What Features Does Apple Final Cut Pro Still Need?

Posted on May 21, 2022 by Larry

Last week, Apple released a statement responding to a petition from hundreds of Final Cut Pro editors that Apple recommit to continued, active development of Final Cut. Apple answered, in part:

“While we believe we have plans in place to help address your important feature requests, we also recognize the need to build on those efforts and work alongside you to help support your film and TV projects and keep you posted on important updates.”

NOTE: Read their entire statement here.
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For many years, Apple offered editors the ability to suggest features using the “Provide Feedback to Apple” form in Final Cut Pro. However, this form presents several problems:

Apple never responds to suggestions made using this form. So we have no idea whether anyone in decision-making authority at Apple actually reads these.

NOTE: Apple has told me on several occasions that these are read. However, “read” and “act upon” are not the same.

When we provide feedback to Apple, we have no idea what anyone else is suggesting. We can neither agree nor disagree with the need for a specific feature.
There’s no way to reinforce how important – or unimportant – a feature is because we don’t know what’s suggested.
Apple has a long tradition of “not invented here.” If Apple engineers decide something is a good idea, it gets developed. If a user suggests a good idea, it is frequently ignored.

I created this article to begin an active and open discussion of missing features in Final Cut. If you think something needs to be added, suggest it in the comments. It’s not as good as a web-centered, multi-user database with instant vote totals. But it’s available today and gets us started.

If you have a feature, suggest it.
If you think a suggestion is good, reinforce it.
If you think a suggestion could be better, improve it.
If you think a suggestion is misguided, comment.

NOTE: All comments are moderated – so be polite. Inflammatory or off-topic comments will be removed.

My hope is to inform the Final Cut community, Apple and the advisory panel they hope to create so that the features Apple adds are actually those desired by editors.

Share this link with your friends on social media. Spread the word. Because, if there’s no interest in adding new features, that tell’s Apple something, as well.

Don’t wait for Apple to convene an advisory panel – let your voice be heard now.

LARRY’S TOP FIVE FEATURES

To get the discussion started, here are my top five feature requests for Final Cut Pro:

Scrolling timeline. As a project plays, the timeline should scroll to keep the playhead in view.
Effective speech-to-text creation, integration and editing.
Either develop an audio application specifically for mixing audio to picture or provide tighter round-trip integration with Logic Pro for audio mixing. The current audio mixing capability in Final Cut is limited and clunky. Audio mixing should be as easy in Final Cut as it is in Premiere to Audition.
Better, smoother collaboration features when editors are not on the same network. Adobe was so convinced this is an essential feature, they bought Frame.io. Perhaps include better media management and review tools.
Fix all the bugs in creating both DVD and Blu-ray Discs. The future may be downloads, but thousands of editors make their living creating physical media for clients. Burning DVDs/Blu-ray Discs in Final Cut has not worked properly since FCP X was first released. Support burning multiple movies to disk. Support custom menus. Support stories. Support multiple languages in both audio and captions.

I’m sure you have your own list. Share it in the comments and let’s get the conversation started. Spread the word.

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151 Responses to What Features Does Apple Final Cut Pro Still Need?

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Karim Ali says:

May 30, 2022 at 6:50 am

In animation can Final Cut Pro built in ability to lip-sync carton character, it would save tons of time and haste back and forth to other softwares. Like toonly and talkia

Reply
- Larry says:
  
  May 30, 2022 at 6:52 am
  
  Karim:
  
  An interesting idea, but FCP edits video. I think adding character animation to the app is a bit of a stretch. It makes more sense for this to be a separate program.
  
  Larry
  
  Reply
Tommy says:

May 30, 2022 at 7:05 am

Let’s start with a simple suggestion: Please take current default settings, I.e., magnetic timeline (vs non- magnetic timeline that does not even exist yet), non-scrolling timeline (vs scrolling timeline that does not even exist yet), default folder names (5-12-22) vs any user-defined name, etc. and give users the option to either use THOSE default settings (per project) or CHANGE those options (per project) on a preference page. In other words, give users the option to either keep defaults as is, or change those settings per our own particular workflow.

Reply
MERVIN SCROOBY says:

May 30, 2022 at 7:28 am

Thanks Larry. Point No: 5 is well pointed out, what I use constantly for clients. Exactly what I asked you to help me with the other day.

Reply
Ed Grogan says:

May 30, 2022 at 8:34 am

Based on the comment from Gene Masey.

How about just releasing the 64 bit FCP 8 that was developed and released to some beta testers.

Reply
Tangier Clarke says:

May 30, 2022 at 10:28 am

I would really like transitions to have ease in/ease out controls like Da Vinci Resolve. Adding this one feature would be a significant update for me in terms of the energy and style of my edits and visual presentations without having to go to Motion.

Reply
Bill Koepnick says:

May 30, 2022 at 11:36 am

I agree with your #3 call for better audio mixing. At the very least I would like to see the ability to apply audio effects to the entire timeline as if there were a master output capable of inserting effects as one does in any DAW like Logic Pro. Sometimes, after editing an entire piece, I come back and feel it could use some EQ adjustments, or perhaps drop in a limiter to keep occasional peaks from clipping. Copying and pasting effects to all clips in the timeline is a slow and tedious process. A Master Track with inserts would solve this. Thanks!

Reply
- Larry says:
  
  May 30, 2022 at 12:08 pm
  
  Bill:
  
  Totally agree. A master track and buses that don’t disappear when you alter a compound clip are the two mixing features I miss the most.
  
  Larry
  
  Reply
Carsten says:

May 30, 2022 at 12:16 pm

My biggest wish would be a rethinking of Audiomixing which allows a kind of track based workflow. This could be an integrated mix-window where you can put audio effects on roles, sub-roles and a master bus (without the workaround of creating a compound clip), create aux-tracks, sends and busses, …, or if this is not possible a kind of dynamic linking with Logic Pro for easy roundtripping.

I also want support the idea of having ease in/out controls for transitions and also more control over the “curves” between keyframes within the video animation editor.

Integrated speech-to-text-creation would also be very welcome.

Reply
- Andreas says:
  
  May 30, 2022 at 11:13 pm
  
  Totally agree! Audio mixing has a long way to go. Bring back soundtrack !
  
  Reply
Andreas says:

May 30, 2022 at 11:12 pm

Many many many more adjustable templates in FCP and Motion.

Reply
Daniël Brüggen says:

May 31, 2022 at 4:30 am

A customizable screen layout, workspace to be able to have things at hand more easily.

Reply
Final Cut Pro – Apple Replies to Editors Petition - Thepocketsqueeze.com says:

May 31, 2022 at 5:08 am

[…] Jordan writes here on what he would like to see be the first features in an updated rollout and it looks to be highly […]

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