Now you can transcode to 4K ProRes over 3x faster with FCPX

[Andrew Reid]

FCPX vs Premiere is the new PC vs Mac debate isn't it!?

[Andrew Reid]

Results for 4GB 1 min 1D C 4K...

EditReady - 2m18 (ProRes LT)
FCPX - 1m05 (ProRes 422)

However the EditReady file is 2.77GB vs 3.6GB for the FCPX one and it looks slightly nicer, even with the lower bitrate (350Mbit/s vs 450Mbit/s)

I bought it. I like it.

​And another result... EditReady was slower on my Hackintosh, 670 GTX 4GB, arguably more powerful hardware than what's in my 'proper' Macs. The GTX 750 and 775 2GB in my Macbook and iMac seem to do a good job.

[matthewcelia]

I do miss Batch Export in FCPX, but there are some work arounds.

1) You can try using a tool like Clip Exporter (http://www.clipexporter.com)

2) You can set up a custom destination and set it to be the default. This is helpful if you cut several projects (like a series of drum lessons I was doing) and you want to export 15 projects at once. You hit the keyboard shortcut, hit enter - repeat. Agreed, not as elegant.  Then again I could point to things in any other NLE that's not elegant either.

3) Your workaround of using optimized media files is good. Optimized I believe is Prores 422. Be aware that proxy files are actually half resolution scaled up so the quality loss is quite apparent.

 

I'm not surprised it's so fast. Apple has built FCPX to scream on the latest hardware. It's the only app I know that can playback RED footage without a rocket card in real time at a quality good enough to edit with. Even Premiere on my machine requires me to drop down to 1/8 resolution which is pointless because it's so blocky. You are using the tool in a way that it wasn't designed for, so workarounds should be expected. Hopefully Adobe gets their tools to leverage that GPU in the next versions.!

[Steve M.]

With the clip placing tool the magnetic timeline acts like a normal one. Much more sensible now. I'll give it a go.

I need to place clips perfectly in sync to an audio track and the magnetic timeline would knock everything out.

​There's an easy way of placing clips perfectly in synch to an audio track in FCPX. True, if you delete, creating a ripple edit within the magnetic TL you'll have problems. There are a few different techniques with FCPX for doing what you're after. I can only say, IF you were to decide to devote some of your time to just basically exploring FCPX, it would not be a waste to your time. 

[Steve M.]

FCPX vs Premiere is the new PC vs Mac debate isn't it!?

​Yes, in many ways true, but I will state for the record what I post about FCPX isn't a debate, I know what I know, been doing it longer than I care to admit, and I can tell you with confidence, FCPX can hold its own, and in many cases, far exceed any other editing software. Is it perfect, no, but once you wrap your head around it and perhaps look at legacy editing techniques in a COMPLETELY different way, it's hard to beat.

[Cyril Hiard]

I don't have seen which version of premiere you have using for ?

and what about cinemartin on PC ?

Thanks for your help

[Xavier Plagaro Mussard]

The FCP X timeline needs a bit of mental readjusting, but once you learn it, you don't want to come back!!!

[Andrew Reid]

When I drag a clip onto the timeline, is there a way to stop accidentally dragging the in / out points over the clip instead? It's infuriating.

[Andrew Reid]

Ah I see, press X to select entire clip range before dragging. That does it.

Getting used to it... it's not bad actually.

[Axel]

1) Editing on music. i sometimes do little documentary pieces where i pick a song i like and fill the visual part with footage. at the very beginning i throw in the song, drop a clip here, drop a clip there and kinda puzzle the entire thing until there re no more blanks.

 

​Been there, done this. I fully understand what you describe as a horrible experience with FCP X, puzzling together a timeline that way. The direct answer is a secondary storyline (like a second track, or actually a track at all, since the term 'track' implies at least two of them). But apart from that the example is useful for two reasons:

1. In Premiere (or whatever), you 'cut to the music'. Let's assume the music isn't just there to set the mood, you edit a music video for a band where various parts need to be lip-synched. The music is in a track that needs to be and stay integer. You probably lock it, so you don't accidentally overwrite or move it. For clips you tinker above it, angles from a multicam clip (the band's playback in the old warehouse and in the wood) and two or three illustrating storylines, their absolute position on the SMPTE ruler is of no importance.

2. For the sake of the music you try to establish a hierarchy. You (FCP X term:) connect all clips to the music, their positioning is then relative. They are not meant to move accidentally out of synch. To avoid this, you need tracks in Premiere, because rather sooner than later the video clips would collide, overwritten or moved. But you only need the tracks because you are working with a track based NLE.

BTW: I know I sound evangelizing, I apologize. If you like the way your NLE thinks, fine.

2) a-roll & b-roll switch. whats my a-roll? the interview? or the footage of the person at work? right now it might be the interview, but 2 hours later i notice "nah that doesnt make sense" and i wanna change it. damn now i have to switch my main story with the little thingies i attached to it. workaround. with layers i dont attach anything to anything, i can move everything freely. attaching a clip to another feels like i bind it there. hell i dont wanna bind it there. right now i wanna see how it looks right there and next i want a completely new structure. and that takes such a long time in fcpx.

 

​Two sides of the same mountain. You could as well say, all the clips I once considered B-roll are now spread over, say, five tracks. Some of those tracks are almost empty, on others I allowed 'secondary storylines' with their own inserts on a higher track, that also - oh, beware! - contains some titles and other stuff. 

Again, I know what you mean, but that's exactly why I now prefer FCP X where I can at any time change the whole structure completely, because there IS a clear structure of clip contents relating to each other in the first place. 

 

... something else i also hate is how little you can change the ui elements.

​True.

With the clip placing tool the magnetic timeline acts like a normal one. Much more sensible now. I'll give it a go.

​

'p and move' was introduced in 10.0.3, I think, reacting to complaints by 'experienced editors'. It's a tool to counteract the magnetism and almost completely useless. Makes people continue to workaround.

I need to place clips perfectly in sync to an audio track and the magnetic timeline would knock everything out.

​Don't swap clips in your primary or secondary storyline. That's one of the, but also the most intelligent way to 'edit to music':

 

If you want to shove clips around the way you are used to do it in an empty track, rather make them connected clips. That's the whole secret. People are frustrated by the swapping behavior, which is actually only a side-effect of the magnetic timeline, not it's main advantage. You can at any time make primary clips into connected clips (opt+cmd+up) or vice versa (opt+cmd+down). You can at any time create secondary storylines out of selections of connected clips. You can do everything you need. If you stop thinking in tracks!

[Iain Anderson]

The music video is probably the only kind of edit that's harder in FCP X than a traditional timeline, and that's because FCP X makes it easier to deal with "local sync" and a little harder to deal with "timeline sync". I wrote about that here:

http://www.macprovideo.com/hub/final-cut/fcp-x-organising-an-unusual-timeline

The solution for music videos is either to stay on the Position Tool so that nothing ripples, or to make the music your primary storyline and connect everything to that (more detail in the link above).

There are a couple of other commands that might be handy for switching the order of things around. Command-Option-Up to lift a clip from the primary storyline up, replace it with a gap, and connect it instead, might be handy, and Command-Option-Down does the opposite. To swap two connected clips in height only, just drag the lower one up, and hold Shift so it doesn't move in time.

Also worth noting, FCP X's H.264 export uses QuickSync if you use the Faster Encoding option, and can do 5x realtime speeds (20% of runtime) on a modern Mac.

[Axel]

This was a very good article. Wish I had read something like that before I started with FCP X the hard way, trial and error. It looked to me like a bizarre nightmare first, and I put it aside. Before the trial month ended, I bought a training DVD, just in case I had missed the point. I chose the wrong one (of two), the one whose author also provided me with a book on FCP 2.0 a decade earlier. All tutorials lured you to look for workarounds, to restore the good old track routine, as much as possible. 

Today I'd say the guy not only missed the wood for the trees (german phrase), he completely ignored that he stood on a comfortable path.

A year passed, and I saw a guy edit something on a set, with a MBP. The timeline looked insane, dozens of colorful tracks stacked. I made the remark, and he laughed and said, no, it's one track, and it's easy to read. Have a look.

So I started over with 10.0.6. And never rued it.

FCPX vs Premiere is the new PC vs Mac debate isn't it!?

​No. Both are matters of personal preference. One has to accept that. The sharpness of some comments needs to be criticized, because people may feel hurt if you belittle their personal preferences. As i can confirm. I am sick of hearing, oh, you're editing with iMovie Pro, in a patronizing voice.

[Oliver Daniel]

The music video is probably the only kind of edit that's harder in FCP X than a traditional timeline, and that's because FCP X makes it easier to deal with "local sync" and a little harder to deal with "timeline sync". I wrote about that here:

http://www.macprovideo.com/hub/final-cut/fcp-x-organising-an-unusual-timeline

The solution for music videos is either to stay on the Position Tool so that nothing ripples, or to make the music your primary storyline and connect everything to that (more detail in the link above).

There are a couple of other commands that might be handy for switching the order of things around. Command-Option-Up to lift a clip from the primary storyline up, replace it with a gap, and connect it instead, might be handy, and Command-Option-Down does the opposite. To swap two connected clips in height only, just drag the lower one up, and hold Shift so it doesn't move in time.

Also worth noting, FCP X's H.264 export uses QuickSync if you use the Faster Encoding option, and can do 5x realtime speeds (20% of runtime) on a modern Mac.

​I make music videos for a living.

If we are talking traditional music videos, there is no better editor than FCPX. The multi-cam feature is outstanding - it automatically syncs every clip to the audio, then you can edit your clips with the music embedded very fluidly. And you only need one "track". Don't like a certain shot? One click and it's changed for a better one.

If you are putting cutaways into this video, you can simply place a connected clip where it needs to go on top of the multi-cam clip. 

If this is not a multi-cam music video, simply choose your first shot on the main storyline. Then connect the audio underneath. Go along and edit the clips to the track on the magnetic timeline and the audio won't move. Easily swap shots around, trim, choose a different in and out point without ever leaving the timeline. It's very, very fast and intuitive. And the audio won't move out of line. After a while, you realise that track based editing is some ancient dinosaur times and THIS is the future of editing. 

Many people dismissed FCPX - but I don't think those people actually bothered to see what it can do. Learn and marvel. 

[pietz]

Results for 4GB 1 min 1D C 4K...

EditReady - 2m18 (ProRes LT)
FCPX - 1m05 (ProRes 422)

However the EditReady file is 2.77GB vs 3.6GB for the FCPX one and it looks slightly nicer, even with the lower bitrate (350Mbit/s vs 450Mbit/s)

I bought it. I like it.

​"Many other transcoding apps on the market use a reverse engineered implementation of Apple ProRes. By leveraging the official Apple version, EditReady avoids compatibility issues."

i would assume that the results look identical. editready doesnt do any other magic in adjusting the picture. you sure it looks better?

[Steve M.]

Axel way is one way of doing it, or a little modification to that would be to make your primary storyline gap, connect the audio track to the gap at the beginning, connect all your clips to the gap on a secondary TL, arrange them accordingly till you're locked on their position, lasso all secondary clips and over write to primary storyline, make fine adjustments with the precision editor.

[Steve M.]

When I drag a clip onto the timeline, is there a way to stop accidentally dragging the in / out points over the clip instead? It's infuriating.​

Don't drag the clip. Select clip, hit the E key, or Q key, or W key or......

[Axel]

Axel way is one way of doing it, or a little modification to that would be to make your primary storyline gap, connect the audio track to the gap at the beginning, connect all your clips to the gap on a secondary TL, arrange them accordingly till you're locked on their position, lasso all secondary clips and over write to primary storyline, make fine adjustments with the precision editor.

​Perfect, like Oliver described. You still have the possibility to trim (Larry Jordans reason to create a secondary storyline) and it's easier. There is no right or wrong way to edit. There is no need to create a multicam-clip in the event browser, you can as well synch clips directly in the timeline (saw it in a tutorial somewhere, but didn't test it myself, and it's been a while since my last music video). With FCP X, you find new tricks every day. I bet, I don't use 50% of what the app is capable of. 

To avoid misunderstandings: There is no gap in FCP Xs primary storyline, there can only be slugs (black clips, placeholders). So you connect the music to a black clip at the beginning.

[Steve M.]

That's correct. So you're either going to place a clip, or gap or placeholder in the PRIMARY storyline. FCPX will create gap in some instances, an example, if you shift delete a clip, the TL will not ripple and FCPX will create gap in place of that deleted clip.  Think of gap as control track, so-to-speak, for those of you old enough to know what that is, FCPX in the PRIMARY storyline needs control track, either from a clip or gap. If you just select a clip and hit delete, FCPX will ripple delete that to maintain that control track. Secondary storyline works differently, in that all secondary clips connect to the primary SL, no matter how high you stack them. You could have 50 clips stacked on top of each other and they all individually connect to the primary SL. Secondary SL has no control track, UNLESS you create it by lassoing a bunch of clips, then create storyline, putting those in what's called a shelf. A bunch of clips within a shelf will create only one connection stem for the entire group. That now will act just like the Primary SL. You could, in essence, work with FCPX just like FCP7 with a track like setup. Some editors edit everything on the secondary SL connected to gap in the primary, then overwrite to the primary.

There is no need to create a multicam clip, however, I would highly suggest doing that if you're working on say a music video that was shot with multiple cameras rolling simultaneously. FCPX will synch all those clips for you, there's no need to manually synch those yourself, unless of course you want to. FCPX multicam editing feature is perhaps one of it's strengths, in that it is so easy to use as compared to legacy FCP.

Sorry for the book length post!

[indianajones]

Regarding a possible reason why Canon may have split the files at 4GB...

I wrote one of the earliest MJPEG video recorder and player apps in the early '90s, and I always had to split my files at 1GB even though the file system could handle more - because other players couldn't handle the larger file sizes. It's possible Canon faced a similar threshold when they wrote their firmware. I don't work for Canon, but I'm just saying there are often other limiting factors besides the file system.

[sunyata]

Hey Steve, or anyone that can answer this, it's been a long time since I used FCP and I was wondering if there are changes with searchable markers or "cues" to a clip. Say I have 4 dailies that are 4+ minutes each. I need to assign meaningful cues that can be searched later, like "betty_outdoor_gun". Can I do this in FCPX w/o cutting the clip into subclips first? In Lightworks for example, I can assign cues as I preview a clip, I name them and when done, export a spread sheet with those names/timecodes for editorial or someone else to use as a reference. Then a search for a term like "betty", "outdoor", or "gun" will get a list of those returns, delimiters ignored, so all "outdoor" shots or all shots of "Betty" etc. This was worth the $25 per month fee! We often have multi level approvals where someone at the last minute will ask for a shot in a specific context and unless you have a photographic memory, you need to scrub through miles of footage.