Wish List for FCPX 1.0.4 (or whatever comes after 1.0.3)

I have to say that I disagree. All the metadata in FCP X has been instrumental in helping me find everything I have needed. I have well over 4000 clips and some of them are several minutes long. With keywords and favorites I've been able to reduce my hunting to a simple search. Or when I need to dig through some more footage, I'm able to really hone in on just the important stuff with a single click. It's far better than fcp7 ever was and miles ahead of other NLEs that I've used.

Maybe for short projects you have a point, but for long form stuff there is just no way I could keep that much info in my head (and I shot most of it myself!)

I'm still figuring out FCPX, but it is so much better for me organizationally than 7. Once I get the hang of the keywords, favorites, etc., I'll be very happy. And I'm almost there! I also do mostly longer form stuff, but I also find it's easier for short projects too. I agree that it is harder to share events & projects, but I'm finding clips more easily with every project and I don't miss 7 at all.

I don't agree either, regardless of how well anyone knows their footage the ability to organise and find efficiently is key.

Something else to remember is that while many people are editing their own footage, many more are editing footage they have never seen before and adding the metadata from a production log. This is a key stage in the editing process, it's when the editor first gets to know the footage.

When working on smaller projects it's a great idea to log everything in FCPX, even if it's your own footage. It allows you to put a system in place that may be used at a later date.

Don't want to be a party popper but it seems this thread is becoming more then a which list for FCPX 1.0.4. :evil:

When we use a generator that has been created in Motion5…Please allow us to edit a start and end point in final cut on that generator. I have to turn my generators into compound clips so I can slide ins and outs…

In and out points on event browser clips that stay when you click something else…so that when you come back to that clip....in and out points are still there! Hello !?

When you have a compound clip on the magnetic timeline and you double click to step inside the compound clip…the sound from the project/sequence is gone. Inside these compound clips, I need the audio from the project to follow when you step inside the compound clip.

Relinked files must have the same media type, same frame rate, and similar audio channels as the original files, and must be long enough to cover all the clips that reference the files. NO! Imagine you have an assistant editor who exported source clips at the wrong compression. They edit a rough cut and the main editor sits down and needs to recompress the bad source material…It won't relink???

Also - a real data base for our meta data and key-worded footage. I have many different hard drives for many clients and projects...and right now, if I do a keyword meta data search...that search will only take into consideration the media that is currently connected to my system. There should be an all encompassing data base that allows you to search all keyword data that was ever entered regardless of what hard drives are connected to your computer at any given time.

Also - can't there be similar window set ups between FCP and Motion? In FCP, the controls are on the right, and in Motion the controls are on the left? Are these two apps supposed to work together? It would make sense to have more of a similar set up between the two programs.

Allow us to have more than one project/sequence open at a time in both Motion and FCPX !?

Totie, the capability for your first request already exists. Check out the Motion Help Documentation for Build-In markers.

(I added a link to it here: help.apple.com/motion/mac/5.0/en/motion/...E8-85B5-A21C48C9AC36 )

I'll be checking into that! Thanks again!!!

Reading through and thinking about some of your other points,

When you say you'd like to have more than one project open at a time in FCP, do you mean using re-adjustable windows like in legacy versions? If so, I imagine that its probably not going to happen. If that's not what you mean, could you explain a little further?

(I agree that I'd like to see that feature return to Motion)

Not sure what you mean about the sound from the project being gone when you step inside of a compound clip...if what you're saying is that you can't hear the project's master audio inside of a compound clip (and thus can only hear the audio that exists within the compound clip), that's how I want it! Unless the audio is nested in the compound clip, I don't really want to hear anything else when I'm working inside of it. (What I would like - and maybe it exists) is to be able to exit my compound clip and have the playhead match up in the project with the spot I was at inside of the compound clip. That would be very useful.

Totie wrote: When you have a compound clip on the magnetic timeline and you double click to step inside the compound clip…the sound from the project/sequence is gone. Inside these compound clips, I need the audio from the project to follow when you step inside the compound clip.

I could agree with you more on this, Totie. Very difficult to make fine adjustments in compound clips when the music or dialog is somewhere else. There could just be a "play all" button or something. Ran into this problem a lot on my last big project...

This Too!!--->

Totie wrote: Allow us to have more than one project/sequence open at a time in both Motion and FCPX !?

When you expand a compound clip, its' associated audio is there with it and plays along (which is what Grailz prefers and I agree). If you want other project audio that is not associated with the compound clip to play, for example an underlying music bed that spans multiple compound clips, you could slice (blade) that audio and make it a part of the individual compound clips so that when a CC is expanded the underlying project audio is there. But I know of no other way to do that.

@ Scrubelicious You create a wish, then you debate, then create, then debate......

If you want other project audio that is not associated with the compound clip to play, for example an underlying music bed that spans multiple compound clips, you could slice (blade) that audio and make it a part of the individual compound clips so that when a CC is expanded the underlying project audio is there. But I know of no other way to do that.

When working with composites that become in part compound clips sometimes the need to go back in and make realignments is necessary, usually these realignments relate to an adjustment inside the compound to align with a clip that sits outside. To get round this I've been copy and pasting a reference clip from the main timeline into the compound clip that I can use for alignment before disabling it's visibility when going back to the main timeline.

This could work for reference audio in compound clips, just like Dan says but it's a duplicate section in the compound clip, so when disabled it still exists in the same timeline. It's wouldn't be a great workflow for general use, but for last minute changes/fixes I find it's ok, not ideal, but it works.

In general I prefer stuff that's in a compound clip to play and stuff that's not to not play, but the option of the relevant master audio section to be playable for reference only interests me. I'd go for that. Which made me start to think, why not have the option to show what's behind the compound clip, visually, for reference only too.

That's on top of my wishlist (maybe with stability and performance...) to be able to open a compound clip in context: I mean expand all its components in project timeline.

That would also fix FCPX bad management of multichannels audio, since every media is virtually a compound clip.
If I could expand every audio channel then recollapse it, I could make fine audio adjustments while hearing my whole project audio, then return to my tiny clip viewing.

If I want to only hear my CC audio, I can easily solo it with one keystroke.

Anyway, it isn't just a matter of audio, it's a matter of relationship of a single element with others. Video and/or audio.

But for people who like opening clips in their own timeline, I can't see why we couldn't have choice.
I don't pray for "open in timeline" function disappearing.

I'm not sure how much use this could be to you.

If you right click on a compound clip and select "Break Apart Clip Items" you can expand it's contents to the main timeline.

I'm not much of an audio guy at all so I'm even less sure of how much use this will be. If you have a stereo audio clip, set it to dual mono and do the same it does the same.

I'm glad to see that some others have the same issues....in a misery likes company sort of way...

Imagine you are editing a music video that has several 'sections' to it and one music track all the way through.

In your 'sections' you have created compound clips - either you have a global move (a slow zoom) across the section or you have global image treatments or effects that distinguishes these 'sections'...

Breaking apart the clip items is not an option. You'll lose all of the information you have in that compound clip.

It seems that the 'thought process' behind this was not non-linear as this was developed. Sure, if the edit is finished and you linearly apply effects and movement afterwards...ok...it works. BUT the basis of all this is NLE. We need to be able to do anything at anytime and have it all make sense on an editorial timeline.

There's still a lot of good....but the bad needs to be worked out or even the consumers who edit with X will eventually drift to something else as well. It's a long term solution that is needed...not just quick fixes to try to appease a specific community of users....

I hope apple is not afraid to do reconstructions with X as it matures. Like with photoshop or after effects. If you look at these products today, they hardly look like they looked back in their initial versions...

Lots of work to be done Apple. Pro or Not. Lots of work to be done....

I guess a passthrough master audio track would be cool to have no matter in which timeline (compound or not) you working in the passthrough track travels with you or make the compound track editable in the main timeline.

I'm all for the function to preview what's outside a compound clip from inside, I like that. Not only a pass through audio track but video as well.

To break apart clip items is certainly limited, it all depends on what's in there as to how it's going to behave. That's why I mentioned not being sure how much use it would be, it all depends on what is being done.

I don't use compound clips in the way a lot of people around here talk of using them, i.e. creating sequences and such in the event browser. I don't think it's a very good workflow and what's coming out here is showing that. There are of course a few bits and pieces Apple could change to accommodate for those who like to work this way.

Using a workflow where compound clips are more of a specialty clip that contains a graphic or a composition or something and having the full edit on a single timeline, with the necessary number of story lines, works for me and eliminates the related problems for the most part.

Not in every case of course, but I think editors moving from an Avid workflow will have a much easier time finding an FCPX workflow that editors moving from a legacy FCP workflow.

I don't think I'm seeing the issues here as an FCPX flaw as such, more of a workflow changer.

@NocoDave : already discussed this a lot of time But managing multichannels audio in actual version of fcpx isn't efficient at all.
I don't want to break apart my clip items just to adjust channel-2 audio gain. I know I could break apart then make this items a new compound clip, but I would loose all my labels (clip name, keywords...)
Only actual way is to open the clip in its own timeline, but then I can't hear the global project sound to make my adjustment.
I'd just like a reattach function, or a way to adjust separate audio channels gain in the inspector, or... all in one, just expand compound/regular/multicam clip items in my project to make my adjustments, then collapse and go on.

No problem Dawar, when it comes to the finer details of audio editing it's really not my forte just thought I'd point it out incase it helped somehow.

I'm wondering about the complications with expanding compound etc. clips for preview purposes. In relation to expanding it and making adjustmets then it going back together but different than it was.

I'm not sure but I'm thinking that perhaps previewing what's outside would work better than temporarily expanding what's inside.

I haven't thought about that, maybe it could be a good solution, indeed.