Final Cut Pro is my NLE of choice after editing with and teaching FCP for over 20 years. I've used Avid. I've used Premiere. I've used Resolve. Each of these NLEs have their own strengths and weaknesses. I could edit with any of them. But Final Cut Pro is my favorite modern NLE. I do have Resolve 18 Studio and like it as my second place NLE. And I really like LumaFusion for editing on my iPhone and iPad.
I've seen a few people say that FCP is fine the way it is and it doesn't need any new features. Some make excuses for the slow pace of FCP development over the the last 4 years sayin "Oh, we don't want bloat. We don't want feature creep." LOL! I can't help but laugh.
FCP needs many industry standard features that have been missing for going on 12 years. No modern NLE should rest on its magnetic timeline laurels. It took 11 + years to get industry standard dupe detection along with 11+ years of excuses why it wasn't implemented.
We did get FCP 10.7 with a Scrolling Timeline at the Final Cut Pro Creative Summit in November 2023 where the enthusiasm for FCP was through the roof!, But Final Cut Pro development generally has been glacial for the last four years. Especially compared to the likes of Davinci Resolve which faces all of the same challenges FCP gushers like to put forward as excuses. Let's hope the FCP development glacier melts in 2024 and we once again get full feature updates like we did with FCP 10.0 through 10.4 and that other modern NLEs accomplish. I have a feeling 2024 will be a good year for Final Cut Pro.
This Top Request List actually started with FCP 5. Not 10.5 but legacy FCP 5! is a curated list of suggestions for improving FCP and includes repeated user requests I've heard about online and email requests that I have received. I get inquiries that ask if Apple has seen this list. The Final Cut Pro Team have seen it and have actually brought it to their meetings.
This is a list for native features for FCP, not a list for 3rd party plugins, add ons, workarounds or hacks. Native NLE features. I don't want a skeletal FCP that needs a hundred helper apps to be considered professional or fully functional.
• 01 Number one and still the champ. A Scrolling Timeline, stationary playhead (and paging) option where the Timeline scrolls behind a stationary Playhead. I have a hard time believing that a "64 bit application built from the ground up with modern foundations and leveraging all processors and unlimited memory" still has a 'Where's Waldo' playhead that scrolls off the screen when it gets to the end of the Timeline. Even the new Final Cut for iPad playhead scrolls off the screen and out of sight so you can't grab it!
It makes absolutely no sense for the playhead to scroll off the screen and out of view. Motion 5 has a scrolling timeline. Logic Pro has two. Every other pro NLE and DAW has one. Why not FCP?
I've heard from very reliable sources that FCP actually has a scrolling timeline but it hasn't been turned on yet. Probably because of performance with live waveform redrawing. Watch the movie below to see ithe playhead scrolling off the screen in action. This movie's been viewed 12,000+ times.
• 02 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.
• 05 A Clip Logger. The Timeline is not being used when logging clips in the Browser so use it for logging clips. The current Browser method for logging is clunky and not precise enough for me. It would have a skimable clip filmstrip, clip dupe dectection and selectable keywords, favorites, colored markers and selections which would be applied to a selected Browser clip. As you make a favorite keyword or selection in the clip logger timeline, it would highlight it in the browser.
• 06 Better keyframing options in the Viewer and Inspector including a dedicated keyframe editor with advanced keyframe adjustments. The current implementation of keyframing in FCP's Viewer is like keyframing on an Etch A Sketch. And allow saving a setting as default. Keyframing is important so give us something more robust. For example, borrow or steal Motion's excellent Keyframe editor.
• 07 A Clipboard manager with history to remember all copied and pasted items for reuse. Once an item is copied, it could be renamed, organized, saved and pasted in any project timeline as an overwrite, insert or attached edit at the playhead location or appended to the end of the open timeline. You could copy multiple items as a single clipboard item. Each item would have a preview.
• 08 BRAW support in FCPX and ProRes RAW support in Resolve. Sort through any internal political/legal nonsense between BlackMagic and Apple and give your customers what they want and have been requesting.
• 10 Browser improvements. More visually distinctive and accurate playhead locator, Scrubbable Projects like in the Share window, freeform arranging of clips in icon view, a master Library database that keeps track of clips, whether the Library is mounted or not, Library templates with customized external media folder structure, "Save As" for customized saving, a Master File Browser to search and drag and drop media from all attached storage, bug fixes and more.
• 11 FIVE Clicks to make Default Share destination. Should be one Right Click.
• 13 Color improvements. Rename Color adjustments in the Inspector and access to Match Color and Balance Color parameters for copying and pasting and adjusting in the inspector.
• 14 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.
• 15 Effects, Titles, Transitions Browser improvements with a built-in Online Store
Save, rename, make favorites, save customized and organize Titles, Generators, Transitions and Effects in their respective Browsers via drag and drop directly in FCP.
Also add an in-app Online Store where you could search for, demo and buy plugins, effects, titles, generators, misc audio, soundtracks etc.
And add more shortcuts for applying effects, transitions, etc. There is some customized naming and saving for titles, color corrections and effects but I'd like to easily organize favorite effects, titles, generators, transitions via drag and drop in the effects browser and from the timeline into customizable folders in the browser. And an option to load only selected items.
• 18 The ability to lock a clip, compound clip, tracks and clips in a multicam or storyline to prevent any moving or editing.
• 19 A Notes HUD with function tabs to keep notes, copy & paste titles, credits, open pdfs and text documents with selectable item columns. And make it per project, event or library like Logic Pro X does.
• 20 Better Voice Isolation and audio Ducker like in Davinci Resolve
• 25 Media Management options to create a new compacted Library, event or project by getting rid of any unused media with handles option.
• 26 Name buttons/tabs in the project timeline rather than the awkward, confusing backward- forward arrows ....so you can directly choose your project rather than doing the back, back, forward, forward tap dance. A little x on those tabs would close that timeline. You can click and hold on a forward or backward arrow to see available timelines but always visible individually named buttons would be much quicker.
• 27 On/Off master switch or enable/disable for the Primary and Secondary Storylines.
• 28 A single master searchable database across all previously opened Libraries.
• 29 Shift Z serves as a double shortcut by Zoom to fit 1st time and previous zoom level the 2nd time.
• 30 Reveal Affiliated clips and duplicated clips (dupe detection) in the Timeline.
• 31 Option right click a Library and choose "Close Other Libraries" from the drop down menu. Also choose a storage location by right clicking on a Library.
• 33 Transition alignment adjustment - start, middle or end of an edit point can be selected from a drop down menu by right clicking on the transition in the timeline. And an option to manually adjust the edit point.
• 34 Better right in place Titles tools. All of this clunky clicking back and forth - selecting a clip in the Timeline, dragging, going to the Viewer and Inspector to modify the title, Inspector text not auto-highlighting, scrolling, waiting, opening and closing Inspector menus is wearing out my mouse and patience.
• 35 Unlimited Undo and Undo history
• 36 Master File Browser to navigate to all attached hard drives to drag and drop files to your project. Much more efficient than the Import window.
• 37 Select all clips forwards or backwards in a primary or secondary storyline command.
If you want to select all of the clips in a long timeline you have to select them all with a lasso or open the Timeline Index and select them.
• 38 Drag a customized Effect(s) from the Inspector to a clip or selected clips in the Timeline or Event Browser.
• 39 Event Browser improvements. Save and recall Browser layouts, clips video Inspector adjustments such as color correction, spacial conform, cropping, etc. You could save any Browser clip adjustment as an effect and reapply to other clips.You can adjust a selected Event Browser clip's audio parameters, so why not their video parameters?
• 40 Individually drag-adjustable Timeline lane, Secondary Storyline, Title and Adjustment Layer heights and thin lane dividers.
• 41 Adding markers to multiple clips at once would be a beneficial feature to FCP.
• 42 Customizable shortcut items in the unused space of the timecode reader bar like a Scrolling Timeline ON/Off button. There would be preferences to choose which items would show up.
• 44 FCPX crash report and error messages and icons that give helpful real world information.
• 45 Drag timeline clips to the browser into an event or keyword collection.
• 46 Expand compound clips in the browser with a disclosure triangle to reveal its contents.
• 47 Accurate Proxy Frame size in FCP Inspector
I made H.264 proxies at 50%. Original media is 3840 X 1624 Anamorphic so 50% proxy media should be 1920 X 812. That's the size I get reported in QT and Invisor but FCP reports it as the original size of 3840 X 1624.
This is not an error, FCP is intentionally reporting original resolution not the accurate proxy resolution.
• 50 Drag a range in the timeline ruler area and it visually reflects that selection of everything below in that highlighted range, including properly editing titles and generators, for copying & pasting, editing and exporting. The range is sticky and the end boundaries or entire selection can be adjusted frame by frame or drag adjusted left or right.
• 51 Overwrite Audio Only Edit where the audio from the selected browser clip or clip range replaces the audio in a selected timeline clip or clip range.
• 52 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 Soundtrack Pro had and Resolve and LumaTouch have.
• 53 Recallable Timeline Zoom levels via keyboard shortcut and live continuous zooming by scrolling up and down with a mouse + keyboard modifier. Borrow Logic Pro's excellent zoom options. Maybe even add a few zoom buttons in the empty Timeline ruler area.
• 54 Easy quick option to create freeze frames of both sides of an edit point that has no handles to add handle frames to use for a transition.
• 55 A shortcut command to move clips, compound clips or storylines up or down including between lanes.
• 56 Checkboxes to allow custom settings, such as Spatial Conform, Create Transition warning, Timeline view, dual mono/stereo etc, to be saved as Default.
• 62 Duplicate/Copy/Move Library, Event and Project duplicates everything that is used in a Library, Event or Project including all FCPX and Motion Titles, Effects, fonts etc. Nothing is left behind.
• 63 Auto-highlight Favorite name field in Browser when making a Favorite, so it's ready for text input. And favorite's name is kept when edited to timeline.
• 64 Proper roundtripping with Logic Pro X.
• 65 Match Frame improvements via keyword shortcuts or menu. Match frame with timeline clip to keyword collection, smart collection, multicam clip as well as a browser clip. Also if a clip is used in a timeline, Match frame from the Browser to the Project or Compound Clip timeline.
• 66 Better renaming timeline clips method.
Add Rename Clip as a keyboard shortcut so we can use a keyboard shortcut instead of right-clicking over and over when renaming clips in the timeline.
• 67 Context sensitive floating HUD Inspector
brought up by right clicking on a selected item anywhere on the screen. All of this going from one side of the screen to the other, back and forth and back and forth to adjust something is giving me NLE whiplash and is a total time-waster.
• 68 Audio crossfades via keyboard shortcut for single or mutiple clips.
You could have adjacent audio clips in the same storyline, apply an audio crossfade and roll the crossfade one or more frames at a time with a keyboard shortcut.
• 69 Move selected clip(s) to playhead command.
• 70 Complete 3D parameters and attributes for all video clips and titles.
• 71 Collaboration with Facetime Theater for video conferencing with a client where both of you can see the FCPX Viewer live.
• 72 A Force link/relink command, when you want to replace a media file with an updated version or if FCPX won't relink. I know it's the correct file so let me relink! And better linking when opening an external Library on another volume.
• 73 Dynamic trimming improvements in the Precision Editor including live looping JKL trimming option and a 2-up display.
• 74 Edit point selection improvements. Lasso select multiple edit points on different lanes, asymmetrical selection & trimming and closest edit point selection via a keyboard shortcut.
• 75 Auto Zoom option when selecting audio fade handles and keyframes for more precise adjustment.
• 76 Keyframable Opacity parameter for a color correction mask so you can fade the mask in and out.
• 77 Multicam improvements. Collapse Multicam and an option to lock the audio track so it won't be cut when editing video only. Also Match frame back to source clip for color correcting, stabilizing, etc. And Angle editor specific markers that are carried over to the timeline and can be switched on and off.
• 57 Add copy & paste overwrite edit in addition to paste insert and paste connect.
• 58 Consistent Option click application-wide to show/hide all disclosure triangles and check on/off all parameters. This would include the Inspector, Timeline Index, Browser, etc. Right now it is hit or miss if it works in any particular panel.
• 59 Open sync and Lock gang sync modes.
Timeline playhead matches the corresponding highlighted Browser clip frame and syncs/locks the Timeline playhead to the matched highlighted Browser clip playhead.
• 60 Edit a Compound Clip and Project settings by right clicking on either in the Browser instead of the three step process it is now visiting the Inspector at the other side of the screen.
• 61 Background Render, Optimized media and Proxy on/off buttons in the Timeline bar.
• 48 Go to next video specific edit point or next audio specific edit point command.
Right now you can't choose video or audio when working with split edits.
• 49 Markers improvements. Real timeline markers (not markers that are attached to and move with clips), draggable markers, extend markers, move markers via timecode, export marker lists with notes and custom multi-colored markers.
.• 12 Adjustable Secondary and Primary Storyline parameters in the Inspector. For some reason, there are no adjustable master parameters currently for any Storyline. Scale, X-Y position, opacity, crop, enable/disable, lock in place, add effects and color correction are a few that would be beneficial.
• 78 VO Tool improvements. Allow me to target a storyline to place my VO audio clips.
•79 Replace a Timeline clip and retain attributes and effects of the replaced clip command/shortcut.
•80 Magnetic Guide Lines for snapping and aligning objects in the Viewer.
•81 Customizable drag-able lane height adjustments so I can have individual height for each lane.
•82 Advanced preferences. Professionals need more control over FCP than perhaps a beginner does so Advanced preferences makes sense. Logic Pro has an Advanced preference pane with multiple checkbox options. If you prefer FCP to be simpler as a beginner might, you could uncheck its Advanced preferences or they could be turned off by default.
•83 Slip sync of audio and video without detaching audio.
Currently you can slip sync if you open the clip in its own timeline but I'd to see this ability in a project timeline clip.
Right click a clip in the Timeline and choose the slip Audio or Video sync option. Type a + or - followed by the number of frames to slip or use the < > keys to slip left or right one frame at a time. There should also be out of sync indicators for instant visual feedback (like FCP 7 had) and the ability to easily reattach and re-sync detached audio. A sophisticated database like FCP's should be able to keep track of audio and video that was once synced.
•85 Flexible user customizable workspaces
Add more options to rearrange and customize individual panels and window layouts and more options for multiple monitor layouts.
•86 Bounce in place (like Logic Pro) with a single click.
Instead of rendering, use the actual exported movie file in the timeline with replace or overlay option.
•87 Snap Edits to Zero Crossing Option (no “click” or other noise is produced at the edit position) when editing audio like in Logic Pro.
• 04 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.
• 23 Select multiple edit points to perform an action on all of them like extend edit to playhead.
• 24 Option to attach a clip, compound clip or storyline to any other clip, compound clip or storyline or completely disconnect, rather than only attaching to the main storyline as FCPX does now.
• 16 Batch sync audio and video clips.
• 17 Keyframable opacity bar with fade handles for direct manipulation on a video clip like the volume bar and fade handles are on all audio clips. Would appear when mouse hovers over it just like the audio fade controls. You can do this in the Video Animation lane but it takes 5-6 clicks versus 1 with the Audio Fade controls. Mainly for single B-Roll clips that I don't want in a storyline.
•88 Built in screen capture for tutorials etc (via Gabe from Audio Design Desk app).
•89 Shift - F Reveal in Browser works with Titles, Generators and Transitions like it works with clips in the timeline.
•90 Visibility command for Transitions so you can turn them off instead of deleting them.
•91 Shortcut for Rename Clip in the Timeline
•84 Transition Auditions to stack and try out multiple transitions on an edit.
• 03 Text based editing with searchable video and audio transcription, creating titles and subtitles, keyword collections, captions and more.
• 21 Playhead to Playhead FCP7 style Replace edit.
This edit matches the playhead of a clip in the Browser to the playhead of a clip in the Timeline and extends in both directions to either fill a Timeline selection or the length of the Timeline clip.
• 22 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.
• 43 Dual timelines for visually comparing timelines and dragging from one to the other like DaVinci Resolve.
