Apple's new Final Cut Studio is out (short version: I am impressed).

I sat down with Apple's Final Cut Studio team and some fellow videobloggers and web video editors/producers in a Los Angeles hotel yesterday, and checked out the new version of the popular video editing suite.

Bottom line: normally I wouldn't be so jazzed about an application update, but as someone who's spent the better part of the last two years working on web video production, this struck me and other web video grunts in the room as "workflow-changing" (some said "life-changing!") and a nice big leap forward.

One of the editor/producer/shooters in the room said he could see these improvements shaving "a total of three months" off of every work-year, in saved man-hours. That's one way to look at it, and another, from a somewhat more workaholic person in the room: "We'll be able to get so much more video produced."

A quick recap of significant feature changes, after the jump.

On Thursday, July 24, Apple announced the release of Final Cut Studio 3 which includes the following components: Final Cut Pro 7, Motion 4, Soundtrack Pro 3, Color 1.5 and Compressor 3.5. Here's what I found most significant during the demo:

FINAL CUT PRO 7

* Exporting the finished product is much easier. You no longer have to output from FCP, then open and output again in Compressor before uploading to YouTube, Vimeo, or whatever web video hosting service you use (in Boing Boing Video's case, Episodic). A new "share" option within FCP includes pre-set export options for YouTube, Mobile Me, and iPods and iPhones, and you can easily add your own pre-sets from Compressor. You can even publish right to the web from FCP now. And...

* This is huge! While you're exporting, you can KEEP ON EDITING. Editors: say goodbye to those excuses for long smoking breaks during export.

* This is huge, too! iChat Theater support. So, let's say you've finished editing a rough cut of an episode, and you need to preview that with your supervising producer on the other side of the country, to get notes. Fire up iChat, and send your FCP video to iChat Theater, and you'll be able to watch the video with your two-way, person-to-person video chat inset in a small window in the lower right. I'm not sure what the limit on participant number is, but theoretically, you should be able to do this with up to 4 people iChatting in, if memory serves (and you have enough bandwidth).

* New versions of Apple's "ProRes" codec are offered, including one intended for higher-res digital motion picture output, and two at the lower end of the spectrum which could be particularly helpful for folks editing for broadcast or web on MacBook pros.

* You can color-code markers now. This is neat, and helpful if lots of different editors are touching a given project and you want to keep track of everyone's individual edits.

* There's a new floating, resizable timecode window. So if you're the editor, and you need to have a preview session with a client or producer or whatever, they can easily see the timecode progress while you preview a rough cut together.

* Multi-touch gesture support, which is nice if you're editing on a late-model MBP.

SOUNDTRACK PRO

* The feature that elicited the most "OMGs" in the room was a new dialogue level matching option. Allows you to quickly, automatically, intelligently match levels on separate snippets of dialogue, without increasing the levels of noise or non-dialogue sound sources. You can save levels and use them as standards in future projects. This saves a TON of time on a frequent issue that crops up for low-budget web productions that can't afford to hire sound guys for every field shoot. This was a big deal for a lot of us.

* Cool new visual editing interface for fine-tuning audio.

* Helpful new improvements to the time-stretching abilities in Soundtrack Pro.

MOTION, COLOR, DVD STUDIO, COMPRESSOR

* We don't use these tools as heavily every day on Boing Boing Video as we do the aforementioned Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro. But the bullet points from these demos that struck me as significant: powerful, less-intimidating 3D tools in Motion that allow you to create motion, shadow, and light effects; the ability to dump text files and create credit and title sequences more easily (I hate the old text editor!). And DVD Compressor now allows you to author blu-ray equivalent discs using the standard red-laser burners that come standard issue, and cheap standard 99-cent-per-blank-disc DVDs. Compressor includes a number of iterative improvements, but the thing I was most excited about was not having to actually open this damned app every day anymore.

More on all the features at Apple's Final Cut Studio website.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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Anonymous

Motion is the Fisher Price of motion graphics. FCS is for video and audio editing, and Adobe CS is for graphics. Sure there’s Premiere, but it’s not FCP just as Motion is not After Effects.

In this recession, I am trying to justify spending $1,000 when I am not earning thousands per week like I used to. This makes me want to wait it out and possibly download a pirated version. Besides, motion graphics are more important for what I do. However, every once in a while I need help, and pirated FCS is always lacking due to the sum of parts.

The ability to export while editing seems a bit persuasive though. Other than that, not sure I wanna pay $1,000 for the minor upgrades.
Xeni Jardin

For those saying “meh,” I’d wager this: most commenters pooh-poohing FCP here are likely not professional video editors who must rely on a video tool to earn their daily bread.

If you’re editing and outputting video from time to time for fun, there are other options. Including iMovie, yes, and including the open source editors, or Sony’s tool, or whatever it is that Windows offers.

But if video is your lifeblood, and your days involved output deadlines, there are three choices: Adobe, Avid, and FCP.

Of those three, FCP has more than 50 percent market share at this point, for a variety of good reasons.

XJ
Anonymous

Can anyone please suggest any good open source/free video production software? I keep looking around every so often, but I can’t seem to find anything that doesn’t have an ugly GUI or that doesn’t crash after 5 minutes of use. Thanks!
cycle23

“…or whatever it is that Windows offers.”

“But if video is your lifeblood, and your days involved output deadlines, there are three choices: Adobe, Avid, and FCP.”

FCP is the only one not on Windows, and that’s only because you can’t install acronyms using the Win32 API.
Anonymous

Oddly, it’s not 64bit
the_headless_rabbit

#19 I have been looking for the same thing for 6 months now. Sadly, multimedia production is not yet a high priority in the FOSS world.

90% of my computing is done in Ubuntu, but I need to load windows for my video/audio work. (I’ve got Vegas 7 running in the background right now)

so far, cinelerra is supposed to be the best, but i still find it unusable. Kino wont ever find my firewire. Virtual Dub is amazing for some stuff, (and it works under WINE) but it can’t do everything. Blender actually has a video editor built in, but it’s very hard to use.

Adobe Premier is garbage, i’m not going to buy a mac just for FCP, and I am VERY satisfied with Sony Vegas. the day FOSS can match the function and ease of use of Vegas, I will jump ship immediately.
normd

As someone who is just getting involved with video for the web, this does look interesting and encouraging. If I ever have a project of significant size, I will consider investing in the software.

As for FOSS alternatives, I tried Kino a couple of years ago, without good results. Took the plunge and got a Mac; iMovie was easy enough for every family member to use.

I would love to see a FOSS video editing app on a par with Blender.
Anonymous

I’m just not seeing it. With the exception of background exporting everything else are just Minor upgrades.
Anonymous

As an editor who uses Final Cut every day, and has for years and years — this is a nice upgrade, but most professionals are seeing it as a “slight” upgrade. It seems more like a .5 than meriting a full version change. The day Final Cut truly reworks its Media Management architecture is the day that editors will be popping open bottles of champagne the world over.
dhl

@xeni and @newwave

background compression is a great new feature but it’s always been possible to do this. You just have to first export your piece as a QT movie and run compressor outside of FCP. I’ve been using this workflow for years as I quickly found out that “export using compressor” locks up the machine and takes forever. Hard disk space is cheap and short form material (assuming it’s rendered) will generally export in a few minutes. Bring it into compressor, start your batch and go back to FCP and continue working.

This update looks great for lots of reasons, but if they really want to blow some minds and shave serious time off post, how about giving us background *rendering*? I’m posting right now because FCP is busy…
Anonymous

#39 is right. I cut documentaries and broadcast video in NYC- we’re talking major tv networks, so I’m pretty familiar with editing software. Why boing-boing is tooting the corporate hype trumpet, I don’t know. It’s easy to razzle-dazzle people in a demo, but nothing here is that mind-blowing; you could still be on FCP 5 and get your shit done almost as fast. I’m not seeing a 3-month speeding up on workflow here- based on what? Color-coded markers and a timecode window are nice- welcome to 1995, final cut! Media management is their gigantic flaw, and if that’s not improved, they’re not going to take on avid in any serious way. It’s that simple. I like FCP fine, I’m just not believing the hype.
Anonymous

As someone who’s used the app since version 1.0, this is good news, but considering all the problems Snow adapters are experiencing I probably won’t upgrade til around New Years time when the kinks get worked out. Anyways, as I said to my editor wannabe musician friends @2001 when they were debating Premiere or FCP, “buying the latest sampler doesn’t make you a great music producer!” Same things goes for the softs. I love CS4 and FCS2. It’s whatever works for your flow. Really speed is the only thing that matters when you have to do this to pay the rent. And sadly to my dismay the bosses don’t get why only 6 gigs of ram in my 8 core for the last year IS REALLY a major factor in why the guy on the 9th floor, who has 16 gigs, works faster.
Padraig

@19 and @21

Go to the Ubuntuforums.org site and pm me (4ebees).

I’d be more than happy to help you look at video editing on Linux.

You can also check my (slowly developing) site at:

http://www.youcantdothatinlinux.com
neWWave

For me, the background compression alone is worth the $300. The boast of better media management and flexible markers are very appealing as well.
teapot

Blah Blah Blah its just software – get over it.

Just about the only really time-saving feature for me is the ability to keep editing while exporting, though why this wasnt in any of the previous editions is a mystery to me (well, it’s not.. they were obviously holding onto it to wow people later). Can Adobe CS4 do this?
Anonymous

I don’t see how eliminating 3 months worth of paychecks is much of an improvement. Just saying.
circa86

Thanks for the Info Xeni, very excited to give FCS and Logic Studio a go. They have added so many things that will significantly improve my workflow as well. Stuff I was able to do that required work arounds now is built right in.

Now you have no excuse to give us a new high-end compositing App Apple! And I am still wishing for a full features 3D animation App as well.
circa86

@Anonymous

ABOUT No Blu-Ray Support being disappointing.

Well. . .there is Blu-Ray support, enough said, do some damn research.
circa86

To the person using Sony Vegas, you are kidding yourself. Use FCP for a day and you will never think twice.

Keep in mind you DO actually have to learn how to use it before your opinion on it is really valid.
stevewoolf

Soooo excited about this update!
Anonymous

FCP is the best thing about mac. It’s Adobe copy (let’s be frank – interface? color corrector? drag-video?…) for Windows is good and worthy but the stability makes Windows Me look like a tank…
mishakorea

This is a pretty decent update actually with some interesting ideas. The high-end support through ProRes and AVCHD help operations, the sharing is useful (I’m sure it works, skyping and ichat video has worked for what, 4-5 years?). Better color integration was needed if anyone was to start using it aside from Red workflows (and those could use other tools).
A Big piece of this is also Soundtrack’s level matching. That’s a lot of hours shaved off right there.
EricT

Personally I use a PC rather then a Mac. Though I am really more about lighting and grip then post, I still like the editorial process. the Kid got a Mac last year for xmas since I despise all the PC laptops out there. I was thinking ahead and new her interest in video would grow and sure enough she is taking a digital editin class next year in school.
We tried to hook our old digital camera up to her laptop and low and behold she had not fire wire. We went to the apple store and tried to figure out how to get the video from the DV camera to her lap top and I even had a copy of Final cut in my hands. Saddly the guys at the apple store were no help. So I said screw it and took a compy that I was not using and upgraded the cpu and got Adobe CS4 Production building a decent bay for both of us to use. Adobe VS Final Cut are really Same Same from all I hear only the preference of the platform makes a difference in choice.
Though my bud here who does a lot more editing then I really likes the FCP and will be upgrading to the studio here in a couple of weeks.
Anonymous

Anonymous – As Xeni was also saying, you could look at it as being able to create an extra 3 months *more* video in the same time before these updates. Just sayin’…
Anonymous

As a new Mac user and video editor, I am VERY excited about this new software. It looks solid and if I had more money right now, I would buy it!
Kwolfbrooks

Me want. It’s nice to see it’s $200 less than the previous version. I might be able to afford this!
matisse

The documentation for all the applications in Final Cut Studio (Final Cut Pro, Motion, Color, etc. 15 in all) is now on the web at http://documentation.apple.com/
Drew from Zhrodague

Kino seems to be free:

http://www.kinodv.org
claudineonthedole

This is all wonderful, if it actually works. I’ve learned the hard way not to jump on the bleeding edge of Apple releases. Especially the ichat theater bit — i take it you’ll still have to do an export and compression of the show before being able to share it, right? And I’d be curious how well the automated level matching works — there are very expensive boxes out there that still struggle with this.

That said, once it’s stable, life will be changed for the better!

Also, a bit that you guys left out — I think there is support for native AVC media. This is great — alot of the consumer video recorded to flash media is in this codec and until now it’s been a complete pain to edit.
funwithstuff

@erict: Unfortunately you got caught by the only Mac in ages not to have FireWire at all. Many people thought it was going for good, but enough complained that FireWire is now back on every Mac. I do find Final Cut better than Premiere (and Motion much more fun than After Effects) but both will probably be fine for what you need.

Apple were trying to get ahead of the curve as tapeless camcorders take over (using USB) but enough people have DV/HDV or FireWire drives that they couldn’t get away with it.
Anonymous

Drool.
Sardenta

@1, To echo #4, it ain’t about eliminating paychecks:

A production company can now say to a client “We can get your shit ready 3 months earlier than before”, thus making the client very happy and likely to commission more projects;

and say to the accountants, “We can do in 12 months what used to take 15 months and can potentially handle more clients/projects and earn more money per fiscal year” which makes everyone’s paychecks that much more secure.

Duh. Both sides win.
funwithstuff

@claudine: No, you don’t need to export the video first. Right off the viewer or the canvas. The support is for AVC-Intra video used by pro level cameras. I think you’ll still be converting consumer AVCHD to ProRes for editing.

Oh, I should say that the current version of DVD Studio Pro *can* produce HD-DVDs, on standard DVD-R, for playback on any recent Mac (and obsolete HD-DVD players).

The Mac DVD Player app can play back HD-DVDs burnt with MPEG-2 codec on a standard DVD. If you shoot HDV, you can export a QuickTime movie and burn a HD disc *with no recompression* in 5 minutes. Just choose HD-DVD as the standard and give it a QuickTime. Instant HD screeners for Mac playback. Delete the menu and give your track “First Play” for quickest burning.
Anonymous

As someone who has only known Windows Movie Maker, I am drooling over this!

-Kathryn
gobo

@23: “Blah Blah Blah its just software – get over it.”

I’m guessing you’ve never worked professionally with a piece of workhorse software, have you?

If you use one tool every day for 8-10 hours… whether it’s a piece of software, a ratchet, or a drill… and suddenly a new version comes along that makes that tool massively cooler, more fun, and more efficient, SURPRISE, bucky, it improves your entire life.
Anonymous

Thinking of buying a new mac (laptop) and get FCP too. I remember from when worked in a video production studio way back (Mac AV model 8400 or some such..) hard disks got used up very fast in video editing. IIRC every 3 months. That and the long rendering wait with After Effects / Premiere.

So if I understand correctly, no more rendering wait or having customer go to sleep on the sofa until ready. And best to get an external raid setup just for video editing. Is this right, or old info?
Anonymous

as someone who purchased CS4 production suite because of After Effects and flash, let me tell you that Premiere is no FCP. Premiere is semi-functional, but has ONE THIRD the transitions and effects of the PC version, does not autodetect scenes (despite its claim to), and has the most inane file structure that separates each project into different folders that you are then forced to reorder on your own (actually the most annoying problem). Granted, it captures in MPEG2, but HD doesnt show on screen during capture. Its a laughable program. Encore flat out doesnt work at all. Pshop CS4 shoved its web galleries into Bridge (look good but code doesnt work). Someone high-up at Adobe needs to be fired ASAP. Trust me, you dont want to go to Adobe for video on the mac. I’m glad I got AE and Flash (kind of), but now I gotta face purchasing a real video editor after all. Motion is kind of a tinkertoy, but good for VJs.
papernoise

so far I’m really underwhelmed by final cut studio 3. It’s still got that ugly, unusable and messy interface… it still crashes a lot and soundtrack pro is still everything except pro. If you asked me, if I wasn’t working on a Mac I’d go for Vegas! At least it’s able to play back any kind of material without asking me to render stuff all the time like Final Cut… and I even have a BlackMagic card installed…
failix

I for one, am more excited about the kdenlive open source project. I can’t wait until version 1.0 comes out… looks very promising.
Anonymous

No blu-ray support? Really?

Deeply disappointing.
Anonymous

i use FCP everyday, and honestly FCPS3 is crap, it’s not much of a jump. should have just been a free upgrade… don’t purchase it.
failix

@Circa86:
“And I am still wishing for a full features 3D animation App as well.”

Why not just use Blender?
johnnycoke

I’m stoked as well. We have an order pending for some new computers & Final Cut Studio, and Apple automatically bumped us to the new version as well as giving us the new, cheaper price!
funwithstuff

@13, Yes, there is Blu-ray burning support if you have a burner. It’s apparently basic, but customisable to some degree. It’s not in DVD Studio Pro (which seems unchanged â€” again) but available from the new Share option in FCP 7. It’s a shame they’re not trying to add Blu-ray authoring to DVD SP; they seem to be betting on online distribution.
videomilitia

Some of these features seem like interesting new workflows, if you can get your clients to adopt them. I worry though that Apple has skirted some of the major requests of its actual professional userbase, and I’m not talking about guys in Toledo editing wedding videos. I’m talking about the LA and NYC editing facilities doing top commercials, TV, and films.

Many of these documented requests have been around for years in usergroup forums; some are the most basic features those of us who also work in Avid take for granted. Like printing bins! At the same time this is a bit of a backhanded dig on Avid, the dinosaur that it is, because I was hoping FCPS3 would be an all-out Avid-killer. I’m just ready for the day when there is one definitive leader in NLE programs.

Also the timing of the release is suspect since there will probably be new towers coming out in Sept/Oct with Snow Leopard, so I am going to wait and see how this plays out. Small steps but please Apple take a giant leap and get back to your pro’s needs.
hohum

I’m really not impressed with this upgrade (which is lucky, ’cause I can’t spring for it right now anyway)â€¦ I want more focus on Compressor, not lessâ€¦Â If you’re used to it, it’s a very streamlined app with a strong workflowâ€¦ Do the exports from FCP still go through Compressor? And if not, will they make use of all 8 of my cores? If that’s not the case, that’s a definite no-goâ€¦ QMaster is just too importantâ€¦

The iChat Theatre support sounds nice, except I only have one client who it would make any sense to.

Blu-ray support in DVDSP, please. I know online content is booming, but physical media isn’t going to die just yetâ€¦ I do a lot of crazy interactive DVDs, and it’s a shame to be limited to standard def.

Motionâ€¦ Well, yeah, I want the new Motion. Bad.

And the new Logic suite, which I also can’t afford to upgrade, seems nice-but-not-necessary as well, from what I’ve seen so farâ€¦
Anonymous

I’m not sure who is making these comments. It sounds like some comments are from folks who edit home movies, some edit wedding videos, and there are some, but not many professional film/video editors.

If you edit more than 50 hours per week and output for a broadcast production the meaning of the FCP upgrades may be much greater than someone who edits on weekends (for whatever purpose). Production workflow in a post house or virtual post house may not gain anything either…. but if you are self employed and edit/produce media more than 50 hours per week output for DVD or streaming the additional features will be very important.

ziggy mr
funwithstuff

#18, Motion is hardly the Fisher Price of motion graphics. There are many things it does that AE just can’t. Yes, the opposite is also true, but mostly Motion just has different strengths, it’s not “worse”. GPU acceleration makes a huge difference to responsiveness; you often just keep the piece running while you make changes. Here’s an article for AE users looking at Motion:

http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/cmg_keyframes/story/animating_text_in_apples_motion/

Also, the upgrade price is US$300, not $1000.
Anonymous

Predict a feature that will be in the new version of Final Cut Pro and win a FREE upgrade to Final Cut Studio 4!

Just go here:
http://finalcutstudiowizards.com/predict-a-feature-that-will-be-in-the-new-version-of-final-cut-pro/
And add a comment with a feature you predict will be in the next version of Final Cut Pro, and youâ€™ll have a chance to win the next Final Cut Studio 4 upgrade!
Also, look over the other predictions and vote other peopleâ€™s comments up or down by clicking the balloon!
The earlier you post, the better chance youâ€™ll have, since youâ€™ll have more opportunity for others to vote your comment up! Read the contest description before predicting!
To the forum hosts: I thought this forum would be the best place to post this announcement, please feel free to move, and my apologies if I posted in the wrong place!
bobstep

Any indications whether this will be followed by a new version of Final Cut Express? (Or what Apple might leave out of it this time. I’m told Soundtrack was part of 3.5, but not 4.0)

No news at
http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/
Robbo

WANT