The 2024 DIY Final Cut Studio

A decade ago I wrote about the wider collection of apps that you might need as part of a broader Final Cut Pro-centric ecosystem. But it’s time for an updated look. In the waning years of Final Cut Pro “legacy” the Apple pro applications were bundled as Final Cut Studio. With the introduction of Final Cut Pro X, you had a lower cost app, but had to augment it with the missing pieces that were appropriate for more involved workflows.

Some are fans of Final Cut Pro as their main NLE. Others use it because it’s an alternative to subscription plans. Adobe Creative Cloud is the most comprehensive of these, so let’s look at what it would take to replace that level of functionality in a modern Final Cut Pro bundle.

Core Applications

To start, combine all of the Apple pro applications, including Final Cut Pro, Motion, Compressor, and Logic Pro. This covers you for editing, motion graphics, compression/encoding, and audio recording and mixing. Granted, the last one is optional for most video editors, but this lines up as an alternative to Adobe Audition – and a much better one at that. Since Compressor will not encode certain formats, I would also suggest adding Shutter Encoder (donation requested) to your video toolkit.

Photo / graphics

Apple has conceded graphic design applications to Adobe and others. But if you want to avoid subscriptions, then Pixelmator and Affinity (now owned by Canva) are the two best options for graphics and design. Affinity Photo, Designer, and Publisher form equivalents to Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and In Design. Pixelmator Pro isn’t as broad; however, it supports both raster and vector graphics.

Unfortunately, Apple dropped its popular Aperture application in favor of Photos. This is a lightweight mashup of Aperture and iPhoto. While it’s deceptively more full-featured than you might think at first glance, a good upgrade is Photomator from the folks at Pixelmator. There are certainly other options, but these two companies fit well into the Apple ecosystem.

Interoperability / augmentation 

Speech-to-text is an exciting and valuable new area for editors and a must-have for many editorial workflows. Final Cut Pro lags behind Premiere Pro and Resolve in this area, so – third-party apps to the rescue. A good option is the free Jojo Transcribe. Use this to generate text, which can then be brought into Final Cut Pro for captioning.

If you need to interchange editorial files with other shops that use different applications, then you will need to translate the editorial files from and into list formats not supported by Final Cut Pro. This includes interchange between FCP and Premiere Pro, as well as sending to Pro Tools. While you might only need some of these, the following interchange apps cover the bases: XtoCC, SendToX, EDL-X, Worx4 X, X2Pro Audio Convert, and Xsend Motion. The latter sends an FCP timeline to Motion as a Motion timeline and is available via FxFactory. The others can be bought from the Mac App Store.

Plugins

You can go crazy with plugins, so be judicious with your selections. FCP includes a lot of useful video effects and transitions from the get-go. If you own Motion, you can export Motion’s stock effects or your own, unique creations as Motion template effects and transitions. These will then augment the standard FCP load. For outside options, I like to stick with the same company for consistency, like CoreMelt, Boris FX, MotionVFX, or FxFactory. The free FxFactory installation comes with a few effects, or bump that up to Pro for more. This also operates as a plugin manager where you can purchase any additional FxFactory effects that fit your needs or that of a new project.

Aside from these selections, I would also recommend the free Boris FX BCC+ Looks filter. Boris FX offers many great tools, but BCC+ Looks a good starting point. If you need more color correction horsepower, then my choice would be Color Finale 2. It’s designed specifically for Final Cut Pro and operates as a high-end grading tool. Another useful add-on for film stock looks and effects in FilmConvert Nitrate.

As far as audio plugins are concerned, there are many great options for Logic Pro if you need more than the comprehensive selection that it comes with. However, be careful in using these within Final Cut Pro. They will show up, but many either don’t work correctly or not at all. Plus FCP does not use a track-based timeline, so it’s not really conducive for advanced mixing with a multitude of tracks. On the other hand, FxFactory offers three audio clean-up/restoration effects from Accentize, which are better than FCP’s stock enhancement and work well within this video application.

To wrap it up, you could dive in deep and get everything on this list. If you do, then you’ll have a toolkit that’s comparable to Adobe Creative Cloud in most aspects. Many of these are available through the Mac App Store. Some are even free. It will cost more on the front end than simply purchasing Final Cut Pro alone. However, over the course of one or two years, it will prove to be the cheaper option than the cumulative subscription fees of other companies, like Adobe. This is even more true if you own multiple machines on the same Apple ID. Last but not least, don’t forget DaVinci Resolve. While it’s certainly a viable option to much of this list on its own, the free version is a good item for the kit to augment FCP. Even if you don’t edit with it, Resolve is useful for batch transcoding, and of course, color correction. It’s available from the Blackmagic Design website or the Mac App Store.

Have fun building your 2024 DIY Final Cut Studio!

©2024 Oliver Peters

The NLE that wouldn’t die II

With echoes of Monty Python in the background, two years on, Final Cut Pro 7 and Final Cut Studio are still widely in use. As I noted in my post from last November, I still see facilities with firmly entrenched and mature FCP “legacy” workflows that haven’t moved to another NLE yet. Some were ready to move to Adobe until they learned subscription was the only choice going forward. Others maintain a fanboy’s faith in Apple that the next version will somehow fix all the things they dislike about Final Cut Pro X. Others simply haven’t found the alternative solutions compelling enough to shift.

I’ve been cutting all manner of projects in FCP X since the beginning and am currently using it on a feature film. I augment it in lots of ways with plug-ins and utilities, so I’m about as deep into FCP X workflows as anyone out there. Yet, there are very few projects in which I don’t touch some aspect of Final Cut Studio to help get the job done. Some fueled by need, some by personal preference. Here are some ways that Studio can still work for you as a suite of applications to fill in the gaps.

DVD creation

There are no more version updates to Apple’s (or Adobe’s) DVD creation tools. FCP X and Compressor can author simple “one-off” discs using their export/share/batch functions. However, if you need a more advanced, authored DVD with branched menus and assets, DVD Studio Pro (as well is Adobe Encore CS6) is still a very viable tool, assuming you already own Final Cut Studio. For me, the need to do this has been reduced, but not completely gone.

Batch export

Final Cut Pro X has no batch export function for source clips. This is something I find immensely helpful. For example, many editorial houses specify that their production company client supply edit-friendly “dailies” – especially when final color correction and finishing will be done by another facility or artist/editor/colorist. This is a throwback to film workflows and is most often the case with RED and ALEXA productions. Certainly a lot of the same processes can be done with DaVinci Resolve, but it’s simply faster and easier with FCP 7.

In the case of ALEXA, a lot of editors prefer to do their offline edit with LUT-corrected, Rec 709 images, instead of the flat, Log-C ProRes 4444 files that come straight from the camera. With FCP 7, simply import the camera files, add a LUT filter like the one from Nick Shaw (Antler Post), enable TC burn-in if you like and run a batch export in the codec of your choice. When I do this, I usually end up with a set of Rec 709 color, ProResLT files with burn-in that I can use to edit with. Since the file name, reel ID and timecode are identical to the camera masters, I can easily edit with the “dailies” and then relink to the camera masters for color correction and finishing. This works well in Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Apple FCP 7 and even FCP X.

Timecode and reel IDs

When I work with files from the various HDSLRs, I prefer to convert them to ProRes (or DNxHD), add timecode and reel ID info. In my eyes, this makes the file professional video media that’s much more easily dealt with throughout the rest of the post pipeline. I have a specific routine for doing this, but when some of these steps fail, due to some file error, I find that FCP 7 is a good back-up utility. From inside FCP 7, you can easily add reel IDs and also modify or add timecode. This metadata is embedded into the actual media file and readable by other applications.

Log and Transfer

Yes, I know that you can import and optimize (transcode) camera files in FCP X. I just don’t like the way it does it. The FCP 7 Log and Transfer module allows the editor to set several naming preferences upon ingest. This includes custom names and reel IDs. That metadata is then embedded directly into the QuickTime movie created by the Log and Transfer module. FCP X doesn’t embed name and ID changes into the media file, but rather into its own database. Subsequently this information is not transportable by simply reading the media file within another application. As a result, when I work with media from a C300, for example, my first step is still Log and Transfer in FCP 7, before I start editing in FCP X.

Conform and reverse telecine

A lot of cameras offer the ability to shoot at higher frame rates with the intent of playing this at a slower frame rate for a slow motion effect – “overcranking” in film terms. Advanced cameras like the ALEXA, RED One, EPIC and Canon C300 write a timebase reference into the file that tells the NLE that a file recorded at 60fps is to be played at 23.98fps. This is not true of HDSLRs, like a Canon 5D, 7D or a GoPro. You have to tell the NLE what to do. FCP X only does this though its Retime effect, which means you are telling the file to be played as slomo, thus requiring a render.

I prefer to use Cinema Tools to “conform” the file. This alters the file header information of the QuickTime file, so that any application will play it at the conformed, rather than recorded frame rate. The process is nearly instant and when imported into FCP X, the application simply plays it at the slower speed – no rendering required. Just like with an ALEXA or RED.

Another function of Cinema Tools is reverse telecine. If a camera file was recorded with built-in “pulldown” – sometimes called 24-over-60 – additional redundant video fields are added to the file. You want to remove these if you are editing in a native 24p project. Cinema Tools will let you do this and in the process render a new, 24p-native file.

Color correction

I really like the built-in and third-party color correction tools for Final Cut Pro X. I also like Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve, but there are times when Apple Color is still the best tool for the job. I prefer its user interface to Resolve, especially when working with dual displays and if you use an AJA capture/monitoring product, Resolve is a non-starter. For me, Color is the best choice when I get a color correction project from outside where the editor used FCP 7 to cut. I’ve also done some jobs in X and then gone to Color via Xto7 and then FCP 7. It may sound a little convoluted, but is pretty painless and the results speak for themselves.

Audio mixing

I do minimal mixing in X. It’s fine for simple mixes, but for me, a track-based application is the only way to go. I do have X2Pro Audio Convert, but many of the out-of-house ProTools mixers I work with prefer to receive OMFs rather than AAFs. This means going to FCP 7 first and then generating an OMF from within FCP 7. This has the added advantage that I can proof the timeline for errors first. That’s something you can’t do if you are generating an AAF without any way to open and inspect it. FCP X has a tendency to include many clips that are muted and usually out of your way inside X. By going to FCP 7 first, you have a chance to clean up the timeline before the mixer gets it.

Any complex projects that I mix myself are done in Adobe Audition or Soundtrack Pro. I can get to Audition via the XML route – or I can go to Soundtrack Pro through XML and FCP 7 with its “send to” function. Either application works for me and most of my third-party plug-ins show up in each. Plus they both have a healthy set of their own built-in filters. When I’m done, simply export the mix (and/or stems) and import the track back into FCP X to marry it to the picture.

Project trimming

Final Cut Pro X has no media management function.  You can copy/move/aggregate all of the media from a single Project (timeline) into a new Event, but these files are the source clips at full length. There is no ability to create a new project with trimmed or consolidated media. That’s when source files from a timeline are shortened to only include the portion that was cut into the sequence, plus user-defined “handles” (an extra few frames or seconds at the beginning and end of the clip). Trimmed, media-managed projects are often required when sending your edited sequence to an outside color correction facility. It’s also a great way to archive the “unflattened” final sequence of your production, while still leaving some wiggle room for future trimming adjustments. The sequence is editable and you still have the ability to slip, slide or change cuts by a few frames.

I ran into this problem the other day, where I needed to take a production home for further work. It was a series of commercials cut in FCP X, from which I had recut four spots as director’s cuts. The edit was locked, but I wanted to finish the mix and grade at home. No problem, I thought. Simply duplicate the project with “used media”, create the new Event and “organize” (copies media into the new Event folder). I could live with the fact that the media was full length, but there was one rub. Since I had originally edited the series of commercials using Compound Clips for selected takes, the duping process brought over all of these Compounds – even though none was actually used in the edit of the four director’s cuts. This would have resulted in copying nearly two-thirds of the total source media. I could not remove the Compounds from the copied Event, without also removing them from the original, which I didn’t want to do.

The solution was to send the sequence of four spots to FCP 7 and then media manage that timeline into a trimmed project. The difference was 12GB of trimmed source clips instead of HUNDREDS of GB. At home, I then sent the audio to Soundtrack Pro for a mix and the picture back to FCP X for color correction. Connect the mix back to the primary storyline in FCP X and call it done!

I realize that some of this may sound a bit complex to some readers, but professional workflows are all about having a good toolkit and knowing how to use it. FCP X is a great tool for productions that can work within its walls, but if you still own Final Cut Studio, there are a lot more options at your disposal. Why not continue to use them?

©2013 Oliver Peters

The NLE that wouldn’t die

It’s been 18 months since Apple launched Final Cut Pro X and the debate over it continues to rage without let-up. Apple likely has good sales numbers to deem it a success, but if you look around the professional world, with a few exceptions, there has been little or no adoption. Yes, some editors are dabbling with it to see where Apple is headed with it – and yes, some independent editors are using it for demanding projects, including commercials, corporate videos and TV shows. By comparison, though, look at what facilities and broadcasters are using – or what skills are required for job openings – and you’ll see a general scarceness of FCP X.

Let’s compare this to the launch of the original Final Cut Pro (or “legacy”) over 12 years ago. In a similar fashion, FCP was the stealth tool that attracted individual users. The obvious benefit was price. At that time a fully decked out Avid Media Composer was a turnkey system costing over $100K. FCP was available as software for only $999. Of course, what gets lost in that measure, is the Avid price included computer, monitors, wiring, broadcast i/o hardware and storage. All of this would have to be added to the FCP side and in some cases, wasn’t even possible with FCP. In the beginning it was limited to DV and FireWire only. But there were some key advantages it introduced at the start, over Avid systems. These included blend modes, easy in-timeline editing, After Effects-style effects and a media architecture built upon the open, extensible and ubiquitous QuickTime foundation. Over the years, a lot was added to make FCP a powerful system, but at its core, all the building blocks were in place from the beginning.

When uncompressed SD and next HD became the must-have items, Avid was slow to respond. Apple’s partners were able to take advantage of the hardware abstraction layer to add codecs and drivers, which expanded FCP’s capabilities. Vendors like Digital Voodoo, Aurora Video Systems and Pinnacle made it possible to edit something other than DV. Users have them to thank – more so than Apple – for growing FCP into a professional tool. When FCP 5 and 6 rolled around, the Final Cut world was pretty set, with major markets set to shift to FCP as the dominant NLE. HD, color correction and XML interchange had all been added and the package was expanded with an ecosystem of surrounding applications. By the time of the launch of the last Final Cut Studio (FCP 7) in 2009, Apple’s NLE seemed unstoppable. Unfortunately FCP 7 wasn’t as feature-packed as many had expected. Along with reticence to chuck recently purchased PowerMac G5 computers, a number of owners simply stayed with FCP 5 and/or FCP 6.

When Apple discusses the number of licensees, you have to parse how they define the actual purchases. While there are undoubtedly plenty of FCP X owners, the interpretation of sales is that more seats of FCP X have been sold than of FCP 7. Unfortunately it’s hard to know what that really means. Since it’s a comparison to FCP 7 – and not every FCP 1-6 owner upgraded to 7 – it could very well be that the X number isn’t all that large. Even though Apple EOL’ed (end of life) Final Cut Studio with the launch of FCP X, it continued to sell new seats of the software through its direct sales and reseller channels. In fact, Apple seems to still have it available if you call the correct 800 line. When Apple says it has sold more of X than of 7, is it counting the total sales (including those made after the launch) or only before? An interesting statistic would be the number of seats of Final Cut Studio (FCP 7) sold since the launch of FCP X as compared to before. We’ll never know, but it might actually be a larger number. All I know is that the system integrators I personally know, who have a long history of selling and servicing FCP-based editing suites, continue to install NEW FCP 7 rooms!

Like most drastic product changes, once you get over the shock of the new version, you quickly realize that your old version didn’t instantly stop working the day the new version launched. In the case of FCP 7, it continues to be a workhorse, albeit the 32-bit architecture is pretty creaky. Toss a lot of ProRes 4444 at it and you are in for a painful experience. There has been a lot of dissatisfaction with FCP X among facility owners, because it simply changes much of the existing workflows. There are additional apps and utilities to fill the gap, but many of these constitute workarounds compared to what could be done inside FCP 7.

Many owners have looked at alternatives. These include Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer/Symphony, Media 100 and Autodesk Smoke 2013. If they are so irritated at Apple as to move over to Windows hardware, then the possibilities expand to include Avid DS, Grass Valley Edius and Sony Vegas. Several of these manufacturers have introduced cross-grade promotional deals to entice FCP “legacy” owners to make the switch. Avid and Adobe have benefited the most in this transition. Editors who were happy with Avid in the past – or work in a market where Avid dominates – have migrated back to Media Composer. Editors who were hoping for the hypothetical FCP 8 are often making Adobe Premiere (and the Production Premium bundle) their next NLE of choice. But ironically, many owners and users are simply doing nothing and continuing with FCP 7 or even upgrading from FCP 6 to FCP 7.

Why is it that FCP 7 isn’t already long gone or on the way out by now? Obviously the fact that change comes slowly is one answer, but I believe it’s more than that. When FCP 1.0 came on the scene, its interface and operational methodology fit into the existing NLE designs. It was like a “baby Avid” with parts of Media 100 and After Effects dropped in. If you cut on a Media Composer, the transition to FCP was pretty simple. Working with QuickTime made it easy to run on most personal machines without extra hardware.  Because of its relatively open nature and reliance in industry-standard interchange formats (many of which were added over time), FCP could easily swap data with other applications using EDLs, OMFs, text-based log files and XML. Facilities built workflows around these capabilities.

FCP X, on the other hand, introduced a completely new editing paradigm that not only changed how you work, but even the accepted nomenclature of editing. Furthermore, the UI design even did things like reverse the behavior of some keystrokes from how similar functions had been triggered in FCP 7. In short, forget everything you know about editing or using other editing software if you want to become proficient with FCP X. That’s a viable concept for students who may be the professional editors of the future. Or, for non-fulltime editors who occasionally have to edit and finish professional-level productions as one small part of their job. Unfortunately, it’s not a good approach if you want to make FCP X the ubiquitous NLE in established professional video environments, like post houses, broadcasters and large enterprise users.

After all, if I’m a facility manager and you can’t show me a compelling reason why this is better and why it won’t require a complete internal upheaval, then why should I change? In most shops, overall workflow is far more important than the specific features of any individual application. Gone are the differences in cost, so it’s difficult to make a compelling argument based on ROI. You can no longer make the (false) argument of 1999 that FCP will only cost you 1% of the cost of an Avid. Or use the bogus $50K edit suite ad that followed a few years later.

Which brings us to the present. I started on Avid systems as the first NLE where I was in the driver’s seat. I’ve literally cut on dozens of edit systems, but for me, Final Cut Pro “legacy” fit my style and preferences best. I would have loved a 64-bit version with a cleaned-up user interface, but that’s not what FCP X delivers. It’s also not exactly where Premiere Pro CS6 is today. I deal with projects from the outside – either sent to me or at shops where I freelance. Apple FCP 7 and Avid Media Composer continue to be what I run into and what is requested.

Over the past few months I’ve done quite a few complex jobs on FCP X, when I’ve had the ability to control the decision. Yet, I cannot get through any complex workflow without touching parts of Final Cut Studio (“legacy”) to get the job done. FCP X seems to excel at small projects where speed trumps precision and interoperability. It’s also great for individual owner-operators who intend to do everything inside FCP X. But for complex projects with integrated workflows, FCP 7 is still decidedly better.

As was the case with early FCP, where most of the editing design was there at the start, I now feel that with the FCP X 10.0.6 update, most of its editing design is also in place. It may never become the tool that marches on to dominate the market. FCP “legacy” had that chance and Apple walked away from it. It’s dubious that lightning will strike twice, but 18 months is simply too short of a timeframe in which to say anything that definitive. All I know is that for now, FCP 7 continues as the preferred NLE for many, with Media Composer a close second. Most editors, like old dogs, aren’t too eager to learn new tricks. At least that’s what I conclude, based on my own ear-to-the-ground analysis. Check back this time next year to see if that’s still the case. For now, I see the industry continuing to live in a very fractured, multi-NLE environment.

©2012 Oliver Peters

Final Cut Pro X roundtrips

XML (eXtensible Markup Language) has become a common method of data interchange between post production applications. Standard XML variations are like Romance languages – one version is as different from another, as German is from French; thus, translation software is required. Apple’s Final Cut Pro X was updated to include XML interchange, but this new version of XML (labeled FCP XML) is completely different from the XML format used in FCP 7. Stretching the language analogy, FCP 7’s XML is as different from FCP X’s XML as English is from Russian.

The underlying editing structure of Final Cut Pro 7 is based on the relationship of clips against time and tracks. FCP X links one object to another in a trackless parent-child connection, so there is no easy and direct translation of complex projects between the two versions. Some interchange between Final Cut Pro X and 7 has been achieved by CatDV, DaVinci Resolve and Assisted Editing’s Xto7 for Final Cut Pro and 7toX for Final Cut Pro . These offer migration of edited sequences when you stay within the parameters that FCP XML currently exposes to developers. I’ll concentrate on Resolve, Xto7 and 7toX – as these have the most direct application for editors.

Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve

DaVinci Resolve offers an exchange in both directions between Resolve and Final Cut Pro 7 or X. (It also allows Avid roundtrips using AAF and MXF media.) This is intended as a color-correction roundtrip, so you can go from FCP 7 or FCP X to Resolve and back; but, you can also go from X to Resolve to 7 and the other way around. (Note: With the FCP X 10.0.3 update, you will also need to update your version of Resolve, as the XML format was also enhanced with this release.)  For this article, let’s stick with Resolve’s position as a professional grading tool that can augment FCP X.

1. Start by cutting your project in FCP X. Avoid compound clips and speed ramps and remember that effects are not passed through FCP XML at this time. Highlight the project in the project browser and export an FCP XML file.

2. Launch DaVinci Resolve and make sure Media Storage includes the location of your source media files. Import the FCP XML file, which will link to these clips. Check your configuration settings to make sure the frame rate matches. I have noticed that 23.98 sequences are often identified as 24fps. Reset these to 23.98. Proceed to color grade the timeline.

3. Open the Render module and select FCP XML roundtrip from the Easy Set-up pulldown menu and assign the handle length. Individual new clips with modified file names will be rendered to an assigned folder, using Resolve’s source-mode rendering. These correspond to the timeline.

4. From the Conform tab, export an FCP X XML file.

5. Return to Final Cut Pro X and import the FCP XML file from Resolve. The graded clips will automatically be imported into a new Event and this will complete the roundtrip. The new, imported project will be video-only. As a safe step, I recommend that you copy-and-paste all of the clips from this project (the “from Resolve” timeline) into a new, fresh project.

6. Take the audio mix from the original (before Resolve) project – using either a mixdown or a compound clip – and edit it as a connected clip to the new timeline containing the graded clips. Lastly, re-apply any effects, such as transforms, crops, filters, speed ramps or stabilization.

Assisted Editing Xto7 for Final Cut  Pro / 7toX for Final Cut Pro

When Final Cut Pro X was launched, the biggest shock was the fact that you couldn’t migrate sequences from previous versions into the new application. Intelligent Assistance / Assisted Editing developed two translation apps as conduits between the two formats of XML. Xto7 for Final Cut Pro translates sequences (Projects) from FCP X to FCP 7, whereas 7toX for Final Cut Pro translates complete projects, bins and/or sequences from FCP 7 to FCP X. Both are available on the Mac App Store, but check the info on the Intelligent Assistance website for limitations and restrictions in what comes across in these translations.

First, let’s look at Xto7. At first blush, one might ask, “What good is going from FCP X to FCP 7?”  In reality, it’s a very useful tool, because it empowers FCP X users with a whole range of post production solutions. FCP X is a closed application that as yet offers none of the versatility of Final Cut Studio (FCP 7) or Adobe Creative Suite. With Xto7, an editor can perform the creative cut in FCP X and then use Color, Soundtrack Pro, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Audition, ProTools, Smoke and other applications for finishing. In fact, since Automatic Duck has made its plug-ins available for free, this path also enables an editor to move from FCP X to Avid Media Composer by way of FCP 7 and Automatic Duck Pro Export FCP.

1. Start in FCP X. Cut your project, but avoid a few known issues, like speed ramps and compound clips. (Check with Assisted Editing for more specifics.) Also, don’t apply effects, as they won’t translate. Highlight the project in the project browser and export an FCP XML file.

2. Launch Xto7 and navigate to the FCP XML file.

3. You have two choices: Send to Final Cut Pro 7 or Save Sequence XML. The first option opens the timeline as a new FCP 7 project. The second saves an XML file that can later be imported into FCP 7, but also Adobe Premiere Pro or Autodesk Smoke.

4. Once inside FCP 7, you have access to all the usual effect filters and roundtrip tools. This includes creating an EDL for grading or an OMF file for a Pro Tools mixer. Or sending to Color for a grading roundtrip or to Soundtrack Pro for a mix. Likewise, if you opened the XML into Premiere Pro, you could send the audio to Audition for a mix or to After Effects for effects, grading and compositing using Dynamic Link.

If you want to got in the other direction, from legacy Final Cut projects or sequences to Final Cut Pro X, then 7toX for Final Cut Pro is the tool to use. Again, check the website for translation limitations.

1. Open your project in FCP 7 and make sure your media all properly connects.

2. Highlight the project, bin or sequence you’d like to export. Then export an XML file.

3. Launch 7toX and select the exported XML file to open. Then choose the option to “open in FCP X”.

FCP X will launch, import the items into a new Event and relink to the media. Edited FCP 7 sequences will show up in the Event as a Compound clip and will be located in a Keyword Collection labeled FCP 7 Sequences.

None of these processes is perfect yet, but these are just some examples of how a new ecosystem is growing up around Apple Final Cut Pro X. This controversial editing tool may not be right for everyone, but solutions like DaVinci Resolve and Xto7 / 7toX for Final Cut Pro mean you aren’t stranded on an island.

Written for DV magazine (NewBay Media LLC)

©2012 Oliver Peters

Improving FCP X

A short while ago I started a thread at Creative COW entitled, “What would it take?” My premise is that Final Cut Pro X has enough tantalizing advantages that many “pro users” (whatever that means) would adopt it, if only it had a few extra features. I’m not talking about turning it into FCP 8. I think that’s pretty unrealistic and I believe Apple is going in a different direction. The point is that there are a number of elements that could be added and stay within the FCP X paradigm, which would quell some of the complaints. The thread sparked some interesting suggestions, but here are a few of mine in no particular order of priority.

1. Make audio trimming and transitions as easy as and comparable to video trimming. Currently audio seems to take a back seat to video editing when it comes to trims and transitions.

2. Add “open in Motion” or “send to Motion” functions for clips. Motion 5 is quite powerful and it fills in many gaps that exist in FCP X. For example, drawing mattes. A “send to” roundtrip function would help.

3. Either add track-based mixing or add a “send to Logic” function. I feel audio without tracks is a pretty tough way to mix. Assuming the next version of Logic isn’t as drastic of a change as FCP 7 to FCP X, then it would be nice to offer the option of sending your FCP X project audio to Logic for mixing.

4. Add modifiers to give you some user-defined control over the magnetic timeline. More than just the position tool. Time to tame the magnetic timeline.

5. Add user-defined controls for more track-like behavior. Such as expanded use/behavior of additional storylines. I’m not sure what form this would take, but the desire is to get the best of both worlds.

6. Add a “save as” function.

7. Add event/project management to open/hide projects and media. This exists in Assisted Editing’s Event Manager X, but it should be a direct function within FCP X.

8. Add a choice to not see the event thumbnail/filmstrip when you click on it. Even in list view, when you click on an event clip it is refreshed in the single visible filmstrip at the top. This slows down the response of the system. I’d like to see a true list-only view for faster response when I’m entering data.

9. Remember clip in/out points.

10. Add some user control over window layouts. FCP 7’s workspace customization was great and it’s a shame we lost it.

11. Add some way to see a second window as a source/record (2-up) view.

12. Bring back copy/paste/remove attributes.

13. Bring back the equivalent to the Track Tool.

14. Import legacy FCP sequences. I realize some third-party developer will likely create an XML to FCP XML translator, but it sure would make sense if Apple solved this issue. Even if it means only a simple sequence without effects, speed ramps or audio levels.

©2011 Oliver Peters