FCPX 10.1.4 PRE-RELEASE DISCUSSION

It is the most discussed, friendly learning curve, the price is right, and it's extremely powerful. What's not to like?

Very little in my opinion. (Maybe audio, but my fingers are crossed for the update.)

The specific point in my earlier concerns is that in certain major post houses here in LA, not having a support contract is a deal breaker. If their engineer recommends an NLE without the safety net of a support contract, they put their job at risk without having a scapegoat should something go wrong.

Trying to convince someone that in the rare circumstances you need to get a hold of support you can. Even though we all know this is true, the major challenge in convincing these people is the lack of documentation to confirm this.

Apple's hands off approach to software PR and the 'lacking pro support' myth are intertwined.

The lingering bitterness that "Apple abandoned pro users" is still very much alive in the states. The irony is the very software companies that perpetuate these myths are the very developers of NLEs that truly need a support hotline.

It's great that the European powerhouses are switching over, their rational approach is a stark contrast to here. I know it will happen here eventually, I'm just impatient!

Agreed. Competitors and those Legacy users who felt scorned and lashed out largely drove the narrative for the first couple of years.

I think you can pinpoint the moment when Apple decided they worst of the "PR heat" was over, as that was when they stopped pre-announcing features and giving loose timetables for release. That was after 10.0.6 was released in October 2012.

Apple's biggest PR fear seems to be OVER exposing their brand. They have as few public facing events as possible per year.

As I've said before, in my perfect world Apple has a ProApps channel on the AppleTV for presentations/demos/success stories. But the issue is whenever Apple announces a public event expectations get completely overblown for things far outside the scope of the Event- even when Apple explicitly states the purpose. For example, the flack that came after this years WWDC presentation that there were no hardware announcements. Or even writers complaining about the lack of news at investor meetings. That's just crazy.

To be honest, Apple is doing itself a real disservice, the PR department is Apple's worst enemy, it cannot be that hard to just try and reply to a few feedbacks page suggestions, that would be great, at least change the page to include graphics/pdf and video files.

The other aspect Apple has let itself down and scores a -10 out of 10 is the self promotion page, not a single video on successes scored by Apple, with the previous version, there was a number of clients, BBC, Full Sail that spoke of how they use Apple, using the medium of video on the Apple.com website, this time, nada..

The badly released iOS8 debacle, and the hopefully less buggy Yosemite launch/release soon, not holding my breath, showed what happens when things go wrong, so time to change, so...

Does it matter now in late 2014 the secret about the next update, why not inform the user base of the intended update with a scheduled date for update, and ask for comments, is this the right update now, surely this would help guide the coding team, after all Apple makes no secret about Maverick or iOS updates in advance of the launch, and then when the update is ready, will it be the same or different, instead of the same tired hidden secrets, which does not inspire confidence in the question.."Is Apple listening to me or do they only listen to a select few.." I feel as if I am being ignored, and it is not a great feeling, I make suggestions, and to have nothing in reply makes me feel a tad sad!!

I would love to reply to questions, give feedback, and I can do it from here...

1- Apple does in fact respond to many folks who fill out the feedback page. I know several of them personally. When they need screen shots, etc, they email you and ask for it. There is no need to reply to each and every person who fills that page out. Beta testers on each round are usually the ones who more often supply screen shots, crash logs, etc, for the same things you are filling out the feedback page about.

2- There is the "In Action" page, which is very nicely done. It also includes two of the previously featured companies, Full Sail and @radical.media. Not to mention a feature film shot in 3D (Chinese productions, not Hollywood, but a feature film all the same).
www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/in-action/

3- What good would telling us what they're doing before hand? We can't use it until it is released. Plus, they don't know which new features/fixes will be released until just before the release. If a feature does't get finished in time, it gets put off to the next release. Plus, app development is very competitive, and you don't want to telegraph your innovations to the competition until you have a fully functioning, polished update ready. I find no "disservice" done by Apple's R&D secrecy, since they're doing the innovative development, not just rubber stamping out the same-old-same-old stuff we've seen for decades now.

4- If you think Apple doesn't listen to you, I can assure you that Adobe and Avid listen even less, and operate more out of paranoid keeping-up, rather than taking the time required to truly innovate and make things "better".

There are folks who will bad mouth any app, FCPX, Motion, PPro, Media Composer, Grass Valley, etc. You can spend your time getting worked up over them, or spend your time perfecting your own work and moving forward. They won't change the world, neither will I. FCPX is gaining tons of ground now, about the same time frame legacy FCP took to take off, and I think things are great, and the future is bright. Apple's doing just fine, IMHO.

Back to the OP, I'd like two things, a true multi-take folder like in LPX for VO work, and an audio mixer. OH, plus have it mix drinks and wash my car for me.

100% agreed, and I couldn't have said it better

- Ronny

I think it's important to note that Adobe, who arguably has the most "open" roadmap of any of the NLEs, only pre-announces features a month or two ahead of release. Their timetable over the last two years has settled into-

NAB Preview, release during the Summer.
IBC Preview, release in the Fall.

Hi All,
Personally I think 10.1.4 will be an alignment update to Yosemite so we may not see lots of new features. Yosemite is a fairly major OS update and will lay the groundwork/framework for some major improvements. Next update, don’t know, but I think we will see some rapid update/feature releases in 2015. I have been looking at some of the public information Apple has released on Yosemite features and I am excited.
Some of the possible features will also require updates to other pro-apps, so I hope Apple steps up, does some major updates to other Apple programs, like Logic, Motion.
First up is extensions. I think this will be a big deal, allowing one app to provide actions into another app. Enhance a photo or motion effect without having to leave FCPX or open the other app. Both the “host” app and the “containing” app have to be written to allow the extension so I think this will improve over time. Apple is also limiting how extensions will behave, still cool.
The share extension at least has the promise, along with WebKit and iCloud to allow greater collaborative editing. Changes to how iCloud drive handles data, sharing and encryption may also set in motion new delivery options. Apple is building out major serving farms to handle massive data traffic.
AV Foundation Frameworks - really exciting.
You can now capture metadata over time while shooting video. This capability allows arbitrary types of metadata to be embedded with a video recording at various points in time.
Audio - yes!
From Apple…
Audio recording and playback
Audio file parsing and conversion
Audio units that allow for the creation of sound effects, filters, audio distortion, and reverberation effects
Pitch and playback speed management
A built-in equalizer and mixer that you can use in your applications
Stereo and 3D audio environments
MIDI compatibility
Automatic access to audio input and output hardware
This is built in system wide. Will we see major improvements to audio controls in FCPX? Hope so. Mixer with recording action faders please.
SceneKit Frameworks
This may apply more to Motion than FCP, but it will vastly improve making realistic effects including 3D, lighting, color grading improvements, particles and physics.
From Apple…
Visual effects and animations. Use the subdivisionLevel property on SCNGeometry objects to create smooth surfaces from low-resolution geometry. The SCNLight class supports new shadow rendering options. The SCNSkinner class can now create and edit skeletal animations for 3D models. The SCNTechnique class enables you to build custom shader-based post-processing techniques such as color grading, motion blur, and screen-space ambient occlusion. The SCNParticleSystem class implements animated 3D particle effects that you can add to a scene, such as fireworks, smoke, and rain.
Over time I think we will see some great improvements to both Apple apps and 3rd party apps for video.
Xcode 6 and Swift programming language should allow better, faster and easier app development. Lots new in the Frameworks/API/SDK for new apps.
The other area I think will be major is iOS and OS interaction especially with “Handoff”. I can imagine using an iPad for scene logging, shot notes, meta data logging including synced TCs, all being integrated directly with FCP via iCloud with both Apple apps and 3rd party apps. If multiple users can log/edit at same time, all the better.
So for me, looking at the underlying changes to programming, offers some insight to possible features.
Hope this helps, Greg
Link to Apple article… developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/m...les/MacOSX10_10.html

That's a pretty big list of Yosemite technologies, VidGreg.

I'm not sure all of them are as applicable to FCPX as to software development.

I'd be ASTOUNDED to see a rewrite of FCPX in Swift. More likely, because Swift and ObjectiveC code can work side by side, we might see a slow injecting of Swift code into FCPX as the language matures. But considering how long it took for Final Cut Pro to migrate from Carbon to Cocoa- it will surely be a long-term project.

I've asked developers repeatedly what advantage there might be to Extensions vs traditional plugins for Mac applications, but so far it seems a little hazy.

I know I read after WWDC that there was a LOT of advancements in OSX audio frameworks.

As always, it will be interesting to see what OS level technologies impact Final Cut development.

A couple of random bits from around the web.

First, in Larry Jordan's latest Newsletter, he talks about the upcoming Apple Event this Thursday.

This week, Apple is holding another big press event where, it is rumored, just about anything you can imagine will be announced, upgraded, released or improved. (Smile... we shall see.)

I'm not prescribing any particular significance to Larry's statement. Only to say that this will probably be the most interesting Apple Event this year from an FCPX perspective, with the probable focus on OSX Yosemite, and related Mac hardware and software.

Also finally got a chance to watch Mark Matzdorff's presentation for LACPUG.



Great to hear him mention the power of Roles overall, and specifically how he hopes to see them used to organize elements in the timeline [see 6:42]. I called them "Role Collections" in my blog post , I like his term "Regions" better. Having him put that so far up his list of wants makes me hopeful I'm not just tilting at windmills!

Hey DP,
I agree with you and not trying to hijack the discussion.
I do think it applies to both FCP and to app development. I also think that Apple is attempting to better integrate an entire "eco-system" and allow easier interaction between apps. This is a loosening of "sandboxing" isolated app/data structure.
I don't think there is need to re-write FCP in Swift for as you say it plays nice with Obj C. I just think Swift and XCode6 are pretty neat and will allow faster development and inclusion of the new frameworks. So ya, it will be slow injection(use of) of Swift into code. Think this is entirely different from Carbon to Cocoa.
Really hoping for better Audio.
Interesting that Apple has now released 3 GMs for Yosemite. I do think we might see release of Yosemite at this weeks event or very shortly after. I generally wait awhile or do a separate drive to try out new OSs.
Sorry for the long posts
Hope this helps, Greg

FCPX is playing really nicely with the latest GM candidate, I've been told.

I think my initial point got lost somewhere in that I agree with everything you said Ben. The challenge for me in trying to persuade editors to give FCP X a shot is the misinformation that passes for the truth.

I have had to contact support for FCP X twice, both times they got me in touch with someone right away and sorted out my issue. They also seemed to take my FCP X related calls very seriously.

The remarkable part of this is I have been using the software exclusively for nearly three years, I've had to call them twice.

I am completely satisfied with how Apple handles the ProApps, some editors just get really nervous if they can't call 'their guy' when they get in a jam. I'd rather call the place with lots of smart people that know their stuff. I also would rather use software that I can fix my issues without having to call someone all the time.

10.1.3 Working great on a certain OS so far.

Does anyone think that 10.1.4 will be Yosemite mandatory?

Now that OS X updates are now free, it just might.

Possibly. I remember last year people poo-pooed the idea that 10.1 might be Mavericks only, but then 10.1's new Library model necessitated machines to run Mavericks. So if there are any Yosemite specific features that are being leveraged for the update- it would have to.

EDIT- I just check the appStore page, and noticed that 10.1.2 requires OSX 10.9.2, so they have continued to slowly ratchet compatibility requirements along with X updates.

Well could Handoff be the first hint of project sharing? Just saying

Scrubelicious wrote: Well could Handoff be the first hint of project sharing? Just saying

Here's hoping. And wow that is an amazing list of core technologies going into Yosemite. Does make me think this is why there have been very few feature updates of late.

New Blog post on Roles, Role tagging, and how it could be improved.

ROLES REDUX: PART 1

disproportionatepictures.blogspot.ca/201...les-redux-part1.html

I'm curious if anyone else has had this thought. I wonder if they'll put FCP X on a yearly cycle like most of their products. So, will the next update be FCP X 10.1.4 or FCP X 10.2? It took 2 ½ years to get from 10.0 to 10.1 so it doesn't seem likely but for some reason it just seems logical to have a yearly cycle that they would settle into. Interesting note looking at last year, Mavericks launched on the 22nd of October but we didn't get FCP X 10.1 till December 19th. That's a big OS X compatibility gap. 10.0.9 worked in Mavericks from what I remember but there was no official support. It seemed like the gap had a lot to do with the launch of the Mac Pro but that's what happened. No big hardware release to wait on this time. I wonder what the delay time will be this year. I hope they've got a FCP X Yosemite update ready to go soon after the OS X launch but we should be mentally prepared for a gap just in case.

If you'd asked me a couple of years ago, I would have subscribed to what you're suggesting. That like OSX or iOS releases, or like Resolve or Adobe's apps, we'd start with a 10.X number about the same time every year, and over that year see feature and maintenance updates that would take us to 10.X.4 or 10.X.6 or whatever, and then we'd skip over the rest and move up to 10.X+1. From 10.0 back in July 2011, to 10.9 in 2020. This made sense going along with Apple's PR statement about Final Cut Pro's "10 Year development plan".

But so far we haven't skipped any numbers. As you say it took over 2 years to get to 10.1. And while it was a great release and had some deep foundational changes- I wouldn't say it was given any "special" importance vs other big releases like 10.0.3 or 10.0.6. But then again, "shotgun" style releases seem to be waining, with Adobe updating regularly for subscribers, and Apple not charging for updates. There's no longer a need for "big splash" releases.

So unless the FCP X development team completely change their release pattern, I wouldn't expect 10.2 any time soon. they'll keep chugging along. Reports are that 10.1.3 works on Yosemite, so they'll be no desperate need to get another release out imminently, unless there's a hardware reason [with these rumoured Retina iMacs], or features that FCP X is waiting on that need Yosemite.

As a side note, I very much agree that 10.1 waited on the MacPro last year. Possibly for months.

What was the rate of updates for FC Classic, all the apps in the studio? Was it as many as we have had just with FCP and Motion?

It concerns me that Apple does not have a clear strategy going forward, killed of livetype/dvd studio pro/soundtrack pro and color, leaving only motion-compressor and a new video editing NLE.

I would love to see what Apple brings to replace livetype/color/dvd studio pro/soundtrack pro, but with the demise of aperture in favour of the new and improved photo app sometime in 2015 or more likely 2020...

I will be very surprised if there are updates for X in 2014 for those running Mavericks, I guess a rush job hatchet patch for Yosemite users, but for Mavericks, we are done with updates, giving the lateness of the year already...Heading into winter slow down holiday period..I guess Feb or March 2015 before any news from Apple, Inc