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FCP X: Is it your favorite?

Christopher11

Christopher11

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 10, 2007
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I'm having good luck and like the program. I haven't tried Premiere. I assume though that FCP X is better than iMovie if you can learn it, and preferable? More options, etc? Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
 
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FCP offers more functionality than iMovie. Unless you are a paid professional - you may not need that robust of an editor. You are correct that it has a steep learning curve. Thankfully, you can teach yourself how to use it if you have the time and will power. Premiere runs with better efficiency on Windows than OS. Many users run it on their Macs successfully though. Sounds like you are liking FCP - so I would stick with it - learn and become proficient. It's a heavy duty software tool optimized for OS.
 
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For the kind of simple editing you can do with iMovie, I find FCPX to actually be quicker and easier to use. There is a learning curve for more sophisticated features, of course and to be expected. However, the most significant benefit of FCP over others is media management. For use cases where you have tons of home video or other clips as source material for projects, the tagging and organizational capability is worth it alone. Thats basically why I purchased FCP, and have been liking the editing features that came with it.
 
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No way. The best video editor by far is Davinci Resolve. It's free, easy, and extremely powerful.
 
Thank you guys, super helpful info. Thank you baypharm, excellent points. Yeah I am liking FCP and plan to stick with it. I intend to learn a bit of Adobe After Effects also, for example I want to set up After Effects to have an oscilloscope like effect with audio. I think that would be a great way to release podcast on Youtube, instead of just a static picture, which I do not like. If something colorful responds to the audio, I find it really beautiful. Like on this
 
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I bought fcp today. Never used it before. I’ve played around with Adobe Premier Pro a couple of years ago and it was quite simple to learn. Will do some tests this upc weekend.
 
I learned FCP5 back in film school in 2006/7. LOVED it, and v6 and v7. I found the app intuitive and easy to learn.

X however - I’ve never gotten my head around. I’ve tried it a few times but no go.

Still using FCP7 but that will end soon so I can upgrade beyond Sierra.

Then... I don’t know what I’ll do.
 
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It takes some time to get used to the non-track interface, especially if one grew up with that old paradigm. I grew up with Premiere (before Pro) and Avid, but eventually tried FCP X four years ago on multiple projects and finally got the hang of the magnetic timeline and now cannot go back to a track based editor.
The handling of modern media formats is so much better with FCP (not X anymore) than with any other NLE I had to use, the keywords alone make it worth it, and I am using that feature not even 10%.

It is like coming from an iPhone with a Home button to an iPhone with Face ID and after some serious time to have to use an iPhone with a Home button again. For me at least.
 
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When I botain the net for guides etc. I always see results from two Final Cut programs. FCP and FCPX. I downloaded Final Cut Pro from the App store but did not find Final Cut Pro X. What is the difference and how do I upgrade to FCPX?
 
Dockland said:
When I botain the net for guides etc. I always see results from two Final Cut programs. FCP and FCPX. I downloaded Final Cut Pro from the App store but did not find Final Cut Pro X. What is the difference and how do I upgrade to FCPX?
Click to expand...

Final Cut Pro X sleeps with the fishes (kind of).

Final Cut Pro, previously Final Cut Pro X, is a professional non-linear video editing application published by Apple Inc. as part of their Pro Apps family of software programs. It was released on June 21, 2011 for sale in the Mac App Store. It is the successor to Final Cut Pro. It was renamed "Final Cut Pro" in November 2020, coinciding with the release of macOS Big Sur.
 
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Dockland said:
When I botain the net for guides etc. I always see results from two Final Cut programs. FCP and FCPX. I downloaded Final Cut Pro from the App store but did not find Final Cut Pro X. What is the difference and how do I upgrade to FCPX?
Click to expand...
With Big Sur and Apple Silicon, Apple is moving away from the 'X' moniker in its marketing. Big Sur was originally macOS 10.16 but at its unveiling was announced as macOS 11 leaving behind the 10 ('X') major version number that has been around for almost two decades. Apple is moving on.

That's why Final Cut Pro X became Final Cut Pro this past autumn.
 
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Erehy Dobon said:
With Big Sur and Apple Silicon, Apple is moving away from the 'X' moniker in its marketing. Big Sur was originally macOS 10.16 but at its unveiling was announced as macOS 11 leaving behind the 10 ('X') major version number that has been around for almost two decades. Apple is moving on.

That's why Final Cut Pro X became Final Cut Pro this past autumn.
Click to expand...

Thank you both. But were there 2 different versions in the past? As my google search the "FCPX" version was 64-bit and perhaps the FCP was 32-bit?
 
History lesson:

The program was originally built for software company Macromedia in the late 1990's, but they decided not to release it as it didn't fit the direction they were heading (web based), and also had some clearance issues if they decided to proceed to market.

In 1999 it was acquired by Apple and released as Final Cut Pro (FCP).

In 2003 a cut down version of the program was released called Final Cut Express (FCE), which was the same program for a cheaper price, but with some built in limitations.

By 2006 Apple was selling FCP (then version 5.1) bundled with various other editing tools (Soundtrack, LiveType, Motion etc) as "Final Cut Studio".

In 2009 Apple released the final version of the "original" iteration of the software - FCP 7.

After only a decade, Apple had managed to forge roads into the film/tv industry, with many motion pictures and tv series being editing on Macs using the Final Cut Studio, likely paired with Apple's flagship PowerMac G5, and later Mac Pro - although it could happily run on a lowly G4 eMac if you had long enough for the rendering.

Two years later in 2011 Apple released "FCP X" (ie version 10) - a complete rebuild (and the first version that was 64-bit), with an entirely new interface and methodology to video editing. At launch, the industry largely dismissed the new program as not being a viable upgrade path from FCP7, and many of those who had made the switch to Final Cut abandoned Apple and went back to Avid or something else.

(The general consensus tends to be that FCPX was neither stable nor ready for market, which when combined with the major leap away from traditional time-line-based editing, made it easier for the professionals to turn to alternatives rather than stick with Apple.)

10 years later? I actually don't really know myself what's become of FCPX / FCP. I've just done some googling, and it appears Apple has recovered the initial lost ground when they made the big change from 7 to X. (As noted - the "X" has been dropped now - it's just called Final Cut Pro again) Apparently most serious film/tv editing is done on either Adobe Premiere, or Final Cut Pro, and FCP has a large chunk of that market share.

So - well done Apple if that's the case.
 
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It was my fav until Apple seemed to abandon it (Aperture 2.0). So silly to waste all the brilliant enhancements it brought... I moved to Resolve a year ago and now this is my editor of choice.
 
cosmichobo said:
History lesson:

The program was originally built for software company Macromedia in the late 1990's, but they decided not to release it as it didn't fit the direction they were heading (web based), and also had some clearance issues if they decided to proceed to market.

In 1999 it was acquired by Apple and released as Final Cut Pro (FCP).

In 2003 a cut down version of the program was released called Final Cut Express (FCE), which was the same program for a cheaper price, but with some built in limitations.

By 2006 Apple was selling FCP (then version 5.1) bundled with various other editing tools (Soundtrack, LiveType, Motion etc) as "Final Cut Studio".

In 2009 Apple released the final version of the "original" iteration of the software - FCP 7.

After only a decade, Apple had managed to forge roads into the film/tv industry, with many motion pictures and tv series being editing on Macs using the Final Cut Studio, likely paired with Apple's flagship PowerMac G5, and later Mac Pro - although it could happily run on a lowly G4 eMac if you had long enough for the rendering.

Two years later in 2011 Apple released "FCP X" (ie version 10) - a complete rebuild (and the first version that was 64-bit), with an entirely new interface and methodology to video editing. At launch, the industry largely dismissed the new program as not being a viable upgrade path from FCP7, and many of those who had made the switch to Final Cut abandoned Apple and went back to Avid or something else.

(The general consensus tends to be that FCPX was neither stable nor ready for market, which when combined with the major leap away from traditional time-line-based editing, made it easier for the professionals to turn to alternatives rather than stick with Apple.)

10 years later? I actually don't really know myself what's become of FCPX / FCP. I've just done some googling, and it appears Apple has recovered the initial lost ground when they made the big change from 7 to X. (As noted - the "X" has been dropped now - it's just called Final Cut Pro again) Apparently most serious film/tv editing is done on either Adobe Premiere, or Final Cut Pro, and FCP has a large chunk of that market share.

So - well done Apple if that's the case.
Click to expand...

I didn't know FCP was used in the movie industry :) Interesting
 
yellowbunny said:
It was my fav until Apple seemed to abandon it (Aperture 2.0). So silly to waste all the brilliant enhancements it brought... I moved to Resolve a year ago and now this is my editor of choice.
Click to expand...
When did Apple abandon Final Cut Pro? Do you mean the FCP 7.x version?
 
cosmichobo said:
By 2006 Apple was selling FCP (then version 5.1) bundled with various other editing tools (Soundtrack, LiveType, Motion etc) as "Final Cut Studio".
Click to expand...


I loved LiveType back in the day! Saved me in college when I had make an "interesting orientation video"
 
LiveType was pretty amazing... but could also be incredibly cheesy. Really had to choose carefully for the content you were using it with.
 
Dockland said:
I didn't know FCP was used in the movie industry :) Interesting
Click to expand...

I don't recall the stats, but at the time that Apple introduced FCPX, I'm pretty sure they had at LEAST 20% of the professional video production business. But X was a major jump, as well as (from what I've read; as noted I don't use it) not being considered "market ready" when initially released, so there was a big swing away from it. From the 1 source I looked at above - apparently Apple's recaptured a lot of the market.

I think because Apple do have a lot of "creative" type people captured with their products, in something like video editing - and especially once AVID lost its hold on people entrenched in film editing (as opposed to video -- now it's basically all video) - getting companies to install a few Apple machines to run FCP wasn't probably a huge problem...
 
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ColdCase said:
But it doesn't manage media well :)
Click to expand...
Every program has its pros and cons. For me media management in DaVinci Resolve is a non issue. I'd like to see more plug-ins become available for DR.

I switched from FCP to DR and much prefer it. Magnetic timeline is great, some say, but I don't like it. And since DR is bashed for media management we should mention its famed color grading capabilities (of which is FCP is sorely lacking).

The free version of DR is great way to try the program but it has numerous limitations such as limited effects/no plug-ins, no GPU/Hardware accelerated encoding, noise reduction, export limitations...
 
Just bought Compressor. I don't have a clue what it is but it's integrated with FCP and used to export films. So, now I have a clue 😎
 
I'll show my ignorance here..... and let someone correct me.

So, you create your project in FCP, and FCP itself has some video compression export options, but if you choose to export via Compressor, it takes your project into Compressor and you have a lot more choices there.
 
cosmichobo said:
I'll show my ignorance here..... and let someone correct me.

So, you create your project in FCP, and FCP itself has some video compression export options, but if you choose to export via Compressor, it takes your project into Compressor and you have a lot more choices there.
Click to expand...

Tried it out with my first 4K video. Nothing arty just the surroundings where I live. Worked great. My Mac Mini M1 didn't complain at all. Didn't hear the fan. Completely calm for a two hour edit with FCP and made a improvised tune, totally off context, but anyway... (due to doing a rookie mistake and forgetting the SD Card to my Zoom H6 in my Thunderbolt dock) :)

Oh, the link to my majestic directors cut (just trying out the new camera and LOG filming) for those interested checking out the Canon EOS R6 with an RF lens
 
Vaguely X-Files-ish note to the music :)

Lovely footage of "where you live". Great camera by the looks of it. I haven't had my Panasonic TM900 out of its case for years, sadly. Kids got in the way.

I'd share some of my vids, but I did something wrong and lost 14 years of YouTube accounts... My fault, can't complain.
 
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