Apple releases Final Cut Pro X
June 21, 2011

Apple releases Final Cut Pro X

CUPERTINO, CA — Apple ( www.apple.com) released Final Cut Pro X, which features a number of new functions for editing.

The Magnetic Timeline allows editors to easily assemble shots, magnetically closing up space to eliminate black gaps. Clip Connections are an easy way to add clips, music and sound effects to the timeline and have them move together as changes are made.

The Compound Clips feature allows users to group elements together and collapse them into a single clip to help reduce clutter. And the Auditions feature allows editors to collect multiple shots at a single location in the timeline and then quickly cycle through them in context.

And the Content Auto-Analysis feature analyzes source material in the background and creates metadata for camera data, shot type, media attributes and even the number of people in the shot. These tags can then be used to sort and filter clips.

Direct access to content libraries allows users to preview and search for photos, music and sound effects without leaving FCP. And more than 1,300 royalty-free sound effects are available through a free upgrade.

In addition, Final Cut Pro X has been optimized to take advantage of Mac OSX and multicore Macs.

Pricing on the Mac App Store is $299.99.

Industry reaction to the release has been varied. While one of our Twitter followers said they were downloading licenses ASAP another said, "I won't be picking it up until it's suitable for professional use — no multicam, no 3rd party plugins, no EDL etc WTF?!"

There will be more reactions to come once people get it installed and use it on jobs.