Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
How hard can it be to update the software and give us the traditional user interface layout? Not asking for much.

Because the old UI was getting old and stale.

Or, more likely, pros will move on to more advanced stuff and this will just remain the step-up from iMovie.

No guys like you just need to keep improving and using modern tools and many of you will force the older luddites into early retirement. Pay no mind to people that refuse to investigate new tools. Everyones day is coming were you get put out to pasture.


That marketing push has one hell of an uphill battle. Unless they dramatically change the software and release new hardware, who cares?

People that like editing on Apple software


Here's what Apple SHOULD be doing to win back 'professionals':


1) Get a realistic list of the top ten things that 'professionals' are demanding for FCP X and implement them NOW.

2) Provide a ballpark timeline of FCP X updates. It doesn't have to be a detailed roadmap, but at least let us know when to expect updates in the future.

3) Reveal the release date of the new Mac Pro. I understand that for other products, Apple doesn't want to do this as people will stop buying products if they know when the next one will be released. But I doubt there's a lot of people buying Mac Pro's now anyway, so just tell us when it's coming.

4) Ensure that FCP X runs FLAWLESSLY on all Apple systems, including iMac, MacBook and upcoming Mac Pro, regardless of OS or video hardware.

5) Strike deals with 3rd party developers/vendors to integrate some kind of import/conversion process for competing applications. Want to come back to FCPX from Premiere? Importing projects should be fast and efficient. Need to send a project to After Effects (Motion might be an interesting app, but you should recognize that AE is the industry standard and isn't going anywhere), no problem. We should be able to export to AE directly from a FCPX timeline (doesn't need to round-trip, just a clean timeline export would be nice).


There's so much more I would like to demand, but I think these are my top 5 for now.

1. They already know this from feedback and in 7 updates they've added more than half the major stuff missing.
2. Apple doesn't do this with any group. Updates will come when they are ready.
3. That is easy. When Intel announces the next major Xeon refresh you can bet a new Mac pro is coming shortly afterwards
4. Should always be the goal
5. 3rd party opportunity



Doomed to failure.

Professional users can't take the risk that Apple might decide to pull working software, replace it with total junk and then take two years before it gets to a state where they're not so embarrassed by it they don't even do any marketing.

Now they've done it once, what does this campaign to do persuade people they won't do it again?

Well there's no need trying to persuade the ignorant. FCP X had to happen for a variety of reasons. If some editors can't understand this then they are living in some odd cocoon. FCPX has been steadily improving and people are hopping back onboard.

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/fcp_x_first_look_06_martin.html
 
wut

I really don't understand what the big fuss is, pro x looks sick. The other editing software looks dated big time.
 
Don't speak for everyone.

Final Cut X's launch was a shambles and it wasn't ready for primetime but truth be told, with all the updates it's the most fluid and pleasant way to do video for the most part. Sad that its greatness was overshadowed at first.

I agree that Apple needs to settle nerves, though. People think Aperture will be killed. People think Logic is dead. Why don't they just set up a small semi-autonomous Apple Business Unit and let that focus on the needs of people that work with Apple product for their living instead of lumping it all together with iPod Shuffles and the like?

Great post. And it would be huge to make an exception to Apple's usual secrecy and provide a public roadmap for development of all the pro apps. The lack of communication and constant speculation about whether a product is dead is often more of a concern than the quality of the apps.

Same goes for the Mac Pro, that's one model where they could announce things like the timeframe of the next update and not worry about secrecy at all.
 
Has everyone been lulled into a stupor, forgetting the stunt Apple pulled more than 5 years ago of removing matte, anti-glare screens from all its desktop equipment - iMacs and Cinema Displays. Sure, the new iMac screens are meant to be 75% less reflective, but 75% less than a mirror is still inherently shiny with mirror images visible in most lighting conditions. For much professional work, we need an absence of definable mirror reflections. The true anti-glare screen diffuses the image so that the reflected image is less recognisable, thus less distracting. Apple realises that if it stomps on a segment of its users long enough, the resistance will die away.
 
Don't be mad guys this is fantastic news. The fact that they want the pro's and "prosumor" back makes it more likely that they will in fact, release a new mac pro.

THIS.

Everybody always whining about Apple abandoning the pros. Now there is a hint they may care after all, and there is more whining.
 
Also, the 2008 Mac Pro (which seems to be really popular… it's what I use and it seems to come up in these conversations a lot) can't even run FCPX or Motion without upgrading from the original video card. These users may be the ones most ready to buy the Mythical Modern Mac Pro, if Apple ever releases it. Or maybe they're the ones who are giving up over the next year or so and switching platforms.

When I open FCPX I get an error about the video card, but I can still edit with it just fine.
 
4K Editing

They are waiting - they'll mac pro with the next big wave in power, mark my words. It'll come with the power for swift 4k editing in fcpx out the box and make everything else look slow.

I'd just like to say that I have already edited 4K footage natively on the MBPr without issue. In fact, the built-in RedRAW support allows you to do this without transcoding. We finish our projects in 4K now. True though, you cannot preview in 4K while your editing, the playback is 1/4 res I believe.

EDIT: In FCPX
 
Last edited:
It's been said "too little, too late"... Apple has more or less snubbed the pro community with both software and hardware to this point (Okay the mac pro is somewhat out of their hands as they need Intel's CPU)... But the beast is worn and tired with its minor bump last summer.

Apple is going to have to make up more than a marketing campaign to rectify this for most pro users... And most don't go "hell, I'll go pick up a new Mac Pro and try that out today."

Like many different professionals they invest within their workflow, and that takes a lot to break up.
 
Has everyone been lulled into a stupor, forgetting the stunt Apple pulled more than 5 years ago of removing matte, anti-glare screens from all its desktop equipment - iMacs and Cinema Displays. Sure, the new iMac screens are meant to be 75% less reflective, but 75% less than a mirror is still inherently shiny with mirror images visible in most lighting conditions. For much professional work, we need an absence of definable mirror reflections. The true anti-glare screen diffuses the image so that the reflected image is less recognisable, thus less distracting. Apple realises that if it stomps on a segment of its users long enough, the resistance will die away.

LOL. I knew we'd have to have someone from the Matte Clan chiming in.

THIS.

Everybody always whining about Apple abandoning the pros. Now there is a hint they may care after all, and there is more whining.

Par for the course. Macrumor has two large groups.

a. People that whine in the absence of something (where's my Mac Pro?)

b. People that whine when something is announced (what no octocore iPhone ?)

So you will ALWAYS have a healthy amount of whining on these boards.
 
THIS.

Everybody always whining about Apple abandoning the pros. Now there is a hint they may care after all, and there is more whining.

Except that this isn't a hint that they care about the pros. This is a hint that they are trying to boost sales of a flagging product.

Apple is perfectly capable of doing the market research into how to ACTUALLY show they care about the pros. Heck, a twelve-year-old could do this market research, because it would basically consist of asking ANY creative professional anywhere what it is that they need that Apple isn't offering, and they will all tell you "an overhauled Mac Pro line." It's market research 101. It's not even that. It would be, like, market research 001, if such a course number existed.

This is the opposite of "a hint that they may care" about the pros. This makes it look (even more) like they have no clue what they are doing, and are essentially treating this whole market segment as a back-burner project.
 
Except that this isn't a hint that they care about the pros. This is a hint that they are trying to boost sales of a flagging product.

Apple is perfectly capable of doing the market research into how to ACTUALLY show they care about the pros. Heck, a twelve-year-old could do this market research, because it would basically consist of asking ANY creative professional anywhere what it is that they need that Apple isn't offering, and they will all tell you "an overhauled Mac Pro line." It's market research 101. It's not even that. It would be, like, market research 001, if such a course number existed.

This is the opposite of "a hint that they may care" about the pros. This makes it look (even more) like they have no clue what they are doing, and are essentially treating this whole market segment as a back-burner project.

Please provide a reputable report showing "flagging" product sales. You probably shouldn't be talking about marketing data when you have none yourself. Making stuff up on a messageboard isn't getting a clue either.
 
All hope was lost when they first released it. I see no worth in trying to win back the 'professionals'. We have already moved on.

Bad decision, Final Cut X is awesome, super modern and fast. Patches have adressed most of the initial problems.
 
I bought FCP X when it first was released, played with it for a day and haven't opened it since.

You MUST try it again. It's soooo much better than FCP 7 now. I used Final Cut from versions 3.x - 7.x and it stomps it in so many ways. Everything from much more intuitive copy/paste attributes to a marvelous multi-cam editor. I will concede that the first week is painful when you try to learn it (And you CAN'T approach it with how you used to edit, that just. won't. work.), but it's a great step forward. It's like when I first used a magic mouse and it scrolled the opposite direction that I was used to. Now that I view it as a mouse and a gesture pad touch surface, I wouldn't have it any other way.

For crying out loud, even simple fonts in Final Cut 7 is an embarrassment to humanity. ^_^

The ONLY feature left that I will admit should give users pause is the inability to network store project files. We've found ways to work around it, but once they solve that, there's no earthly reason why anyone would ever want to touch a legacy version of Final Cut. (Or frankly, might want to try it again even if you moved to Premiere.)

In fact, here's a list for those who haven't looked lately from this link that encapsulate why I came around back to X after being underwhelmed at first...

http://daredreamermag.com/2013/01/14/could-final-cut-pro-x-be-the-nle-of-the-future/

"
- Keywords and smart collections will make doc filmmakers drool. Use them! Such a breeze to find the specific clips you need.

- Quickly created smart collection to find files not yet optimized. VERY COOL.

- Selective copy and paste is terrific. Before when you pasted attributes, all attributes in a particular category (e.g. “filters”) were pasted. Now you can paste specific filters.

- Cmd-dragging a selection in a clip is great. Lovin’ the “/” key to auto play around the selection.

- Select a clip, then hit “x” to make it a selection range

- As Steve says in the tutorial, creating split edits is “crazy simple”

- Audition clips are genius. Why aren’t more people excited about this? Crazy stupid.

- Precision editor makes it extremely easy to trim and fine tune edits.

- Shift-F for reveal in Event library is sweet. Nice being able to quickly find the original media

- At one point on a real gig, I had inadvertently deleted a keyword set after spending a lot of time tagging ranges. I worried I’d have to go back to all those clips, find the ranges again, and re-tag. But FCPX remembered the ranges so all I had to do was re-create the keyword then quickly add them to each of the selected ranges.

- To-do markers are very useful.

- Timeline index makes it a breeze to quickly find tags, to-do markers, etc.

- Audio enhancements easy to use

- Retiming tools are visual and powerful. Love that you can manually affect speed of clip by just dragging retiming bar.

- It was always a pain to apply variable timing effects in FCP7. Now, it can easily be done visually using the retiming bar and the range selection tool. While the retiming bar is activated on a clip, just select a range you want affected. Then you can manually retime just that section of the clip. Holla!

- Preserve pitch for video retiming is awesome

- Say goodbye to that janky, Boris 3D titler (Blech). Easily add titles on fly, change them on-screen with easy access to formatting, fonts, alignment, and a bevvy of styles. Can even easily add a basic title or lower third

- Awesome and easy to use Multicam editor. For the life of me I could never get multicam editing to work in FCP7. It never synched right. So I just never bothered. In FCPX, it quickly and easily syncs.
 
Last edited:
I hope this is a sign of things to come.

I've felt that where all the iOS related devices got their refresh at the end of 2012, that early/mid 2013 we could see a Pro focus with a new Mac Pro and major software updates to Aperture, iWork, iLife, etc. One can still hope anyway. :)
 
I'm running FCPX 10.0.7 on an 8-Core 2.8Ghz Mac Pro from 2008. I have a Radeon 5870 with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of FBDIMM. We're running an SSD for the OS and software, and a mirrored RAID HDD for the SCRATCH.

FCPX runs like a dog most of the time. It's unresponsive if it's doing it's magical 'background rendering'.

It's still very much in its infancy. Needs to be massively optimised.

At home, I'm running a 4.5Ghz i7 Hackintosh with Nvidia GTX 670 and an SSD with SATA6 HDD scratch and it's still pretty slow...

I love FCPX. I love the layout, the scheme, the features and the direction... but not the performance.
 
Mac Pro first?

Apple, I built a PC a few months back not because I want one but because you don't have a product that fits my needs. Fix the Mac Pro and applications like Aperture before you lose any more credibility. And while you are at it, if you do release an updated Mac Pro, why not release a new 'Mac' too? i.e a realistic desktop option that isn't lighter and thiner, but isn't Xeon-based either.
 
1. They already know this from feedback and in 7 updates they've added more than half the major stuff missing.
2. Apple doesn't do this with any group. Updates will come when they are ready.
3. That is easy. When Intel announces the next major Xeon refresh you can bet a new Mac pro is coming shortly afterwards
4. Should always be the goal
5. 3rd party opportunity

Nuckinfutz,

Yes, I realize all of this. I was merely stating what Apple SHOULD do in order to win back 'professionals'. Regardless of if they updated more than half the major stuff in 7 updates, there's always stuff they can keep adding to make FCP X more powerful. And even though Apple doesn't lay out timelines with any group, maybe they need to do this with their professional market since they're hurting in that area.

My point being: Apple needs to re-evaluate how it approaches professionals vs. consumers.
 
I'm running FCPX 10.0.7 on an 8-Core 2.8Ghz Mac Pro from 2008. I have a Radeon 5870 with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of FBDIMM. We're running an SSD for the OS and software, and a mirrored RAID HDD for the SCRATCH.

FCPX runs like a dog most of the time. It's unresponsive if it's doing it's magical 'background rendering'.

Shut off background rendering. 9 times out of 10, I'd rather have it render the timeline from scratch on export anyway. Anyone else remember the hell of all the preview render file glitches from FCP 7? Brrr....

How's the RAID connected? Because we have a similar setup for one of the machines here and can get 4 multi-cam clips playing smoothly at once over good ol' gigabit ethernet no less. It surprises me you're having issues.
 
Please provide a reputable report showing "flagging" product sales. You probably shouldn't be talking about marketing data when you have none yourself. Making stuff up on a messageboard isn't getting a clue either.

Okay, that is a fair point. I have no idea whether sales of FCX are "flagging" and to characterize it as such was unfounded. What is clear from this announcement is that Apple is hoping to boost the sales of FCX, regardless of whether it's currently "flagging" or not. I still stand by the rest of my post, which is to say that this move makes Apple look like it is completely out-of-touch with the creative pro community. Whether sales are currently "flagging" per se doesn't affect the way that this announcement comes off.

I'm not aware of any specific publication that shows that creative professionals want an overhaul to the Mac Pro line, but every creative professional that I know (~15) has said something to that effect in the past year or two. It's not a citable source, it's just something that one picks up by paying attention to the chatter in the community.

This "paying attention to the chatter in the community" would be a great place for Apple to start if they have any interest in perhaps selling products to said community.
 
Final Cut Pro X really is one of the best home movie editors I've ever used. ;)

But for professional usage, we've all moved on already. Just give us new Mac Pros and we'll be happy
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.