2003–11–29–2

Final Cut Pro 4 - A short review

This is by no means an extensive review, just a few notes. This past spring Apple moved Final Cut Pro to 4.0. After using it over the course of a few months on two projects I thought I’d post a few comments.

This version is leaps and bounds beyond the previous version. With 4.0 Apple introduced new programs: LiveType, Soundtrack, and Compressor. This was an excellent move. I’ve never been happy with Final Cut’s text tools. In fact, they stink. LiveType is a huge improvement. Not only are there many new possibilities for using text but it improves just plain text. Text with LiveType requires that you use some extra steps but the results are certainly worth it. LiveType alone easily makes the upgrade a necessity.

I have only used Compressor a little but it seems far better than Final Cut 3 because this was another very weak point in the previous version. I compressed a 1 minute, full quality 218 mb .mov file using the Compressor preset for a high quality, mp4 for the internet and the result was a 3 mb file of decent quality. Compression time was just over one minute… not bad! Check out the movie.

Unfortunately I have nothing to report on Soundtrack because I have not used it yet.

Final Cut Pro 4, the main application, has many improvements. The primary improvement is that it is far more stable than FCP 3 was… at least on my PowerBook. Using FCP 3 often resulted with unexpected quits, with FCP 4 I’ve only had this happen once or twice. FCP 4 is a little faster at most functions but nothing significant to matter. Apple has also added more RT transitions and filter effects which are indicated in pull down menus as bold.

The interface has changed cosmetically and they’ve added the ability to customize all keyboard shortcuts. You’ll want to do this because they’ve also changed all of the defaults… the default shortcut for save is not command-s but command-o. This may just be screwy on my system because I’m using the Dvorak keyboard layout rather than the standard QWERTY.

I’m sure there are more changes than I’ve outlined. FCP is the kind of program that offers many, many features and duplicate ways of doing tasks. Unless you use it several times a week on a consistent basis I doubt you’ll ever be aware of all the tips and tricks. I use it for projects that come and go so I use it sporadically, but intensely. After three years of use I find that I’m always learning something new.