Category: Apple Pro Apps

I’ve been wracking my brain for synonyms for “Awesome” and “Jaw dropping” as Larry Jordan described it, but really, that will do.

With the caveat that we’ve seen only a fraction of a brand new app and what we saw raised as many questions as it answered. Walter Biscardi does a good job of enumerating the unanswered questions and I’m concerned about XML out of and back into Final Cut Pro X. We got a very brief overview of some key features – the headline stuff – but no real depth. Heck, we didn’t even see a single menu being pulled down!

For myself, Final Cut Pro X (nailed the name) was everything I hoped for and more. Last September I opined:

With time to consider, maybe that’s too forward looking, but my fondest hope is that Apple has taken the time to re-imagine Final Cut Pro and a NLE interface in general.

Since the Feb 17 preview of Final Cut Pro X, I’ve got clues as to the new features (well some of them) so this is what I think I know ahead of the announcement. Written on Sunday afternoon but set to publish just before the Tuesday event so as not to ruin Apple’s surprise(s).

In no particular order:

• Redesigned timeline
• Integrated browsing and viewing/viewer (no separate viewer)
• Native DSLR support (H.264 MOV)
• Probably native MXF and R3D
• Uses all processors and GPU – really fast
• Native support for Quartz Compositions
• Built on AV Foundation
• 64 bit Cocoa
• Improved metadata tracking in media files
• Media management based on a database and metadata in files
• Display of more metadata from files.
• File-based workflows only. Log and Capture using utilities from AJA, Blackmagic Design and Matrox.
• Very fluid interface
• Render in background
• Media locations stored with project file, not preferences
• Support for images and sequences over 4K pixels
• Better titling – over video I hope.
• Improved color correction built in (hopefully close to the full Color app)
• Project file is XML file removing need for XML Import and Export.

I expect FXscript to be lost to history like Log and Capture and a dedicated Viewer window.

My in depth analysis of what I’m about to see will be coming Wednesday afternoon April 13, because of the important need to party after the Supermeet, and I’m teaching 10am-1pm Wednesday.

And I expect to be blown away with what more there is than that list. On the balance of probability it will be in the App store (only?) with a price similar to the last upgrade.

As for the rest of the Studio. Motion will get an upgrade but I don’t know if we’ll see that shortly or have to wait; DVD SP will disappear, while Soundtrack Pro will also likely get an upgrade.

At the most recent meeting of the Editor’s Lounge (held at Keycode Media) Steve Cohen – blogger and author of Avid Agility – expanded on some of his blogged thinking on the possibilities of a new, more fluid editing interface. An interface that didn’t stop every time you did something!

And that got me thinking about how Apple might change up the interface, riffing on some of what has been rumored.

By now you will have heard of, or read, either the Final Cut Pro rumor at Techcrunch, or over at Larry Jordan’s Blog. Techcruch generally has good information, and I seriously doubt that Larry’s post would have been done without a specific OK from Apple – that’s just his style. Both say in one way or another:

“The biggest overhaul to Final Cut Pro since the original version was created over 10 years ago”

“Dramatic and Ambitious”

“a jaw dropper”