Hello all,

I've been limping along on an ancient computer, running FCP 7 for several years now, since I know that software so well, but of course it's way behind in so many things, so I'm finally going to really edit something in FCPX.

I'm doing music video, and what I currently need to know is how can I turn of the "ripple" effect, so that I can slide video clips around on the timeline with respect to the music track without affecting clips further down the sequence and knocking them out of sync.

Apologies if this is a lame question. I'm on old, formerly professional editor somewhat reluctant to learn a completely new software, and I can't seem to find my answers in the help search.

nice to be back! I don't think I've posted on this forum in about 10 years!

Thanks Ken for your ongoing amazingness!
Mary

Ok, I didn't figure out how to turn it off, but I can put things on the upper video tracks and it doesn't move them... so progress!

Hi Mary,

If you hit 'p' on the keyboard, it will turn off the magnetic timeline.

--ken

thank you Ken!

Hitting there 'a' key will turn it back on again.

--ken

Thanks Greg! It's a narrative storyboard-based shoot, so we shot the performers in various places singing along to a recording, and also lots of narrative type footage. So no multi cam, but various take options for each moment in the song.

thank for your advice. I have the timeline working pretty well now, and have a rough cut that is more or less in sync... I'll tighten the sync when we have finalized shots.

My current questions are...

How do I add key frames in the audio to adjust audio levels within a clip? We have just a few sync moments with the footage -- like a dog barking -- that I want to add to the mix.

What's the best way to match back from a clip in a timeline to the source clip, for example to look at the next version of the shot? (used to be F)

I've been using B to turn on the blade tool, and the A to go back to the select tool, but since this puts it back into ripple/magnetic mode, I have to remember to hit P also every time to turn it back off. Is there a better way to go back to select without turning ripple/magnetic back on? (I've put all my edited footage on upper tracks, so they're not affected, but as I go on to the next scene, I'm pasting selects at the end of the timeline and putting shot choices on v2, so I can pull from them, and so that's when I have to keep turning ripple off again.)

And on a related note, what I'd love to do is put the selects sequence in what used to be the source monitor and cut directly from it to the edited sequence in the timeline. Is this possible in FCPX?

I know... a lot of questions!

Thanks all!
m

Hi Mary
late here, big day tomorrow so some quick answers.
Would help to have a shot of your project Timeline, I have the feeling that you are fighting against FCPX using older techniques and concepts.
The latest couple of versions of X biggest improvements IMHO has been to audio. Too big of a subject to cover here.

Several ways to access automation in audio. In the audio inspector pane, now can go full length of screen so more info is presented at once.You can set keyframes to where the playhead is located in Timeline.
The Audio Animation Editor either via the "Clip" menu or use Control+A keyboard shortcut.
My personal favorite is to use the Range tool (r) key and select and drag out a range in an audio clip or expanded audio clip. Using the range tool, automatically inserts 2 keyframes at the beginning of the "Range" and 2 at the end. This saves lots of extra clicks for boosting or attenuating audio levels. Ranges can also span across different clips.
Audio roles are a huge improvement with component level editing and effects. You can also do subframe audio edits up to 80 devisions per frame(?? think it is 80?)

If you want to use any of the available tools for just a click or two, hold down the shortcut key then click at appropriate spot then release the key for the shortcut and the previous tool will be active again. For example you want to use blade tool to make a cut, instead of first pressing and releasing the "b" key, hold down the b key then click where you want the cut to be, then release the b key and the tool will revert to the previous tool such as the Position tool, not the select tool A. Hope this makes sense, but by just holding down a key it is only temporarily that tool then goes back to previous tool.
Here is where I think you are making things hard for yourself by having to use the position tool all the time and not really understanding the magnetic timeline.
You can also raise up a clip off the primary storyline and create a connected clip and a gap clip by using the shift+cmmd+uparrow keys. or the Lift from Primary Storyline in Clip menu(??) I think that where it is.

Try Shift+F to reveal in Browser. This is supposed to be improved in latest 10.3.3 version, I'm still on 10.3.2 and it is not great at showing exact place and the indicator is vague to say the least. This is one thing I think 7 is better than 10.

Not sure about the barking dog, but you can place markers on clips and then sync to markers, would that work?? Alternatively you can create synchronized clips by several criteria, audio, markers, start / end, timecode, etc…

There really are no "tracks" like v2 in FCPX so this is one of those "Unlearn" lessons. There really is no need to hold selects on the end of the "track" to place later. You can simply skim(or play) in the viewer window, select your desired ranges then make it a favorite or keyword it then you have it waiting in that folder or tag for instant recall and placement on the timeline. Skimming and metadata makes it so fast. If you don't fight the magnetic timeline, then you can do super quick rough edits then just do refined edits including the advanced trim editor. No need to worry and you just keep playing till it is right.
If cutting to music and your audio is the Primary timeline you don't need to worry about it moving so you are just filling in the video space(s). Let the MTL do it thing and prevent orphaned gap clips, single frames from a bad cut, etc.…

FCPX does allow you to create separate storylines where you can assemble clips then place that storyline in Primary Timeline or as a connected clip. This might be what would work for you, not sure.

Sorry little tired so not sure I have gotten the gist of all your workflow questions but as you can see I am a fan of the Magnetic Timeline. Timeline screen shot maybe annotated in Preview would help me understand, or might be someone else has some suggestions. FCPX really does require that you let go of 7's concepts like tracks. Coming to grips with how it works does take time. Figuring out how meta-data and setting up pre edit workflows will make editing faster and easier.

Hope this Helps (some?), Greg

Wow, thank you guys! A lot of info here, and this has been a sharp learning curve this week!

I created a rough cut and had a screening yesterday and it went great. So now, as I move on the next stages, I'm going to implement your suggestions.

I get it! I need to think about this differently, and I'm beginning to see the potential of the FCPX software. Several things it just did by itself were so awesome that I began to really appreciate the value of giving in to the new platform and unlearning the old ways!

so thank you again, and once I have implemented this next stage, I'm pretty sure I'll be back with more questions.

you rock!
m

Hi Mary
Moving to FCPX does take a bit of learning, but first you need to "Unlearn" many things you know from FCP7.

As to a music video, you do not say if this is say a multi-camera shoot of say a live performance that you wish to change angles or if you have a audio track and just wish to add random video to it. Sounds like the latter??
If the first you can create a multicam clip and syncronise the various angles to the audio. Switch to video only cutting and activate the angle editor and you can cut between angles in real time with all angles synced.

If the latter, I suggest you place the audio in the main timeline and then you can move the connected video around however you want, no ripples unless you cut the audio in the Timeline. When you add a video clip to the audio as a connected clip there is a connection point that is established between the clips, you can move this point and the video will also be aligned to that point.
You can add as many layers of video stacked on top as you want and trim and move as necessary. The connection point for all the layers is to the TimeLine, now stationary audio.
You can cut to the beat. After adding the audio track, play through and add markers at the beats you want to cut to. Now move the playhead to a marker, go to browser and select your video, create a range using the "i" and "o" keys and add as a connected clip with the "q" key. The first frame of your selected video will become the connection point at the playhead. You can also do this manually and you can move video clips below the TimeLine.

You can create a gap clip in the Timeline which will maintain non movement of magnetic timeline.
Using the position "p" key as Ken says will ignore the magnetic timeline and create gap clips.
Many ways to achieve what you want.

Hope you like FCPX. I find it much faster and more capable than FCP7.
Hope this helps, Greg

When doing music videos or anything else that is edited to existing sound (like a narration or voiceover) I put the sound (in your case the music track) on the Primary Storyline. Basically that means it's the very first thing in the project. That way everything else won't bounce around like rubber goo. Pressing "P" will do the same thing if you have clips on the Primary Storyline but it also leaves tons of gap tracks in its wake so it's not a very good replacement for what's in FCP7.