Is it possible to run FCP7 and FCPX simultaneously?

Hi all,

I would like to know if there is any way of running FCP7 and FCPX at the same time on the same machine.

I occasionally do some training and demos (besides working as an editor). So I need to be able to showcase the differences between legacy FCP7 and the new paradigm in FCPX. Having to Quit apps every time I want to make a comparison between the two doesn't work at all (specially in front of an audience). It just takes too much time.

I could use Premiere Pro CC or DaVinci Resolve 11 instead of the good old FCP7. But most of the people I train are long time FCP7 users, so I would prefer to compare FCPX to what they are most familiar with.

Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

The short answer is no if ypu just want to go from one to the other. I think what some people do is create a new user account to run 7. You would still need to leave one "account" and log back into the other.

Jonathan

Hey JPM
Normally no, but I wonder if you couldn't run FCP7 in a virtual program like Parallels? Anyone tried it?
Running both programs and a virtual partition will definitely use up ram and resources.

Hope this helps, Greg
p.s. You could also borrow another Mac for side by side comparisons.

Jonathan Levin wrote: The short answer is no if ypu just want to go from one to the other. I think what some people do is create a new user account to run 7. You would still need to leave one "account" and log back into the other.

Thanks, Jonathan. I was also thinking that this might be the best alternative. Not ideal, but at least, faster than re-launching applications.

VidGreg wrote: Normally no, but I wonder if you couldn't run FCP7 in a virtual program like Parallels? Anyone tried it?
Running both programs and a virtual partition will definitely use up ram and resources.

Hope this helps, Greg
p.s. You could also borrow another Mac for side by side comparisons.

Hi, Greg. I don't know if running FCP7 in a program like Parallels is possible either. I'm not familiar with that. I guess it's something I could look into.

Borrowing another Mac would be possible too. But I would need a projector with two compatible inputs, and then be able to switch inputs during the presentation back and forth from one to another, which I think it's a bit more complicated than switching user accounts. But thanks anyway, Greg, for your outside-of-the-box thinking!

As I understand, both applications can't run at the same time because the OS considers them as being two different versions of the same app (Final Cut Pro). I know that changing the name of one of the apps to something different just doesn't work. I wonder if there is any other way to "trick" the system into thinking they are different apps...

Thank you all for your comments! Very much appreciated!

You can run them simultaneously but you can't USE them simultaneously. If FCPX sees FCP7 running it will refuse to do anything. It acts like a kid throwing a temper tantrum, crossing his arms and getting grumpy until his brother is no longer allowed to also have some cookies. FCP7 doesn't give a crap. It will run even if FCPX is in tempter tantrum mode. So if you need to do something really quick in FCP7 you can launch it without worrying about quitting FCPX. Get done in FCP7, quit it and then FCPX will be happy and work again.

Just remember that FCP7 always takes operational priority over FCPX. FCP7 is the alpha dog.

That's a perfect description!

- Andreas

Yes, and extremely helpful

- Ronny

Redifer wrote: You can run them simultaneously but you can't USE them simultaneously. If FCPX sees FCP7 running it will refuse to do anything. It acts like a kid throwing a temper tantrum, crossing his arms and getting grumpy until his brother is no longer allowed to also have some cookies. FCP7 doesn't give a crap. It will run even if FCPX is in tempter tantrum mode. So if you need to do something really quick in FCP7 you can launch it without worrying about quitting FCPX. Get done in FCP7, quit it and then FCPX will be happy and work again.

Just remember that FCP7 always takes operational priority over FCPX. FCP7 is the alpha dog.

Thanks for your illustrative reply, Redifer.

The thing is that I would need to go from FCPX to FCP7 and viceversa many times during the presentation. So I would have to quit and re-launch FCP7 several times, which wouldn't be very elegant.

Anyway, thanks again for your input.

As an experienced trainer, Apple certified for FCPX, I'd strongly recommend AGAINST making comparisons. I have found it only confuses folks, as practically nothing compares. I simply tell them to forget everything about 7, and learn X from scratch, don't compare them. Things go way smoother that way.

Hi, Ben. Thanks for your comments.

This would be more like a 2-day demo of the new capabilities in X and how they take non linear editing further. It is not a full training course on X.

My intention is to show the new paradigm in X as a more evolved-refined way of working. Kind of like in the promotional videos made by Apple, where they showed the difference between X and the rest: Avid, FCP7 and Premiere.

So the fact that "practically nothing compares", like you said, is exactly what I need to make my point. Like I said, my intention for this demo is to point out the main differences and benefits of the new paradigm in X.

I do demos, too. I never open anything but FCPX, except Compressor and Motion very briefly to show the integration. But I never touch anything else. Waste of time, IMHO. Concentrate on the positive, show it rocking and rolling. Let the other stuff simply be memories to the audience. Don't matter what the others do, we don't care about them, we want to show and experience and immerse in X. Everyone does it differently, but that's how I do it. When I do these with Apple sales reps and sales engineers, we have a set demo they do, which I tweak, and we never touch legacy apps in it, or other brands. Leave the past in the past, show the future, you'll get more wow factor out of it. You can verbally refer to old ways, like bins, duplicated files, etc, but only briefly and with humor. Concentrate on the here and now. If they know other NLE's, they know the comparisons before you show them. If they've never used other NLEs, don't go there, they won't get it anyway.

Again, just my personal take on how to do these things. Everyone has a different approach.

Agree with that, just focus on FCP X . If really want to do some comparsions, just run them on two Mac, that will be more obviously for the audiences.