Unofficial videos of Final Cut Pro X arrive online

I had to chuckle when I was reading the expert's posts. I mean, really? A pissing contest here over something that is not even out yet?

Look, Mr.Spielberg, million dollar editor, whatever, relax. If it's not for you, don't use it. But don't shove your crap down everyone's throat.

Tell "one of your assistants" to go get you a chai latte and just kick back Jack.

I, for one, love new things and changes that make things better and can't wait for the release to see if it makes my life easier!

As a professional FCP editor, I too have a lot of the same concerns as kenfile. The demo at the NAB show was cool, but they neglected to discuss anything about how FCP X will handle actual industry post production workflows.

1. Magnetic timeline. Neat feature, but I'd want to turn it off and I'd still want traditional A/V tracks. Tracks are essential for exchanging work with other trades, such as post audio mixers. Besides, good editors shouldn't have problems with media collisions, provided their projects are properly managed.

2. Third-party plug-in support. Given the architectural differences between FCP X and FCP 7, I have serious doubts that existing FCP plug-ins will even be compatible with FCP X. A lot of us have invested serious money in these and it would be a total shame for them to become completely useless.

3. Deck control. No word at all so far on how FCP X will handle tape decks. A lot of us still need to capture from tape and master to it. FCP X seems to be very file-based workflow centric. I hope I'm wrong here.

4. The fate of the other FCS apps. I'm curious to see what will happen with Color and DVD Studio Pro, in particular. My guess is neither one will receive updates this year, if at all.

What an incredible design machine Mr. Jobs has built.

Does anyone here actual use this program professionally?? I use this program 12 hrs a day to cut a national TV series and I will not be able to "upgrade" to this iMovie plus version of Final Cut Pro. In fact, they have to take the "pro" out of the name now because it simply isn't.

I have spent years defending FCP to Avid-only editors but I'm afraid I have no legs to stand on now. HUGE step backwards. What a shame.

Well, my avid friends are making fun of it, claiming that everything new has been part of Avid for years.

Which means they're crapping themselves. I would too, if I billed hourly and still used Avid.

Goodbye Adobe. [sniff]
I'll still use you for Photoshop. And Dreamweaver. And InDesign .... but Apple just punk'd you and the $299 price tag kicked you in the balls on the way out the door.

The interface looks super snappy in the live demo and finally this application feels and looks modern again!

I wish all programs get such an overhaul in the not too distant future. On a side note I hope they bring many of these ideas to Logic Pro as well. Logic could profit from a lot of these timeline improvements. The snappy feeling, the magnetic timeline, easier in-place keyframe (aka automation) editing, better multi-core support (say goodbye to system overloads).

In short: Loads of improvements that I see in Final Cut Pro X could be a real deal-breaker for the next version of Logic. Don't add more guitar amps, please, do the same thing to Logic you did to FCPX and get on top of the music world again as well :)

Only thing that bugs me is that it looks like they've gone the iMovie route of having the video track be the master timeline, and then anchoring narration and music to it.

I've done several projects, however, where the narration track is the master timeline, and editing consisted of adding video and stills to match up with the narration.

Holy hell! Apple has not been screwing around lately!

So far this looks incredible as Yoda says a lot of tedious niggles have been taken care of, I'll be buying it immediately. Of course will be keeping old faithfulFCP 7 for any quirks that present themselves

Gareth