Countdown to Final Cut Pro 10.7*
(*or 10.6.x or 11)
As usual, the best Final Cut Pro professionals from around the globe will be discussing
FCP on FCPRadio and Final Cut TV
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Professional video editors have been requesting long missing pro NLE features from the FCP Team for years. We started checking off that long feature request list with the arrival of the industry standard Dupe Detection in March 2022. But that took 11 years! Let's hope other features that editors need come to FCP sooner rather than later.
Here are a few features I'd like to see in FCP 10.7
Collaboration, Collaboration, Collaboration!
Whatever that's going to look like in FCP 10.7, we are ready and waiting for it!
Speech-to-text translation for titles, captions and text-to-video editing and organizing.
Pro Audio features: Audio Mixer with Master volume control, AU plugin inserts, keyframe recording, assignable Roles submixes that output to discreet audio track hardware channels, precise volume & audio keyframe adjustment in the timeline, audio peak detection, audio ducking, audio only crossfades etc.
Q: Will this new FCP update require Ventura for some new features?
A: Yes although I expect FCP 10.7 will also work with macOS Monterey for many new features.
The long awaited next feature update FCP 10.7* could be announced along side of a new M2 Extreme Mac Pro, which I suspect will be released in 2023. Could be at another Apple Spring event like last year when the Mac Studio was announced. And maybe just in time for NAB 2023 in mid April.
Here's a timeline of recent FCP full number releases:
FCP 10.5 released - November 12th, 2020 along with the first Apple silicon M1 Macs
FCP 10.6 released - October 18th, 2021 along with the M1 Pro and M1 Max 14" and 16" MacBook Pro
FCP 10.7 - in 2023 perhaps along side the M2 Max Pro.
If we indeed see FCP 10.7 this Spring, it would be one year between FCP feature updates. And that was only two features at that. Two features per year is NOT a good pace to update Final Cut Pro. It is effectively standing still compared to other modern NLEs development pace. Especially an NLE like Davinci Resolve with its breakneck speed of releasing feature updates.
Project improvements.
Project playback/scrubbing in the Browser and the ability to add a project to another project. You can scrub a compound clip timeline and multicam clip in the browser and a project in the Share window, but you can't scrub a project in the Browser.
Compound clips expand for editing in place in the Timeline.
And the ability to make a compound clip from a range selection in the timeline. Also be able to extend the in and out points of the compound clip in the timeline if there is media available.
Color coding with sort by color for video clips, audio clips, Events, Projects, Storylines, selections, Roles, Duplicate Ranges, Keywords, folders, etc. Basically colors application-wide. Color clips in the timeline as well. Editors have had to resort to using colored emojis because of the lack of colors in the Browser. As an example, Logic Pro X has a large color palette.
Right click on a Library and choose "Close Other Libraries" from the drop down menu. Also choose a storage location by right clicking on a Library.
Drag a customized Effect(s) from the Inspector to a clip or selected clips in the Timeline or Event Browser.
Individually drag-adjustable Timeline lane heights and thin lane dividers and the ability to save a custom lane height layout.
Draggable timeline markers, extend markers, move markers via timecode, export marker lists with notes and custom multi-colored markers.
Master Timeline overview navigation track with timeline selection highlighted in a moveable view bubble, where you can jump to a timeline position and perform basic edits by clicking on it like Resolve and LumaFusion have.
LumaFusion
Q: What about FCP on the new M2 iPad Pro?
A: That question has been asked every year. We could see Final Cut (lite) for the iPad at some point. It could be 2023 or 2024. If editing on an iPad is your thing, edit on your new M2 iPad Pro with LumaFusion. Or use DaVinci Resolve for iPad.
Shift - F Reveal in Browser works with Titles, Generators and Transitions like it works with clips in the timeline.
Drag and drop Browsers for Titles, Generators, Transitions, Effects to save customized timeline favorites, organizing in folders, etc.
Storyline Parameters in the Inspector Lock, Enable and Disable, Scale etc.
Q: Will this new version of Final Cut Pro require Apple Silicon Macs or will it still run on Intel Macs?
A: It most certainly will still run on Intel Macs although some features will require an M1 or M2 Mac.
Q: Will we finally get a full number update with more than a few new features with FCP 10.7?
A: That remains to be seen but as the eternal Final Cut Pro optimist, I really hope so!
FCP 10.7 - 2023 maybe along side of the M2 Max Pro (around NAB?)
NAB is the largest professional worldwide event for broadcast, film, post production and more. It has already surpassed last year's numbers of exhibitors by an additional 30%. I expect it will end up between 2022 and 2019 in-person numbers of attendees and exhibitors.
For example, in January, CES was anticipating optimistically around 100,000 attendess and ended up with 116,000 attendees!
The FCP team could captitalize on free NAB buzz by releasing FCP 10.7 in March, or better yet, early April.
Or they even could allow a sneak peak of a beta version of FCP in March and the actual release in April like they did last year with FCP 10.6.2.
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