What Is All This?

Posted by fcpxpert1 on November 23, 2013
Posted in: FCP X. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

Hi there. This is a little blog about FCP X. “The internet is full of blogs about FCP X”  you say. “Why bother?” Well, I just thought I’d add my opinions and experiences to the 800 billion others out there. Also, I am selfish. I Like FCP X 😛

Quick Links: FCP X Essentials | FCP X Versioning Workflow | FCP X Naming (Opinion)

Looking for crap to download? Shortcuts to the vast collection of GeekCo.® free stuff:
Slate/Smoke/MPAA Bands/Bars
Strobe | Role-O-Matic (deprecated)| Share-O-Matic | Letter A | Better Basic 3D

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Fade To Whatever – Dissolves in FCP X and Premiere

Posted by fcpxpert1 on May 8, 2019
Posted in: Uncategorized. 2 Comments

Let’s talk about dissolves… Yeah, I know, boring right?  Well, today I was working in Premiere  – doing some fancy multiple dissolving shot sequences – and I realized how much better the Dissolves in FCP X are. In Premiere, it’s a pain to get a decent ‘look’. Changing blend modes on the shots and stacking them, or keyframing opacity… basically fiddling around endlessly to try to get a nice, smooth, soft effect. It’s do-able of course, but annoying AF.

You also have the option of “starting” your dissolve on the cut, or “ending” on the cut, or trimming one side or the other of the effect to get an “asymmetrical” dissolve. But all that actually does is move the midpoint of the dissolve without you needing to move the cut point. With one exception (see below) there is no such thing as an assymetrical dissolve in any NLE. Don’t believe me? Wade through this discussion for the explanation.

In FCP X, you just put the dissolve on the cut, pick the “Look” (blend mode) tweak the amount (mix) and adjust away. Much easier to get a nice, smooth look. Here’s the infographic!

If you want “real” assymetrical dissolves, the only way to do it is to get Super Dissolve for FCP X. 🙂

 

Klangfreund Multimeter 1.0 – Loudness Metering on Steroids

Posted by fcpxpert1 on April 26, 2019
Posted in: Uncategorized. 3 Comments

Hey, a post! 🙂 Just wanted to let folks know that a really great loudness measuring/adjusting/mixing plugin, Klangfreund Multimeter, is out. Those of you who’ve used LUFS Meter (which has also been updated to V.2) will recognize the interface, with a lot of additional features.

I’ve used LUFS Meter for ages, and the new Multimeter is a great addition to the toolset. The website has all the details, but the cliff notes are:

All the Loudness Measuring functionality of LUFS Meter Plus:

Additional Automatic adjustment functions (true peak, S-Max, M-Max)
Standalone app and plugin for… everything. Major NLE’s and DAW’s and Multiple OS’s
A/V File measurement.
Surround support (up to 64 channels)
A nifty “experimental” DAW Automation feature. 🙂

Lists, Test reports, and much much more. Again, check out The Website for the full feature list.

It also has a preset for pretty much any standard you can imagine.

Multimeter is $59, LUFS Meter is $39, and the discounted (no commercial use and a few less feature) LUFS Meter is still available for $19

There are a number of Loudness plugins out there, But the stuff from Klangfruend is, in my experience, the best priced and easiest to use. Also it works amazingly well. I have no skin in the game here, I just really like great tools like this. I use it exclusively to legalize my mixes from FCP X, but I haven’t even scratched the surface of what the plugins can do. Check ’em out. 🙂

 

3.57 Per Month And Dropping

Posted by fcpxpert1 on January 24, 2019
Posted in: Uncategorized. 2 Comments

For some reason (boredom) I was looking at my oldest App Store purchases. For what it’s worth, “Let’s Golf!2” is the first. 😉  And then, of course, there’s this:

As of right now, it’s cost me $42.86 a year. Pretty good deal huh? I’d say probably the best deal of any NLE.**

To be fair, let’s add in Logic Pro X, Compressor and Motion 5. That get’s me to $7 a month, and decreasing every day.

 

 

**Resolve isn’t really free. It’s 300 bucks, same as FCP. But… it has tracks, which considerably detracts from its value. 😉

Premiere Pro Frame Rate Conversion Instructions

Posted by fcpxpert1 on October 16, 2018
Posted in: Workflow. Tagged: , . 1 Comment

Had to deliver some spots cut in Premiere Pro. The delivery required 29.97, but the spots were cut at 23.98 matching the source. So… here’s the best way to do this.

Step 1 – Export ProRes 422HQ versions from Premiere

Step 2 – Import the masters into Final Cut Pro X

Step 3 – Do the rate conversion In FCP X, because it works as well, and often better than a Terranex

So that’s it, 3 easy steps to getting a high quality rate converted master from Premiere

😘

Another Day…

Posted by fcpxpert1 on September 20, 2018
Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a comment

I had to cut a Red band trailer into a Green Band this week. Not a big deal, but I had to keep all the mixed audio in sync while I cut. And there was a lot of audio to wrangle.

Audio sources were discrete stereo, and 5.1 DME’s, so 24 channels/files. 

Put the 6 L and R Stereo files into 3 Compound Clips, and the 18 5.1 files into another 3. Then put those 6 Compound Clips into a Compound Clip with the picture. Oh, audio was 24fps and pix was 23.98 so I had to slow each audio file down by about 2 frames. So…

My master was an A/V Compound Clip, containing 6 Audio Compound Clips, all of which contained 3-6 retimed audio clips. (Roles all properly set of course) Played fine as you’d expect…

A SIMPLE CUT LIKE THIS…
…WITH ALL THIS ALONG FOR THE RIDE

Edited out the R rated stuff, keeping all the disparate stems in sync, and today exported:

all the cut discrete stems (24),

an AAF,

an EDL,

and the master Video with comped audio in under 5 min. This app rocks. 😀

FCP X 10.4.1 – Open Apple?

Posted by fcpxpert1 on April 9, 2018
Posted in: FCP X, Opinion. Tagged: . 9 Comments

I usually do a little overview of each new FCP X release on the day it drops, as it’s interesting for most users to see what’s inside before they update. But this time, things are… different. Not only did Apple announce the release of 10.4.1 five days in advance, they also seem to have provided a press kit to bunch of people with lots of info about the new features in this release. With pictures. And a White Paper.

Apple had done something similar with the 10.4 release, but it was still pretty mysterious. At the FCP X Creative Summit, they let people take pictures of the unreleased FCP X 10.4 UI. And post them ONLINE! Madness! lol But it was still kind of mysterious. People had to infer features from the pictures of the interface. This time, everyone could find out in great detail what was in an FCP X update before it was available.

There was also a pretty interesting TechCrunch article about Apple’s efforts with creative pros that appeared on the same day as everything else. This was not your usual, quiet FCP X Roll out.

In some ways, I think this is a bigger deal than he update itself. And it seems to be a continuation of an ‘openness’ on the part of the Pro Apps division in general.

A couple months ago, Apple did a presentation on the then-new features in FCP X 10.4 at LACPUG in Los Angeles. Not unusual, they do traveling roadshows in bigger markets pretty often.  What was unusual though, was that a couple days after the event the demos were posted online for all to view. That was unheard of until now.

This isn’t to say they’re not being just as secretive as before. Nobody had a clue about ProRes RAW, or any other new features before Apple chose to release the info. But they did release the info, early, and to a lot of people. The PR Blitz around ProRes RAW has been pretty astounding. And kudos to Apple for this.

Most of the latest features in FCP X signal that they definitely have NOT “abandoned the Pro market”. The headline features in that last couple X releases have been squarely aimed at ‘Pro’s’, and Apple is talking again. I think the best is yet to come.

So, what’s in the update? Lot’s of bug fixes. Captions, and ProRes Raw. I don’t do a whole lot with captions or Raw footage, but a little bird told me that the ProRes RAW is pretty amazing. This is third hand, unsubstantiated info, but allegedly – using Better Performance setting – you can play and work with un-rendered 4k RAW files on a 6 year old iMac from a TB 2 external spinning drive.

Crazy. Can’t wait to see what’s next.