Simon Ubsdell
6
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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Your graphics card might be the issue – though it really should be good enough.
Read Apple’s notes on troubleshooting, though they’re not a huge help:
https://support.apple.com/kb/TS3893
Make sure you turn off background rendering which is worse than useless in almost every case – it is a severe drain on performance and generally a pointless waste of time as a feature.
Make sure you have the absolute minimum of projects visible to FCPX at any one time. FCPX simply is unable to handle seeing multiple projects adequately.
I’m sure there are lots of other tips but those are the ones that spring to mind.
Oh and, don’t upgrade to 10.0.3 which has serious performance issues – unless it’s already too late for you!
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Oliver Peters] “Nothing else needed if your main objective is to mix stereo programs sent from an NLE.”
Yes, I should have qualified by saying that PT is now massively cheaper than it has been in the past and PT9 was itself quite a big step forward.
I’m not sure that you can say that even now it compares price-wise with quality competitors like Logic and Digital Performer (and many others).
The point I was making is that if you’re used to almost any other software DAW you’ll be astonished at what you don’t get at the basic price.
If you want to mix in anything other than stereo – and let’s face it almost everything now allows you to do 5.1, even dare I say it FCPX itself! – you’ll have to pay an extortionate premium to get the (outrageously misnamed) Complete Production Toolkit which will set you back more than $1500 and give you very little meaningful functionality beyond switching on the 5.1 capability. This is quite simply outrageous in today’s market place.
(It’s also worth noting, I think I’m right in saying, that until PT9 you couldn’t even import OMF/AAF without buying the CPT.)
Also comparing PT with the competition you’ll be shocked at how few plug-ins come as standard – only just enough to do the basic job and no more – whereas Logic and the rest (including the late lamented and essentially free STP!!!) have an extensive and high quality plug-in set built in. To begin to make PT compete in terms of features you’d need to spend literally thousands of dollars extra on third party plugs.
The general feeling among PT users is that it’s a long way from being value for money, especially in terms of things like upgrades. The furore over the pricing of PT10 was truly something to behold!
It’s worth mentioning that just like the rest of the AVID range, PT is marketed via a typically labyrinthine set of pricing and packaging structures which, whether designedly or not, seem like the perfect trap for the unwary.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Steve Connor] “I might invest in a copy and some training.”
Good luck with it, but be warned – you’ll need seriously deep pockets.
PT is anything but cheap – OK, let’s be honest it’s massively over-priced in typical AVID fashion. You’ll be amazed how much extra you need to spend to enable features that you’d have thought would come with the basic package.
In fact, I don’t want to put you off but unless you are a trained audio engineer and have a sustained stream of revenue from mixing audio, I’d question whether it was a purchase worth making.
I’d say the better scenario is to be in a position – which xtoPro finally enables – to be able to hand off your audio via AAF/OMF to an audio professional who will in the vast majority of cases be using PT rather than anything else.
If you’re essentially a video editor who wants to dabble in audio then wait and see if Logic X delivers everything he audio community is hoping for it – there is a reasonable chance that it will interface better with FCPX than anything else.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Steve Connor] “So can you get OMF out of Protools? I’ve never used it, but I’m thinking about learning it”
Yes, indeed, OMF export from ProTools works very well and is hugely useful especially if you’re working on AVID and want to be able to access an audio session with all its data.
PT is very far from perfect (well, what else do you expect from AVID?) but there is simply no question that it is the industry standard, like it or not.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
You have to feel for these guys.
Baselight is a great tool but who could possibly think of spending $995 on this when FCP7 is dead and when Resolve Lite is free? Such unfortunate timing – this has been in the works for so long and now it seems just way too late.
But I hope not for their sakes.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Herb Sevush] “But I’m not here, I’m skating to where here is going to be so I can be there before here ever turns into there.”
Best comment ever! Sheer genius.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Steve Connor] “Any other gotchas that you know of at the moment? Would be very interested to know if it works with logic Pro as well”
Generally it works very well as far as I’ve been able to test it – distinctly more robust than Xto7 which had quite a few issues with complex audio handling in my experience.
A really nice implementation of Roles – just what a lot of us have been hoping for.
Be aware that volume and pan are not currently supported though it will be coming soon apparently.
Don’t know about how it will work with Logic – haven’t used it in a while. Am waiting for the upcoming (???!!!) Logic X to blow me away – but who knows what to expect from Apple now …
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
It works very nicely –
– except that for now you can’t consolidate your exported media, so if you have large source files it will be quite cumbersome to say the least. (Nor can you link to the original media.)
But apparently this will be addressed quite soon.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Michael Hadley] “But–I’m thinking I might export the completed video (with no key) as Pro Res, then bringing it back in to do the keying with Pro Res in the hopes it might go a bit easier.”
I’d say that this would be a sensible route – Pro Res should give you better results.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Michael Hadley] “I’ve never tried the plug in Keylight-do you think I might get better results than X, PHYX or CVH?”
Unfortunately the short answer is that it’s not down to finding the perfect one-stop keyer, whichever one you go for.
Keylight is a top of the range keyer (but needs some experience and knowlededge in order to get really great results) but at the end of the day no off-the-shelf keyer is going to do a perfect job with difficult material straight out of the box.
To be honest, despite a lot of the claims you hear for one keyer or another, working in a nodal compositor is really the only proper answer to getting a first class key, anything else is a compromise of one sort or another. Nodal compositing gives you far more power and accuracy than anything you can achieve in a layer based environment, because a really good key is about a whole chain of different processes rather than just a simple click of a button. If you are interested in this route, I can strongly recommend investigating Conduit – which now has a version for FCPX – and will get you outstanding results, but there is a considerable learning curve.
But one way or another, it’s all really down to taking pains with the individual shot. As I suggested, breaking the shot down into different areas and recombining them is definitely the best way to go in almost every case. Remember that for hair it’s the transparency of the edges that you’re looking for. Don’t worry too much about the bleed-through of unwanted colour from the backing because that’s what the spill suppression is for. The main thing is not to crunch the key too hard for hair – you want grey values, not black and white, hence the need to treat it separately from the rest of the key.
I’d say that with a lot of care you could get reasonable results from the FCPX keyer in most instances, certainly as good as any other instant-fix keyer out there, but only if you adopt the patchwork route I’ve described. Do try to get the absolute best black and white matte before you start playing with any of the other controls though.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com