DanielK78
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: FCPX slooooooow

Hi, I'm getting extremely annoyed and impatient with the length of time it's taking to edit a multicam sequence. I did a 50 min gig, 5 cameras and i'm half way through editing it. At times it's very slow, but the most annoying thing is now i've selected a single song from it and placed it in a new project. EVERY time I do something, regardless of how little, eg moving the playhead, lengthening a clip, changing the volume, it stalls for ages whilst that beachball spins around.

 

What on earth can I do to speed this up? I've just put 8Gb more RAM in today, so now i'm at 14Gb in my iMac 27in i7 2.93GHz. It's ridiculous, embarassingly ridiculous.

 

Oh and i've tried changing the preferences from 'Higher Quality' to 'Better Performance' but still no good.

 

Thanks

Final Cut Pro X, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Apr 1, 2012 3:00 PM

Close
DanielK78

Q: FCPX slooooooow

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Tom Wolsky,

    Tom Wolsky Tom Wolsky Apr 1, 2012 4:12 PM in response to DanielK78
    Level 10 (118,448 points)
    Apple TV
    Apr 1, 2012 4:12 PM in response to DanielK78

    Five streams of 50 minutes of video is a lot to hold in a single file. Are you using proxy media?

  • by andynick,

    andynick andynick Apr 2, 2012 3:50 AM in response to DanielK78
    Level 5 (4,943 points)
    Video
    Apr 2, 2012 3:50 AM in response to DanielK78

    This is my pet checklist for questions regarding FCP X performance - you may have already addressed some of the items but it's worth checking.

     

    Make sure you're using the latest version of the application - FCP X 10.0.3 runs very well on my 2009 MacPro 2 x 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 16 GB RAM and ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024 MB. I run it with Lion 10.7.3.

     

    First, check that you have at least 20% free space on your system drive

     

    If you have not already done so, move your Projects and Events to a fast (Firewire 800 or faster) external HD. Make sure the drive's formatted OS Extended (journalling's not required for video). You should always keep at least 20% free space on the Hard Drives that your Media, Projects and Events are on.

     

    Check the spec of your Mac against the system requirements:

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

     

    Check the spec of your graphics card. If it's listed here, it's not suitable:

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4664

     

    If you are getting crashes, there is some conflict on the OS. Create a new (admin) user account on your system and use FCP X from there - if it runs a lot better, there's a conflict and a clean install would be recommended.

     

    Keep projects to 20 mins or less. If you have a long project, work on 20 min sections then paste these into a final project for export.

     

    If you ever experience dropped frames, I strongly recommend you use ProRes 422 Proxy - it edits and plays back like silk because the files are small but lightly compressed (not much packing and unpacking to do) - but remember to select 'Original or Optimised Media' (FCP X Preferences > Playback) just before you export your movie, otherwise it will be exported at low resolution.

     

    If you have plenty of processor power, for the ultimate editing experience, create Optimised Media - most camera native files are highly compressed and need a great deal of processor power to play back - particularly if you add titles, filters or effects. ProRes 422 takes up much more hard drive space but is very lightly compressed. It edits and plays back superbly.

     

    Hide Audio Waveforms at all times when you don't need them (both in Browser and Storyline / Timeline). They take up a lot of processor power. (Use the switch icon at the bottom-right of your timeline to select a format without waveforms if you don't need them at the moment, then switch back when you do).

     

    Create folders in the Project and Events libraries and put any projects you are not working on currently, in those folders. This will help a lot. There's a great application for this, called Event Manager X - for the tiny cost it's an invaluable application.

    http://assistedediting.intelligentassistance.com/EventManagerX/

     

    Unless you cannot edit and playback without it, turn off Background Rendering in Preferences (under Playback) - this will help general performance and you can always render when you need to by selecting the clip (or clips) and pressing Ctrl+R.

     

    The biggest single improvement I saw in performance was when I upgraded the RAM from 8 GB to 16.

    Andy

  • by DanielK78,

    DanielK78 DanielK78 Apr 3, 2012 8:07 AM in response to Tom Wolsky
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 3, 2012 8:07 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

    HI Tom, when editing the full gig I was but when I switched to the single song in another project I reverted to optimized media. I think i've managed to speed it up a bit.

     

    Thanks for the reply.

  • by DanielK78,

    DanielK78 DanielK78 Apr 3, 2012 8:09 AM in response to andynick
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 3, 2012 8:09 AM in response to andynick

    Thanks Andy for that amazingly detailed reply!

     

    I've just gone for a simple fix of getting rid of the audio waveforms and turning Background Rendering off. It seems to have worked for me, i'm sure something else will pop up soon though!

     

    Thanks again, it's really appreciated.

     

    Daniel