Final Cut Pro X – June Release $299 App Store Download
What a night at the annual LAFCPUG Supermeet. Not only was it the 10th anniversary of the Supermeet but this little company called Apple debuted the all new Final Cut Pro X for a sold-out crowd of over 1500 at Bally’s Hotel in Las Vegas. I somehow managed to once again have a front row and center seat.
It was indeed a “jaw-dropper” as FCP Guru Larry Jordan said a few weeks ago at a preview of the new re-written from the ground up editing software program. Native H264 64bit editing, background rendering and much more. Many more new cool features that can be seen at Apple Insider:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/04/12/apple_unveils_new_64_bit_final_cut_pro_x.html
Some morning after observations:
While all these features are very wonderful and time-saving, Apple personnel last night were very tight-lipped about how FCP X integrates with Motion, Color and Soundtrack Pro, the other apps in the current Final Cut Suite. Are we going to see a new suite – or are the suite tools being integrated in the FCP X program? Apple spent an hour on their presentation and did not have time to show everything in the the software. I wanted to see more and know more. Hopefully in the weeks ahead more information will be available online and maybe some tutorials from Apple.
Will you be able to turn off some new features and go “manual” at times if you want to? I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to do that, but it was not disclosed last night. You know, automatic is great, but sometimes you need or want to go manual – just like on cameras.
It’s going to take me about a week to learn the new interface. If you know FCP, the same principles will apply, but in a new way. Plus there’s so many time-saving features to achieve faster easier editing – which I’m all for.
My advice is to learn as much as you can before it released, so the transition to the new interface and features is not shocking.
Many thanks to LAFCPUG big kahuna Michael Horton and his volunteer crew for putting on another great night. Legendary FCP Trainers Jeff Greenberg and Abba Shapiro were good sports and good entertainment reading the raffle numbers. As usual, I did not win anything. I know Mr. Horton never actually puts my tickets into the bin to be picked! I guess I’ll keep coming back until I win something, anything….someday.
Two more days here at NAB, more posts to come. By the time I get on the plane Friday morning, I’ll be in my usual post-NAB techno brain-dead state along with the other 92,000 walking zombies attending this year. 
