A CC has the same properties as a Project. You can edit an entire program in a CC and it will show up in your Event. This edit can be stand alone or be used as a sub clip for another CC. I when it comes to duplicating your CC, you can use Command-D and now you have a copy to alter as you see fit. Here's a good article on some of the pros and cons do working this way: daredreamermag.com/2013/02/28/a-radical-...r-final-cut-x-users/
Read More...

OK, I think FCPX is pretty great as it is, but here are a few things that need love:

1) Image Sequences support (like After Effects) instead of the rigmarole you have to do in order to make an image sequence work in a timeline. (You can export Image Sequences, but FCPX doesn't know what to do on import/interpretation). Essential for VFX workflows.

2) Audio:
- Busses and Submixes for audio;
- Faders/Mixing Board
- LKW Metering
- Auto Crossfade between clips on collision (like in Soundtrack Pro) (could be handled with a shift drag)

3) Stills:
- More intuitive handling of Still Frame duration preferences (still not working as far as I know)
- Raw image support (from Aperture engine)

4) Project Library: ability to view in a tighter, text-only form instead of the wasteful, unadjustable film strip mode

5) Better support for Canon DSLR footage including TOD timecode (this may be up to Canon)

6) Raw Support: Native support for Black Magic raw DNG sequences
Read More...

I agree that sound booths aren't where you shoot location sound (although it is where you do voice-overs), but if you're testing a particular variable like noise floor, not having camera fan noise is probably a good idea. He was making a point about the onboard pre-amps vs. external mixer pre-amps, so the comparison was valid between the camera's pre's and the mixer's pre's. But I agree that the JuicedLink was closer to the MixPre than the camera, but the fan noise got in the way for me.

The MixPre is very simple and doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles like AGC defeat. At least most Canon DSLRs now have AGC defeat as an option, so we don't have to deal with that crap anymore. If only they'd let you do line level in, or let you bypass their crappy pre's, we'd be cooking with gas....
Read More...

Some software (Quicken) is priced that you pay the full freight for every version upgrade (maintenance upgrades are free) and Adobe has priced CS Cloud such that you're paying for a new license after about 3 years, which is sort of what it would be if you did three yearly upgrades.

Now that software is not shrink-wrapped and shipped, what defines an update and what's a new version is more amorphous and the costs associated with upgrading are less onerous.

My guess is that Apple sowed enough ill-will with their disastrous introduction technique of FCPX (they should have called it beta for about 3 months) that they won't be asking for an upgrade or version purchase for quite a while.
Read More...

I mean: yes, changing the Pref for Better Performance to Better Quality fixed it!
Read More...

Hey Gang... I don't know if anyone else has noticed this behavior, but FCPX is the only NLE I have where when the video is parked on a frame, it's sharp and when it's playing at speed, it's slightly blurry. I've noticed this behavior on three different machines (2 Mac Pros and a MacBook Pro). It doesn't matter what kind of graphics card I have (one MacPro has an ATI 6850 & an NVIDIA 285 and I have tried both). I first noticed it playing through my BM Decklink on my HP Dreamcolor, but it also is the same if its on a 2nd Mac monitor playing at 100%. The kind of footage doesn't matter (ProRes, H264 etc.). Am I the only one who's noticed this? I checked on Premiere, FCP7, and Davinci Resolve and none of them do this; only FCPX (10.0.7 in my case). It's really easy to see on stuff like focus charts or type, but it seems to be on everything. I know its not a footage needing to be rendered issue because the footage I'm playing is straight off the drive in the native codec. Here's the test: pull in some (in focus) footage and park it on a crisp frame. Now hit play and see if gets slightly blurry. Maybe I'm being picky, but I find it annoying. Anyone else experience this?
Read More...

You won't have "deck control" over the Comcast box, but you may be able to connect the HDMI directly to your BM Intensity. The only wrinkle is that the Comcast box may put out a signal with HDCP (content protection) and your Intensity may not like it. There are various cracks on the Internet to bypass HDCP (analog path, DVI and splitting off audio signal to analog etc.) Have you tried hooking up your box to the Intensity?
Read More...

The Rockit 6" are powered speakers, so you don't need extra amplification, but you need a good volume control for them near to where you're working. I bought the SM Pro Passive Switch/Headphone amp: www.markertek.com/Audio-Equipment/Speake...H-2.xhtml?SM-MPATCH2 It's built like a tank and has nice large volume knobs that make it easy to control volume quickly without messing with your computer settings. You can then run either balanced XLR or 1/4" jacks or unbalance RCAs. You can run two sources through the switch and turn the speakers on and off at will. There's also a headphone amp with its own volume control that is way easier to access than the iMac. If you're planning on driving an external broadcast video monitor from either a Black Magic, AJA, or Matrox box, you can route all the audio through that interface and then to the SM Pro switch before they hit your KRKs. I really recommend having a manual switch because the volume control on the KRKs are on the back and hard to reach. Just leave your computer and KRKs set on full and control everything from the SM Pro. At $180, its a little spendy, but its all metal and pro.
Read More...

Not that Time Machine is perfect, but there are things you can do to improve performance. I use it professionally and it has saved me on several occasions. For our edit systems, we have a CalDigit raid card and an outboard HD Element raid. We have the 4 drive bays (not including the boot drive in the optical slot) hardware raided into a massive Time Machine volume and use the external Raid as my media drive. This always has at least 50% headroom over what is stored on the Media drives, so we don't run out of space. (At some point, it's not a bad idea to purge older projects off of Time Machine that have been archived off the system; remember Time Machine is back up for CURRENT work, not an archive system, so get rid of stuff you're not needing for current work!) That way, if the system goes down, I can move the media drives to another machine with another CalDigit card. Because it's going to a fast RAID (400-500 mb), it doesn't get bogged down backing up. Also, once all of the media has been backed up, the system is only making incremental backups of project files, which take moments. I have never noticed it to slow down my editing. If you are in a particularly intensive edit session with no patience for any kind of slow-down, you can always temporarily disable Time Machine and put it back on when you take a coffee break. (Use a PostIt to remind yourself!) The key is to have a large enough/fast enough storage volume (at least 50% larger than your media drives) that won't bog your system down. I'm really skeptical about cloud based solutions which can't really back up your media effectively. (Think about TBs of data being chugged out over the Internet but because this seems to work for me, i have really investigated it. I suppose some form of off-site would be a good idea, however.) I am curious about Pro Versioner, so I'll check that out...
Read More...

Knowing that DVDs are eventually going to be phased out, I made disk clones of all my FCP7 install disks and put them on a Firewire hard drive. Now, if I have to install FCP7, I can do it from the hard drive instead of the DVD drive and it goes way faster. It also means you don't have to swap disks around. I've done this with with Mountain Lion installed first (on my Mac Pro) and it worked flawlessly. This might be more stable than using the DVD drive. Just make sure you have ISO's that mimic DVD volumes and you should be good to go.
Read More...

Does anyone think that optical media is the future? I can tell you that for showing work (or delivering work, for that matter), I have not made either a custom DVD or authored DVD in years. All of my ad agency clients only want to see links on the Web, not bits of plastic that they will put in a pile and forget about. Now that I'm watching most of my stuff on Netflix streaming, my blu-ray player is basically mostly a streaming device (it doesn't help that my local excellent video store went bust...). If you think about it, Apple has zero reason to continue support for DVDs because: a) They probably have reams of research that says that very few people use their DVD slots ever (or rarely); b) They sell downloadable movies over iTunes and Apple TV; c) It's one more piece of non-Apple hardware that they have to support; d) All software delivery is now either a direct download or via the App Store e) DVD drives require more space, extra power and sata ports that could be better used for other things f) External DVD drives via USB 3 cost $50 and if you really really need one, they're easy to come by g) DVDs and their cases and their shipping are an unnecessary ecological problem that we can be glad to get rid of h) Need I go on???
Read More...