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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Robert says:

May 31, 2022 at 8:53 am

1. Library, Event, and Project collaboration. We currently use PostLab and it works great.

2. Super simple round-tripping between Logic Pro and GarageBand.

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Ron Strotbaum says:

May 31, 2022 at 11:57 pm

Some really good points here.
There’s a few things that I’d like to see added or changed. Some are IMHO minor bug fixes…

1- Precision Editor also in extra storylines
2-Ability to extend audio, as a split edit, outside an Extra Storyline, you can at the end; but not at the begin…
3- Find function in the Import window
4- Ability to set the Playhead as target, instead of the ‘always’ Skimmer
5- An Easy Ease possibility on all keyframes in the Video Animation… Not just position…
6- R-128 monitoring in audio

Reply
- Larry says:
  
  June 1, 2022 at 3:39 am
  
  Ron:
  
  Good ideas. One note, you can turn the skimmer off by pressing “S” (without the quotes). This makes the playhead the target.
  
  Larry
  
  Reply
  - Ron Strotbaum says:
    
    June 2, 2022 at 11:05 am
    
    Well I never…..
    Will try tomorrow; never too late to learn!
    
    Reply
Yad Vashem says:

June 1, 2022 at 4:09 am

Apple demonstrated in the past it colors. “does a leopard change its spots” I gave up on apple shortly after believing the hype of FCPX. Bought to Macs and switched. Still Glad I have the MACs because I can run Davinchi Resolve. But Apple as a company like making a big splash and hype with new and different products. Then Apples cult members drink the Kool-aid buy the new and different so apple stock prices can soar. Apple is happy with the money, The cult members are happy with promise of the best……, until the next bigger promise (that apple really means this time) But when the dust settles, new and different are NOT always better! If New and Different is you business model and it is apples, then you never have great development of potential, why? Because you need to put your resources into new and different! The apple mini’s are going to bite the consumer in the butt. Your potential for expansion and flexibility are becoming very small. And one sugar daddy can (If He wants to) give what you want (OR NOT) but you drank the Kool-Aid. You will (NOT) see the development of FCPX that would benefit the consumer (there is (NO NEW MONEY IN IT) for apple and WE Already drank the Kool-AID!!!! I know the FCPX cult members (I am a former member), I know they will defend Apple to their dying breath (and dwindling $). FCPX is buying time for the next new……. do not build your future on ITS future. “Those who forget the past are bound to repeat it” FC7

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David Wilson says:

June 2, 2022 at 5:36 am

I don’t know, personally I really like FCPX and was never a true fan of FC7. Maybe I’m an odd ball but man, FCPX works great for me and many people I know. Yes, improvements are always appreciated. But when I compare the interface with any other system, I’m quite comfortable with FCP. It’s a spectacular editing tool and runs great. All the Apple bashing and being resentful that Apple chose to move forward and utilize their advancements in hardware, I think they are doing an outstanding job on an editing program that is inexpensive and has no monthly rental fee. It’s an amazing program. And I’m not sure I want them to load up this app with 20 million options until it no longer fulfills it’s core purpose. This agenda of bloating software until it can’t do anything well is not for me. Keep it working and performing it’s needed task. If I want more audio features, put those tools in an audio specific program and create a seamless workflo back and forth. I would like Apple to spend more time on Motion and bring that program up a few more notches and seamlessly link it into FCP. They have done that with compressor, do that for audio, and animation. But don’t overload one program to do everything. It never works. I’m an old guy now and back in my graphic days, QuarkXpress ruled the page layout world. It was bulletproof. Today, Quark is a train wreck. You can do ‘everything’ from websites to books, and it not even close to being as stable and usable as it once was. Don’t ask Apple to screw up
FCP. Keep it working properly and add some needed features based on what that application should be doing. And it’s never going to go backwards and look like FC7 again, I’m so sorry. And OS8 and OS9 are gone as well. Oh well… Lol But I’m loving FCPX and what the M1 architecture is bringing to the table. That curve is just getting started. Yep, more changes!

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Randy Brown says:

June 3, 2022 at 10:24 am

If you do a virtual zoom-in using the Transform tool in FCP, you get this wild movement. Switching from “Smooth” (the default) to “Linear” is better, but still does little to remedy the problem as the movement is still jerky.

A third-party application, Add Motion, seems to have provided a workaround. But this should be better in FCP. At the very least, users ought to be able to change the default setting from Smooth to Linear, but why isn’t there an “Ease In” and “Ease Out” and “Ease Both” option?

Oh, and why is there no 3D rotation available in FCP? That’s nuts.

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Karen says:

June 5, 2022 at 8:38 pm

I’m sure it was said by someone else, but the playhead in the video selection area on top needs to be thicker and a different color. I waste so much time looking to see where the playhead is when searching for a section of a clip to use.

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Joe Langenfeld says:

June 6, 2022 at 4:16 am

Someone suggested smooth keyframe options…I’d like to see more options for key frame smoothing and control, similar to AE or even Motion.

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Michael Prescott says:

June 7, 2022 at 6:54 am

When creating a compound clip with a Title, the poster frame/thumbnail in the Browser and Timeline appears as the Title, not the underlying clip. This makes it extremely difficult to identify which clip is being used. I understand that if you click the compound clip in the browser, or move the playhead over the compound clip in the timeline, the underlying clip will show up. But this is not a useful way of working.

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Scott Markowitz says:

June 9, 2022 at 6:44 am

I would make great use of distortion tools such as extended bicubics or a mesh warper that can be keyframed. Also, I would like to have access to animation curve controls for all keyframes throughout the application.

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Betsey Roach says:

June 13, 2022 at 9:31 am

So glad you have brought attention back to disc creation! For many client projects I am forced to go back to my 2011 MBP and use DVD Studio (customization counts). Because of the lack of any ability to produce a professional looking Blu-ray Disc from FCP I just don’t offer them to clients. Apple was so wrong for dropping the development of DVD Studio to include Blu-ray creation and even more so for abandoning the app with the intro of Final Cut Pro.

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