to do with the interface, it’s certainly not all bad. But the full speed, hammering away, undelayed cutting and chopping like I can do on AVID, nope… that’s not happening in FCPX.

[Mike Warmels]

I meant: “I see the CHARM of FCPX…”

[Mike Warmels]

Well, I dunno, guys.

I’ve been working on FCPX for well over year now, doing a lot of television shows. But I find FCPX a true minefield when it comes things like synchronising audio, where some things mysteriously don’t work in particular clips, the whole export to AAF audio post production is causing a lot of editors I work with sever headaches, figuring out how to work with third party software, sound editors going berserk over the excessive amount of audio tracks getting handed over to them through X2Pro (where often left and right channels of music are like 15 tracks apart).

It seems to me everything we need rig something a little special FCPX should officially be able to do, it’s like opening Pandora’s Box… a lot weird stuff happens.

But for me, the biggest bother of working on FCPX is still its performance. I work on a Mac Pro trashcan, using only thunderbolt external hard drives, having my libraries and chase on my internal SSD harddrive… working only with Apple Pro Res encoded footage… but as soon as a Library gets a little bigger (I do a lot of 5-6 parts series of 30 minutes where I work on them in one Library, because I need all the footage for all of it) it gets slower. And by that I mean with every new project (timeline) I make (using duplicates for each new version of the cut) it gets slower. When there are a few more layers or a larger number of graphics (like name titles, borders etc.) it gets slower.

And with every duplicate, copy or change to say, a synchronised clip, I get that bloody beach ball again.

Two weeks ago I got the chance to work on AVID again. And after my first cut I duplicated the sequence for a new version after changes from my client. And really, I thought it died on me. It didn’t do anything… or so I thought. After a closer look the duplicate sequence was there, duplicated AND in the timeline window. IT duplicated so fast, like in the blink of an eye, I just wasn’t used to that kind of speed anymore.When I do stuff like that on FCPX the beach ball is telling me FCPX is working on it. I’ve gotten used to the delayed response of FCPX…

So no… I work on it every day. But it means looking at beach balls a lot. And a lot of editors I work complain about its slowness, it sloppy programming (why does the graphic display of audio levels in the timeline differ when you change zoom? why does the timeline graphic in the browser not fit the place of audio when you go to the end of the clip? why does it miss a couple of frames when you select a larger number of clips in the timeline…).

I see the harm of FCPX and I know a lot of you guys enjoy the hell out of it. But frankly… I don’t see it.