I don't get why the guy showing the difference between FCP X and Premiere used CTRL shortcut. Ctrl is for insert within the timeline. Ctrl + Alt is for changing the order of shots. It just wasn't fair ;)
True!! I thought there was something wrong there! It's the same way non-FCPX users treat FCPX when describing how bad it is though: little to no knowledge. So I'm not gonna complain :D
And I agree, if you were coming from iMovie how this would be an easy transition. Problem was, most were coming from Final Cut Pro 7, like me, and that's why they went to Premiere. Apple really dropped the ball on the release of X
My problem with the magnetic timeline was never that I didn't understand what it was doing. I totally understood it. I just didn't like it, because I don't want my timeline moving around on me like that. I prefer the more stable feeling of the timeline staying put unless I specifically move things. Sometimes I want gaps to remain when I move something. Gaps can be useful as placeholders. If I remove a shot with the intention of replacing it with another one, I want that space to remain while I go grab the other clip. I don't want it automatically closing, losing the correct amount of space in which to place the new clip, and then having to shove the new clip in there and maybe it's a different length, etc... And also, sometimes you just want gaps. Like if it's a timeline that you're using for raw footage to copy and paste from into the edit timeline... you want to be able to chop up the clips and separate them and stuff... I don't want them automatically snapping together. I want some breathing room between them, so to speak. With a magnetic timeline, I'd have to take the extra step of throwing slugs or black video in between any clips I want to keep separated. On a regular timeline, things just feel much more natural and stable and calm and in my control. A magnetic timeline feels relatively out of my control, and anxiety-inducing to me. It just makes things feel more messy and "in-play" rather than being concretely where I put it, IMO. Like I'd be constantly having to check the rest of the timeline after each and every edit "Wait, did anything happen I didn't want to? Did it mess up anything? Is the music track still synced..." And I'm sure that it always is or at least usually always is... but it would still give me that feeling. And if it did happen that I came across something that got messed up at some point... I would feel like I had no idea when or how it happened. With every edit I do affecting everything after it magnetically, every single action I do now becomes fraught with the possibility of messing up the rest of the timeline, so discovering something that got messed up during one of those edits now becomes a game of "Ok, which of the past 3000 actions I did actually caused this?" Whereas if things only move when I specifically move them, the chances of me noticing a mess up are going to be significantly higher because my attention is actually being paid to each and every move. Less chance my timeline getting messed up without me being aware. The metaphor of it being like editing on a slope is quite apt. It IS like editing uphill. I don't want to be editing uphill. I like a nice flat, stable surface to edit on, please.
No, I haven't used Final Cut X enough to ever learn these types of workarounds, but even if I did, I think I'd still prefer it the normal way. I don't have to press shift to make what I want to have happen. The times when I want the gap to stay greatly outnumber the times when I want the gap to close. Maybe this is just a difference in how I edit, which is fairly linear. I tend to start the beginning and edit through to the end. So the only time I start getting into edit within an already laid out timeline is just for fine editing, and even then, I'd usually prefer a gap to stay, and then close it when I want to. Closing a gap in Premiere is pretty damn easy. You just highlight the gap and press delete. I prefer to have to do that manually than to have to do the opposite manually, because the gap staying open on it's own feels more natural and reliable to me. I delete a clip, I naturally want the gap to remain. Closing the gap feels natural as being an action that I have to do myself. To have it happen automatically feels like the program assuming something that I don't necessarily want to have assumed. Too much automation can sometimes be more annoying than helpful. It's hard to explain my feelings about this, I guess, but it's just one of those things that comes down to how you feel about it. And judging about the reaction to the magnetic timeline and how Premiere has kinda become more of the standard (at least in my circle of filmmaking friends and colleagues) ever since Final Cut X came out. Most people prefer a stable timeline that feels in their control rather than a program doing thing automatically, which inherently tends to feel more consumer-oriented than professional-oriented. Professionals tends to like having more control and stability over convenience and automation. When it comes to under-the-hood type of stuff, by all means, automate away and make all that stuff more convenient. Background rendering, autosaving, etc, is all stuff that we want and want to improve, and Final Cut X was in fact a big leap forward for FCP/Apple in that regard. The better stabilizer, the multi-format timeline, etc, were valuable upgrades over FCP7. But that magnetic timeline was just offputting to professionals who have a certain sense of intuition and feeling in what they do, and didn't want that to be trampled over by the timeline moving around on them. It's the main thing that sparked the "iMovie Pro" ridicule, because it's the type of thing that professional really don't need or want, but would be helpful to amateurs. Like that example where the guy moved a clip and it split the music track and whatnot... a professional would never have done that. That's an amateur mistake. So the magnetic timeline solves these problems, sure, but it's problem solving that's oriented towards amateurs in a program called Final Cut PRO... that's the rub, here. For amateurs, the magnetic timeline might solve more problems than it causes... but for professionals, it doesn't really solve any problems that we had or cared much about, because we already knew how to use a normal timeline properly. And with the problems it causes that I've mentioned, or having to add in steps like pressing shift just to keep a gap... the magnetic timeline actually causes more problems than it solves. It's a needless annoyance more than anything. I'm sure I could learn to get used to it. But with Premiere offering the same kind of experience that FCP7 did, just updated in the ways that FCP7 should have been... it was a no-brainer to me that it was more worth my time learning Premiere (which was a fairly smooth transition from FCP7) than it was to try and learn FCPX. I held onto FCP7 until 2015, when I switched to Premiere, and while I wish Premiere had some things that FCPX has, like background rendering... I've never looked back to FCP. I've certainly never felt any need for Premiere to add a magnetic timeline.
The magnetic timeline was very off-putting to me too for a long time. I could never wrap my head around it by just playing around with it. Luckily I had a friend who kept nudging me to not dismiss it. It was only when I used it on a real project (a commercial for Christian Louboutin) and I had to deliver a high-end project within a 3 day deadline, that I had to just go with it. After that initially painful experience I finally started to appreciate it for keeping me in a flow-state and speeding up the process.
That is what the pointer tool is for. You press "P" to select it and instead of clips magnetically sliding together, it leaves a gap placeholder behind where the clip you are moving was.
Yah, it's super simple. I wouldn't dream of abandoning the platform when the solution is that simple. It's just a feature that can be toggled on and off with a simple button press. P to get stuff to stay put when you need and A to go ahead and get that snap back.
Remeber when i started film school and we edited in Final cut pro 7. When i asked my teacher why he said that FCPX sucked ass and that this was a school for people that wanted to take their work seriousy ;) Later i started editing in Premiere which is basically just a better version of Final Cut Pro 7.
This was fantastic, thanks for sharing. I've been on FCP since 2006, and held off on the X switch for years. When I finally did (2014), it's changed my workflow and efficiency tenfold. Apple still has bugs they need to work out, but overall I like it.
I still LOVE FCPX. I was an early adopter of FCP 1.2. I had some trouble with the magnetic timeline at the beginning, but after I came to understand it, I fell in love with it. Still cutting with FCPX in 2019.
I’ve been editing since before the days of NLE software, starting with tape to tape AB roll and straight cut systems. I’ve used Media 100, FCP7, Premiere Pro, and now FCPX. I must say the magnetic timeline has changed the way I edit, and now I can get projects done in literally half the time. Editing speed is mostly limited now on the hardware, and even that has gotten so much better. Once you learn it, FCPX lets you just edit and gets out of the way. It’s incredibly powerful and intuitive, just very different from “traditional” NLEs that came before it.
For large projects where annotations and tags are required, Adobe. For projects where serious audio editing is required, Adobe. For narratives that require more track layering and cutting (creative decisions), FCP X. For shorts and other digital content, FCP X. If you want to do grading, Resolve. If you need seamlessness between photo editing, animation, compositing, etc..Adobe.
I’ve been an editor for 21 years. I learned on a steenbeck then a crunch and punch then adobe prem 3 then final cut 3 to 7 then tried fcpx for about an hour then back to premier cc now on davinci resolve. In fcpx - The magnetic thing I can work with but just never understood why if I deleted deleted something on the timeline it would delete other things too. Creative Editing isn’t about speed either news editing is but not creative.
The guy who was editing on premier and he opened all those gaps is just clueless on using the system. You just lock the soundtrack that you dont want to move and just ctrl and just move the shot where you want. He was on an fcp tour. Is he certified to teach premiere to people then compare to fcp x? I worked with both systems and im way better off working on windows.and adobe.
That’s obvious, sure - but I think the point was that you have to take these extra steps (or create unnecessary hotkeys) in Adobe to achieve the same thing, thus slowing down your edit...and nobody likes a slow editor! Last night I was waiting for an editor to export a VT (from Adobe), which made our livestream late by 5mins. I did wonder if it’d be faster in FCPX.
@@legotech101 Now you just appeal to nature, even when i was using fcpx i was changing hotkeys all the time, also now i use auto hotkey scripts in premiere and im godspeed. But yes adobe wants u to be slow but nothing they can do it you know how to stuff. Linus tech tips uploads every day and theu use premiere
I am an editor by trade and have been using AVID since the mid-90s. I always disliked FCP - it just didn't allow me to scale up to a large scale production and move through material fast - and the interface always seemed fiddly in comparison. When using AVID I barely touch the mouse cursor - and that is how it should be.
Yes, keyboard editing! My instant biggest gripe with FCPX was the lack of keyboard shortcuts. Having to edit with a mouse is very much a time waste, I think.
I think the argument "no one at the time thought it viable" goes both ways. For every innovation with a story of initial refusal turning into resounding success, there are at least ten that have been rightfully forgotten. That's why people distrust new things, it's not just irrational fear. Not jumping on the latest shiny with massive projects is good practice. It's one thing to fearlessly bring innovation, and another forcing it onto users as the only way to go. Even if it proves to be great, forcefully breaking your users' workflow doesn't make for a good first impression.
7:42 I DIDN'T KNOW THIS WAS POSSIBLE. Oh man I've been struggling with this for so long you have no idea. Wow, first video of yours I watch in like a year and my life has already improved drastically haha. Guess I gotta subscribe then!
HOT TIP - this command is called "override connections" and though it's good when moving clips around, leaving connected clips in place, it's EVEN BETTER when using the Trim tool ("T"). Hold down the tilde key while doing a slip edit and connected clips stay put, instead of sliding along with the slip.
I've been a professional video editor for 20+ years, starting on AVID, moving on to Final Cut Pro and then to Premiere. I've used Final Cut X for a few projects and I found it clunky and frustrating. I have no doubt that there's an effective way to use FCP X if you put in the time to learn it; If you like using it, more power to you! But the idea that it is somehow MORE productive and creative a tool than Premiere or other editing software is ABSURD. Furthermore, this video tries to make Premiere look bad by showing an editor moving clips on the timeline in the least effective way possible. There are SEVERAL different techniques in Premiere that are equally effective as anything Final Cut X can do, but this video doesn't show any of them. Use whichever software works best for you, but be fair and honest if you're dissing another one.
Agreed. Final Cut to me seems to have been designed to be different, just for the sake of it. I hate the magnetic timeline and its counterintuitive nature and I detest trying to edit audio when the lanes are so small I can barely see them.
@@Whaever_1981 A great, well argued and insightful comment. You’ve really shown me the error of my ways with such a comprehensive and intelligently formed reply.
Great video, super interesting for pro users and me as a 7 years Premiere Pro user who switched to FCPX. I remember that struggle, the moment I found out that Matilda hotkey and tried to use it all the time before I understood how precious the magnetic idea is.
anyone who uses both premiere and final cut, how do you feel about complex projects? I do alot of greenscreen, vizfx lower-thirds and integrated motion graphics. In a normal project I might have 10 layers of video and 8 layers of audio. And none of these are single tracks running the length of the video, it's all cut up all over the place. Who handles complexity better? When I look at the magnetic timeline, the biggest thing I need is lots of dead-space for organization in the timeline. This track is all chroma replacement backgrounds, this track is on-screen lists, the track above it is adjustment layers to those lists... All I'm aware of now is that you can put in "black video" separators in final cut to space things out.
I'm generally biased towards FCPX - that said, for your complicated use case, I still think it's a better fit. The way FCPX works is that you have one base clip in the "main storyline", then any additional layers (clips) are "connected" to the main clip (the exact connection point is graphically obvious, and movable). The benefit of this is that you can move your base clip around, and everything else follows along (you can also hold down a shortcut key for the opposite effect, so NOTHING follows). Another thing you might find handy is how quickly you can group and un-group a stack of clips (called a compound clip in fcpx parlance). That way you can combine your 10 video layers into one for graphical clarity, without it being any commitment - you can always go inside the compound clip to tweak it, or dissolve it back into its component parts with one keystroke. And yes, if you need blank workspace in the time line, you need to create it with a blank spacer, but it is no more time consuming or complicated than creating a empty gap in a non-magnetic timeline, just a slight thought-readjustment. (option + W, makes a gap clip).
I went from a Windows based editor to Final Cut Pro X the day it came out. This movie, that you have made, sounds wonderful. It's hard to put into words, but I feel like we have been waiting on it to arrive.... even thought we didn't know it existed. I can't wait to see it. Thank you!
I worked with final cut and premiere pro and I prefer premiere pro any day but this decision is mostly dependent on the type of work you do. If you just do simple editing and lots of it final cut is probably faster. But if you do complex work or edit to the music I feel that premiere is just the better option. I think final cut is a very linear approach because if you work from start to finish it is really good but in premiere you can edit to the beat and fill in the gaps later this is my approach and works great for me. But I think there is not a „better“ Software it’s highly dependent on the work you do
Edit to music is almost impossible with only Final Cut Pro. I always have to bring up garage band and swipe like an idiot. Other than that the overall software is pretty good for me.
I completely agree with this perspective. When I edit I often start with the first sequence and then cut the final sequence before I fill in the gap. I also do a lot of music videos and ads that require me to cut to music and a magnetic timeline isn't at all ideal for that. It may not be perfect for every situation but Premiere works for me.
If you or anyone else would like to edit to music on final cut pro, the easy solution is to reconsider altogether the idea of editing from your timeline similar to how you see in adobe premiere. You should never edit from the timeline in final cut pro if you wish to do complex work and edit to music, instead what one must do is to move the clip up from the timeline and once you are done editing the entire piece than you move everything down to the timeline. In this case the timeline should be interpreted as the finished piece for that sequence, whether it's a rough draft sequence, and assembly sequence, whatever someone way call it. If you want to change something within the timeline simply move the clip up once again, and when done move the clip down put it back down to the timeline. It's actually much simpler. The way to do that is option+command+up arrow to go up, and option+command+down arrow to place back into the timeline.
I disagree. If you know how to use Final Cut, you can do anything with it. I'd recommend checking out a guy on Instagram called @GibsonHazard. He's a music videographer and has always used Final Cut X to edit all his videos. I was debating which editing software to use when I started making videos last year and was gonna go with Premiere until Gibson told he used FCPX. I decided to go with because it's cheaper than the Adobe subscription and I used Final Cut Express back in the day. It's not the software, it's the person using it...
I understood 100% what Apple was doing with FCPX. I went to the Apple Store, taught myself how to use it and I've loved it every since. I was sold on the magnetic timeline immediately. I'd been wishing for something like that and couldn't believe they had done it.
People are afraid of change, after you wrap your head around the magnetic timeline it’s something that is genius. Having said that I wish they would bring back scrub tool
I started with Final Cut Pro 7 then transitioned to FCPX. What pissed me off at the time of launch was the lack of features such as multi cam editing, importing existing FCP7 files, and lack of project collaboration support. I switched to Premiere Pro CC as it was similar to FCP7, but slowly, Apple incorporated new ways of multi cam editing, made improvements to the magnetic time line (especially how to disable it when not wanted) and added effective color grading tools (latest updated). It still lacks collaboration support so I hope they make strides to add this feature in another iteration.
At 6:10, when Premiere's CMD+drag feature is being demo-ed......don't do it that way, genius. Hold CMD+Alt+drag if you want to affect only the layers the clips you're dragging occupy. This completely eliminates the issue for almost any application. Once you get it, it's a no-brainer.
"Look at this nonsense! If I do it wrong, the program does the wrong thing! What kind of garbage program does the wrong thing when you do the wrong thing?!"
The title is accurate, the glorification of the magnetic timeline and the inability of the Premiere demonstrator to hold ALT while dragging clips is not.
I edit music videos on Final Cut Pro X and the first thing I do when I start importing clips is remove them from the magnetic timeline - i rarely plan ahead when making videos so most of the work I do in the edit is experimental and I find the magnetic timeline just gets in the way of my creative process...
The main annoying thing to me about fcpx is the rigidity towards crossover with other editing software. You can no longer export the file as an omf for editing of sound and colouring has also been hella frustrating as well. Very intuitive, easy to use & I absolutely love the magnetic timeline, but it only suits basic cutting and always gets frustrating when trying to do pro stuff and work with pros who use other tools.
I started using FCP X when it first launched. Everything that people were complaining about was all stuff I loved! I learned motion graphics using Motion as well. Then my mac died and I was forced to start editing everything with Premiere and After Effects and while they are very solid pieces of software, I find that I'm yelling at my screen a lot more, asking "why?" a lot. I have gotten good again at the old way of editing, but I long for the day I can afford another mac to get back into the flow of using FCP again. Also, great job on this video I really am excited to check out this documentary!
I Switched from Premiere Pro CC to FCPX. FCPX is so much easier to work with and faster. 10 minutes of learning how it works and your good to go. Really well thought out Editing package.
Well, here is proof that in some cases, it's a matter of preference. I personally find final cut so tedious and confusing to navigate even after months of using it full time, I routinely took projects home to edit in Premiere and brought back xml compatible files. Glad it works for you, even if I'll never understand how 😅
I’ve never watched a single tutorial on FCP yet and it’s just so simple. Can’t wait to dig in more and learn it like I know photoshop for photo editing :-)
I've been avoiding this channel for months because I figured literally anybody who actually edits like a professional would name their channel *anything but* "This Guy Edits!!!," but I finally gave you a chance because I know the FCP7/FCPX trainwreck story like the back of my hand, so I knew I'd be able to calibrate my reaction. Sure enough, halfway through, you're like "I prefer to cut with FCPX whenever I can." Yeah. That's exactly what I was expecting for months. God bless, peace out.
I've been a pro editor for 25 years and have worked with everything, Media 100, Avid, Premiere etc.. FCP 7 was my choice and I deeply regret its destruction and the arrival of the amateurish FCP 10. I'm amazed that apple has chosen to fuck all of its users in this way and wonder why they don't just name FCP 10 something else and continue with the REAL FCP.. FCP 8 would be the most popular editing system on the planet if they simply had the wisdom to put it out. period.
Thanks for the video... I use Premiere and FCPX depending on the project. The one thing I hate about FCPX is audio, no audio crossfade (I created one in Motion), no master track to put a limiter and a loudness meter, I had to buy a very expensive software just to do post in Pro Tools.... Audio could have a big, big improvement... the rest, I love it.
psst, you can always just put your entire timeline into a compound clip when you're done, then apply the compressor there... (also good for adding a broadcast safe filter)
Agreed, audio implementation needs tracks with an efx chain and audio bus. Basically to do this you need to bounce to LogicX. I'd like to see LogicX style tracks incorporated in FCPX.
FCPX all the way! It's the most intuitive software ever created. I started on AVID in 1999, then Premier, they Final Cut Pro 4 thru 7, and when I discovered FCPX, editing software finally made sense. FCPX is like an extension of my brain. It just works.
I came to FCPX because it was buy once and that’s it; I stay with it because it does everything I need it to and mostly it does it intuitively. And it has amazing depth I have yet to fully explore!
Interesting Fact : in LumaFusion, which is a video editing app on device, you can choose at every moment to go from a magnetic timeline system to the “gap” one. That’s pretty clever! Of course, it’s on device and you don’t have everything but some features are even better than in FCPX like au automatic audio duckling or handling your clips by touch. 😊
Seriously, no standalone OMF separates from video, proprietary XML... the flexibility of a pro is that you get to set what system you want to finish the film... be it resolve or baselight for grading nuke or aftereffect or flame for touch up, comp, and effects; protools or logic or audacity if you want for sound... FCPX is good for people who is really staying inside the Apple methodologies ONLY... with the death of FCP7 this year, I’m experimenting and learning a few systems... FCPX isn’t bad, it’s just ridiculously hard to export compatible files for all system that and not “approved” or is gauged being old (like the super easy to use OMF)
@@steven_porter I have two G5s and I'm trying out FCP6 on them because I feel like learning it will help me to improve as an editor in general, having been a Premiere loyalist for so long.
I work with Edius, Adobe and Final Cut Pro X. Final Cut Pro X is the best editing software. People say it's a dumbed down editing system but it's not. You can make your projects as complicated as you want them to be. A lot of software will slow down or crash but Final Cut Pro X keeps going.
I was using Premiere Pro CC for about 6 months and then switching over to FCPX after getting my new Macbook Pro. And although there are many great design choices and feels a lot more user friendly AND the effects are amazing and diverse, I feel Premiere is better suited to create your own effects while in FCPX you're just expected to either use the default effects or purchase effect packs online if you're doing more complicated work than just cutting and pasting scenes. My biggest issue has been trying to smooth out zooming and panning. I really really don't like the zooming effect not having proper bezier handles to manipulate keyframe animations. All tutorials online just say "Add some color correction and buy this transition pack" So that is why I ended up going back to Premiere.
Really good vid! I jumped from iMovie to Premier Pro, simply because it seems to be the software that most pro RUclipsrs use. The magnetic timeline sounds like both a blessing & curse - i can definitely see its advantage, & also where I'd be screaming in frustration.
Book Your Imagination FCPX is super intuitive for a former iMovie-user. I tried PP and was pulling my hair. I’ve done quite complex stuff already with iMovie and was trying to learn how to do it in PP but got so frustrated. FCPX just gave me more tools to work with but the logic was the same old familiar one :) iMovie, after all, has a magnetic timeline as well.
@@piiak6848 yeah, I've had some frustrations with PP as well. I haven't had time to commit to a 30 day trial of FCPX to really try it out before buying, but it's definitely on my list of things to do. I got a really good deal on adobe suite for a year, & that is almost up, so I will definitely be considering FCPX. Thx for telling me your experience! It's good to know!
I use both premier and fcpx. I think they are both great but they should be used for different things. I think premier allows more fine tuning and control and fcpx allows speed and ease of use. Premiere should be used when you want to do a feature film while fcpx is more well suited to documentary or video editing.
I probably don’t understand the magnetic timeline concept but it seems to me like it only applies to clips which are already in the timeline and Rearranging the order of clips. Typical edits require robust file & bin management to sift for footage efficiently so you can make the creative decisions on the fly. If you know your software there are keyboard shortcuts that make any timeline ‘magnetic’
I edit commercials, promos, PSAs and news on Premiere at my TV station job. It’s a great improvement over the AVID Symphony torture that I endured for four years. Still, I would have preferred FCPX in the workplace. I comfortably and efficiently use FCPX in my home studio and at my church’s edit suite. It is truly a joy to use.
I use final cut, I used to use premiere and Sony Vegas. The magnetic time line is good for editing films and movies, but I do a lot of music videos that require a lot of syncing with the music. This is where the magnetic time line does not work very well. Once you sync a clip to the lyrics of the song, you can not change the position of the clip in the time line. Im glad your able to lift clips from the time line so the magnetic feature doesn’t effect the syncing. It took me a while to get used to it but I really enjoy using the software. It just lacks in the ability to have high quality effects and tracking that premiere and after effects excel at
Here’s what I love about FCPX vs all other nles, if you know how to use and give it a shot, ( for a solid week) the big thing you notice is FCPX just gets out of the way and let’s me create. I watch PP editors work and I want to cry with how slow everything is and how many steps simple things take... what no one realizes is that not only is it taking longer but you are not as able to dive deeper into the creative.
Fantastic video! I still use Premiere for that collaboration aspect-I still have to share the projects with other editors I work with. BUT, if it's a project I can do on my own, I definitely do it in FCPX. My workflow is so much faster, the optimization after editing is unrivaled and the overall intuitiveness (after you get through the crazy learning curve) is actually FUN. Again, great job on this vid!!
Awesome! Stoked to watch the documentary! As someone who began using it on day 1 (professionally), and never looked back... there were undeniable growing pains. Though looking back, I like to think Apple was a little like Gretzky in the sense that they could probably see Intel's Quick-Sync and Metal coming down the pipeline... dropped the aging codebase, and skated to where the puck would be in the future. Adobe skated to where the puck was of course, and picked up a lot of users... but I think there's a clear winner today in terms of performance with minimal hardware specs. I learned early on that if you didn't like how the magnetic timeline behaved for certain types of projects, you could just pop the clips up, and use the underlying gap generator as a static pincushion for the entire project, and nothing moved at all if you didn't want it to. My hat's off to the folks at Apple for taking a risk, and looking past the short-term cost to the long-run benefit :)
It's funny, I cut on AVID Media Composer for 98% of my work. Netflix, network tv/series/doc series. I've been doing it for about 17 years now total and I honestly DO NOT think when I'm executing the program moves to get what i want done. I was like that with FCP 7 as well pre-2012 I was back and forth from the two often. I was one of those who tried early FCPX and just DESPISED it, mostly because it made THINk about what I had to do to negotiate the program to get the desired narrative outcome. It's come a long way since it's inception and I'd be curious to see how I fare against it. I've picked up Premiere super quick as it became an extension of FCP 7 for me really. Anyway great video, super interesting topic. Man I just remember when Murch was up there dissing X after he had such wonderful things to say about 7. Takes me back a bit, again great work.
Great video! Why isn't there a way to simply turn off Magnetic Timeline in FCPX?! I began editing with FCP7, jumped to FCPX and I am just now switching to Premiere. I can't believe I just learned the Tilde function in FCPX, but I don't think that would make me switch back. I edit a lot of music videos, and it would just kill me when I made a tweak and suddenly the entire video out of sync to the music.
The magnetic timeline is easy and fast. Really, the issues with FCPX on release were a lot less the magnetic timeline, a lot more to do with the lack of colour wheels, multicam support, FCP7 project support, and other options; the software felt half-baked and was not ready for professional release imho. With the latest release (starting 2017) all of this is back, it works awesome, plus there is a suite of third-party plugins. Plus, *you can do edits without the magnetic timeline*, yes it can be circumvented - but once you get the handle on it, it is far, far better than traditional timeline work (and I say this as someone who began cutting with 16mm and Hi-8 on an Amiga). What I still don't like is media management, as the video outlines. Tagging and media display options could be improved. Plus if you have to reset FCPX prefs (not uncommon...), you lose all the tags.
Seven years later, think about where Final Cut Pro would be now if they had simply made incremental improvements on Final Cut Pro 7 (an actual Pro system). They could have added the (silly) magnetic thing to that without removing a million things that pros wanted and needed. Of course, then you'd have to imagine Apple caring about something other than consumer products.
Well, they needed to rewrite the program from scratch just from a computer architecture stand-point. Could they have just copied their FCP7 to a new architecture? Absolutely. But instead they used the opportunity to think of a new way of doing things, believing genuinely that media manipulation on a computer had untapped potential. Did they make the transition unnecessarily hard for their previous users? Yes. Did they make a perfect product right off the bat? Absolutely not. Did they make something that feels exciting and intuitive and fresh to a lot of editors, many of whom have developed a frankly bizarre level of enthusiasm for the program? In fact, they did. So if I think about the 7 years of incremental improvements to FCP7 you dream about, this is what I see: Final Cut, Premiere, DaVinci, Avid are all more or less the same, distinguished by periphery features and calcified user preference. You're dreaming of redundancy.
Wow. You really think it's a great idea to take away professionals' working tools and break them. Yes, an architectural upgrade was exactly what editors wanted and would have made a difference. Keep bins, add keywording. Keep timeline, add a magnetic timeline option. Any software company which wasn't so full of conceited jackasses on an ego trip would have managed this transition with respect for its users and respect for alternative ways of creation rather than force feeding us a single way of doing things (magnetic timeline). FCP7 was the greatest editing program ever. It didn't need to be broken.
Whether it’s on iOS, OS X/MacOS, or any of their software, apple HAS NEVER given you all the possible options. Clutter and bloat is the antithesis of their whole design philosophy. 80% of the time it makes their stuff slicker, nicer and more intuitive than anyone else's - 20% of the time it’s absolutely infuriating and limiting. Agree with it or not, but they would never make a two-programs-in-one kind of NLE. Once they realised what a catastrophy the FCPX launch was, they did point out that FCP7 was still there, unchanged and capable. And for a while they updated the codecs for it, had some minimal maintenance. So they didn’t really take away anyone’s tools, but of course gradually killing it off is still killing it off. But no, I don’t think it was a good idea to infuriate the FCP7 user base who just wanted a new coat of paint. I DO think that it was a good idea to make their vision for FCPX in an uncompromising, forward thinking manner. And with the limited resources of a small development team, it was probably hard to do the latter without doing the former. Maybe if I was as nostalgic as you about FCP7 I would still be pissed, but I had tons of technical problems with that software back in the day and never really looked back.
Small development team? We are talking about one of the biggest software and hardware companies in the world with hundreds billions of dollars in revenue (even at the time). No Apple just could not give a toss about their users. They sold out pro users to the iPhone crowd. 20% of the time. Hardly. The only thing which keeps me using OS X (look up "Apple core rot" for what's wrong with the file system and the networking) are the years of expertise I have using third party applications for Apple. It took Apple six months to get their egos under control and step back the banning of FCP7 (no sales, no educational materials, no downloads, no nothing). Forward thinking - it's not forward thinking, it's selfish and destructive. There was no need to destroy the old to bring in the new. Making them co-exist would have been what any company who cares about their users would have done. On software, Apple's burned their bridges permanently with me via the FCPX debacle, the Apple Aperture debacle. It's sad to see people looking for religion/a cause choosing to worship a major global corporation instead of either choosing humanism or god (take your pick). On hardware, Apple has burned their bridges by creating machines that can neither be maintained or upgraded once out of warranty. By choosing new Apple computers you are actively contributing to the destruction of the planet (rare earth metals, non-recyclables). In 2011 Apple joined Prism in October 2012 (had to bury Steve Jobs a year earlier before insiders could be pushed to do so, Jobs did respect privacy) so even the idea that Apple somehow protects their users is nonsense. Minimalist design strategy is for simple apps for non-pro users. Somewhere some people need sophisticated tools to do advanced work. A pity that Apple users should not be among them according to Apple. Yes, as iMovie Pro, FCPX is fine. FCPX is still a struggle for long form or sophisticated audio or any of the myriad of work which FCP7 made easier. You can take your condescending "nostalgic" language and shove it, DaCarnival. You are a koolaid drinking (and pouring) apologist for some of the worst custodians of digital creation.
Easy there man, I don't think we disagree as much as you think. Maybe you see the percentages inverted - 20% cool 80% crap - but I agree that Apple is not focused on making life easier for digital professionals. Their core audience is doodling creatives, more aspirational, less dependable. As a massive corporate entity I have no love for Apple, and if Final Cut didn't only run on macs I would have switched to PC a few years back, because building a workstation mac is both expensive and underwhelming. HOWEVER I truly have drunken the kool-aid on FCPX, guilty as charged. Editing is my full time job and the different paradigm that FCPX represents fundamentally appeals to me. To me it almost feels like upgrading from a typewriter to a word processor. This is a feeling that many people - working professionals - share with me. In this comment section we are talking about the pro's and con's of Final Cut, not the existence of Apple Inc. I've done several long-form projects on FCPX, YES audio post is a hassle, but doable. It is a sophisticated tool, uniquely tailored not to a "pipeline" or "integration" or "professional delivery" but first and foremost to storytelling. That is why my editor self is willing to excuse the kinks and work-arounds that infuriate my post-production-manager self. That's not to say FCPX can't be used on a massive scale by working people. There are TV stations running just on FCPX now. And as to the size of the development team - being the FCPX team at Apple is like being the people in charge of window-wipers at Tesla. It is a fairly small operation, and certainly no bigger than what Avid and Adobe are operating.
I watched with bated breath this video, in hopes that it would materialize into something amazing and revolutionary. I am sorry to say that it did not. I was following your point about the magnetic timeline, and then it just fizzled, into something, i am not sure of...I'm sorry, but just giving you my honest feedback.
I think most people not loving the 'OFF TRACKS' route FCPX has taken, is people over 30 years of age. We -over 30- need to face this is the future and get on with the program. It is easier and friendlier, so why wouldn't we?
I had already used Final Cut Pro 7 many years ago. When lunched a Final Cut Pro X, I switched from Final Cut Pro 7 to Final Cut Pro X. I found a lot of difficulties in Final Cut Pro X. I realized that "Final Cut Pro 7 better then Final Cut Pro X in many options". So I switched to Adobe Premiere Pro. Now I am using Adobe Premiere Pro it's good for me. (Sorry for my bad English)
I'm a 14 year old editor making very dense high quality videos. I've worked with iMovie, FCPX, and Premiere and I have to say that they are all great programs and that there isn't simply the best program for everyone. If you are an amateur video producer, like a simplistic editing software or care about working very fast and efficiently with minimal editing, then a minimal, linear editing software is likely to fit your expectations and needs. Both FCPX and iMovie are absolutely brilliant if you respect speed editing and simplicity where you can basically drag and drop your clips, slap a song on, do some small clipping and put an effect on here and there and be done. The problem starts to set in when you appreciate simplistic editing software but need to do a semi-medium effect where the linear design and lack of control will start to harm your video quality. Premiere Pro is all about professional editing that is frame-by-frame perfect and has no compromises. There is almost nothing that it can't do and when it can't do something it's brother programs like Photoshop or After Effects that most likely come with your plan will certainly be capable of doing it. It has an absolutely beautiful design and it is the program I choose when I'm making my complex videos. The problem comes when the complexity of Premiere starts to affect your thought process and workflow. This is where iMovie and FCPX will help you. Overall, this is just my opinion, but I'm just here to say that the program you choose should be the one that will give YOU the best results in the quickest time possible. Thank you for reading.
I'll definitely watch the doc. Thank you for posting. One major thing I didn't see in this interview was the real reasons why people left Final Cut when X was released. THEY COULDN'T USE IT PROFESSIONALLY! I could no longer use it professionally. Why? Many of the professional features that were available in 7 were gone in X. You can't release a major update to software and remove functions that professionals use. It didn't make sense. I still remember watching the release and super excited when I saw the magnetic timeline. The magnetic timeline is the most brilliant part of Final Cut X. Major time saver. BUT, when Apple said that Final Cut Pro X couldn't output video to an external monitor, every editor, filmmaker, professional user, etc., had to move to something else. This was true of X when it was released and it made Final Cut Pro X useless for professional users. To call this an oversight would be calling Apple stupid. Have they fixed this since? Yes. But it was too late and that is one major reason why they lost all that market share. The other reason is the lack of being able to bring in Final Cut 7 timelines. I used 7 until I couldn't use it anymore and I now use Davinci Resolve, and it is sometimes a pain in the ass, I've used Premiere, and I still have a Mac so I use Final Cut if I have to. But with every release, Resolve gets better and Final Cut and Premiere have small improvements. Apple dropped the ball.
Are you mostly referring to all the things missing or half-baked in version 1? Not that that isn't a legitimate beef you have with the software, but a lot has changed in 7 years...
FCPX Colour had a great update a while back, and handy plug-ins bridge a few gaps - but of course it can't compete with Resolve for colour, no NLE can. Good news is that taking a timeline from FCPX to Resolve has always been very smooth, which I do on larger projects. If it's straight to web stuff, FCPX grading is plenty (the biggest limitation is no planar tracking).
I bounce back and forth between FCPX and Premiere depending on the project. FCPX runs way smoother and the magnetic timeline can be nice at times, but I also feel like it just can't do as much as Premiere. Plus if I need to do motion graphic work it's After Effects all day over Motion 5.
I just got the latest version of Da Vinci Resolve and the word out there on the internet is that Resolve is great. For me it is like going back to the dark ages.Slow clunky and manual. It took me a long time to understand FCP X after suing FCP 7 but once you get it there is no doubt about it...FCP is just simply a superior program.
I got going on filmmaking in the summer 2011. I downloaded trials of every NLE. FCPX was released about a week later, and when I opened it up, it was like a breath of fresh air. Never looked back. There was one big-name editor (I think it was Murcheson) who advocated creating a Filemaker database for every project, to keep up with metadata. Well, I am a Filemaker developer, and while it is easy to use, it is completely unnecessary when editing with FCPX. Those professionals who choked on X are simply locked in to an obsolete paradigm. I understand the legitimate criticism about collaboration, and it would be great if Apple addressed the issue.
I remember when this all happened. I read through all the forums and witnessed all the backlash and kerfuffle that ensued. I migrated over from FCP7 to FCPX from day one and I never looked back. I watched the announcement presentation and it just clicked for me. There were many features missing and luckily as I was still an amateur, I didn't need many of those features. Luckily my needs grew at the exact same time Apple released later improvements and features so for me there was no friction in adopting the new software.
I use FCPX as a professional editor. When it was released... it was awful. It was too 'young'/underdeveloped and shouldn't have been released as a professional program till 2015 at least. It's really powerful and awesome now, but totally understand why it lost so many users initially. I will say, I love the magnetic timeline, but I do worry FCPX is leaving it professional market in favour for a more commercial one in some of the features. When I use premiere, I get frustrated I can't simply move a clip without the process being potentially destructive to the timeline and choose to use it only in larger projects.
It took me around two 2 years of trials and errors and 3 years of school 🏫 to master Premier Pro. It took me 10 minutes to learn & understand FCPX. And a week later I was editing faster than I was in Premiere.
the idea of combining imovie users with profissional, if not semi-professional fCP users was a great one, it just killed everyone who was so dedicated to studio. I still feel the pain!
I went from FCP7 to X. When you first make the switch it's definitely jarring. The whole thing feels confused and wrong and it's not surprising that people ended up going to Premiere. The thing is though, if you stick with X, something happens. The frustration disappears and things just start to click. Things that annoyed you at first become a vital part of your editing process. The whole system becomes intuitive in a way other NLEs never did, at least for me. Not too long ago I had to go back to 7 to work on an old project and man, it felt so archaic. I also tried playing around with Premiere and I just couldn't get into it. FCPX does everything I need and it does so quickly and efficiently. I do think you need time with it though. For anyone who dismissed it when it first came out or anyone working with other NLE's and are curious, my advice is to use X for a project where you don't have a quick deadline, something that you can work on for a month and in that month, don't use any other NLE's. There's no "holy shit" moment where it all clicks at once. It's gradual. The more you use it, the more intuitive it becomes and eventually you won't want to go back to anything else, at least that's how it was with me.
Software is software. Editing is editing. I started on Final Cut Pro Studio (7), then FCPX (liked editing, but hated organisation), Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer (I love the organisation and editing, but UI needs a little work), I’m now exploring Resolve (it has potential as best of both worlds).
Final Cut's magnetic timeline is a nice tool but the option should be there to shut it off for those who edit a different way such a laydown audio and narration first and then start filling in black gaps with video clips as decor. Or create a pace for the music with audio cues, and move sounds around without moving things around. Not everything is visual not everything has to be constrained together. Both options should be available. I personally use MAGIX Vegas Pro for my editing. I can choose to either create gaps in my tracks or auto ripple my cuts. Sometimes I edit with ripple on sometimes with ripple off. Depends on the edit. For organizing I use keywords just like it was explained in this video. For some projects I may use a different software such as Davinci resolve or premier pro. It all depends on the project and how I want to approach it.
The organizational tools are terrific in FCPX however, the workflow is totally unnecessary. It is really a stupid upgrade. Being a Final Cut user for years having to deal with this was totally unacceptable. I gave it a chance and I see no advantage to it.
Really informative video Sven and to answer your question I have never used FCP before, I primarily use Premiere, but there are some features from FCP that I wish were Premiere. Features such as the magnetic timeline, being able to audition clips, and the way FCP handles muticam editing, I like the idea of seeing multiple angles of a shot as I'm editing instead of having to manually switch to different views as I'm cutting.
I switched to Premiere after FCP7 because of a few things: edit software is just a tool. I could edit FCP with my eyes closed (apple certified pro) and Premiere was just like an old friend (I had last used Premiere 6 (old old version 6) in the late 90s. I could use the FCP7 shortcuts I knew. I had no downtime learning new software. I could export OMFIs (I do broadcast work, some clients like to do their own sound mix or replace music tracks for licensing reasons etc) and most importantly of all, I had hardware freedom. I could buy huge RAM at retail, I could buy huge GFX cards at retail and use all the cores, as much as I loved my old 27" Imac and my old MacPro tower, the graphics card failed on both. Terminal on the iMac... It was also a little political. Apple decided to drop support for FCP users. It showed me no loyalty. They could decide tomorrow that they are out of the video market. When I set up media labs at a University where I worked I put £100k's of sales Apples way. We had 7 FCP labs. To kill all that and effectively deskill our students overnight was pretty hard going. Off the Tracks turns into infomercial territory quite quickly, and the usual apple zealots with their 'how stoopid are you' tone and expression chip in. I don't care what it was edited on. I don't care how you edit. I care about what you make. The story you tell. I'm glad if the tool you've chosen works for you. It doesn't work for me. And thats about it.
I love the magnetic timeline. I also work a lot in Logic Pro and I wish there was a magnetic feature that you could at least toggle, depending on what you're doing. Often I'm cutting out audio from a region that isn't usable or is a "take two" and it would be nice if the remaining region would "close the gap" when you cut it out.
My main problem with FCP X was media management. I felt that to get the most out of it, and think of creating and archiving projects and having a similar workflow to how everyone worked in FCP 7, there was too steep a learning curve and it was too frustrating to be able to trust that everything was working as it used to. The editing was easier to grasp.
This is the only channel I can think of where organizing documentary footage is a recurring topic and I absolutely love it.
I love how I never had this issue. Having used iMovie first, then Final Cut Pro X, my reaction to switching to Premiere was: "WHY U NO MOVE?"
Joel Barthel haha me too! Hated premiere
I don't get why the guy showing the difference between FCP X and Premiere used CTRL shortcut. Ctrl is for insert within the timeline. Ctrl + Alt is for changing the order of shots. It just wasn't fair ;)
True!! I thought there was something wrong there!
It's the same way non-FCPX users treat FCPX when describing how bad it is though: little to no knowledge. So I'm not gonna complain :D
No FCPX is trash
And I agree, if you were coming from iMovie how this would be an easy transition. Problem was, most were coming from Final Cut Pro 7, like me, and that's why they went to Premiere. Apple really dropped the ball on the release of X
My problem with the magnetic timeline was never that I didn't understand what it was doing. I totally understood it. I just didn't like it, because I don't want my timeline moving around on me like that. I prefer the more stable feeling of the timeline staying put unless I specifically move things. Sometimes I want gaps to remain when I move something. Gaps can be useful as placeholders. If I remove a shot with the intention of replacing it with another one, I want that space to remain while I go grab the other clip. I don't want it automatically closing, losing the correct amount of space in which to place the new clip, and then having to shove the new clip in there and maybe it's a different length, etc...
And also, sometimes you just want gaps. Like if it's a timeline that you're using for raw footage to copy and paste from into the edit timeline... you want to be able to chop up the clips and separate them and stuff... I don't want them automatically snapping together. I want some breathing room between them, so to speak. With a magnetic timeline, I'd have to take the extra step of throwing slugs or black video in between any clips I want to keep separated.
On a regular timeline, things just feel much more natural and stable and calm and in my control. A magnetic timeline feels relatively out of my control, and anxiety-inducing to me. It just makes things feel more messy and "in-play" rather than being concretely where I put it, IMO. Like I'd be constantly having to check the rest of the timeline after each and every edit "Wait, did anything happen I didn't want to? Did it mess up anything? Is the music track still synced..." And I'm sure that it always is or at least usually always is... but it would still give me that feeling. And if it did happen that I came across something that got messed up at some point... I would feel like I had no idea when or how it happened. With every edit I do affecting everything after it magnetically, every single action I do now becomes fraught with the possibility of messing up the rest of the timeline, so discovering something that got messed up during one of those edits now becomes a game of "Ok, which of the past 3000 actions I did actually caused this?" Whereas if things only move when I specifically move them, the chances of me noticing a mess up are going to be significantly higher because my attention is actually being paid to each and every move. Less chance my timeline getting messed up without me being aware.
The metaphor of it being like editing on a slope is quite apt. It IS like editing uphill. I don't want to be editing uphill. I like a nice flat, stable surface to edit on, please.
have you tried shift-delete? That keeps the gaps if you need them.
No, I haven't used Final Cut X enough to ever learn these types of workarounds, but even if I did, I think I'd still prefer it the normal way. I don't have to press shift to make what I want to have happen. The times when I want the gap to stay greatly outnumber the times when I want the gap to close. Maybe this is just a difference in how I edit, which is fairly linear. I tend to start the beginning and edit through to the end. So the only time I start getting into edit within an already laid out timeline is just for fine editing, and even then, I'd usually prefer a gap to stay, and then close it when I want to. Closing a gap in Premiere is pretty damn easy. You just highlight the gap and press delete. I prefer to have to do that manually than to have to do the opposite manually, because the gap staying open on it's own feels more natural and reliable to me. I delete a clip, I naturally want the gap to remain. Closing the gap feels natural as being an action that I have to do myself. To have it happen automatically feels like the program assuming something that I don't necessarily want to have assumed. Too much automation can sometimes be more annoying than helpful.
It's hard to explain my feelings about this, I guess, but it's just one of those things that comes down to how you feel about it. And judging about the reaction to the magnetic timeline and how Premiere has kinda become more of the standard (at least in my circle of filmmaking friends and colleagues) ever since Final Cut X came out. Most people prefer a stable timeline that feels in their control rather than a program doing thing automatically, which inherently tends to feel more consumer-oriented than professional-oriented. Professionals tends to like having more control and stability over convenience and automation. When it comes to under-the-hood type of stuff, by all means, automate away and make all that stuff more convenient. Background rendering, autosaving, etc, is all stuff that we want and want to improve, and Final Cut X was in fact a big leap forward for FCP/Apple in that regard. The better stabilizer, the multi-format timeline, etc, were valuable upgrades over FCP7. But that magnetic timeline was just offputting to professionals who have a certain sense of intuition and feeling in what they do, and didn't want that to be trampled over by the timeline moving around on them. It's the main thing that sparked the "iMovie Pro" ridicule, because it's the type of thing that professional really don't need or want, but would be helpful to amateurs. Like that example where the guy moved a clip and it split the music track and whatnot... a professional would never have done that. That's an amateur mistake. So the magnetic timeline solves these problems, sure, but it's problem solving that's oriented towards amateurs in a program called Final Cut PRO... that's the rub, here. For amateurs, the magnetic timeline might solve more problems than it causes... but for professionals, it doesn't really solve any problems that we had or cared much about, because we already knew how to use a normal timeline properly. And with the problems it causes that I've mentioned, or having to add in steps like pressing shift just to keep a gap... the magnetic timeline actually causes more problems than it solves. It's a needless annoyance more than anything.
I'm sure I could learn to get used to it. But with Premiere offering the same kind of experience that FCP7 did, just updated in the ways that FCP7 should have been... it was a no-brainer to me that it was more worth my time learning Premiere (which was a fairly smooth transition from FCP7) than it was to try and learn FCPX. I held onto FCP7 until 2015, when I switched to Premiere, and while I wish Premiere had some things that FCPX has, like background rendering... I've never looked back to FCP. I've certainly never felt any need for Premiere to add a magnetic timeline.
The magnetic timeline was very off-putting to me too for a long time. I could never wrap my head around it by just playing around with it. Luckily I had a friend who kept nudging me to not dismiss it. It was only when I used it on a real project (a commercial for Christian Louboutin) and I had to deliver a high-end project within a 3 day deadline, that I had to just go with it. After that initially painful experience I finally started to appreciate it for keeping me in a flow-state and speeding up the process.
That is what the pointer tool is for. You press "P" to select it and instead of clips magnetically sliding together, it leaves a gap placeholder behind where the clip you are moving was.
Yah, it's super simple. I wouldn't dream of abandoning the platform when the solution is that simple. It's just a feature that can be toggled on and off with a simple button press. P to get stuff to stay put when you need and A to go ahead and get that snap back.
Remeber when i started film school and we edited in Final cut pro 7.
When i asked my teacher why he said that FCPX sucked ass and that this was a school for people that wanted to take their work seriousy ;)
Later i started editing in Premiere which is basically just a better version of Final Cut Pro 7.
This was fantastic, thanks for sharing. I've been on FCP since 2006, and held off on the X switch for years. When I finally did (2014), it's changed my workflow and efficiency tenfold. Apple still has bugs they need to work out, but overall I like it.
I still LOVE FCPX. I was an early adopter of FCP 1.2. I had some trouble with the magnetic timeline at the beginning, but after I came to understand it, I fell in love with it. Still cutting with FCPX in 2019.
I’ve been editing since before the days of NLE software, starting with tape to tape AB roll and straight cut systems. I’ve used Media 100, FCP7, Premiere Pro, and now FCPX. I must say the magnetic timeline has changed the way I edit, and now I can get projects done in literally half the time. Editing speed is mostly limited now on the hardware, and even that has gotten so much better. Once you learn it, FCPX lets you just edit and gets out of the way. It’s incredibly powerful and intuitive, just very different from “traditional” NLEs that came before it.
I work with Adobe and final cut, and final cut is my favorite, just because I can to connect my thinking with the software...
Same here
Have you tried thinking harder?
Monthly subscription. Nah.
I create videos real quick with fcpx!
@@newdadz I hate that, too.
For large projects where annotations and tags are required, Adobe. For projects where serious audio editing is required, Adobe. For narratives that require more track layering and cutting (creative decisions), FCP X. For shorts and other digital content, FCP X. If you want to do grading, Resolve. If you need seamlessness between photo editing, animation, compositing, etc..Adobe.
I’ve been an editor for 21 years. I learned on a steenbeck then a crunch and punch then adobe prem 3 then final cut 3 to 7 then tried fcpx for about an hour then back to premier cc now on davinci resolve. In fcpx - The magnetic thing I can work with but just never understood why if I deleted deleted something on the timeline it would delete other things too. Creative Editing isn’t about speed either news editing is but not creative.
The guy who was editing on premier and he opened all those gaps is just clueless on using the system. You just lock the soundtrack that you dont want to move and just ctrl and just move the shot where you want. He was on an fcp tour. Is he certified to teach premiere to people then compare to fcp x? I worked with both systems and im way better off working on windows.and adobe.
Exactly. I never move clips the way he did in that demonstration. I just lock the tracks and cut/paste insert the clips.
That’s obvious, sure - but I think the point was that you have to take these extra steps (or create unnecessary hotkeys) in Adobe to achieve the same thing, thus slowing down your edit...and nobody likes a slow editor! Last night I was waiting for an editor to export a VT (from Adobe), which made our livestream late by 5mins. I did wonder if it’d be faster in FCPX.
Michael Agisilaou absolutely agree
Lol, yes just do 50 more steps and make it way less intuitive
@@legotech101 Now you just appeal to nature, even when i was using fcpx i was changing hotkeys all the time, also now i use auto hotkey scripts in premiere and im godspeed. But yes adobe wants u to be slow but nothing they can do it you know how to stuff. Linus tech tips uploads every day and theu use premiere
The only reason I moved from windows to Mac OS was for using FCPX and the magnetic time line. I think it's a brilliant idea and a huge time saver.
I am an editor by trade and have been using AVID since the mid-90s. I always disliked FCP - it just didn't allow me to scale up to a large scale production and move through material fast - and the interface always seemed fiddly in comparison. When using AVID I barely touch the mouse cursor - and that is how it should be.
Yes, keyboard editing! My instant biggest gripe with FCPX was the lack of keyboard shortcuts. Having to edit with a mouse is very much a time waste, I think.
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I think the argument "no one at the time thought it viable" goes both ways. For every innovation with a story of initial refusal turning into resounding success, there are at least ten that have been rightfully forgotten. That's why people distrust new things, it's not just irrational fear. Not jumping on the latest shiny with massive projects is good practice.
It's one thing to fearlessly bring innovation, and another forcing it onto users as the only way to go. Even if it proves to be great, forcefully breaking your users' workflow doesn't make for a good first impression.
7:42 I DIDN'T KNOW THIS WAS POSSIBLE. Oh man I've been struggling with this for so long you have no idea. Wow, first video of yours I watch in like a year and my life has already improved drastically haha. Guess I gotta subscribe then!
RedShadow on spot i had to reply that part! Im a fcpx editor for 2 years and i never knew this is possible haha
The ‘what’ key, can’t understand what key he’s talking about, please help
Tilde: ~ (or `). For me it's top left under the escape key
RedShadow thx, that’s the one
HOT TIP - this command is called "override connections" and though it's good when moving clips around, leaving connected clips in place, it's EVEN BETTER when using the Trim tool ("T"). Hold down the tilde key while doing a slip edit and connected clips stay put, instead of sliding along with the slip.
I've been a professional video editor for 20+ years, starting on AVID, moving on to Final Cut Pro and then to Premiere. I've used Final Cut X for a few projects and I found it clunky and frustrating. I have no doubt that there's an effective way to use FCP X if you put in the time to learn it; If you like using it, more power to you! But the idea that it is somehow MORE productive and creative a tool than Premiere or other editing software is ABSURD. Furthermore, this video tries to make Premiere look bad by showing an editor moving clips on the timeline in the least effective way possible. There are SEVERAL different techniques in Premiere that are equally effective as anything Final Cut X can do, but this video doesn't show any of them. Use whichever software works best for you, but be fair and honest if you're dissing another one.
Agreed. Final Cut to me seems to have been designed to be different, just for the sake of it. I hate the magnetic timeline and its counterintuitive nature and I detest trying to edit audio when the lanes are so small I can barely see them.
How your comment has aged. Learn to use FCPX efficiently (by putting in the time) and you'd never call it clunky/frustrating :)
@@wattage2007 Nonsense
@@Whaever_1981 A great, well argued and insightful comment. You’ve really shown me the error of my ways with such a comprehensive and intelligently formed reply.
@@wattage2007 I agree "wholemindedly" :D
The keywords/smart collections alone are worth the price. Makes logging SOOO smooth & fast.
Great video, super interesting for pro users and me as a 7 years Premiere Pro user who switched to FCPX. I remember that struggle, the moment I found out that Matilda hotkey and tried to use it all the time before I understood how precious the magnetic idea is.
anyone who uses both premiere and final cut, how do you feel about complex projects? I do alot of greenscreen, vizfx lower-thirds and integrated motion graphics. In a normal project I might have 10 layers of video and 8 layers of audio. And none of these are single tracks running the length of the video, it's all cut up all over the place. Who handles complexity better? When I look at the magnetic timeline, the biggest thing I need is lots of dead-space for organization in the timeline. This track is all chroma replacement backgrounds, this track is on-screen lists, the track above it is adjustment layers to those lists... All I'm aware of now is that you can put in "black video" separators in final cut to space things out.
I'm generally biased towards FCPX - that said, for your complicated use case, I still think it's a better fit. The way FCPX works is that you have one base clip in the "main storyline", then any additional layers (clips) are "connected" to the main clip (the exact connection point is graphically obvious, and movable). The benefit of this is that you can move your base clip around, and everything else follows along (you can also hold down a shortcut key for the opposite effect, so NOTHING follows). Another thing you might find handy is how quickly you can group and un-group a stack of clips (called a compound clip in fcpx parlance). That way you can combine your 10 video layers into one for graphical clarity, without it being any commitment - you can always go inside the compound clip to tweak it, or dissolve it back into its component parts with one keystroke.
And yes, if you need blank workspace in the time line, you need to create it with a blank spacer, but it is no more time consuming or complicated than creating a empty gap in a non-magnetic timeline, just a slight thought-readjustment. (option + W, makes a gap clip).
Premiere would be much better for more complex edits. It’s much easier to checkerboard on professional NLEs.
I went from a Windows based editor to Final Cut Pro X the day it came out. This movie, that you have made, sounds wonderful. It's hard to put into words, but I feel like we have been waiting on it to arrive.... even thought we didn't know it existed. I can't wait to see it. Thank you!
I worked with final cut and premiere pro and I prefer premiere pro any day but this decision is mostly dependent on the type of work you do. If you just do simple editing and lots of it final cut is probably faster. But if you do complex work or edit to the music I feel that premiere is just the better option. I think final cut is a very linear approach because if you work from start to finish it is really good but in premiere you can edit to the beat and fill in the gaps later this is my approach and works great for me. But I think there is not a „better“ Software it’s highly dependent on the work you do
Edit to music is almost impossible with only Final Cut Pro. I always have to bring up garage band and swipe like an idiot. Other than that the overall software is pretty good for me.
I completely agree with this perspective. When I edit I often start with the first sequence and then cut the final sequence before I fill in the gap. I also do a lot of music videos and ads that require me to cut to music and a magnetic timeline isn't at all ideal for that. It may not be perfect for every situation but Premiere works for me.
If you or anyone else would like to edit to music on final cut pro, the easy solution is to reconsider altogether the idea of editing from your timeline similar to how you see in adobe premiere. You should never edit from the timeline in final cut pro if you wish to do complex work and edit to music, instead what one must do is to move the clip up from the timeline and once you are done editing the entire piece than you move everything down to the timeline. In this case the timeline should be interpreted as the finished piece for that sequence, whether it's a rough draft sequence, and assembly sequence, whatever someone way call it. If you want to change something within the timeline simply move the clip up once again, and when done move the clip down put it back down to the timeline. It's actually much simpler. The way to do that is option+command+up arrow to go up, and option+command+down arrow to place back into the timeline.
I disagree. If you know how to use Final Cut, you can do anything with it. I'd recommend checking out a guy on Instagram called @GibsonHazard. He's a music videographer and has always used Final Cut X to edit all his videos. I was debating which editing software to use when I started making videos last year and was gonna go with Premiere until Gibson told he used FCPX. I decided to go with because it's cheaper than the Adobe subscription and I used Final Cut Express back in the day. It's not the software, it's the person using it...
@@W4TSKY but I agree, you can do a lot with final cut
I understood 100% what Apple was doing with FCPX. I went to the Apple Store, taught myself how to use it and I've loved it every since. I was sold on the magnetic timeline immediately. I'd been wishing for something like that and couldn't believe they had done it.
People are afraid of change, after you wrap your head around the magnetic timeline it’s something that is genius. Having said that I wish they would bring back scrub tool
I started with Final Cut Pro 7 then transitioned to FCPX. What pissed me off at the time of launch was the lack of features such as multi cam editing, importing existing FCP7 files, and lack of project collaboration support. I switched to Premiere Pro CC as it was similar to FCP7, but slowly, Apple incorporated new ways of multi cam editing, made improvements to the magnetic time line (especially how to disable it when not wanted) and added effective color grading tools (latest updated). It still lacks collaboration support so I hope they make strides to add this feature in another iteration.
At 6:10, when Premiere's CMD+drag feature is being demo-ed......don't do it that way, genius. Hold CMD+Alt+drag if you want to affect only the layers the clips you're dragging occupy. This completely eliminates the issue for almost any application. Once you get it, it's a no-brainer.
John Burton thank you! They’re doing the edit operation in the worst way, just to make their point.
"Look at this nonsense! If I do it wrong, the program does the wrong thing! What kind of garbage program does the wrong thing when you do the wrong thing?!"
The title is accurate, the glorification of the magnetic timeline and the inability of the Premiere demonstrator to hold ALT while dragging clips is not.
I edit music videos on Final Cut Pro X and the first thing I do when I start importing clips is remove them from the magnetic timeline - i rarely plan ahead when making videos so most of the work I do in the edit is experimental and I find the magnetic timeline just gets in the way of my creative process...
The main annoying thing to me about fcpx is the rigidity towards crossover with other editing software. You can no longer export the file as an omf for editing of sound and colouring has also been hella frustrating as well. Very intuitive, easy to use & I absolutely love the magnetic timeline, but it only suits basic cutting and always gets frustrating when trying to do pro stuff and work with pros who use other tools.
I have no other frame of reference, I learned how to cut on final cut pro ten, Great vid Sven!
I started using FCP X when it first launched. Everything that people were complaining about was all stuff I loved! I learned motion graphics using Motion as well. Then my mac died and I was forced to start editing everything with Premiere and After Effects and while they are very solid pieces of software, I find that I'm yelling at my screen a lot more, asking "why?" a lot. I have gotten good again at the old way of editing, but I long for the day I can afford another mac to get back into the flow of using FCP again. Also, great job on this video I really am excited to check out this documentary!
The problem wasn't FCPX. It was the rigid mindsets of the experienced editors.
What about the fact that the magnetic timeline creates major audio issues.. ?
I Switched from Premiere Pro CC to FCPX. FCPX is so much easier to work with and faster. 10 minutes of learning how it works and your good to go. Really well thought out Editing package.
Completely agree, Premiere is way too slow for my workflow.. Even if it is a much more complete package.
Well, here is proof that in some cases, it's a matter of preference. I personally find final cut so tedious and confusing to navigate even after months of using it full time, I routinely took projects home to edit in Premiere and brought back xml compatible files. Glad it works for you, even if I'll never understand how 😅
I’ve never watched a single tutorial on FCP yet and it’s just so simple. Can’t wait to dig in more and learn it like I know photoshop for photo editing :-)
All you have to do is “Lift From Storyline” if you don’t want the magnetic timeline effect. Not a deal breaker
Gm Visuals Or turn it off lol
I've been avoiding this channel for months because I figured literally anybody who actually edits like a professional would name their channel *anything but* "This Guy Edits!!!," but I finally gave you a chance because I know the FCP7/FCPX trainwreck story like the back of my hand, so I knew I'd be able to calibrate my reaction. Sure enough, halfway through, you're like "I prefer to cut with FCPX whenever I can." Yeah. That's exactly what I was expecting for months. God bless, peace out.
glad I was able to convince you of my incompetence within one video :)
I've been a pro editor for 25 years and have worked with everything, Media 100, Avid, Premiere etc.. FCP 7 was my choice and I deeply regret its destruction and the arrival of the amateurish FCP 10. I'm amazed that apple has chosen to fuck all of its users in this way and wonder why they don't just name FCP 10 something else and continue with the REAL FCP.. FCP 8 would be the most popular editing system on the planet if they simply had the wisdom to put it out. period.
Thanks for the video... I use Premiere and FCPX depending on the project. The one thing I hate about FCPX is audio, no audio crossfade (I created one in Motion), no master track to put a limiter and a loudness meter, I had to buy a very expensive software just to do post in Pro Tools.... Audio could have a big, big improvement... the rest, I love it.
psst, you can always just put your entire timeline into a compound clip when you're done, then apply the compressor there... (also good for adding a broadcast safe filter)
DaCarnival I do that for youtube, but is a slow workaround
Agreed, timelines should just have their own effects stacks, both video and audio.
DaCarnival totally agree, at least, in the worse case scenario, one master track
Agreed, audio implementation needs tracks with an efx chain and audio bus. Basically to do this you need to bounce to LogicX. I'd like to see LogicX style tracks incorporated in FCPX.
FCPX all the way! It's the most intuitive software ever created. I started on AVID in 1999, then Premier, they Final Cut Pro 4 thru 7, and when I discovered FCPX, editing software finally made sense. FCPX is like an extension of my brain. It just works.
I came to FCPX because it was buy once and that’s it; I stay with it because it does everything I need it to and mostly it does it intuitively. And it has amazing depth I have yet to fully explore!
Interesting Fact : in LumaFusion, which is a video editing app on device, you can choose at every moment to go from a magnetic timeline system to the “gap” one. That’s pretty clever! Of course, it’s on device and you don’t have everything but some features are even better than in FCPX like au automatic audio duckling or handling your clips by touch. 😊
Such a sad day, still on FCP7
I loved final cut 6 on my G5 up until 2015! I moved to PCs and Premiere now, but wouldn't complain if I had to use fcp 6 or 7 for a project tomorrow.
Seriously, no standalone OMF separates from video, proprietary XML... the flexibility of a pro is that you get to set what system you want to finish the film... be it resolve or baselight for grading nuke or aftereffect or flame for touch up, comp, and effects; protools or logic or audacity if you want for sound... FCPX is good for people who is really staying inside the Apple methodologies ONLY... with the death of FCP7 this year, I’m experimenting and learning a few systems... FCPX isn’t bad, it’s just ridiculously hard to export compatible files for all system that and not “approved” or is gauged being old (like the super easy to use OMF)
Still cutting a feature in FCP7. Aside from the HD restriction it gets the job done.
@@steven_porter I have two G5s and I'm trying out FCP6 on them because I feel like learning it will help me to improve as an editor in general, having been a Premiere loyalist for so long.
I work with Edius, Adobe and Final Cut Pro X. Final Cut Pro X is the best editing software. People say it's a dumbed down editing system but it's not. You can make your projects as complicated as you want them to be. A lot of software will slow down or crash but Final Cut Pro X keeps going.
I was using Premiere Pro CC for about 6 months and then switching over to FCPX after getting my new Macbook Pro. And although there are many great design choices and feels a lot more user friendly AND the effects are amazing and diverse, I feel Premiere is better suited to create your own effects while in FCPX you're just expected to either use the default effects or purchase effect packs online if you're doing more complicated work than just cutting and pasting scenes. My biggest issue has been trying to smooth out zooming and panning. I really really don't like the zooming effect not having proper bezier handles to manipulate keyframe animations. All tutorials online just say "Add some color correction and buy this transition pack" So that is why I ended up going back to Premiere.
Really good vid! I jumped from iMovie to Premier Pro, simply because it seems to be the software that most pro RUclipsrs use. The magnetic timeline sounds like both a blessing & curse - i can definitely see its advantage, & also where I'd be screaming in frustration.
Book Your Imagination FCPX is super intuitive for a former iMovie-user. I tried PP and was pulling my hair. I’ve done quite complex stuff already with iMovie and was trying to learn how to do it in PP but got so frustrated. FCPX just gave me more tools to work with but the logic was the same old familiar one :) iMovie, after all, has a magnetic timeline as well.
@@piiak6848 yeah, I've had some frustrations with PP as well. I haven't had time to commit to a 30 day trial of FCPX to really try it out before buying, but it's definitely on my list of things to do. I got a really good deal on adobe suite for a year, & that is almost up, so I will definitely be considering FCPX. Thx for telling me your experience! It's good to know!
I use both premier and fcpx. I think they are both great but they should be used for different things. I think premier allows more fine tuning and control and fcpx allows speed and ease of use. Premiere should be used when you want to do a feature film while fcpx is more well suited to documentary or video editing.
I probably don’t understand the magnetic timeline concept but it seems to me like it only applies to clips which are already in the timeline and Rearranging the order of clips. Typical edits require robust file & bin management to sift for footage efficiently so you can make the creative decisions on the fly. If you know your software there are keyboard shortcuts that make any timeline ‘magnetic’
My biggest concern with fcpx is it needs a master audio track so I can easily disable all audio for certain clips.
I edit commercials, promos, PSAs and news on Premiere at my TV station job. It’s a great improvement over the AVID Symphony torture that I endured for four years.
Still, I would have preferred FCPX in the workplace.
I comfortably and efficiently use FCPX in my home studio and at my church’s edit suite. It is truly a joy to use.
I use final cut, I used to use premiere and Sony Vegas. The magnetic time line is good for editing films and movies, but I do a lot of music videos that require a lot of syncing with the music. This is where the magnetic time line does not work very well. Once you sync a clip to the lyrics of the song, you can not change the position of the clip in the time line. Im glad your able to lift clips from the time line so the magnetic feature doesn’t effect the syncing. It took me a while to get used to it but I really enjoy using the software. It just lacks in the ability to have high quality effects and tracking that premiere and after effects excel at
Here’s what I love about FCPX vs all other nles, if you know how to use and give it a shot, ( for a solid week) the big thing you notice is FCPX just gets out of the way and let’s me create. I watch PP editors work and I want to cry with how slow everything is and how many steps simple things take... what no one realizes is that not only is it taking longer but you are not as able to dive deeper into the creative.
Fantastic video! I still use Premiere for that collaboration aspect-I still have to share the projects with other editors I work with. BUT, if it's a project I can do on my own, I definitely do it in FCPX. My workflow is so much faster, the optimization after editing is unrivaled and the overall intuitiveness (after you get through the crazy learning curve) is actually FUN. Again, great job on this vid!!
Really interesting video guys! Thanks!
Awesome! Stoked to watch the documentary! As someone who began using it on day 1 (professionally), and never looked back... there were undeniable growing pains. Though looking back, I like to think Apple was a little like Gretzky in the sense that they could probably see Intel's Quick-Sync and Metal coming down the pipeline... dropped the aging codebase, and skated to where the puck would be in the future. Adobe skated to where the puck was of course, and picked up a lot of users... but I think there's a clear winner today in terms of performance with minimal hardware specs. I learned early on that if you didn't like how the magnetic timeline behaved for certain types of projects, you could just pop the clips up, and use the underlying gap generator as a static pincushion for the entire project, and nothing moved at all if you didn't want it to. My hat's off to the folks at Apple for taking a risk, and looking past the short-term cost to the long-run benefit :)
Anyone else still rockin' FCP7?
I love FCPX. A professional Editor from Bangladesh
It's funny, I cut on AVID Media Composer for 98% of my work. Netflix, network tv/series/doc series. I've been doing it for about 17 years now total and I honestly DO NOT think when I'm executing the program moves to get what i want done. I was like that with FCP 7 as well pre-2012 I was back and forth from the two often.
I was one of those who tried early FCPX and just DESPISED it, mostly because it made THINk about what I had to do to negotiate the program to get the desired narrative outcome.
It's come a long way since it's inception and I'd be curious to see how I fare against it. I've picked up Premiere super quick as it became an extension of FCP 7 for me really.
Anyway great video, super interesting topic. Man I just remember when Murch was up there dissing X after he had such wonderful things to say about 7.
Takes me back a bit, again great work.
I've used FCP X for over five years now and I couldn't be happier with the move... it has more pluses than minuses from my vantage point.
Great video! Why isn't there a way to simply turn off Magnetic Timeline in FCPX?! I began editing with FCP7, jumped to FCPX and I am just now switching to Premiere. I can't believe I just learned the Tilde function in FCPX, but I don't think that would make me switch back. I edit a lot of music videos, and it would just kill me when I made a tweak and suddenly the entire video out of sync to the music.
The magnetic timeline is easy and fast. Really, the issues with FCPX on release were a lot less the magnetic timeline, a lot more to do with the lack of colour wheels, multicam support, FCP7 project support, and other options; the software felt half-baked and was not ready for professional release imho. With the latest release (starting 2017) all of this is back, it works awesome, plus there is a suite of third-party plugins. Plus, *you can do edits without the magnetic timeline*, yes it can be circumvented - but once you get the handle on it, it is far, far better than traditional timeline work (and I say this as someone who began cutting with 16mm and Hi-8 on an Amiga). What I still don't like is media management, as the video outlines. Tagging and media display options could be improved. Plus if you have to reset FCPX prefs (not uncommon...), you lose all the tags.
Seven years later, think about where Final Cut Pro would be now if they had simply made incremental improvements on Final Cut Pro 7 (an actual Pro system). They could have added the (silly) magnetic thing to that without removing a million things that pros wanted and needed. Of course, then you'd have to imagine Apple caring about something other than consumer products.
Well, they needed to rewrite the program from scratch just from a computer architecture stand-point. Could they have just copied their FCP7 to a new architecture? Absolutely. But instead they used the opportunity to think of a new way of doing things, believing genuinely that media manipulation on a computer had untapped potential. Did they make the transition unnecessarily hard for their previous users? Yes. Did they make a perfect product right off the bat? Absolutely not. Did they make something that feels exciting and intuitive and fresh to a lot of editors, many of whom have developed a frankly bizarre level of enthusiasm for the program? In fact, they did.
So if I think about the 7 years of incremental improvements to FCP7 you dream about, this is what I see: Final Cut, Premiere, DaVinci, Avid are all more or less the same, distinguished by periphery features and calcified user preference. You're dreaming of redundancy.
Wow. You really think it's a great idea to take away professionals' working tools and break them. Yes, an architectural upgrade was exactly what editors wanted and would have made a difference. Keep bins, add keywording. Keep timeline, add a magnetic timeline option.
Any software company which wasn't so full of conceited jackasses on an ego trip would have managed this transition with respect for its users and respect for alternative ways of creation rather than force feeding us a single way of doing things (magnetic timeline).
FCP7 was the greatest editing program ever. It didn't need to be broken.
Whether it’s on iOS, OS X/MacOS, or any of their software, apple HAS NEVER given you all the possible options. Clutter and bloat is the antithesis of their whole design philosophy. 80% of the time it makes their stuff slicker, nicer and more intuitive than anyone else's - 20% of the time it’s absolutely infuriating and limiting. Agree with it or not, but they would never make a two-programs-in-one kind of NLE.
Once they realised what a catastrophy the FCPX launch was, they did point out that FCP7 was still there, unchanged and capable. And for a while they updated the codecs for it, had some minimal maintenance. So they didn’t really take away anyone’s tools, but of course gradually killing it off is still killing it off.
But no, I don’t think it was a good idea to infuriate the FCP7 user base who just wanted a new coat of paint. I DO think that it was a good idea to make their vision for FCPX in an uncompromising, forward thinking manner. And with the limited resources of a small development team, it was probably hard to do the latter without doing the former.
Maybe if I was as nostalgic as you about FCP7 I would still be pissed, but I had tons of technical problems with that software back in the day and never really looked back.
Small development team? We are talking about one of the biggest software and hardware companies in the world with hundreds billions of dollars in revenue (even at the time). No Apple just could not give a toss about their users. They sold out pro users to the iPhone crowd.
20% of the time. Hardly. The only thing which keeps me using OS X (look up "Apple core rot" for what's wrong with the file system and the networking) are the years of expertise I have using third party applications for Apple.
It took Apple six months to get their egos under control and step back the banning of FCP7 (no sales, no educational materials, no downloads, no nothing).
Forward thinking - it's not forward thinking, it's selfish and destructive. There was no need to destroy the old to bring in the new. Making them co-exist would have been what any company who cares about their users would have done. On software, Apple's burned their bridges permanently with me via the FCPX debacle, the Apple Aperture debacle. It's sad to see people looking for religion/a cause choosing to worship a major global corporation instead of either choosing humanism or god (take your pick).
On hardware, Apple has burned their bridges by creating machines that can neither be maintained or upgraded once out of warranty. By choosing new Apple computers you are actively contributing to the destruction of the planet (rare earth metals, non-recyclables). In 2011 Apple joined Prism in October 2012 (had to bury Steve Jobs a year earlier before insiders could be pushed to do so, Jobs did respect privacy) so even the idea that Apple somehow protects their users is nonsense.
Minimalist design strategy is for simple apps for non-pro users. Somewhere some people need sophisticated tools to do advanced work. A pity that Apple users should not be among them according to Apple. Yes, as iMovie Pro, FCPX is fine. FCPX is still a struggle for long form or sophisticated audio or any of the myriad of work which FCP7 made easier.
You can take your condescending "nostalgic" language and shove it, DaCarnival. You are a koolaid drinking (and pouring) apologist for some of the worst custodians of digital creation.
Easy there man, I don't think we disagree as much as you think. Maybe you see the percentages inverted - 20% cool 80% crap - but I agree that Apple is not focused on making life easier for digital professionals. Their core audience is doodling creatives, more aspirational, less dependable. As a massive corporate entity I have no love for Apple, and if Final Cut didn't only run on macs I would have switched to PC a few years back, because building a workstation mac is both expensive and underwhelming. HOWEVER I truly have drunken the kool-aid on FCPX, guilty as charged. Editing is my full time job and the different paradigm that FCPX represents fundamentally appeals to me. To me it almost feels like upgrading from a typewriter to a word processor. This is a feeling that many people - working professionals - share with me. In this comment section we are talking about the pro's and con's of Final Cut, not the existence of Apple Inc.
I've done several long-form projects on FCPX, YES audio post is a hassle, but doable. It is a sophisticated tool, uniquely tailored not to a "pipeline" or "integration" or "professional delivery" but first and foremost to storytelling. That is why my editor self is willing to excuse the kinks and work-arounds that infuriate my post-production-manager self. That's not to say FCPX can't be used on a massive scale by working people. There are TV stations running just on FCPX now.
And as to the size of the development team - being the FCPX team at Apple is like being the people in charge of window-wipers at Tesla. It is a fairly small operation, and certainly no bigger than what Avid and Adobe are operating.
This is a great explanation of the differences between FCPX and basically every other NLE. Thank you for this! :)
I watched with bated breath this video, in hopes that it would materialize into something amazing and revolutionary. I am sorry to say that it did not. I was following your point about the magnetic timeline, and then it just fizzled, into something, i am not sure of...I'm sorry, but just giving you my honest feedback.
This documentary is outstanding. I have actually watched it three times.
I absolutely love FCPX. it is very user friendly from the start. Very nice vid bro, very informative
THANK GOD I started with FCPX so I don't know what the gripe is about.
The tilde
key!! I never knew that trick, and I've been using this software for years! Thank you!!
I love using FCPX ... Recent updates have made it a game changer.
I've been using it since 2011, its vastly improved in that time. 👍
I think most people not loving the 'OFF TRACKS' route FCPX has taken, is people over 30 years of age. We -over 30- need to face this is the future and get on with the program. It is easier and friendlier, so why wouldn't we?
I had already used Final Cut Pro 7 many years ago. When lunched a Final Cut Pro X, I switched from Final Cut Pro 7 to Final Cut Pro X.
I found a lot of difficulties in Final Cut Pro X. I realized that "Final Cut Pro 7 better then Final Cut Pro X in many options". So I switched to Adobe Premiere Pro.
Now I am using Adobe Premiere Pro it's good for me.
(Sorry for my bad English)
I'm a 14 year old editor making very dense high quality videos. I've worked with iMovie, FCPX, and Premiere and I have to say that they are all great programs and that there isn't simply the best program for everyone. If you are an amateur video producer, like a simplistic editing software or care about working very fast and efficiently with minimal editing, then a minimal, linear editing software is likely to fit your expectations and needs.
Both FCPX and iMovie are absolutely brilliant if you respect speed editing and simplicity where you can basically drag and drop your clips, slap a song on, do some small clipping and put an effect on here and there and be done.
The problem starts to set in when you appreciate simplistic editing software but need to do a semi-medium effect where the linear design and lack of control will start to harm your video quality.
Premiere Pro is all about professional editing that is frame-by-frame perfect and has no compromises. There is almost nothing that it can't do and when it can't do something it's brother programs like Photoshop or After Effects that most likely come with your plan will certainly be capable of doing it. It has an absolutely beautiful design and it is the program I choose when I'm making my complex videos.
The problem comes when the complexity of Premiere starts to affect your thought process and workflow. This is where iMovie and FCPX will help you.
Overall, this is just my opinion, but I'm just here to say that the program you choose should be the one that will give YOU the best results in the quickest time possible. Thank you for reading.
PureOakGaming I personally think, that Davinci Resolve 15 is the perfect mix from both worlds.
"Magnetic Timeline" existed long , long , time ago in Sonic Foundry ( Sony ) Vegas Pro. It was the ripple edit, snap timeline, love that feature!!
I'll definitely watch the doc. Thank you for posting. One major thing I didn't see in this interview was the real reasons why people left Final Cut when X was released. THEY COULDN'T USE IT PROFESSIONALLY! I could no longer use it professionally. Why? Many of the professional features that were available in 7 were gone in X. You can't release a major update to software and remove functions that professionals use. It didn't make sense. I still remember watching the release and super excited when I saw the magnetic timeline. The magnetic timeline is the most brilliant part of Final Cut X. Major time saver. BUT, when Apple said that Final Cut Pro X couldn't output video to an external monitor, every editor, filmmaker, professional user, etc., had to move to something else. This was true of X when it was released and it made Final Cut Pro X useless for professional users. To call this an oversight would be calling Apple stupid. Have they fixed this since? Yes. But it was too late and that is one major reason why they lost all that market share. The other reason is the lack of being able to bring in Final Cut 7 timelines. I used 7 until I couldn't use it anymore and I now use Davinci Resolve, and it is sometimes a pain in the ass, I've used Premiere, and I still have a Mac so I use Final Cut if I have to. But with every release, Resolve gets better and Final Cut and Premiere have small improvements. Apple dropped the ball.
In Premiere use CTRL + ALT (CMD + OPT) will switch clips. If you only use CTRL it will do a Timeline insert, which is a different thing all together.
The magnetic timeline was never my issue with FCPX. It was everything else.
Are you mostly referring to all the things missing or half-baked in version 1? Not that that isn't a legitimate beef you have with the software, but a lot has changed in 7 years...
@@DaCarnival the limited colour grading capabilities is the most memorable issue for me. I've moved on to DaVinci Resolve now, so it's all good.
FCPX Colour had a great update a while back, and handy plug-ins bridge a few gaps - but of course it can't compete with Resolve for colour, no NLE can. Good news is that taking a timeline from FCPX to Resolve has always been very smooth, which I do on larger projects. If it's straight to web stuff, FCPX grading is plenty (the biggest limitation is no planar tracking).
What a great day it has become. A new video from TGE
I bounce back and forth between FCPX and Premiere depending on the project. FCPX runs way smoother and the magnetic timeline can be nice at times, but I also feel like it just can't do as much as Premiere. Plus if I need to do motion graphic work it's After Effects all day over Motion 5.
Former Premiere Pro here and the magnetic timeline was a hassle at first but now I got really used to it.
I thank Final Cut for introducing me to Adobe Premiere.
I just got the latest version of Da Vinci Resolve and the word out there on the internet is that Resolve is great. For me it is like going back to the dark ages.Slow clunky and manual. It took me a long time to understand FCP X after suing FCP 7 but once you get it there is no doubt about it...FCP is just simply a superior program.
“Oscar award winner, used to love final cut” 😂😂😂 lol
I got going on filmmaking in the summer 2011. I downloaded trials of every NLE. FCPX was released about a week later, and when I opened it up, it was like a breath of fresh air. Never looked back. There was one big-name editor (I think it was Murcheson) who advocated creating a Filemaker database for every project, to keep up with metadata. Well, I am a Filemaker developer, and while it is easy to use, it is completely unnecessary when editing with FCPX. Those professionals who choked on X are simply locked in to an obsolete paradigm. I understand the legitimate criticism about collaboration, and it would be great if Apple addressed the issue.
I remember when this all happened. I read through all the forums and witnessed all the backlash and kerfuffle that ensued. I migrated over from FCP7 to FCPX from day one and I never looked back. I watched the announcement presentation and it just clicked for me. There were many features missing and luckily as I was still an amateur, I didn't need many of those features. Luckily my needs grew at the exact same time Apple released later improvements and features so for me there was no friction in adopting the new software.
I use FCPX as a professional editor. When it was released... it was awful. It was too 'young'/underdeveloped and shouldn't have been released as a professional program till 2015 at least. It's really powerful and awesome now, but totally understand why it lost so many users initially. I will say, I love the magnetic timeline, but I do worry FCPX is leaving it professional market in favour for a more commercial one in some of the features.
When I use premiere, I get frustrated I can't simply move a clip without the process being potentially destructive to the timeline and choose to use it only in larger projects.
I just loath the idea of being stuck in the Apple ecosystem just to use Finale Cut.
It took me around two 2 years of trials and errors and 3 years of school 🏫 to master Premier Pro. It took me 10 minutes to learn & understand FCPX. And a week later I was editing faster than I was in Premiere.
"~" Man, You changed my world in a second with this one, small bastard! After 6 years! It was so easy all the time.. "~"
you know what's really surreal? When you start watching a video on youtube and it opens with your email correspondence with Steve Jobs.
the idea of combining imovie users with profissional, if not semi-professional fCP users was a great one, it just killed everyone who was so dedicated to studio. I still feel the pain!
I went from FCP7 to X. When you first make the switch it's definitely jarring. The whole thing feels confused and wrong and it's not surprising that people ended up going to Premiere. The thing is though, if you stick with X, something happens. The frustration disappears and things just start to click. Things that annoyed you at first become a vital part of your editing process. The whole system becomes intuitive in a way other NLEs never did, at least for me. Not too long ago I had to go back to 7 to work on an old project and man, it felt so archaic. I also tried playing around with Premiere and I just couldn't get into it. FCPX does everything I need and it does so quickly and efficiently.
I do think you need time with it though. For anyone who dismissed it when it first came out or anyone working with other NLE's and are curious, my advice is to use X for a project where you don't have a quick deadline, something that you can work on for a month and in that month, don't use any other NLE's. There's no "holy shit" moment where it all clicks at once. It's gradual. The more you use it, the more intuitive it becomes and eventually you won't want to go back to anything else, at least that's how it was with me.
so glad i watched this, opened my eyes to alot as a music video editor will be checking both your work out
I went from FCPX in 2011 to FCPX in 2018. In you stick with one editor you focus on creating not comparing.
Software is software. Editing is editing. I started on Final Cut Pro Studio (7), then FCPX (liked editing, but hated organisation), Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer (I love the organisation and editing, but UI needs a little work), I’m now exploring Resolve (it has potential as best of both worlds).
Final Cut's magnetic timeline is a nice tool but the option should be there to shut it off for those who edit a different way such a laydown audio and narration first and then start filling in black gaps with video clips as decor. Or create a pace for the music with audio cues, and move sounds around without moving things around. Not everything is visual not everything has to be constrained together. Both options should be available.
I personally use MAGIX Vegas Pro for my editing. I can choose to either create gaps in my tracks or auto ripple my cuts. Sometimes I edit with ripple on sometimes with ripple off. Depends on the edit. For organizing I use keywords just like it was explained in this video.
For some projects I may use a different software such as Davinci resolve or premier pro. It all depends on the project and how I want to approach it.
The organizational tools are terrific in FCPX however, the workflow is totally unnecessary. It is really a stupid upgrade. Being a Final Cut user for years having to deal with this was totally unacceptable. I gave it a chance and I see no advantage to it.
Really informative video Sven and to answer your question I have never used FCP before, I primarily use Premiere, but there are some features from FCP that I wish were Premiere. Features such as the magnetic timeline, being able to audition clips, and the way FCP handles muticam editing, I like the idea of seeing multiple angles of a shot as I'm editing instead of having to manually switch to different views as I'm cutting.
I switched to Premiere after FCP7 because of a few things: edit software is just a tool. I could edit FCP with my eyes closed (apple certified pro) and Premiere was just like an old friend (I had last used Premiere 6 (old old version 6) in the late 90s. I could use the FCP7 shortcuts I knew. I had no downtime learning new software. I could export OMFIs (I do broadcast work, some clients like to do their own sound mix or replace music tracks for licensing reasons etc) and most importantly of all, I had hardware freedom. I could buy huge RAM at retail, I could buy huge GFX cards at retail and use all the cores, as much as I loved my old 27" Imac and my old MacPro tower, the graphics card failed on both. Terminal on the iMac...
It was also a little political. Apple decided to drop support for FCP users. It showed me no loyalty. They could decide tomorrow that they are out of the video market. When I set up media labs at a University where I worked I put £100k's of sales Apples way. We had 7 FCP labs. To kill all that and effectively deskill our students overnight was pretty hard going.
Off the Tracks turns into infomercial territory quite quickly, and the usual apple zealots with their 'how stoopid are you' tone and expression chip in. I don't care what it was edited on.
I don't care how you edit. I care about what you make. The story you tell. I'm glad if the tool you've chosen works for you. It doesn't work for me. And thats about it.
Anyone else start tapping "L" anytime youtube goes to a Skillshare promo?
I love the magnetic timeline. I also work a lot in Logic Pro and I wish there was a magnetic feature that you could at least toggle, depending on what you're doing. Often I'm cutting out audio from a region that isn't usable or is a "take two" and it would be nice if the remaining region would "close the gap" when you cut it out.
My main problem with FCP X was media management. I felt that to get the most out of it, and think of creating and archiving projects and having a similar workflow to how everyone worked in FCP 7, there was too steep a learning curve and it was too frustrating to be able to trust that everything was working as it used to. The editing was easier to grasp.
Hi guys, I've never had any problems with fcpx. I personally love it. Good video mate.