Final Cut Pro X: What’s still missing after the 10.0.6 update

“Final Cut Pro X is my NLE of choice after editing with and teaching FCP for over ten years,” Richard Taylor writes for FCPX.tv.

“I really like FCPX’s unique editing paradigm and, for the most part, find it a refreshing joy to use,” Taylor writes. “This list includes repeated requests I’ve read online and email requests that I have received. I get inquiries that ask if Apple has seen this list. They have seen it. (I could make a similar list for Avid MC or Premiere if I were so inclined but I’m not).”

Taylor writes, “Apple says they are listening to professionals. Here is a list of requests from professionals.”

See the top 90 requests for Final Cut Pro X in the full article here.

Related articles:
Ultimate Mac: Building the Final Cut Pro X dream machine – November 9, 2012
Final Cut Pro X gets significant update with new features and RED camera support – October 23, 2012
PC Magazine reviews Apple’s Final Cut Pro X 10.0.3: Editors’ Choice for high-end video editing – February 7, 2012
Apple significantly updates Final Cut Pro X – January 31, 2012
Editor Walter Murch is feeling better about Final Cut Pro X – November 8, 2011
Apple releases major Final Cut Pro X update; debuts free 30-day full version trial – September 20, 2011
Film editor: Apple’s Final Cut Pro X is flexible, powerful, incredibly innovative software – September 12, 2011
IT Enquirer reviews Apple’s Final Cut Pro X: Very much a professional’s tool – July 8, 2011
Former Avid employee on Final Cut Pro X: Only Apple seems capable of pushing boundaries – July 5, 2011
Why Apple built Final Cut Pro X – July 1, 2011
PC Magazine: Apple’s Final Cut Pro X makes serious leaps and bounds past its predecessor – June 30, 2011
Apple revolutionizes video editing with Final Cut Pro X – June 21, 2011

19 Comments

  1. I locked my keys in my car and Final Cut Pro X jimmied the lock so I could get back in. All Adobe Premiere did was offer to break the window, while Avid never even looked up from her Blackberry.

  2. This is by far the very best list of missing features I’ve ever seen. I work with FCP X every day, it pays my bills. I have never seen a better video editing software than this, but there is still a lot of work to do. Impressive list, thanks a lot.

    Yes, I worked with Premiere Pro and with Avid amongst others. Some specific features are better than in FCP X. But all lack a lot of other things. In total FCP X is by far the best software in this area.

    I wish Apple would put some work on the Compressor which has an totally outdated multi-window interface, cluttered and ugly and barely readable on a big screen. It is a nightmare and needs a complete overhaul.

  3. FCPX has been my editing system of choice since its release. There are still some features I’d like to see; this list is pretty solid although some are very specific and also many were never in FCP 7 or other editing systems. But I’d love to see what comes of this list.

    Note: Yes, I actually work in film/TV as a director and cinematographer. Editing is a common practice for me too.

    1. 14 new features in a dot-dot-release is huge, especially as those features are mainly big ones. Keep in mind that the update speed of FCP X is impressive, it is the sixth update since its release in 2011.

      I love the fact that Apple does the updates so quickly, FCP X matures every three months or so. I really wish Apple would take care for Pages and Numbers the same way.

      Yes, Kudos to the FCP X team. Great job!

  4. 90 Requests: Says it all.
    Request #1: Blows FCPX out of the water is ill conceived.

    Apple has one overall OS X problem these days that comes screaming through in the 90 requests:

    Apple has lost control of memory management in OS X. It is ABYSMAL. This the accelerating number of utilities to compensate for the problem. But none of them are the cure. Apple rewriting their core memory management is the cure.

    Want a test canary for the coal mine? Start with nasty RAM sucking Safari. What a gluttonous pig.

    1. +1 Don’t know how many times i’ve seem safari taking up over 1GB of Ram, even if I close all the tabs which are resource heavy it doesn’t revert back unless I quite it, which is a pain…

      1. The secret problem is when the RAM cache inexplicably fills to the brim and OS X starts going full time using the drive for cache memory. I cannot comprehend how I can have nearly 1 GB of cache RAM being used, theoretically available for just-in-time cache swapping, and my Macs BOG DOWN TO A TURTLE CRAWL. Idiotic. Only wiping out the cache RAM brings the system to life, entirely BACKWARDS of how its supposed to work. Sheesh.

        There was a time when Object Oriented Programming was going to be a savior of coding. But then we figured out that OOP also enables CRAPCODE to live on forever and ever. The object sits there screwing up eternity because no one bothered to check whether it requires improvement. It was probably poorly documented and the original programmer has left the planet.

        And we thought we could create Artificial Intelligence. Right.

    2. I was going to object on various technical grounds, but then I saw that Apple has released Aperture 3.4.3 – It fixes an issue that could cause a licensed copy of Aperture to prompt for a serial number with each launch. That’s it (and I was experiencing this). 548 MB update! And yes, I was on 3.4.2. Not a lot of confidence that this stated fix is all that’s going on. Finder shows the app as being a 935.1MB file. Seriously.

      1. Remember the miserly memory days? Remember when you had less than 100 MB of RAM and could run the OS, and Photoshop, and Mail, and Address Book and iCab all at the same time? With no crashing or crawling? I still have my old Quadra 650 with MOS 9 and a PPC upgrade card that can do that. WHY THE FRACK CAN’T MY 2011 Mac with 4 GB of RAM do that without gagging?

  5. FCPX has never grabbed a huge portion of RAM as long as I have used it. GPU memory was a different story until I updated my video card but I had the cheapest card. I also turned off the full screen option on most of my Apple programs. What grabs memory (and I have Activity Monitor on 99% of the time)? The Safari Flash plug-in. Next villain? Compressor when it is asked to burn a BluRay or DVD. It grabs all the free memory and refuses to let go even if the program is shut-down. Only a terminal purge command will free up the RAM.

  6. 90 requests on a wish list. Oh the TOP 90…yup, there’s more. That’s quite a list of Missing features. I love #57. Bars and Tone Generator. It’s so bad. Please just admit it,
    It really is bad. Just face it. FCP X is a perfect metaphor for Apple’s slide to mediocrity. They should have the BEST software solution for EVERY possible scenario. FCP should be Hands DOWN the best. Not a cartoon. As my stock slides.

    1. That’s what happens when you destroy dedicated developer teams and use the Jobs method of throwing different combinations of staff at problems in a disappearing task force. You make some very burned out software engineers and some highly compromised software.

      Anyone who has depended upon specific professional tools to accomplish their work knows tools or equipment that has been designed by people who know and understand the needs of the people who use it. FCP-X looks like an outsider’s take on what an editing program should be.

  7. I don’t think people are understanding what Taylor and others here are saying. Even with the list of requests, it is the best out there. “I really like FCPX’s unique editing paradigm and, for the most part, find it a refreshing joy to use.” That’s a pretty positive endorsement. Clearly, his 90 item list is not enough to cause him to disparage FCPX.

    Hopefully, Apple will get use his list to make FCPX untouchable.

    FCPX is not an example of Apple’s slide into mediocrity. Just the opposite. Many users would not go back to FCP7 even if they could. Perfect? No. Nothing is. But it’s on the move. More and more using it are fine with it. They increasingly like it a lot. Trolls here?

Reader Feedback

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.