New and Improved: Apple Final Cut Pro X 10.0.6 Adds Some Serious Features

2-pop by Oliver Peters

On the same day Apple launched the iPad mini, the fourth generation iPad, a refresh of the iMac line and a 13” MacBook Pro with Retina display, Apple also quietly released the 10.0.6 version of Final Cut Pro X. By the end of the day, the App Store lit up and the various online forums were buzzing.

The Four Bullet Points

Dual Viewers
A familiar dual viewer layout is now possible within Final Cut Pro X. Both viewers can include videoscope displays in horizontal or vertical stacked layouts -->

The unified viewer was a huge shock when FCP X was first released. As you move between a source clip in the event browser and the project’s edited timeline, the viewer display toggles between these two images. You now have the option to change this behavior by opening a second event viewer window. Source clips show in the event viewer while the main viewer displays only the project timeline image. You cannot skim or scrub with the mouse directly from within this window. There is also no way to gang source clips and timelines together. Having this second viewer does add some cool new features, like the ability to have scopes with each viewer. These can be displayed in a horizontal or vertical arrangement. The good news is that you have the choice between single and dual viewers depending on your task.

Multi-Channel Audio Editing
To prevent audio from slipping out of sync due to user error—and to reduce timeline clutter—FCP X keeps clips as combined A/V sources. Until this release, if you shot an interview and used two audio channels for individual microphones, you could not separately edit or mix levels on them unless you broke the audio out as separate clips. Then you risked the possibility of accidentally slipping them out of sync. With this update, audio channels still stay attached to their source clips, but you can expand the clip in the timeline or inspector to reveal multiple audio channels. This enables renaming, editing, volume and pan control for individual audio channels. read more...