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 →

Joe Langenfeld says:

May 23, 2022 at 1:46 pm

1. I’d like to use FCP to do color correction, but the missing function for me is sync groups…i.e., changing one shot in a group changes all of them, similar to Color Finale
2. Add back the “reverse match frame” popular in Avid and FCP7.
3. I get a lot of rough cuts from Avid users, so how about being able to import an AAF?
4. I noticed M1 speed tests that indicated 2x faster mpeg encoding in Adobe? WTF? gotta fix that.

Someone previously mentioned improving integration of all of Apple’s post products, similar to what Resolve does…why not?
Gayle C. says:

May 23, 2022 at 1:53 pm

Yup, I remember! Miss that!
Gayle C. says:

May 23, 2022 at 2:08 pm

Yes, I would agree with that change in order, Dan. I always feel sad when I’m cutting on Premiere wishing I had some of its features in Final Cut, like talk to text for captions. It’s an amazing tool that’s incredibly easy to use and gets the job done lickity split. I also agree with Tom, Peter, Stacey and others’ suggestions. There needs to be some attention paid to this.
David Peterson says:

May 23, 2022 at 2:25 pm

You can kind of achieve that by hitting “Save Effects Preset” in the inspector, and selecting which effects you want. It does it globally though, not for the current library/project.
Mitch Daniels says:

May 23, 2022 at 3:23 pm

I agree with the comment of about being able burn DVDs again. The cloud may be great; but, my clients want dvds.
Tangier Clarke says:

May 23, 2022 at 4:00 pm

Wait. I forgot to include my page 2 of ongoing wants. Just kidding. I couldn’t resist putting it here since the industry knows who you are Larry and maybe, just maybe there will be some eyeballs on this that can make actionable decisions. This is from years of using FCP X / FCP as my primary editor in various types of productions and workflows.
Tangier Clarke says:

May 23, 2022 at 4:02 pm

For some projects I could see the benefit of organizing content perhaps, but just the small size of an iPad really hampers productivity for me. I try using Luma Fusion here and there, but it’s a tough sell. I do know editors who would love to be on a beach or somewhere outside on an iPad while editing.
Clayton Moore says:

May 23, 2022 at 4:51 pm

Yep
Tony mark says:

May 23, 2022 at 5:12 pm

I’d like to see better hardware support. Mackie motorized mixers in fcpx would be great. I sometime like to mix audio without having to send to logic. Better cataloging of graphics, sound fxs, and music… not having to be rely on iPhoto and iTunes. Better sharing of projects when working with other editors. Scrolling timeline when playing a project.
Caesar Darias says:

May 23, 2022 at 5:23 pm

I agree with your first comment about re-attaching the audio. You cannot even undo that move. Very annoying.