Tutorial: Editing During Playback in FCP X

I just finished up a tutorial on the fundamentals of editing during playback in FCP X:

library.creativecow.net/payton_t/FCPX_Editing-During-Playback/1

I hope this proves helpful.

- T.

Great Tutorial!!!

VERY, VERY cool!

Awesome, Thanks !

Excellent thanks, there are some great/useful tips in there.

I've been experimenting with editing during playback and think the real power with this is going to be in the precision editor, but the loop playback "shift-/" doesn't work well around edit points, it's not marked on the default keyboard set either, so I'm not sure what' going on with that.

One thing that I found essential in the past (working with Avid) was the ability to move from edit point to edit point (from the keyboard) while keeping the trim enabled.

In FCPX, in the basic timeline, when I select a trim on an edit point and hit the up or down key it moves the playhead but the trim stays selected where it was. Have you looked into or found anything with this?

In the precision editor the keyboard shortcut does move the trim. But even disregarding the known issue of the loop playback disabling when a trim is adjusted the loop doesn't move when the edit point is changed, it continues to loop around the edit that was selected when loop playback was engaged.

I'm just hoping you may have found something I've missed.

Thanks! Very useful tutorial - much appreciated!

As someone new to video editing but not to audio I really don't understand why there's not an equivalent to a "cycle area" with left and right locators as in Logic so I could select an area in the timeline that would loop while I played with options until it was how I wanted.

Perhaps this isn't exactly "editing during playback" but close enough maybe? What do you guys do to achieve the same end? It seems so necessary to me I must be missing something?

many thanks!

I really don't understand why there's not an equivalent to a "cycle area" with left and right locators as in Logic so I could select an area in the timeline that would loop while I played with options until it was how I wanted.

There is, this what I was talking about. It's the main attraction with Avid MC and is a big part of what got me interested in FCPX. But for now it doesn't work very well, I really hope (and think) there are plans to take this feature further.

In FCPX it works around the playhead or skimmer. To set the in and out points you go to "Preferences", "Playback" and set the "Pre-Roll Duration" and "Post- Roll Duration" to how much before and after the skimmer/playhead you want to loop.

Then hit "Shift/" to start looping, if you want to make edits while looping the loop stops and the playback continues to play normally from the edit point. That's a big problem, but you can immediately and hit "shift/" again as a work around.

You can also select a clip, or number of clips, and hit "/" to loop playback of the selection. After a quick experiment it does continue to loop after making changes, but I'm not sure to what extent as I've only since looked at it after learning a few new bits and pieces from tpaytons tutorial.

Thanks NocoDave for the clarification - I remember now playing with this when I first started exploring FCPX - but I just couldn't get it to work - as you say. Nor would it work for me with clips. Maybe it works a bit better in 10.0.2, but I haven't tried it again since updating - will check it out!

It makes sense to me that in video editing you'd want to be able to set a duration before and after the playhead for your loop, but it seems very clunky to have to do this from the preferences rather than how it works in Logic and loads of other DAWs: set graphically from the timeline header or set according to region length or playhead position. But perhaps there's a good reason not to do it this way? Seems so obvious and intuitive to me, but maybe that's just what I'm familiar with talking . . .

It's generally much faster to work with a pre/post roll than it would be with an in and out point. That way you can just skip from edit point to edit point and your pre-set in and out points move with you as you go.

Hopefully we'll see it in 10.0.3

I suppose the option to have it as you suggest could be useful at times, maybe selecting a number of clips and hitting "/" could turn out to work this way.

Works just like it did in FCP 7 and other NLE's.

I can trim edits with only the keyboard, exactly like I did in 7. I teach it to my students, and even experienced pros find it very fast to trim up a rough cut.

Playhead at beginning of Timeline. Down arrow to get to the first edit point. Shift-/ to preview the edit. Left/Right brackets select for ripple editing, \ selects for a roll edit. < and > adjust that edit left/right 1 frame at a time, holding them moves quickly one frame at a time until you let up. Shift-/ to preview, adjust as needed. When done, down arrow to the next edit point, repeat. I find it super fast, super accurate, super easy.


Great info here, too.
www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/tutorials/709-c...macbreak-studio-live

That's almost how I'm doing it, but I have a couple of issues.

The first is the need to hit "Shift/" again to reset the loop playback after any adjustments. It's not that bad, but would nice not to have to.

The other you might be able to help with, how do you select an edit to trim with the keyboard, I can't get that. I'm selecting it with the cursor, then when I try to go through edit points with the keyboard it just moves the playhead, but doesn't take the trim with it.

Also, if I try to move edit points while loop playback is enabled the up and down arrow keys just take me to the edit point selected or the end/start of the loop. I need to stop loop playback, before skipping to the next, which I then need to select with the cursor anyway.

Never mind, I just realised I read left right brackets as <>, thanks I see what you mean now. I'll see if I can get a nice flow going with that.

Just to add a little to Ben's description, instead of using the [ and ] keys to get ripple edits, shift-\ gets a roll edit.

As I said [ = ripple left, ] = ripple right, \ = roll.

No, the edit highlight doesn't follow like it did in 7.

So you did Ben, sorry I never read it correct. Seems I don't even need shift for the roll either.