Final Cut Pro 4: About What's New

What's New in Final Cut Pro 4

This is an overview of the new features in Final Cut Pro 4. For more information on these features and their use, see the Final Cut Pro 4 User's Manual or Final Cut Pro Help.

Improvements for Setup

Missing scratch disk warning

You are now warned when scratch disks become unavailable. This can happen for a number of reasons: They might be turned off, disconnected, or temporarily unmounted. If the scratch disk folder you selected has been moved, deleted, or renamed, Final Cut Pro might not be able to find the scratch disk. The next time you open Final Cut Pro, if the scratch disk can't be found, a dialog appears with three options:

• Quit
• Set Scratch Disks : Choose a new scratch disk
• Check Again : Allows you to reconnect or start up your scratch disk, wait for it to mount, and then proceed as usual.

New screen layouts

There are several new screen layouts, including:

• Audio Mixing: This places the Viewer, Canvas, and Tool Bench at the top of the screen. The Tool Bench window contains the Audio Mixer tab. The Browser and Timeline are on the bottom, with the Tool palette and audio meters to the right of the Timeline.
• Multiple Edits: This layout only appears if your screen resolution is set to 1280 x 854 or higher. This layout is useful for comparing three clips in a sequence in a row for color correction. At the top of the screen, from left to right, are the Viewer; a Tool Bench window with a Frame Viewer tab showing the previous edit point; the Canvas; and another Tool Bench window with a Frame Viewer tab showing the next edit point. The Browser and Timeline are on the bottom, with the Tool palette and audio meters to the right of the Timeline.

Other improvements to screen layouts include the following:
You can now create and save multiple-monitor screen layouts.
Screen layouts are now resolution specific; a new screen layout's minimum required resolution is the resolution your monitor was set to when that layout was created.

Interface Enhancements

Customizable keyboard shortcuts

All commands in Final Cut Pro can be assigned to customizable keyboard shortcuts using the Keyboard Layout window by choosing Tools>Keyboard Layout>Customize. The default keyboard shortcut layout can be changed at any time to better suit your needs. For example, if your style of editing requires a particular set of commands that isn't readily available by default, you can modify the default keyboard layout with your own set of commands.

You can also create different keyboard layouts for different tasks, switching between them at will. For example, you may find it useful to create different keyboard layouts for editing, color correction, and audio mixing.

Customizable button bars in each window

Shortcut buttons can be created and placed along the top of the main windows in Final Cut Pro-the Browser, Viewer, Canvas, Timeline, and any Tool Bench windows. You can then click any of the shortcut buttons in this button bar to perform commands, instead of entering key combinations or using menus.

Resize multiple Final Cut Pro windows simultaneously

You can now place the pointer at the intersection of two or more windows in Final Cut Pro and resize all of them simultaneously when the Resize Window pointer appears. To resize multiple windows in Final Cut Pro, move the pointer over the border between the windows you want to resize. When the pointer changes to the Resize Window pointer, drag the border in the desired direction to resize the appropriate windows. The windows on either side of the border are resized accordingly.

Resize individual tracks in the Timeline
You can change the size of individual tracks in the Timeline by dragging a track's boundary in the Timeline patch panel:

• If it's a video track, drag the upper boundary of the track in the Timeline patch panel.
• If it's an audio track, drag the lower boundary of the track in the Timeline patch panel.

Save custom Timeline track layouts
Once you've created a custom track layout for your sequence, you can save it for future use. Saved custom track layouts appear in the Track Layout menu, and can be applied to any sequence that's open in the Timeline. Up to 40 custom track layouts can appear in the menu at once.

Assign destination tracks for editing using the new Timeline patch panel
Many editing operations in Final Cut Pro require you to use the Source controls in the Timeline to assign destination tracks to determine where edited, duplicated, or moved clips will appear. Source and Destination controls are located in the Timeline patch panel, at the left of the Timeline window.

When you open a clip or sequence into the Viewer, a number of Source controls appear in the Timeline patch panel and correspond to the number of video and audio items that make up that clip, or the number of tracks that appear in that sequence. For example, if you open a clip into the Viewer that contains one video and four audio items, one video and four audio Source controls appear in the Timeline patch panel.

A merged clip may consist of 1 video and up to 24 audio items, so typically as many as 25 Source controls will appear in the Timeline. You can also open a sequence into the Viewer, in which case as many as 99 video and 99 audio tracks can appear in the Timeline, depending on how many tracks there are in the sequence. Whenever you open a new clip or sequence into the Viewer, the number of Source controls in the Timeline patch panel updates to reflect the number of video and audio items in the new clip or sequence.

Auto Select controls in the Timeline
Enabling the Auto Select controls of specific tracks in the Timeline allows the contents of those tracks to be selected via In and Out points in the Timeline or Canvas, just as if you'd used the Range Selection tool. When In and Out points are defined in the Timeline, operations such as the Copy command and lift edits are limited to the selected regions of tracks that have Auto Select turned on.

When one or more Auto Select controls are enabled, regions of clips in the Timeline defined by In and Out points are highlighted, which indicates that these regions can be operated upon.

Mute and solo controls in the Timeline
Click a track's mute button to turn off audio playback for that track. The mute button affects monitoring during playback only. When a track is muted, it isn't audible during playback, but is still output during Print to Video and Edit to Tape operations, or when exported to an audio or movie file.

Click a track's solo button to mute all tracks that don't also have solo enabled. For example, if you click the solo button on track A1, and it's the only track with solo selected, all other audio tracks are muted. If you enable the solo button on multiple tracks, all tracks with solo enabled play back, while all other tracks are muted. Like the mute button, the solo button affects monitoring during playback only. If solo is enabled on at least one track in a sequence, tracks that don't have solo enabled are not audible during playback, but are still output during Print to Video and Edit to Tape operations, or when exported to an audio or movie file.

New Timeline zoom functionality
Timeline zoom functionality has been improved. You can zoom into the Timeline in any of the following ways:

• Drag the thumb tabs on either side of the Zoom slider to adjust both ends of your view at the same time. If the playhead is visible, it stays centered during the zoom. If the playhead is not visible, the visible area of the Timeline stays centered.
• Hold down the Shift key while you drag one of the thumb tabs to zoom in or out of your sequence from the selected end of the Zoom slider, while keeping the other thumb tab locked in place. This also moves the visible area of the Timeline in the direction you're dragging as you zoom.
• Click or drag the Zoom control to view the Timeline at a different time scale while keeping either the playhead or the current area of the Timeline centered. Clicking to the right of the control zooms out to show more of your sequence; clicking to the left zooms in to show more detail.

Custom column layout menu in the Browser
You can create customized column layouts for your own specific uses, and save these arrangements as custom layouts for easy access at any time. The custom column layouts you save appear in the shortcut menu that appears when you Control-click any column heading in the Browser except the Name column.

New Preferences

New organization of preferences
All preferences have been reorganized into two windows-User Preferences and System Settings.

Memory usage settings
Two sliders in the Memory & Cache tab of the System Settings window allow you to decide how much of the available RAM in your computer to use when working in Final Cut Pro. Your computer's available RAM is defined as the amount of RAM not used by Mac OS X and other currently open applications. By limiting the amount of RAM Final Cut Pro uses, you can maintain Final Cut Pro's performance by preventing Mac OS X from using virtual memory unnecessarily. This is especially important when multiple applications are open at the same time.

Additional Timeline display options
There are several new display options for the Timeline in the Timeline Options tab of the User Preferences window, including:

• Show Duplicate Frames: Select this option to mark clips that are used more than once within a single edited sequence. Colored bars appear at the bottom of the clip's video item in the Timeline if that clip has been used more than once. You can adjust the parameters that determine when duplicate frames indicators appear in the General Preferences tab.
• Show Audio Controls: Select this option to display the mute and solo buttons to the left of each audio track in the Timeline. By default, these controls are hidden. Audio controls can also be displayed using the Audio Controls button in the Timeline.
• Video and audio keyframe editor: The keyframe editor shows you keyframe graphs for motion effects or parameters of filters applied to clips in your sequence. These graphs are identical to those found in the keyframe graph area of the Motion and Filters tabs in the Viewer. You can edit keyframes in the keyframe editor using the Selection and Pen tools. The keyframe editor can only display the keyframe graph of one effect parameter at a time.
• Video and audio speed indicators: Speed indicators show you the speed of clips in your sequence using tic marks. The spacing and color of these tic marks indicate the speed and playback direction of your clips. The speed indicators of clips in the Timeline update in real time as you make variable speed adjustments to clips in your sequence, showing you exactly how you're altering a clip's timing. There are no user-adjustable controls in the speed indicator area.

Audio Outputs tab
The Audio Outputs tab contains a list of presets that allow you to define the number of audio output channels that are available to your sequence via external audio interfaces connected to your computer. The selected audio output preset is automatically assigned to all new sequences and projects you create. Each sequence in your project has its own individual audio output settings. After a sequence has been created, any future changes to its audio output settings must be made in the Audio Outputs tab of the Sequence Settings window.

Real-Time and Rendering

Unlimited RT
Selecting the Unlimited RT option in the RT pop-up menu in the Timeline allows Final Cut Pro to play additional real-time effects that exceed your computer's real-time playback capabilities. Unrestricted real-time playback allows you play more effects, but increases the likelihood that your sequence will drop frames during playback. This mode is useful for getting a real-time preview of complex effects compositions.

RT pop-up menu in the Timeline
The Real-Time Effects (RT) pop-up menu allows you to adjust the playback quality of real-time effects in Final Cut Pro. Using the options in this menu, you can decide which is more important to you-visual playback quality, or maximizing the available effects that can be played back in real time.

For example, if it's more important to you to be able to view your program at the highest quality, you should deselect the Unlimited RT option and select the High playback option in this menu. This ensures that your program's video quality is always as high as possible, and that no frames are dropped during playback. The tradeoff in this case is that the number of simultaneous real-time effects that can be played back is reduced.

If you'd rather lower the playback quality of your video in order to increase the number of real-time effects that can be played back, you can select the Unlimited RT and Low playback quality options to maximize your computer's playback performance.

When you want to output your program to video, you can choose whether to render the effects that won't output at full quality in real time, or output them at the reduced quality you've selected in order to avoid rendering.

Note: Final Cut Pro always warns you before outputting video to tape at reduced quality when you use the Print to Video and Edit to Tape commands.

Software-based real-time effects can be output using FireWire and other built-in video interfaces
All real-time effects can be output to an external video monitor using FireWire or the built-in video output of a Macintosh PowerBook G4. This is true whether you're using OfflineRT or DV source media in your projects. Outputting real-time effects to video using FireWire is a processor-intensive operation, requiring a very fast computer. Outputting this way will significantly reduce the maximum number of effects that your computer can play in real time.

Real-time pull-down insertion for 24 fps sequences
If you're editing 24 fps video, Final Cut Pro can play back and export your DV or OfflineRT sequence with 3:2 pull-down added. This lets you output 24 fps video to 29.97 fps using FireWire or the built-in video output of a Macintosh PowerBook G4 for viewing or exporting to tape, all in real time.

Improved management of audio and video render cache files
Audio and video render cache files are handled differently, eliminating the need to rerender effects in many instances:

• Audio and video render cache files are now managed separately. Modifying video edits and making changes to video effects that overlap audio effects no longer affects rendered audio render cache files, and vice versa.
• Audio and video render cache files are preserved when clips are duplicated or copied and pasted.
• New item-level rendering of audio clips allows you to preserve audio cache files for audio effects and rendered resampling while making changes to volume and panning levels.

Real-time effects playback and rendering options
Three new tabs allow you to control real-time effects playback and rendering in your projects:

• The Render Control tab in the User Preferences window allows you to enable and disable the most processor-intensive effects in Final Cut Pro. Changing the settings in the Render Control tab of the User Preferences window changes the default Render Control options that all new sequences are created with. To change the Render Control settings for existing sequences, alter these settings in your sequence's Sequence Settings window.
• All settings in the Playback Control tab in the System Settings window remain the same for all sequences and projects opened on that computer. These settings also appear in the RT pop-up menu in the Timeline. Using these settings, you can decide which is more important to you-visual playback quality, or maximizing the available effects that can be played back in real time.
• The Effect Handling tab in the System Settings window allows you to set how real-time effects are processed for clips compressed using a real-time-capable codec. This includes clips captured and compressed using the DV, DVCPRO-50, and Photo JPEG codecs. Such clips, by default, can play back software-based real-time effects applied directly in Final Cut Pro. If a third-party capture card capable of real-time effects processing is installed that can process these codecs, you can reassign real-time effects handling to your hardware, instead.

Auto-rendering
The Auto Render preference allows you to take advantage of idle computer time when you're not editing-such as during a coffee break or lunch-to render open sequences in the Timeline. Options in the General tab of the User Preferences window allow you to define how long to wait before rendering, which sequences to render, and whether or not to render real-time effects in the selected sequences.

Support for 10-bit video processing
Final Cut Pro now supports 10-bit video processing for selected filters and transitions.

Capture/Output

Automatic timecode break handling during capture
New timecode break handling allows Final Cut Pro to automatically capture over timecode breaks without interruption. You can now capture the footage from an entire tape, skipping every timecode break on the tape. The "On timecode break" pop-up menu in the General tab of the User Preferences window gives you three ways to avoid capturing media with timecode breaks:

• Make New Clip: This is the default option. Video that has already been captured before the break in timecode is saved as a single clip, with its Out point set to the frame occurring immediately before the dropped timecode instance. Final Cut Pro then automatically continues capturing video after the dropped timecode frame as a second media file. When this option is selected, clips captured after timecode breaks are named with the original name plus a dash and the number of the clip. For example, if the first captured clip's name is "Cats Playing," then the second clip's name is set to "Cats Playing-2." This is a good setting if you are batch capturing an entire tape at once. For example, suppose you are capturing the entire contents of a 60-minute tape that had four timecode breaks. Instead of making you restart capture every time a timecode break is detected, Final Cut Pro captures all media from the tape as five clips, skipping every timecode break and ensuring that the timecode of all captured media is frame-accurate and in sync.
• Abort Capture: If this option is selected, capture is stopped whenever a timecode break is detected. All media captured before the timecode break has frame-accurate timecode and is preserved. The resulting open media clip is saved to the Browser.
• Warn After Capture: If this option is selected, timecode breaks are reported after capture and the media file with the timecode break is preserved. It is unwise to use such a clip unless you have no choice, because timecode breaks result in incorrect timecode from the timecode break forward, and will impair your ability to accurately recapture your media.

Capturing audio and video to separate files now creates true merged clips
When you capture video and audio to separate files, two sets of media source files are saved on your hard disk, but the clips appear in your project as merged clips. Capturing your video and audio as separate files allows you to divide the workload between two scratch disks, maximizing the performance of each scratch disk you're using so that you can capture your video at the highest possible data rate. Video and audio media files that have been captured separately are no longer dependent on one another.

Advanced pull-down removal
Select the "Remove Advanced Pulldown (2:3:3:2) From MiniDV Sources" setting of your capture preset if you're capturing from a DV format source that used the 2:3:3:2 pull-down method to capture 24P video. You want to remove the 2:3:3:2 pull-down to eliminate the redundant frame fields created by the pull-down so that you can edit true 24 (actually 23.98) fps progressive video.

Pull-down insertion
If you're editing a sequence with a 23.98 fps timebase and you want to output to an NTSC device via FireWire, you can choose one of three pull-down insertion patterns from the RT pop-up menu in the Timeline. Pull-down insertion is a method of converting 23.98 fps video to the NTSC standard of 29.97 fps video. Depending on the speed of your computer, you can select from 3:2, 2:3:3:2, or 2:2:2:4 pull-down.

Control the quality of effects being output to video
When outputting a sequence with draft-quality proxy effects to video, you can choose whether to render the effects that won't output at full quality in real time, or output them at the reduced quality you've selected in order to avoid rendering by choosing Use Playback Settings from the RT pop-up menu in the Timeline.

Capturing audio using house sync
When capturing audio intended to be synchronized to video from a separate source, it's important that your device-controllable audio deck be synchronized to your computer via a common video timing signal, such as a blackburst generator (also referred to as house sync ). This is true even if you're capturing your audio via a dedicated audio capture interface. This can be accomplished by connecting a blackburst generator to both the genlock connector (also called external sync ) of your audio deck and to the genlock connector of an external video capture interface connected to your computer. When capturing audio from a genlocked audio deck, you need to select "Sync audio capture to video source if present" in the General tab of the User Preferences window.

Support for separate video and audio capture interfaces
You now have the ability to specify separate video and audio capture interfaces in the A/V Devices tab of the A/V Settings window.

Support for multichannel audio output
Final Cut Pro supports audio output via up to 24 outputs using Mac OS X-compatible audio interfaces. The Audio Outputs tab of the Sequence Settings window allows you to define the number of audio output channels that are available to tracks in your sequence via the external audio interface connected to your computer. All audio tracks in a sequence can be assigned to specific pairs of audio outputs using the shortcut menu in each audio track header in the Timeline.

Support for multichannel audio during Edit to Tape operations
Using a Mac OS X-compatible audio interface, you can now output up to eight audio channels while using the Edit to Tape command. The number of audio tracks that can be recorded to when using the Edit to Tape command depends on the number of audio tracks your video or audio recording device supports. When using a video or audio interface capable of outputting more than two channels of audio, you need to manually choose an appropriate audio track configuration based on the video or audio recording device you're recording onto. You can specify this configuration by selecting or creating a device control preset, and setting the Audio Mapping pop-up menu in the Device Control Preset Editor to the appropriate configuration for your recording device. The Audio Mapping pop-up menu does not automatically detect the number of audio tracks your video or audio recording device is capable of recording to. You need to choose a configuration based on your recording device's capabilities.

Clip Handling

Support for merged clips using separate video and audio source media
A merged clip is one that links to more than one source media file on disk. For example, a merged clip might link to both a QuickTime video file and a separate audio file. Merged clips allow you to synchronize the audio and video items of footage shot via dual system recording. Instead of syncing your video and audio onto tape prior to capturing, you can capture your audio and video separately, and then merge them together in Final Cut Pro.

You can sync a video clip with up to 12 stereo or 24 mono audio clips (merged clips can contain a total of 1 video and 24 audio items) using their timecode, In points, or Out points. After a group of clips has been synchronized in preparation to create a merged clip, select them all and choose Modify>Merge Clips.

New master/affiliate clip relationships within a project
Final Cut Pro 4 introduces master/affiliate clip relationships for clips used in a project. The first instance of a clip that is captured or imported into a project is a master clip. Editing a master clip into a sequence or duplicating it in the Browser results in the creation of a sequence clip or duplicate clip that is an affiliate of the original master clip. A relationship exists between the original master clip in the Browser and all edited or duplicated affiliates of that clip that appear in every sequence and in every bin of that project. For any group of affiliated clips in a project, there is only one master clip.

As a result of the relationship between master and affiliate clips, changes made to certain properties of a master clip, such as Clip Name, Reel Name, or Timecode, are automatically made to all affiliated clips within the current project. These same changes, if made to an affiliate clip, are also made to that clip's master clip, as well as to all other affiliated clips in the current project.

The online or offline state of clips is also automatically updated among all affiliated clips in a project, all at once. Suppose you open a project in which all the clips are offline. Relinking that project's master clips in the Browser automatically relinks all the affiliate clips that appear in each of that project's sequences, as well.

New commands, including Reveal Master Clip, Duplicate as New Master Clip, and Make Independent Clip, allow you to manage these clip affiliations. The Match Frame command opens a clip's affiliated master clip from the Browser.

Improvements to the Media Manager
Two new options give you more control over operations performed by the Media Manager.

• Include affiliate clips outside selection: You can choose whether or not to include additional marked master clip media and other affiliated clips in the selected Media Manager operation. How much extra media will be included depends on whether or not the "Duplicate selected items and place into a new project" option is selected.
  Including affiliate clips may dramatically increase the amount of media included by the Media Manager operation, but it will ensure that you include the maximum amount of useful footage by including master clip media that
  • is marked by an In point, Out point, or both
  • falls between two unconnected clips derived from the same master clip
  • appears as an affiliate clip in another sequence
• Base media file names on: This pop-up menu lets you determine how clips are named when they're segmented as a result of the "Delete unused media" option. Since the clip names used in your project do not necessarily match the name of the source media files on disk (you may have renamed them manually, for example), you can specify which names to use. You have two options:
  • Existing file names: Filenames of clips created by the Media Manager are based on the source media files on disk.
  • Clip names: Filenames of clips created by the Media Manager are based on the names you've given the clips inside your project.

Improvements to the Item Properties window
The Item Properties window has been updated. Three tabs in this window-Format, Timing, and Logging Information-allow you to view or change various properties of a clip. The Item Properties window can now show information for a group of linked clips in a sequence, merged clips, and groups of sequence clips that have been opened simultaneously.

Improved item linking in the Timeline
You can now link up to 1 video item and 24 audio items in the Timeline.

Additional support for modification of timecode in source media files
You can modify the Reel, Timecode, Aux 1, and Aux 2 timecode tracks directly in a clip's source media file on disk.


Editing

Dynamic trimming in the Trim Edit window
A new Dynamic Trimming option in the General tab of the User Preferences window allows editing in the Trim Edit window using the J, K, and L keys.

Dupe detection
You can now turn on the Show Duplicate Frames option in the Timeline Options tab of the Sequence Settings window. This option marks clips that are used more than once within a single edited sequence with colored bars appearing at the bottom of the clip's video item in the Timeline. Two options in the General tab of the Preferences window, Dupe Detection Handle Size and Dupe Detection Threshold, affect when and how duplicate frames indicators appear in the Timeline.

• Dupe Detection Handle Size: Adds frames to the beginning and end of the clip regions which are used for comparison, to determine whether or not to display duplicate frames indicators. This can be used to take into account the extra frames that must be used for physically cutting and cementing pieces of negative that are necessary for film matchback, to prevent you from accidentally including frames that can't really be used. By default, this is set to 0.
• Dupe Detection Threshold: Allows you to set a minimum number of frames that must be duplicated before a duplicate frame's indicator will appear. By default, this is set to 0 so that all instances of duplicated frames are indicated. You can set it as high as 99 frames (3 to 4 seconds, depending on the frame rate), in which case there would have to be a minimum of 99 consecutive duplicated frames before a duplicate frames indicator would appear.

Auto Select controls in the Timeline
Enabling the Auto Select controls of specific tracks in the Timeline allows the contents of those tracks to be selected via In and Out points in the Timeline or Canvas, just as if you'd used the Range Selection tool. When In and Out points are defined in the Timeline, operations such as the Copy command and lift edits are limited to the selected regions of tracks that have Auto Select turned on. When one or more Auto Select controls are enabled, regions of clips in the Timeline defined by In and Out points are highlighted, which indicates that these regions can be operated upon.

Editing clips from one sequence to another
Instead of nesting one sequence inside of another, you can edit the content of sequence A into sequence B-placing all of sequence A's clips directly into the Timeline of sequence B exactly as they appear in sequence A-using the Command key. Hold down the Command key while dragging sequence A into the Canvas to edit the clips contained by sequence A into sequence B.

Asymmetrical trimming
Asymmetrical trimming allows you to ripple edit opposing video and audio edit points in the Timeline to create split edits. Using the Ripple tool, you can Option-click to select an outgoing video edit point, then Command-click an opposite incoming audio edit point. When you use the Ripple tool to trim these selected points, they move in opposite directions, allowing you to create a split edit. For more information, see Late-Breaking News available via the Help menu.

Viewing media time or clip time in the Viewer
You can view the timecode of a clip in the Viewer using Source Time or Clip Time. Choosing Source Time guarantees that the current timecode displayed represents the timecode associated with that frame in your source media file. For example, if you change the speed of a clip to 50 percent, you effectively double the number of frames in that clip. With Source Time selected, each duplicated frame shows the correct timecode number of the frame in the media file it came from. Displaying Source Time is also useful for showing timecode with a timebase that doesn't match that of your sequence. For example, if a 29.97 fps clip is set to display the timecode from a 24 fps Aux 1 timecode track, choosing Source Time will accurately present these values in the Viewer. Source Time is always displayed in the Viewer and Browser in italics. If you choose Clip Time, the timecode displayed in the Viewer is incremented from the first timecode value in the clip forward, regardless of whether the timecode is correctly representing the current frame.

To choose Source Time or Clip Time, Control-click in the current timecode window of the Viewer, then choose a display method from the shortcut menu.

Ganging the Viewer and Canvas using the Playhead Sync pop-up menu
You can lock the playhead in the Viewer to the playhead in the Canvas so that they move together while scrubbing through clips. This is known as ganging. Ganging allows you to trim a clip in the Viewer by a duration specified by some event in the Timeline, such as the duration of an actor's action, the length of a clip, or the distance between two markers.

Ganging is especially useful when you're modifying clips with color correction filters applied. When adjusting color correction filters, you want to see the Color Correction tab in the Viewer that corresponds to the clip in the Canvas so that you're adjusting the right clip. Ganging lets you do this.

You use Playhead Sync pop-up menu to choose from four different ganging options:

• Off: Disables Viewer/Canvas ganging. The Viewer and Canvas playheads move independently of one another. This is the default behavior.
• Follow: The playhead in the Viewer is locked to the playhead in the Canvas whenever a sequence clip is opened into the Viewer, so that both playheads scrub together, displaying the same frame. For example, moving the Timeline playhead to the 20th frame of a clip in your sequence also moves the Viewer playhead to the 20th frame of that sequence's clip if it is also opened in the Viewer.
• Open: This option is identical to Follow, except that as the playhead moves through your sequence, the clip that appears at the current position of the playhead is automatically opened into the Viewer. For example, moving the Timeline playhead from clip A in your sequence to clip B opens clip B into the Viewer, with the playheads in the Viewer and in the Canvas both ganged to the same frame. The tab currently selected in the Viewer remains the selected tab, even though a new clip has been opened into it. The Open ganging option is useful when adjusting multiple clips that have color correction filters applied to them-as you move the playhead from clip to clip, the Color Correction tab updates to reflect the settings applied to whichever clip is at the current position of the playhead.
• Gang: When this option is selected, the offset between the current position of the playhead in the Canvas and the current position of the playhead in the Viewer is maintained as both playheads move together. This mode is useful for editing operations in which you want to mark In or Out points using durations defined by items or markers in the Timeline as your reference.

Audio

Audio Mixer tab in the Tool Bench
A new Audio Mixer tab in the Tool Bench has controls comparable to those of an automated hardware mixing console. Each audio track in the currently selected sequence is represented by a track strip, complete with solo and mute buttons, a stereo panning slider, and a volume fader. You can make fine adjustments to the audio in your program by manipulating these graphical controls in real time while you listen to your program play back. Final Cut Pro records the gestures you make with the mixing controls, adjusting the levels of clips in your sequence accordingly. Adjusting the levels of your tracks this way as you listen to them play back allows you to create mixes more quickly than does directly manipulating a track's volume overlays. The Audio Mixer tab has the following controls:

• track strip controls allowing real-time mixing and automation recording for volume and panning levels
• mute and solo monitoring controls
• master level, master mute, and mixdown controls
• individual track audio meters
• master output meters showing mixed levels for each assigned audio output
• controls to show and hide individual track strips
• up to four different mixer views, each with a different set of visible track strips
• the ability to turn on and off keyframe recording

Real-time automation recording
When the Record Keyframes checkbox in the Audio Mixer tab or in the General tab of the User Preferences window is selected, Final Cut Pro records all changes you make to audio controls during playback as keyframes in the corresponding parameter overlay of the audio clip you are adjusting. This is referred to as recording mixer and effects automation. You can record automation in real time during playback for

• volume and panning levels using the fader and pan controls in the Audio Mixer tab
• audio effects parameters using audio filter controls in the Filters tab of the Viewer

Keyframe thinning
A new Audio Keyframe Thinning pop-up menu in the General tab of the User Preferences window allows you to control how detailed keyframe automation is when recorded using the Audio Mixer or audio filter controls. There are three choices:

• All: Records the maximum number of keyframes possible while you move a track strip's fader or panning slider. The end result is a precise re-creation of the levels you set using the Audio Mixer. The drawback to this option is that you might end up with an extremely dense cluster of keyframes in the audio level overlays of the affected clips that can be difficult to edit later.
• Reduced: Reduces the number of recorded keyframes that are created when you move a track strip's fader or panning slider. The resulting level or panning overlay in the Timeline or Viewer is an accurate reproduction of the levels you set, but is easier to edit using the Selection or Pen tool.
• Peaks Only: Records only the minimum number of keyframes necessary to approximate the levels you recorded when moving a track strip's fader or panning slider. Keyframes recorded using the Peaks Only option reflect only the highest and lowest levels that were recorded. This is primarily useful when you want to record a minimum number of keyframes to edit later in the Timeline or Viewer.

Support for multichannel output and Mac OS X-compatible audio interfaces
New support is available for specifying Mac OS X-compatible audio interfaces for capture and output in the Audio/Video Settings window. New settings in the Audio Outputs tab of the Sequence Settings window allow you to define the number of audio output channels that are available to assign to audio tracks from your sequence, using whichever external audio interface or third-party video capture card is connected to your computer. By default, a stereo preset is enabled, and will work with the audio output built in to your computer, as well as with most DV camcorders and third-party video capture interfaces. If you have a more sophisticated audio interface specified in the Audio/Video Settings window that supports more than two channels of audio output, you can create a new preset to define these additional audio output channels.

Export multiple audio outputs to AIFF files
The Export Audio to AIFF(s) command in the File>Export submenu gives you the opportunity to export every audio output channel that's defined in the Audio Outputs tab of your sequence's settings as a separate AIFF file. You also have the option of saving each exported AIFF file at 24-bit resolution, which is useful because Final Cut Pro mixes the audio in your program at 32-bit internal resolution, even if your source audio is 16 bit. Since all audio calculations are made with higher precision to maximize the quality of your program's audio, using this command to export your audio preserves this quality.

New support for Audio Units
Final Cut Pro includes a set of Audio Units filters that you can use to adjust your audio clips. The Audio Units format is the standard Apple audio plug-in format for Mac OS X applications.

Third-party Audio Units are also available; before purchasing third-party Audio Units filters for use with Final Cut Pro, check with the third-party manufacturer to make sure they're compatible. Currently, Final Cut Pro only works with Audio Units filters that are capable of accepting mono audio as input, and can output a mono signal. Also, certain Audio Units filters that don't support certain properties required by Final Cut Pro for real-time playback will require rendering before playback. For information on how to install third-party audio filters, see the information that accompanied them.


Effects

New real-time variable speed effects
You can now apply variable speed to a clip. Also referred to as time remapping, this allows you to dynamically alter the speed of a clip, alternating among a range of speeds, in forward or reverse motion, throughout any duration you specify. Variable speed allows you to create sophisticated motion effects in which subjects appear to smoothly shift across a variety of different speeds, with hard or gradual transitions between each change. Speed changes you apply to clips in your sequence play back in real time. There are two ways you can make variable speed adjustments: m Timeline: One of the simplest ways to make variable speed changes is to use the Time Remap tool in the Tool palette to make adjustments to clips directly in the Timeline. As you work with this tool, an outline of your clip appears that shows you which source frame in the clip is being remapped to what time. Optionally, you can choose to display speed indicators and a keyframe graph underneath that clip's track in the Timeline, to help you see what you're doing. m Time graph: You can also add, subtract, smooth, and adjust time remap keyframes using the time graph of the keyframe editor in the Timeline or in the Effects tab of a clip in the Viewer. Speed indicators in the Timeline Speed indicators underneath each track in the Timeline can be displayed, and show you the speed of clips in your sequence using tic marks. The spacing and color of these tic marks indicate the speed and playback direction of your clips. The speed indicators of clips in the Timeline update in real time as you make variable speed adjustments to clips in your sequence, showing you exactly how you're altering a clip's timing. There are no useradjustable controls in the speed indicator area. More real-time filters and motion effects Many more of the Final Cut Pro video filters, audio filters, and transition effects have been optimized to work in real time. New Timeline keyframe editor Keyframe editor areas can be displayed underneath each track in the Timeline. The keyframe editor shows you keyframe graphs for motion effects or parameters of filters applied to clips in your sequence. These graphs are identical to those found in the keyframe graph area of the Motion and Filters tabs in the Viewer. You can edit keyframes in the keyframe editor using the Selection and Pen tools. The keyframe editor can only display the keyframe graph of one effect parameter at a time. Keyframe graphs displayed in the keyframe editor are color-coded: motion parameter graphs are blue (matching the color of the blue motion bar), filter parameter graphs are green (matching the color of the green filter bar), audio levels are pink, and panning levels are purple.

New Frame Viewer tabs
Frame Viewer tabs in Tool Bench windows can be used to visually compare multiple frames from the same sequence. This is particularly useful when performing a color comparison of multiple clips in the same setting where the lighting attributes may have changed. In Final Cut Pro, you can open as many Frame Viewer tabs in as many Tool Bench windows as necessary to compare as many frames as you need. If you've arranged multiple Frame Viewers to accomplish a specific task, you can save your custom configuration by choosing Window>Arrange>Save Window Layout. For more information about saving window layouts, see the Final Cut Pro User's Manual or Final Cut Pro Help, Volume I, Chapter 4, "The Final Cut Pro Interface."

You can set a Frame Viewer tab to display the current frame, adjacent edit points, or the In and Out points in the Canvas and Timeline. You can also compare two frames within a single Frame Viewer tab using the split-screen buttons. You can split the screen either vertically or horizontally, or create a rectangular region showing the split as a picture-in-picture. You can configure the Frame Viewer to display those individual frames that are most useful for making comparisons in your project.

Improvements to the Color Corrector and Color Corrector 3-way filters
Additional features have been added to the Color Corrector and Color Corrector 3-way filters.

• The Hue Matching controls provide a way to adjust the color balance of the current clip, based on a specific hue, to match a similar hue in another clip. A common example of when you might use the Hue Matching controls is to match the flesh tones of an actor in two different shots that have different lighting.
• New Edge Thin and Softening controls in the Limit Effect section of the Color Corrector and Color Corrector 3-way filters allow you to make fine adjustments.