Mike Jones Digital Basin
screen media rinse cycle

Plugging the holes in FCP's boat.

Never underestimate human ingenuity to fill a void. When a software tool is lacking a needed feature it generally doesn't take long for someone to step up with something to fill that need.

Apple's Final Cut Pro is often lauded on the selling point of wide support by 3rd-party apps and plug-ins. Certainly it's true but there are however 2 ways to look at this - on one hand lots of 3rd-party support validates FCP's industry position and shows trust and faith in FCP as an accepted industry platform. On the other hand, those more perceptive might observe, that such a plethora of 3rd party apps and utilities for FCP indicates and suggests that FCP is so lacking in features and options that users need, that 3rd-party tools are essential to fill the gaps. In less flowery terms; If the software is good, it shouldn't need 3rd party plug-ins...

My own observations would certainly place me in the later category of cynics. I look upon my favourite, used daily, FCP plugins such as Colorista as evidence. FCP's own 3way colour corrector is so poor, inaccurate and noisy that the space is wide open to demand the superbly efficient Colorista step into the void. (check out this side by side comparission to see the difference Colorista makes) But in truth I shouldn't need Colorista for FCP - Colorista only has a market because of FCP's failings. Similarly Automatic Duck which invests FCP with the ability to correctly import AAF and OMF files;  a task FCP should surely be able to do on its own but fails consistently. So  there I am with Automatic Duck to expertly fill the gap FCP leaves open.

But this however doesn't mean I am any less appreciative of a useful tool when it comes along to make FCP a little more functional, since like so many I often can't avoid having to use FCP.

Among the most absurd of FCP's failings is its overt dysfunction in playing back (without rendering) audio files of mixed sample rates or, heaven forbid, MP3 files. The solution is of course to convert all audio files to 48k 16bit Wav/Aiff prior to importing to FCP. This is a tedious process that should not at all be necessary (and isn't in any other NLE) But where there is need there will come a solution...

Final Cut Assistant is one such excellent solution to a range of FCP shortcomings - it can manage, save, backup and restore preference files and provides a central point for launching new projects with consistent settings. But tucked further down in its feature set is its hidden gem. FCPAssistant is a batch processor for audio files and with just a couple clicks it can covert a mixed bag of audio into a consistent set that FCP can cope with. To boot, it will also send those files directly to your FCP project. It's simple, effective and very functional and should be daily part of your FCP editing toolkit.



Sadly, the tragedy is that if FCP's developers got their act together and actually addressed the myriad of shortcomings in FCP (which certainly the recent FCP7 failed to do) then many of these 3rd party developers would find themselves obsolete and out of a gig.

Here's a thought Apple; why don't you just buy FCAssistant, pay its developers a shit-load of cash, which they've earned by plugging holes in your ship, and include FCAssistant in the FCStudio bundle...?

Or does this go against the plan you seem to have of under-resourcing ProApps development and relying on marketing hyperbole and smart 3rd-party developers to dress your software mutton up as lamb..?

Posted at 08:16PM Sep 19, 2009 by Mike Jones in video  |  Comments[3]