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.
– – –

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.

Bookmark the permalink.

151 Responses to What Features Does Apple Final Cut Pro Still Need?

← Older Comments Newer Comments →

Larry says:

May 23, 2022 at 7:38 am

Keith:

It can’t be “brought back.” It won’t run on today’s 64-bit computers. Apple needs to re-create it using today’s technology.

And, I agree, DVD Studio Pro was amazing.

Larry
Tom Wheeler says:

May 23, 2022 at 7:39 am

Some of my suggestions are the same as yours, Larry. (1) A good audio mixing tool that is tightly integrated with Final Cut Pro. (2) A scrolling timeline, Apple has ignored this forever, and it has been constantly requested. (3) A straightforward method of exporting individual clips from the timeline that does not require frame.io. (4) A straight forward method of archiving Final Cut Pro Projects. (5) A straightforward method of importing content from Logic Pro and Garage band including accessibility in Final Cut Pro to Apple Loops.

Tom
David Peterson says:

May 23, 2022 at 7:48 am

There have been some good items listed here already. The features built into CommandPost (which I contribute on) are somewhat of a wishlist, but done things can’t be fixed just by automation.

Personally, I’d love to have a Role-based audio bus/mixer, which is in effect while editing the current timeline. Sealing it into a Compound Clip to mix on roles or subtitles sucks because you can’t hear those changes while editing.

I’d also love to be able to “pin” a video role, which would basically put all video with that role at the top layer, similar to how closed captions work. You can reorder multiple pinned layers in the Index, ala Audio roles.
Peter Snowdon says:

May 23, 2022 at 8:16 am

The scrolling time line is a MUST. Visitors cannot believe it’s not there even just as an option.

DVD burning is useless since upgrading to the latest software. We sell direct to the public in the UK and one third of customers still buy on ordinary (not blue ray).
I have had to go back to an old MacBook air prehistoric software on to burn a DVD. Crazy.

I would like to see much more interaction available from clips modified in the timeline back to the Browser. I know there’s compound clip but it’s not the same. I do a lot of basic editing on the timeline which I have developed into a very quick way of working, but want to save those clips back.

I would like a ‘tool box’ to drop in much used effects and transitions for regular use. A previous system, not Apple) had this and it is much missed.

I would like folders within Events to drop groups of clips into to keep them separate from other clips so I can dip into them without changing Events or having to tag them.

Thank you.

Peter
Stacey Sanner says:

May 23, 2022 at 8:48 am

I agree with scrolling timeline and disconnected audio! Two requests – keep in mind this may be user error!

1. Keyboard short cuts for home and end.
2. When I play a clip in the browser, my timeline will jump back to the previous timeline. So if I have duplicated the timeline and I am working on version 2, it will bounce back to version 1.
Larry says:

May 23, 2022 at 8:50 am

Stacey:

On full-size keyboards the Home and End keys jump to you to the beginning and the end.

On laptops, press Fn + left / right arrow keys to do the same thing.

Larry
Richard Wright says:

May 23, 2022 at 9:08 am

Yours are all great Larry so I concur.
Importing Blackmagic raw would be great but I suspect that is a BM issue.
I would love it if we could trim clips and then DELETE what we don’t. This is a big deal to me as I shoot a lot fo wildlife and end up with gigbytes I don’t want, clogging hard drives. Seems like a simple request to me, but…
Larry says:

May 23, 2022 at 9:14 am

Richard:

The trick with this kind of trimming is that you need to duplicate just those portions of the clip that you want to retain. Back when FCP was first released, Apple told me they didn’t want to duplicate the clip because it ran the risk of injecting artifacts into the camera master.

While that’s a true statement, I think it would be great if we had the option to trim clips then decide whether we want to accept the results.

Larry
Merrick Dupea says:

May 23, 2022 at 9:34 am

I’ve had the same prime request since fcp6. Give us an integrated timeline with edit “modes”, so we can switch from cutting in Final Cut to layering effects with Motion to mixing in Logic all on the same timeline with the click of a button. They own all these software packages already there’s no reason their feature setts shouldn’t be fully integrated into a single timeline.

Next, let us resize tracks height individually so we can have one or two tall track and three or eight short ones however we like.

I’ve never liked the auto track creation for layers. I wish we still had an FCP7 mode where whatever you place on track 7 stays on track 7 forever.

Let us drag clips from the timelines back into a new bin to sort and categorize and keyword. Expecting us to always use text entry metadata to sort rather than drag and drop is to expect visual thinkers to become typists and think like software coders with a keyboard. It is deeply stupid and counter to how editors should work. Apple nearly invented drag and drop and then went full DOS on making FCPX a metadata data entry app. Gross.
Merrick Dupea says:

May 23, 2022 at 9:36 am

Anyone remember creating a bin of favorite customized effects in FCP7 with drag and drop from times line to bin, then being able to drag those tweaked effects back onto clips in any project you are working on? It was powerful and intuitive and 10x better than the current jumbled list.