The Audio Crossfade
I’ve been battling FCP X for the last week. The program is just not intuitive and rarely makes sense to me. Figuring out how to do an audio crossfade has been my most painful experience with any editing application in the past 10 years. Audio crossfades are a simple and convenient way to transition scenes. They are so beneficial and easy to apply…in the old version of Final Cut. It is my hope that Apple addresses the weirdness of FCP X in regards to audio crossfades. For now, here is how you accomplish it in X officially. I’ve included a video guide below.
Please be aware of one menu setting that may be confusing. In the FCP X preferences “Editing” menu there is an option for “Apply transitions using.” The two options are:
1. Full Overlap
2. Available Media
If you chose full overlap, FCP X will use the exiting media marked inside your clips in your timeline to create the transition. It will not access any handles outside the media that exits in your timeline/project. This will shorten the length of your project by the length of the transition. Choosing available media makes FCP X work like older versions of FCP. Both will use the original clip media to make the transition without affecting the length of your project.
FCP X Audio Crossfades
FCP X Ratings on App Store?
Someone forwared me this article on thenextweb.com yesterday just as I was about to write this post.
The introductory Final Cut Pro X video has a bit at the end where it shows the application with a 5 star rating.
Here is a recent snapshot of the App store rating.
I have been tinkering with FCP X, but I do it in small doses. Trying to absorb all of X in one sitting is impossible and frustrating. I understand the reactions of people who tried it for a few hours and then tossed their hands in the air. I’ve done that several times already. This is a very rough cut, but there does seem to be some serious power rand potential under the hood. One positive sign for X is Noise Industries announcement that many of their plug-ins are now compatible with FCP X.
Very Early Impressions
Well folks, the early returns are in and it’s not a favorable score for Apple. Just read some of the reviews on the App Store. Final Cut Pro X is not a “Pro” application…at least not yet. Whether or not it intends to become one is up for debate.
The biggest missing features in my opinion are:
1. No support for projects from previous versions of Final Cut.
2. No multicam editing.
3. No export options for transferring a project to professional sound mixing application.
4. No sequences or bins!!! (Okay…not really fair. Those are just labels)
I’m just scratching the surface. There is a lot missing…and there are also a lot of new features. Here at Xamined, we plan a slow and systematic examination of the application. Besides experimental projects that will surely lead to revelations, disappointments and crashes, we have a freelance editor who has (without her approval) volunteered to edit all her news packages in X.
Together we will post our results…grim or glorious. Tutorials too.
For now, check out these two in-depth overviews of FCP X: Gary Adcocks article on Creative Cow and Steve Martin’s overview on Ken Stone’s Final Cut Pro. These works are very informed as both authors obviously had access to a pre-release version of FCP X.
There are differences in their analysis which can be perceived as both good and bad. It’s clear that Apple must make major improvements/addtions to FCP X if they want it to compete in the pro market. And I say “if” because it’s not clear that they do.
The Wait Continues
While WWDC produced no updates on the status of FCP X, there is some chatter that it will arrive this week via the App store. Leaked screenshots appeared a couple weeks ago causing some to speculate that an official release may be near. We continue to wait patiently here at Xamined…
Final Cut Pro X is Coming
If you haven’t seen the articles around the web on this topic, we’ll assume you don’t get online very often. The truth is not much is known about Final Cut Pro X, other then what was shown at the brief sneak peek back in April at the FCP Supermeet.
Once FCP X is officially announced and released, this site will be dedicated to providing relevant information, news and hands-on tutorials for FCP X.
So hang tight. Nothing to report for now. WWDC is next week though…
