FCP X JUST RELEASED...

word! I think I might actually buy this one since i got some birthday dollars yesterday

im getting a MAC in 3 weeks and i think i might grab this

I want but can't have :( Silly Pc's.

I dont know how torrents work with software updates, but if you are not update FCP X cuz its a torrent you will be in trouble.

eh bentleys right, fuck torrents. definitely ways around this, i would suggest becoming a member at a place like codez4mac.com and youll be dialed

I have heard mixed reviews on this, have you played around with it yet? for 299 thats a steal

So as a user of final cut studio and having actually bought (although when I did it was half the price on amazon) should I be pissed of that there isn't an upgrade version at a cheaper price?

No.

The there is no upgrade is because its a new program. 

It has been completely redone and is actually called Final Cut Pro X Version 1.  Rather than Final Cut Pro 8. 

FCP X does NOT over write any prior FCP, which is also part  of the reason why there is no upgrade. 

Plus, 299 is cheaper than what the old upgrade prices used to be.  All other parts of the studio still work with X. 

So do you reckon that some time in the future there will be a final cut studio 4?

I have not. 

Unfortunately, I am one of those people with a 3rd generation Mac Pro (2008), which had ATI Radeon 2600 XT graphics cards, which do not support OpenCL.  Therefore, I can not use FCP X until I get a new graphics card.  Pretty angry about this actually.

I anticipate getting it for tons of reasons and I can not wait to buy it (especially to finally get to use my new FS100 footage!). 

Here is a good article that goes over some of the pros and cons and also has a good list of if its right for you...
http://www.larryjordan.biz/goodies/blog.html

Basically Im going to say it will be good for you. 

Well for right now you can get it with the new Motion and Compressor for $400. 

Im not sure if there will ever be a studio again (nor does really anyone know), but I think DVD Studio Pro and Color are pretty "dead."  DVD Studio 5 can still be used and there really just is not anything to upgrade to it, so I do not see them upgrading it anytime soon.  As for color, some of it is built into FCP X.  Soundtrack is the same way. 

I could see Soundtrack and Color making a come back.

If you really need an high end color grader, it looks like you will have to step up to something like Davinci.

Once again, you can still use Color 1.5 though. 

Great Article,

I have read a bunch this morning and that laid it out perfectly. I just got a brand new 27inch imac with 16gb of ram, an i7 processor, and a 1gb graphics card. Might have to make another purchase I guess. Thanks for the info Bentley.

does it require snow leopard?

Your welcome!

ya fuckin nerd bentley. Send me a copy of yours ;)

I am disappoint. FCP X is FCE on steroids. It has some nifty new features, but its lack of various MUCH NEEDED features are a huge downfall. And the fact that it isn't compatible with XML (no Sountrack/Color!!) or multicam make it completely useless for me and many others.

It's pretty much exactly what I expected: a much-needed (mostly) intuitive revamp of entry-level software.

Went with the AMD Radeon HD 6970M 1GB (standard for the higher end imacs) I think you can increase the m to 2gb also. Real excited been running the old black macbook for awhile, should be a nice change.

This is why I am on the fence about it. I have not used it, but I have known these things wouldnt be in for a while.

From another user:

"FCP-X is such a backwards step in so many ways, more ways than it ever stepped forward. There ARE some great features. The colour match worked so well I was amazed. The skimming of clips is nice, the keywording is fantastic, I can see how many people will love the magnetic timeline, but the rest of the App is...well.... not ready for prime time if you do anything other than simple projects.

• No multiclip / Multicam support - so forget multi camera project (see audio sync)

• The audio sync sucks big time. Pluraleyes runs rings around this. Apple what were you thinking? Take one clip from the camera (with surprisingly great audio) and an audio clip from a zoom (also great audio) and sync them please. Hmmm... NOT. OK - we had some success with 'some' clips, but I would say 8 out of 10 tries it failed miserably, and Pluraleyes did all of them first time. It gets worse though. We managed to get some zoom audio to sync with ONE CLIP from each of 3 cameras (Yippeee!) but as soon as we added a second clip from one of the cameras it all fell apart. It's like it's trying to sync everything to the primary video clip's audio and not sync the video (+audio) to the audio only track. Crazy. We ended up with 18 clips stacked on stop of each other all connected. Dumb.

• No timecode support for Canon footage. I know lots of you don't use timecode, but I use timecode on clips to be able to sort through an event shot on multiple cameras in to timecode order in the browser. No such luck here. So, I've now got 800 clips and no way to auto sort them (let alone be ale to create a multiclip sequence of the day as a reference to skim through) to know what order they were shot in. Thanks Apple.

• No way (as far as I can tell) to mute the audio from any given (magnetic) track. So all the audio that comes with each DSLR plays unless you turn it down on each clip individually. I really hope there is a way to do this easily but I just overlooked it. So, you bring in video from DSLRs and Zooms. No way to easily disable all the DSLR audio because there's no track mute.

• The video stabilization may as well not exist. It didn't help one bit - and of course I can't send this clip to Motion 4 because they no longer communicate with each other. Motion 5 is released today but as yet I've not found how that round tripping will work (if at all).

• No XML import/export - so we can't import older projects. C'mon Apple - this is basic stuff! This would at least of given me the opportunity to use pluraleyes to sync stuff.

• No chapter markers any more. Sigh. There are tens of thousands of FCP users that still delivery on DVD every day. It's gone.

I could go on and on. As great as many of the features are, I can't even get to a point of being able to edit the footage I have, because I can't create a multiclip and I can't sync the footage (I could take a couple of weeks out and do it manually I suppose!) and since there is no plug-in architecture in this version there aren't any 3rd party plug-ins (e.g. PluralEyes) that I can have help.

This really isn't Final Cut Pro X, this is iMovie X. Sorry Apple. I want my money back!"


Also, how are you not able to edit 1080p60 in FCP 7? Just conform to 23.98 via Cinematools and edit in a 1080p timeline... I don't see the problem.

This makes me want to sell my laptop and buy a MB pro. I hate fucking vegas not working with AVCHD. Tell me FCP x works with it?

Sorry for DP. but just read and here's what it says "Final Cut Pro natively supports more formats than ever, including AVCHD, H.264 from DSLRs, and a range of professional formats." HELLZ YEAH! Time to sell my laptop!

CS5 did this a while ago

Yeah, but cs5 came out after fcp7 i believe and so adobes newest version had native avchd, but it doesnt really matter cause who the fuck would edit raw avchd files?

shit. debating buying this but im not sure if i want to spend $300...

Yeah, i wish they did 30 day free trial like adobe...


And i agree with the darthvader, avchd raw support is pointless IMO, especially with apple/fcp, prores is so much easier to work with than .mts

same about the trial. I'm gonna hold off because ive been reading that it would be a mistake to waste your money on it. instead, I'm gonna get an opteka slider and tripod legs!

so let me get this straight? they have tried to merge the final cut studio into final cut x(fc,color,sound) but keep motion and compressor?

unfortunately, this is the new pro.

from that article:

"FINAL CUT PRO 7 IS NOT DEAD

To me, this is one of the highlights!

Installing FCP X does not remove FCP 7. So you can take your own sweet time deciding when to make the switch. And, in fact, you can use FCP 7 where it makes sense and FCP X when that is a better choice. For the first time ever, we can have two different versions of FCP on the same system at the same time, without partitioning hard disks and jumping through hoops."

this is a good sign. i cant imagine apple not coming out with a more fcp7-like program in the near future. i really cant see professional editors in hollywood editing on fcpx.

but another question is: what does everybody think of the new motion?

http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/motion/

I've been reading a lot on the apple forums about the issues. Seems like apple really fucked up with this program. This is what they are offering, but there are tools that professional production houses / professionals in general NEED that are not there.

And, they stopped tech support for FCP7... effectively announcing it's demise and this as the new standard? Wow. People are justifiably pissed.

I think it's pretty essential for your software to offer raw support just for the few instances where you need a fast turn around such as a same day piece. When you have the time prores is certainly a better option to work with, but some projects don't always allow for that. I think it's a good move that they finally got onboard with offering some more raw support. I'll still be sticking with the adobe suite for the time being however; I was hoping for a bit more with that release.

I've done plenty of same day pieces transcoding my hvx footage from the raw p2 files to mov files using fcp log and transfer, you do the same thing with avchd footage and fcp. Copy the original file onto your HD and then log and transfer and you have the raw original files and your transcoded .movs and you're ready to go. My 2 cents on that.

If everybody keeps moaning Apple's soon enough going to release a version with all the old much wanted features integrated in FCP X.
They probably already have seen they made a big mistake.

hopefully. It looks like a lot of people are writing in, complaining, and asking for money back.

Dude that is so sick that it is out, please let me know how it is because i might want to get it

I suppose I was thinking in terms of the adobe suite; I haven't really dove into fcp yet. I know I've been given .mts files to work with on a limited timeframe and the fact that I could work with those raw .mts files right in premiere was a time saver for sure. I'm guessing in FCP X you no longer have to go through that log and transfer process and can work with the raw .mts file which again, while being something very rarely needed for most people, saves time when necessary.

I definitely agree with everything that person said. It does seem like a step backwards, but I do still want to try it out I suppose. A lot of the thins that left out do not really effect me too much, since most of my videos are for the internet (so I dont grade on an NTSC monitor), and I hardly ever use multicam. If the audio sync really does suck then that will be a BIG downfall for me. Thats not something I wanted to hear :(.

I agree, It is definitely big to me.

I'm not sure I understand...how does conforming not work? All the source files are slowed down; problem solved.


And honestly, no XML means no support for Color, which makes FCPX completely useless to me. Sure the color controls are improved, but compared to a dedicated program like Color (which is a skeleton copy of DaVinci), FCPX's color abilities are still extremely rudimentary.

The funny thing is, if Apple kept developing FCP and instead called this FCEX, there would be tons of praise. Really this is just FCE on steroids. But instead they just drove away a huge portion of the professional demographic. Promises of updates mean nothing, because that doesn't change the fact that there will be a waiting period.

If I had the time to fully dedicate myself to editing/computers, I would just do away with Macs altogether and just use Avid.

The simple fact that FCP 7 will stay on when you install FCP X means that Apple knew that most people would want to keep FCP 7.

I was stoked on the whole "no rendering" aspect of it, but after reading this, I must say that I'm disappointed.

Im just saying, I do not necessarily always want every shot slowed down to 40% you know? I want some shots at 100% and some slowed down at maybe not quite that slow. I also cant even find a free program that will recognize the MTS 1080p60 files to convert them to ProRes and make them useable on cinema tools. Episode 6 really works nicely with them, but it costs like $500.

Why would you want EVERY single file slowed down? especially to 40%...

hehehehe its out on codez4mac, i got it for free :D

anyone??

bentley answered you, yes it does.

seems pretty weird to me, seems like they added some sickass features but in general it seems like a huge imovie upgrade.. i think ill stick with 7

You wouldn't...why would anyone film everything in 60p? Multiple frame rates were invented for a reason. If you want regular speed, shoot 24. If you want subtle slow motion, shoot 30. If you want full blown slow motion, shoot 60. Shoot the frame rate you want. If it doesn't work out in post, tough nuggets. Get it right next time.

as will i

oh whoops I didnt see that. Well I just ordered snow leopard.

Well, FCP X totally sucks, it is basically an imovie, nothing like final cut at all, so much fucking harder to creative easy cuts