«Final Cut Pro Studio 2»

I have no previous experience with editing, so I really can't compare it with another product. The user manuals that came with the series were overwhelming and practically useless to me. However, I have managed to learn to use the suite with the help of the Apple Pro training series and Lynda.com. I think it is a great product for those who have the patience and determination to learn it.

[Tuesday, December 30, 2008]

«Expected More quality»

Updated Feb 2008
Final Cut Studio 2 is an inigma. On th one hand it has MASSIVE strengths and on the other it has MASSIVE weaknessess. If you are eperianced on other pro editing applications like Pro Tools or Avid you could experiance frustration ... as I do.
STRENGTHS
Final Cut Studio 2 has everthing you need to produce a great program
Final Cut Studio 2 ships with awsome content to get you up & running ... templates, presets, royalty free music and sound effects (lots!)
Intergration with the other programs in the suite makes Final Cut Pro do amazing stuff. Some great codecs too.
Apple listen to feedback (note the change in this review ... you CAN now zoom in on the cursor ... thanks Apple.)
WEAKNESSESS
No manuals for applications that have had a major overhaul!! (Except FCP6) There are 4 manuals for Final cut Pro 6 containing far too much detail about a program that really doesn't have a lot of functionality. (there is about a quarter of an inch thick section on the audio mixer ... a mixer that has inputs, levels and pans AND NOTHING ELSE!!!! no inserts - nix!)
and yet there is not even a piece of paper for Motion, Soundtrack Pro, Live Type, Compressor and DVD Studio Pro. The brand new program - Color gets a "setup guide" but no user manual. There are pdf files woopie doo. (Oh and you can't buy them either!)
Final Cut Pro is not a user friendly cutting platform. As others have said, the User Interface is cumbersome ... You often need to move the mouse / Trackball by fractional amounts to grab minute "hot spots / Lines" ... not so easy when you have your mouse set up to cover 2 screens with one sweep. If you want to Export from Motion or STP (and many other MAC based Programs) you use Cmd E right? NOT on Final Cut Pro! Luckily you can assign it if it bugs you (i did) So the suite integration isn't all it could be.
File Management (as with other NLEs is tricky. With FCP your files get stored on a "scratch disk" It seems to have more in comon with Avid Liquids FM system (which is terifiying!) than with good 'ol Adobe Prmier Pro.
Soundtrack Pro 2 now seems to be less Buggy than it's first (2.0.0) release. It offers so much and is enjoyable to work with (better in some ways than Adobe Audition)
Put asside 12 hours if you are installing OS and FCS2 from scratch.

All in all Final Cut Studio is OK ... getting better ... but still just Ok. I expected more quality and less initial bugs from Apple ... (There was the OS 10.4.10 bug that prevented the use of the Alesis iO2 Audio interface ... now fixed I am glad to say) ... after all there are only about 10 Intel based MACs on the market as opposed to a quadzillian number of PC hardware / software combinations. Motion rocks but is still not as good as After Effects (I run AE CS3) You can do better. Avid Liquid (PC only unfortunatly ... but does run well on boot camp) Pro Tools and After Effects is often a better (but far more costly) solution.

With all that said ... I do use FCS2 a lot.

[Monday, September 03, 2007]

«Little difference--should have been a "point release" upgrade»

I like Final Cut Pro, I like Motion, and I like LiveType. But it is as if they were written by 3 different companies who didn't expect them to work together. And sadly, this version is no different. Still if you are doing editing on Apple hardware Final Cut Studio 2 is your best choice.

This program is for the every-day editor/user, not for casual users as the learning curve is way out there. Add to that the inconsistencies between the "Studio" products and you have more learning curve issues. Sadly, the video editor which bares the studio name Final Cut Pro, is the one tool that could have used a contemporary face lift and yet it had only what I would call "point release" quality updates. Whereas Motion (which was the most user-friend and modern interface) got huge new features that are outstanding.

It seems to ne that Final Cut may be at the end of what software engineers can do with the Final Cut Pro editor itself without a complete rewrite from the grown up. But then they stand the chance of alienating their current legacy users; and as we've seen with iMovie 2008, Apple isn't too smart when it comes to cleverly updating video editing workflows.

Unfortunately, I still have to resort to using iMovie from time to time to capture video since it always captures anything from any camera, and then import it into Final Cut Pro. Whereas Final Cut Pro often imports without a problem 60 to 80 percent of the time. The other times you can spend an entire day trying to select the right "Easy Setup" to capture video. Why or why Apple does it not capture as easily as iMovie ('06)?

Is it worth an upgrade fee? Well sure if you're in the business it isn't that much of an expense. If you're counting your pennies, however (if you only do wedding videos for example and don't need the latest and greatest) you are really not missing anything by staying with the previous version. If you are considering this vs Adobe, well I'd go with Final Cut Studio and get a copy of Adobe After Effects (the CS3 version is very cool) and you'll have the best tools available for the Apple platform.

[Monday, August 27, 2007]

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