I'm finding that FCPX isn't playing clips smoothly in the angle viewer. Clips have a jump in them that corresponds to a cut on the timeline. I'm thinking it has to do with trimming, as on the timeline I've slid some clips to maintain sound sync. What's going on, and how do I reset the trim on a clip to zero, if for example I've slid it 4 frames either way?

What Mac model, RAM, GPU, and hard drive config?
What version of OS X and FCP X?
What codec are your angles and multiclip?

There is no "zero default" for where a clip sits in a timeline. There is Undo, though.

So, are you "trimming" the clips (changing in/out points), or are you "moving" clips around?
Are you working in the Project where you edited the multiclip, or in the Angle Editor where you adjust the angles?

imac 3.4GHz 32GB RAM 1TB HD

OSX 10.7.3 FCPX 10.04

I'm working in the angle editor. Not changing in and out points, not moving clips around. I'm using the trim tool to slide a clip backward or forward a few frames to get sound sync spot on. So I might have one clip at -3 frames, one at +1 frame etc etc. Just wondering if there was a way of telling what each clip was set to.

How the hell do you get 32GB RAM into an iMac?

OK, in a Timeline, there's no specific place a clip is "supposed" to be. There's no way to know how much you've moved it around over time. Sync is sync, it's either sync'ed or it's not. The clips is where it is in a timeline. A clip is not "at +1 frame". It's in the timeline where you put it or moved it to be.

Now, footage not playing smoothly in the Angle Editor indicates some hardware struggling somewhere.

What codec are the clips?
Is your hard drive USB or Firewire?
How much RAM is really in your iMac?

How the hell do you get 32GB RAM into an iMac?


4 x 8GB chips! When Apple launched the iMac the chips weren't available, so the official line is still 'maximum 16GB', but 32GB is possible and rather nice to have!


Now, footage not playing smoothly in the Angle Editor indicates some hardware struggling somewhere.

I think it's just a glitch, everything is running pretty smoothly, got 23 angles of ProRes Proxies running fine, no dropped frames. It's just a couple of clips have jumps in them, and the jumps seem to correspond to cuts in the timeline.

I'll try restarting to see if it helps.

Clips are prores, but working with proxies
Hard Drive is internal
There really is 32GB of RAM in my iMac.

You're bogging down performance running off your system drive. Unless you have a second drive in that iMac.

32GB RAM, yikes, but hey, it's your money.

I don't understand what you mean by the clip "jumps" where it has a "cut in the timeline". Are you watching in the Project timeline, or the Angle Editor timeline?

Sounds like you're pushing your hardware with 23 angles running off a system drive. Not sure an iMac GPU can handle all of that, much less the system drive's bandwidth.

A restart seems to have sorted it out. You're right though, I think the internal drive can't quite keep up. Pretty amazing though I only get a dropped frame alert at the end when I've got a dissolve to black. 16 clips in the angle editor, plus the preview window. The iMac actually beats my 16GB 2008 Mac Pro at most tasks.

Oh, and the 32GB RAM cost me £121. Lovely!

It's the bandwidth of the system drive. A hard drive has a limited bandwidth to pass data up/down stream. Video/audio assets streaming live eat up that bandwidth very fast. OS and apps eat up a bit of bandwidth on their own. Thus, we separate the OS and apps to a system drive, media to a media drive.

What graphics card is in your Mac Pro?

AMD Radeon HD 6970M 1024 MB

Yeah I'm planning to get a thunderbolt drive for media at some point, but still I'm amazed at what this little iMac and FCPX can do with ProRes footage.

Not to rain on your parade, you seem to be getting good results....but you are using proxies. See what full res high quality pro res files do to that iMac .


EDIT: Sorry, I meant that with the best of intentions. Sounded a little snarky.

no offence taken!

of course I can't get that kind of performance from non-proxy footage, but I find the proxy proves clips perfectly good for editing, so why would I bother using full-res clips?

I'm in the UK where did you buy the RAM? Ta

July 2010 iMac and later will fit 32GB RAM.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/iMac

Why would you use full rez files when proxies work very smoothly? For output. If you don't have originals or optimized assets, the only resolution you can export is proxy resolution. Also, if you can edit just fine with originals or optimized media just fine, it makes creating proxies unnecessary and will save drive space.

I am outputting full res files. I'd love to know what kind of system would allow me to do a 20 angle multi cam edit at full res!

The RAM I bought on Amazon:

www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMSO8GX3M1A1333...d=1337778058&sr=8-16

Made a mistake though - it's £169.20