As many of you know I am an audio engineer by trade, but I dabble in many areas. I usually don’t edit much but I have been known to do some post work on music videos, commercials and movies. My tool of choice has always been Final Cut.

I first got introduced to the world of editing by using Final Cut Pro Express 2 back in the fall of 2004 and since then I have expanded my views and the I edited audio for video work. I have used Soundtrack Pro in conjunture with Avid’s Pro Tools and Logic Pro to do some of things I do. While it might be the best work flow, I works for me and gets the result I need.

So while I am not a video editor, and never claim to be, I’m going to take a look at Final Cut as an audio engineer that needs to edit from time to time.

My first reaction was that the User Interface (apperance) and the UX (user experience) has changed drastically. For the first time since Apple bought Final Cut from Macromedia, Final cut is got a face lift. But much more that just that, it breaks workflow for many people. I have always had this rule, “New UI/UX needs new workflow.” While that seems like a no brainer, old habits die hard. This is seen in the reviews on the Mac App Store with about 45% of them giving FCPX one star rating.

The Bad:

Can’t import old FCP project (understandable)

Some audio and video Plugins don’t work (understandable)

No import or export of Audio only

No import of OMF

The Good:

Everything else.

It fast… mind blowing fast

It’s easy (sometimes too dumb down)

Snaping (it locks audio and video together) [Best feature in my opinion]

What I take from this, people fear change. I like that Apple took the brave stance to change everything and drop  over a decade of legacy to make a leaner better program. It’s a decent 1.0 release and the next major update will fix some of the the bad problem, mainly importing of old FCP project. The next few weeks I’m going to spend much time playing and fiddle around with FCPX and figure out my work flow, what works and what doesn’t.

What I can see… the next Logic Pro (X?) will also have a similar redesign. I’m just trying to get a leg up.