Apple release a guide for FCP7 editor that is migrating to FCPX

If Apple would just make it easy to transition from FCP 7 to FCP X - I would be there....
I have FCP 7 projects that I have to dig up and re-edit that can be months & years old....
I cannot afford to take huge projects and re-edit them from scratch.
If I knew that I would eventually be able to edit my FCP 7 projects in FCP X
then I would have bought FCP X by now. What is the point in having 2 different
editing programs on the same system if they are not compatible....
Please enlighten me if this has changed because I don't follow FCP X at all.
I switched from Sony Vegas to FCP. FCP X looks like Vegas for the Mac.

Give 7toX a try if you need to edit your old FCP projects. I hear it does a good job.
 
I tried out FCPX a bit more yesterday and honestly, besides all the annoying things missing, I love how fast it is. I've never had playback performance like that on my Mac, ever. Oh how I wish Premiere could somehow add OpenCL support AND still keep the Nvidia Cuda support. I was scrolling through those effects in the side window and it was showing me realtime previews of it on my viewer. Man...even with most of those effects being pretty useless, it was pretty amazing to see my little laptop churning all that out.

FCPX has some things going for it, but I don't think I could EVER edit anything big or critical on it. Not right now at least. I'll have to stick to Premiere and dropping my viewer resolution to 1/2 or 1/4. :/
 
I use Avid at work and FCP 7 at home. (I use Premiere for the Military.) I was taught on FCP, and loved it.

For work I had to learn Avid, and i hated it at first. There are still things I really dislike about it. (We are using an older version, so maybe these problems have been worked out.) In the past year I have not been doing much for myself, so FCP has sat without being opened. It is the bad part of combining work and hobbies, you often get burnt out.

Recently I have been working on a documentary on my home computer using FCP 7. This has made me an Avid fan. IMHO learning on FCP, gave me sloppy/lazy editing habits and I think the program itself encourages. My Avid edits always seem a lot tighter.

As for FCP X, I have played with the demo, and I really don't like the UI, its workflow is good for a quick edit, but it seems to be a hassle for anything requiring precession. There are too many tools that should be a key stroke away, which are not. And Apple can keep it's magnets! I would not want to spend 8+ hours a day in front of FCP X. And it is a slap in the face being able to open iMovie projects (excuse me, "events") but not FCP 7 projects. It truely is iMovie Pro.

Avid is just so damn expensive though. I am going to give LightWorks a shot once the Mac Beta is released. Premeire seems to be the best deal out there, although not my choice editor, the whole CS package is worth its weight in gold.
 
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Ummm . . . ?

I'm countering the point that editors made Apple cool. Just a bit too self-important, don't you think?

Apple in fact created more editors and made them "cool," as opposed to Avid editors who were smug and elitist. Of course FCP changed Avid too, and AVID is in a better place.
 
As for FCP X, I have played with the demo, and I really don't like the UI, its workflow is good for a quick edit, but it seems to be a hassle for anything requiring precession.

I edited a complicated 45-minute piece and had no problem with precision editing. I got it done a lot faster then if I was using FCP 7, that's for sure.
 
I'm countering the point that editors made Apple cool. Just a bit too self-important, don't you think?

Probably no moreso than this:

Apple in fact created more editors and made them "cool," as opposed to Avid editors who were smug and elitist.

'Coz, you know, there's never been anything smug and elitist about Mac/FCP users.

How 'bout it's all just software and it's up to the individual to be "cool" or not? If you're deriving your identity from your software, there's something wrong.
 
I edited a complicated 45-minute piece and had no problem with precision editing. I got it done a lot faster then if I was using FCP 7, that's for sure.

Like I said, I have only played with the demo, and I have not used it on anything serious, so maybe I am wrong. And yes, the background rendering is a lot faster than 7. 7 has been outdated for awhile. (One of the reasons people are complaining. Yes 7 still works, but it is out dated and has been. They stuck by hoping for an update, but got new a different program altogether.)
 
'Coz, you know, there's never been anything smug and elitist about Mac/FCP users.

How 'bout it's all just software and it's up to the individual to be "cool" or not? If you're deriving your identity from your software, there's something wrong.

That's my point exactly, regarding editors who say FCP X is not for "pros" (who are way too cool to use it).
 
Like I said, I have only played with the demo, and I have not used it on anything serious, so maybe I am wrong. And yes, the background rendering is a lot faster than 7. 7 has been outdated for awhile. (One of the reasons people are complaining. Yes 7 still works, but it is out dated and has been. They stuck by hoping for an update, but got new a different program altogether.)

It's not only the background rendering that is faster. The UI and new features allow me to edit faster.
 
That's my point exactly, regarding editors who say FCP X is not for "pros" (who are way too cool to use it).

They say it's not for "pros" having nothing to do with being "cool" -- they say it because it has a greatly-reduced functionality.

This is what they say, anyway; I have no dog in that fight.
 
I edited a complicated 45-minute piece and had no problem with precision editing. I got it done a lot faster then if I was using FCP 7, that's for sure.

They say it's not for "pros" having nothing to do with being "cool" -- they say it because it has a greatly-reduced functionality.

This is what they say, anyway; I have no dog in that fight.

Yep.
How does the audio post guy deal with not having OMF files to import into Pro Tools, Sonar, etc... Must make for an ugly workflow.
if you're doing the audio yourself in your NLE, then any argument you're trying make about "pro" goes right out the window.
 
if you're doing the audio yourself in your NLE, then any argument you're trying make about "pro" goes right out the window.

I agree that there is a micro niche of "professional editors" whose workflow requires or compels are collaborative workflow.

However, I don't believe that someone isn't a "professional editor," just because he or she doesn't require sound sweetening or grading in a collaborative workflow

I also don't have a dog in this fight and still use FCP 7 and am watching FCP X mature.

But many cannot accept the view that tjey aren't professional unless they require collaborative editing.
 
They say it's not for "pros" having nothing to do with being "cool"

It does if you define as they do pro=cool=better than a FCP X user. Whatever you call it, the implication is that FCP X is not a serious NLE and you're not a serious editor if you use it. That was the argument when FCP 1 came out, and it's the same argument now.
 
If your audio isn't being processed by a dedicated audio specialist on dedicated audio software, then you aren't doing what 99.95% of "pro" level productions do. Maybe you're a "pro" event shooter, but you don't edit the audio for a film with any serious aspirations in the NLE. It doesn't begin to have the tools to do it. It's not that unusual for a scene on one of my narrative productions to have between 25 and 40 audio tracks involving automation advanced EQ and multiple filters applied. An NLE isn't meant to process audio. It's a video editor.
 
Yep.
How does the audio post guy deal with not having OMF files to import into Pro Tools, Sonar, etc... Must make for an ugly workflow.

Have you tried it and found the workflow ugly? Have you used Automatic Duck ? X2Pro is specifically for Pro Tools and should be available soon.


if you're doing the audio yourself in your NLE, then any argument you're trying make about "pro" goes right out the window.

I must not be a pro then because most of the time I do find FCP X adequate for my audio needs. Dang, should've known my argument was flawed. My business partner uses Pro Tools, good thing he's not hung up on the FCP X isn't for pros rant.
 
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