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Level 1

23 points

Turning off the magnetic timeline?

Where the **** is the off switch?!?!?! I hope there's an option to turn it off occasionally. I don't always want things sliding around on their own, especially when I'm trying to time something to music!!!! I've been a FCP editor since day one and a professional editor for 15 years, I see how the magnetic timeline can be useful, but if I have to have it constantly engaged I have a feeling I'll be jumping off a bridge very soon!

Final Cut Pro X-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.5.2), mac pro 2 x 2.66 Dual-Core Intel Xeon - Memory: 4 GB 667 MHz

Posted on Jun 21, 2011 8:50 AM

Best reply

axis360

Level 1

139 points

Posted on Jun 21, 2011 9:17 AM

Final Cut Pro defaults to having the snapping feature turned on. In the upper right corner of the timeline window you will find the snapping icon.

The magnetic property of the timeline is called snapping. Without it, you would more than likely have small gaps between edits where you attempted to match clips together.

Snapping can be turned on and off by clicking on the snapping icon, or by pressing the N key on the keyboard. You may find it may be easier to press the N key instead of trying to navigate to the small snap icon in the upper right corner of the timeline window.

Hope that helps John

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70 replies

jpjd Author

Level 1

23 points

Jun 23, 2011 8:16 PM in response to daniel fiori editor

Daniel. I feel the same as you! I really hate the idea of going back to AVID. I really enjoyed the past 10 years on FCP. I feel like I'm morning a dying friend. Using FCP 7.0.8 to cut a series as we speak.

That youtube clip is funny. I love how the guys like, look you can select all these clips and delete them and magically the timeline fixes itself by magnetically attracting all the clips back together! HELLO, when is that ever useful!!!!! If you take something out you usually want to put something back in because you'll have a jump cut or some strange edit. I like the space between when removing a clip. LEAVE MY GAPS ALONE APPLE!!!! I like them so can easily find where I am in a cut so I can drop in a replacement clip with ease. Bottom line this product is not for serious cutters! I've been editing for fifteen years on everything from music vids to features and FCP X needs a lot of attention to make it whole again! There are some silver-lining features, but overall it's a mess!

Stefan B.

Level 1

100 points

Jun 23, 2011 8:24 PM in response to jpjd

The new Storyline is the best feature I've ever seen in an NLE. If you don't like it, you should default to the Position tool (Hotkey P) to do your edits, as it leaves all other clips in place.

jpjd Author

Level 1

23 points

Jun 23, 2011 8:29 PM in response to Stefan B.

Ya I noticed that about the "P" position tool. I also prefer cutting above on the upper tracks because it mimics what works for me. I just wish that Apple would let me turn off the STORYLINE layer completely in the prefs. Doesn't seem like an unfair request, especially for something that's so radically different for people to get use to!

Glad you like it though. It's just not for all editors.

Jun 23, 2011 8:30 PM in response to jpjd

I feel like my wife (we married 10 years ago and spend 10 hours a day together) has gone with the pool guy.

jpjd Author

Level 1

23 points

Jun 23, 2011 8:33 PM in response to daniel fiori editor

I hear you!

jpjd Author

Level 1

23 points

Jun 23, 2011 8:34 PM in response to jpjd

Oh and I meant mourning on that last post not morning 😉 LOL!

Jun 23, 2011 8:55 PM in response to daniel fiori editor

daniel fiori editor wrote:

I used to hate Avid JPJD. I've spent hours talking (fighting) to people how Final Cut was better than Avid. But now we got to come back to AVID and that 80's software design.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT8Wc8g9tH0 This guy is very happy with the new Final Cut Vista, I think he was the The Bourne Ultimatum editor.... No? Maybe I'm confused....

Hey I have a stupid question. What if I WANT dead space? Believe it or not, I don't want my editing program to fight me by assuming that it knows what I want. There are times that I use dead space, and I might want to delete a clip and not have it throw off my entire timeline.

jpjd Author

Level 1

23 points

Jun 23, 2011 9:00 PM in response to Joshua Irwin

Hey Joshua. You can insert a gap and stretch it as needed. Not ideal but it works. Also if you hang out on the tracks above the STORYLINE you can leave gaps simply by grabbing and moving a clip, as long as you have a nice long gap inserted on the STORYLINE layer for those **** clip connectors to latch into. Hope that helps.

syntax_r

Level 1

0 points

Jun 24, 2011 2:40 AM in response to jpjd

Thanks for the suggestion, but I tried that already and it's a no go. Certain edits are only possible to do in the storyline layer, like transitions. Maybe there's a way, but haven't found it.

Can see that @InMotion have seen the same behavior, and thinks it's a bug. I don't know. Fits in with how the magnetic timeline works in general; not so good.

Jun 24, 2011 4:48 AM in response to jpjd

Is this the idea?

- make a long gap in the main (default) storyline

- drag clips above it

- if you want to use transitions or other edits between these clips, make them into little storylines of their own

the 'mini-storylines' seem quite powerful ways of grouping pieces of the whole.

for music video work, why not put the audio track to which the video needs to be added into the main (default) storyline, then drag your clips above it, leaving them at exactly where they need to be? This way the audio file itself is the timeline.

Chris

syntax_r

Level 1

0 points

Jun 24, 2011 5:20 AM in response to ctzsnooze

ctzsnooze, those are workarounds that could solve some problems, but still doesn't change the fact that clips are shifted left or right (and out of sync with other "storylines") when transitions are added, due to the magnetic timeline.

Apple, give me a simple button to turn off the magnetic timeline! I'm sick of it already!

Jun 24, 2011 5:38 AM in response to syntax_r

The clips dont shift when you apply transitions in a secondary storyline from its original sync - connect point ... you do something wrong .

If you dont want to use magnetic timeline, just press P and use the Position tool only , not A tool.

syntax_r

Level 1

0 points

Jun 24, 2011 6:09 AM in response to JohnSpirou

The storyline's beginning isn't shifted, it's the internal clip structure of the (secondary) storyline that is shifted when applying transitions. Even with the Position tool selected.

To me it seems like the Position tool doesn't apply to transitions.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong. This should be an incredibly simple operation, so I can't understand where I make the mistake.

Jun 24, 2011 6:20 AM in response to Joshua Irwin

it seems that the new fcpx reverses the controls on us. in the previous version selecting a clip and hitting delete would leave a gap, but shift delete would close it up, well its the other way round in fcpx.

Jun 24, 2011 6:34 AM in response to jpjd

Transitions shifting clips is a separate issue that I wasn't aware of yet! :-(

So I tried to get an applied transition to shift clips within a storyline, and noticed something strange.

Let's say I drag the Lens Flare transition to the gap between two clips on any storyline (the main storyline, or any secondary storyline).

If I drag this transition horizontally across, passing over the middle of the the rightmost clip on the way to the gap, then there is no shifting of either clip, no matter where I drop the transition. BUT if I drag the transition kind of in the space above the top of the clips, then drop it downwards into the gap from above, the rightmost clip shifts leftwards.

This must be a bug. If if I was careful in how I dragged the transition, I could eventually apply the transition with no shifting.

Chris

Turning off the magnetic timeline?