a few Final Cut Express questions?

[roland.g]

Does FCE offer iLife integration with iPhoto/Ken Burns and iTunes for audio tracks similar to iMovie?

I'm looking to pick up a copy of FCE HD 3.5 off eBay and possibly upgrade to 4 down the line or maybe straight to 5 in a couple years and didn't know if FCE offered the ability to integrate with iLife. I don't need the same through the interface kind of access as long as I can still drop MP3 and AAC files as well as JPEGs into it.

Can you Pan and Zoom Ken Burns style in FCE?

Do you think the eBay prices (about $100 right now) for FCE 3.5 will come down even lower now that 4 is out and only runs $200? Or is now a good time to pick it up at that price?

Thanks.

 

[Texas04]

t is not tightly intergeated with the iLife suite. You can still bring in music and jpegs and keyframe the pictures to reveal the ken burns effect. Dint forget soundtrack and livetype!!

 

[roland.g]

t is not tightly intergeated with the iLife suite. You can still bring in music and jpegs and keyframe the pictures to reveal the ken burns effect. Dint forget soundtrack and livetype!!

Yeah I want soundtrack which is why I want to get 3.5 but I figure since I'll be using it mostly for personal projects - just wanted more editing power and options that iMovie has - that I'll still want to import audio from my library rather than "creating" music with loops and such; probably a mix.

I looked at Apple's site in the FCE 4 user manual and it says not to use compressed audio. So maybe I just convert the track I need to AIFF before dropping it in.

 

[lorductape]

i'm no expert, i only glanced at the article and i'm an fcp not fce user. however, isnt fce 4 able to import iMovie files for direct editing?

EDIT: https://www.macrumors.com/2007/11/15/apple-releases-final-cut-express-4/ it says right in the article able to import, so i'd have to guess it is also importing the keyframes. again, i'm no expert and I really don't know

 

[zioxide]

FCE doesn't have integration with iPhoto like iMovie does, but you can import your photos fine.

Then you can keyframe them to have motion like the ken burns effect.

 

[Texas04]

Yeah I want soundtrack which is why I want to get 3.5 but I figure since I'll be using it mostly for personal projects - just wanted more editing power and options that iMovie has - that I'll still want to import audio from my library rather than "creating" music with loops and such; probably a mix.

I looked at Apple's site in the FCE 4 user manual and it says not to use compressed audio. So maybe I just convert the track I need to AIFF before dropping it in.

Yes, it does not import compressed audio so you have to put your music into soundtrack then export out an Aff file. So good luck!! Also once you get above the learning curve of Fce you will never go back to iMovie. It is a lot more powerfull!

 

[dolphin842]

In my (limited) experience the iMovie import isn't all that spectacular.

As others have said, you'll have to export to AIFF audio, though with a little tinkering in Automator you can make this task quick and painless. You'll also have to convert iMovie-generated DV files into separate DV files if you don't want to render the audio in those as well (do a Save as QuickTime Movie, and use DV as the codec). QTAmateur has a batch export function that can make this a snap as well.

Good luck... I'm sure you'll enjoy FCE!

 

[zioxide]

You can just put the mp3 in FCE and option+r and it will render it to aiff so it will play back

 

[Sijmen]

Just another question: in iMove 05 I can import and use iTunes music with DRM. Does FCE have this, too? If not, can it also not import an iMovie project with iTunes DRM background music?

 

[cdarlington1]

Compressed Audio to MP3

I know the temptation to just convert a compressed audio file into an uncompressed format but at the end of the day, making an MP3 into and AIFF doesn't get you high quality audio...it's already been compressed. Best to use uncompressed audio from the get go, from a CD etc...for personal projects it's probably okay but not for broadcast...

 

[demallien]

Yeah I want soundtrack which is why I want to get 3.5 but I figure since I'll be using it mostly for personal projects - just wanted more editing power and options that iMovie has - that I'll still want to import audio from my library rather than "creating" music with loops and such; probably a mix.

I looked at Apple's site in the FCE 4 user manual and it says not to use compressed audio. So maybe I just convert the track I need to AIFF before dropping it in.

If it's only for the sound handling, may I suggest that you try doing your iMovie soundtrack in Garageband? The two apps are fully integrated - you can have your video playing in a window of Garageband to correctly sync the video with the sound...

I say this as a user of FCE and SoundTrack. Apart from the large library of loops that comes with SoundTrack, and some finer control over things such as stereo sound, it really doesn't add much more. Plus, iMovie is far simpler to use than FCE - unless you need really fine control over your video editing, it will be a much faster solution for most home video editing projects.