FCPX, Apple's Final Cut Pro X Editing Software Reviewed

Videomaker by Ben Balser

This is a brand new approach to editing video that provides a fun and fast experience to editors of all levels. Those who find it appealing will find it makes post-production work faster, easier, and fun.

By the time of this writing, the whole world knows that Apple has revamped Final Cut Pro into an "X" version, and it's not like anything you've used. Is it iMovie Pro? Only superficially. It goes so far beyond that. Apple did get one thing right at its National Association of Broadcasters sneak peak; FCPX is a whole new paradigm in editing.

The interface is radically different. We have a darker landscape that is very easy on the eyes, as well as a true full screen application. Every windowpane is dynamic; able to change for the type of work you need to do at the moment, which allows for access to a lot of tools in a small space. A lot is not obvious without digging in. The new keyboard customization window is nice and easy to deal with. It also makes exploring keyboard shortcuts very pleasant.

Media Management

Media management is greatly simplified, and can now easily span every hard drive your Mac can access. In the Event Library window, we see a list of all attached hard drives. We can create Events on each drive. Each drive that contains events has a Final Cut Pro Events folder on it. Events are a container of media assets, sort of our top level Bins so to speak. Assets inside each Event are sorted by metadata: tags, keywords, search criteria. It's more of a database management than a Bins management. If you've ever worked with Final Cut Server or other media access management systems, it'll be very familiar. Assets can also be imported in their native format, or as ProRes, it's the users' choice. read more...