Might as well post this here to keep the FCX thread staggering forward...
black sun posted this earlier: http://fcp.co/final-cut-pro/news/512-evan-schectmann-talks-sense-about-fcpxs-his tory-features-and-future
Personally, it feels a bit like an infomercial to me. Mr. Schectmann's timeline seems a little off on the dates, but no biggie -
The difference between Apple's other transitions and FCX is this - When Apple transitioned from 68000 processors to PPC, they provided backwards compatibility. When OSX shipped, it RAN OS 9 inside it - backwards compatibility. Apple also shipped OS9 and OSX alongside each other to allow people to transition. FCP3 shipped with OS9 and OSX versions. When Apple transitioned to Intel, Rosetta let Intel processors run PPC code. When FCX shipped, Apple dropped FCP and provided NO transition, no backwards compatibility.
- He conveniently left RED camera support off his list. Half the stuff I work on has been shot on RED.
- OMF exporting to Pro Tools? $500 add on by a third party. So NO, sorry, he doesn't get to cross that off his list.
- EDL, when was the last time I used an EDL? The last national commercial I cut - Scion Zeus. And guess what? I'll need to export an EDL again for the next round of them. Why? Because high end productions are a collaboration, not a pretty little walled garden where all effects are handled inside FCX. Sorry. FCX is NOT Flame or Smoke or Nuke. So, he may make fun of EDLs and compare them to a floppy drive, but for me - it's essential.
- Tape support. Sorry - He may say that hardware manufacturers would do it better, but that's baloney. If I want to recapture my edit, the editing software KNOWS what clips I need. That's its JOB. THAT is why it needs to be inside the software.
- No viewer window. The skimmer took its place. Except no ganging - no ability to compare. If you didn't use it, I suppose you won't miss it. But it was a very powerful tool that I used all the time.
- The Events window is NOT a string out - a string out is not ALL the footage - it's selects.
- He says you can go down to the sample level with audio now, as though you couldn't do that before. But you could go down to subframe and set keyframes and levels in FCP just fine, thanks.
- Edit tools - nice, but in FCX you can't edit with the keyboard only, you have to double click. FCX is just not built for speed.
- Audio Sync - great. But when I used it, it didn't work unless I held its hand and selected the audio range first. After working for a long time, it failed miserably. Plural Eyes took the same material and synced it all properly within minutes.
- External hardware - video cards like Decklink and AJA - Apple shipped FCX without even the API to do it. The "beta" drivers are hacks- they just use software to make the OS think that the Decklink/AJA card is a second desktop monitor and sends that out. And because it's a hack, and because FCX can only send to ONE other monitor, you can only use it if you are using only one computer monitor.
- He may poo-poo being unable being able to open FCP 7 projects or push it off to third parties, or excuse Apple for "****** if you do and ****** if you don't" but Apple could have made a "best effort". Apple COULD have actually done something smart and fully supported FCP projects - EVEN old effects. But they said screw it. We don't care.
So - nice ideas in FCX. But Mr. Schectmann's presentation basically took my list of problems and said they don't matter.
Just like Apple did.
