New Stuff - Cool Stuff
June 30, 2014
In This Issue
Become a Member
All Kinds of Cool Stuff
Apple Updates Final Cut
FCP X: What's New In Media Management?
What is ProRes 4444 XQ?
Audition (2014): New Features
Product Review: OWC ThunderBay 4 RAID
FCP X: Changing the Audio Pan
FCP X: Complete!
Top 3 Lists
Compressor 4.1 Training
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WELCOME BACK!

Larry Jordan Oh. My. Goodness. What a week! Just as I return from Seattle, immersed in learning all the new features in Adobe's latest releases, Apple updates Final Cut, Motion and Compressor!  My in-box exploded. So, today, I've got a ton of new articles and goodies for you.

(By the way, I had a great time in Seattle presenting Final Cut Pro X training live on CreativeLIVE. I've always liked live TV and this reminded me of how TV used to be.   Learn more about my training here.)

Now, I'm back in the studio, updating our video-based Final Cut Pro training which will be released shortly. Also, our webinars resume next week with a look at the new features in both Premiere and Audition. (I'll have more details on both of these updates in next week's newsletter.)

This week, I have lots of Short Notes for you, an interesting feature interview from The Buzz, and details on Apple's newest codec: ProRes 4444 XQ.

OH! And an in-depth product review of one of the first Thunderbolt 2 RAIDs on the market - the OWC ThunderBay 4. (Something new I did in this review is try to break the unit; wait till you read the results.)

APPLE STOPS DEVELOPMENT OF APERTURE

Caution or warning bullet Jim Dalrymple of The Loop reported on Friday that Apple is discontinuing development of Aperture: www.loopinsight.com/2014/06/27/apple-stops-development-of-aperture/

Apple's statement: "With the introduction of the new Photos app and iCloud Photo Library, enabling you to safely store all of your photos in iCloud and access them from anywhere, there will be no new development of Aperture," said Apple in a statement provided to The Loop. "When Photos for OS X ships next year, users will be able to migrate their existing Aperture libraries to Photos for OS X."

However, at the same time, Apple reinforced  that they are continuing support and development of Final Cut Pro X and Logic Pro.  As witnessed by the next story.

APPLE UPDATES FINAL CUT PRO X, MOTION, AND COMPRESSOR

  

Generic newsletter bullet At the same time that Apple announced the demise of Aperture they also updated Final Cut Pro X to 10.1.2, Motion (5.1.1) and Compressor (4.1.2). Plus, they introduced a new member of the ProRes family: ProRes 4444 XQ.

Here's an article that highlights the upgrade.

Here's an article that explains ProRes 4444 XQ.

The new updates from Apple extend many of the features in FCP X, rather than replace them. I have more on all of this in the Articles section below.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Never upgrade software in the middle of a project - unless that project doesn't work. Always finish your project, THEN upgrade. Following this simple procedure will decrease your stress.

SHORT NOTES

Allyn Wilkinson, a long-time reader, sent this:

"I've just spent a frustrating morning trying to get some XML to validate and now that I know the "problem" I thought I'd let other folks who might edit XML know too.  Apple has decided, on the OS level, that "curly quotes" will be the default *even* if you select plain text in TextEdit!  You need to turn this off from System Preferences > Keyboard but the default is for curly quotes - system wide."

Small notes bullet Peter Smith writes:

We've created an awesome new interactive mind-map featuring the 22 Best Open-Source desktop apps for Music & Video editing with links to downloads and reviews. I thought your readers might like to see this.

Link:  www.soundstagestudio.com/open-source-apps/

Marlene asked if there was an easy way to create grids in Final Cut Pro X. Which immediately reminded me of a series of free utilities from Digital Heaven. These folks do good work on both their free and paid utilities.

Check out their grid tool here:
www.digital-heaven.co.uk/dh_gridx

Small notes bullet Todd Kuhns writes:

You may already know this, but I just discovered that I can import MPEG-2 files directly into the FCP X Timeline just by changing the file extension to MOD. I did some basic editing to it and the project came out great - even after export.

Larry: I asked Todd if he meant "MOV," rather than "MOD."

Todd replied: It was MOD. Google tells me it's used on some digital camcorders, such as the JVC Everio, the Canon FS100 and the Panasonic D-Snap. I hadn't heard of it either, but it sure works for me and is turning out to be rather convenient.

Rick Gennaro was playing with his Zoom and discovered a new recording feature. (I've paraphrased some of what he wrote:)

"The Zoom H2N digital audio recorder has a feature called "M/S Record." Mid-size recording is kind of cool...it uses three microphones (the unit has 5 mics total) with one facing front, and the other two at 90 degrees to the sides to pick up ambient sound to give a more open feeling to an interview or recording. This can be adjusted to your liking either in the unit, or (preferably) in post via the MS (mid-side) decoder.

"My interest in this rekindled after your example of off-camera sound, deleting the camera sound, and then adding in bird tweets and wind to give the idea that you were outside doing your recording.  I used the mid-side for a recording and liked the openness of the ambient sounds.

"Mid-side comes from audio guys who used several microphones in a more elaborate set-up, but the H2n can record this easily because of it's microphone array......

"There is an MS decoder that can be downloaded from the Zoom page, and it may work in Audition directly if it can read VST, or it may already be there."

Larry replies: Thanks for the info. There is not an M/S decoder for FCP X that I was able to quickly find in a Google search. The Zoom download only supports up to OS X 10.7, which rules out FCP X.  However, a few years ago, I wrote about working with M/S mics. For those that like to play with their audio, read this:

www.larryjordan.biz/ms-audio-mikes-in-final-cut-pro/ 
 
NEW WEBINARS
Our weekly webinars return next week with three new titles: 
  • July 9: New Features in Adobe Premiere Pro and Audition CC
  • July 23: New Features in Apple Final Cut Pro X  
  • July 30: Photoshop for Video
  • Aug. 6: New Plug-ins for Final Cut Pro X
I'm sorry we keep moving the Photoshop webinar, but, covering new features in both Premiere and Final Cut Pro takes precedence. And I didn't want to wait until August to talk about Audition, so I moved the new features in Audition into the Premiere webinar.

There is a lot of good stuff to talk about. We are currently updating the webinar page, but, over the next day or two, visit here to learn more about each session: http://www.larryjordan.biz/webinars/

Remember, live webinars are always free. Register today! 

FEATURED BUZZ INTERVIEW: JIM JACHETTA

Buzz newsletter bullet The featured interview this week on the Digital Production Buzz is Jim Jachetta, the co-founder and CEO of VidOvation, which is a company that specializes in moving video from Point A to Point B.

This is an interesting discussion about the challenges of moving, monitoring and securing video feeds.

Listen to Jim's interview here.

Listen to the entire program here.

We've added text transcripts for each show courtesy of Take1.tv. Read this week's transcript here.

(By the way, Philip Bloom returns to the show this week with Part 2 of his London interview: Picking the Best 4K Camera.)

Buzz website: www.digitalproductionbuzz.com
 
SIX NEW ARTICLES THIS WEEK!

Generic newsletter bullet I have six new articles on a WIDE range of subjects: FCP X, Audition, RAIDs, audio and codecs. As always, feel free to share your comments, I always love hearing from you.

Plus, as always, I've updated our Top 3 Lists. Enjoy your week and chat with you next Monday.
ARTICLE: APPLE UPDATES FINAL CUT PRO X 
And Motion, and Compressor 
 
On Friday, Apple released updates to Final Cut Pro X, Motion and Compressor.

This article is a summary of all the new features.

ARTICLE: FINAL CUT PRO X (v.10.1.2)  
What's New in Media Management? 
 
One of the big changes in the latest release is media management.

Things aren't different, just... extended.

In this illustrated tutorial, I show the new features and explain how they work. Plus, I cover a few media management features from the earlier version that you may not know where there.

ARTICLE: PRORES
What is ProRes 4444 XQ?  
 
New with this release of Final Cut Pro X is a new member of the ProRes family: ProRes 4444 XQ.

This article explains what it is, how big it is and what it should be used for.

ARTICLE: ADOBE AUDITION CC (2014)
New Features 
 
Apple software isn't the only one with new releases. Last week, Adobe updated all their Creative Cloud software - more than 14 packages!

In this illustrated tour, I showcase the new features in Adobe Audition CC, with a special emphasis on the changes to multitrack editing.

PRODUCT REVIEW
OWC ThunderBay 4 RAID  
 
Storage is essential to video editing. More specifically, high-speed, high-capacity, and high-performance storage.

Finally, after what seems like YEARS of waiting, we are starting to see Thunderbolt 2 RAID 5 systems appear on the market. One of the first is from OWC: the ThunderBay 4 RAID.

In this comprehensive review, you'll learn what this new device is, how well it works, what tasks its good for and what happens when something breaks; like when I pull a drive when the system is running at full-tilt?

ARTICLE: FINAL CUT PRO X
Changing the Audio Pan 
 
Audio pan changes the placement of a sound relative to the left and right speakers.

It isn't hard to do, but it certainly isn't obvious. So, in this article, I wanted to explain how this works.

While I wrote this using the 10.1.1 version of Final Cut, the process is the same for the newest version as well. 

Plus, I show how to change the pan of both stereo and multichannel clips.

ALL-NEW!! 
FINAL CUT PRO X 10.1: COMPLETE 
              
This title contains everything you need to learn Apple's
Final Cut Pro X v.10.1!
 
This title includes both:

* FCP X: Workflow & Editing

* FCP X: Effects

 

All in one place, for one great price!

 


Start with initial setup and media management to editing, effects, and output, there's no finer training on the market.

* Need to get started in a hurry? We condensed everything you need into one chapter.

* Need to learn just the new features? We've got you covered.

* Need in-depth training on everything you need to know to become a video editing pro? Start at the beginning and work your way to the end.

You'll be amazed at how much you learn!

THIS TRAINING IS STILL RELEVANT FOR THE 10.1.2 RELEASE. We are preparing an update that will be out shortly.

Over 200 movies, more than 22 hours of training! Each movie is laser-focused to get you the information you need exactly when you need it. (The average movie length is about seven minutes.)

One title - everything you need - available right now.

TOP THREE + 1 LISTS 
   
Here are the most popular articles, webinars, and audio interviews for the past seven days across all my websites.

Articles

We expanded this list to the Top 4 to add variety:
For an index of all our articles, visit here.

 

Webinars

This list is based on the webinars watched most often by our monthly subscribers. For a list of all our webinars, visit here.

 

Digital Production Buzz Audio Interviews

 

 

For a list of all Buzz audio interviews, click here. 

BRAND-NEW TRAINING
Learn Apple Compressor 4.1
   
With the release of Final Cut Pro X v10.1, Apple also updated Compressor to version 4.1 An all new interface, improved compression settings and better monitoring. So much changed, in fact, that we went back and re-recorded all our training for the new version.
  • Better organized
  • More informative
  • Tighter focus on making your images look great.
These days, everything we do ends up on the web.
Which means that if we don't know how to compress our video to make it look good, all our work during production and post is wasted.

In this in-depth video training, Larry Jordan shows you how to make the most of Apple Compressor 4.1.

Whether you are a new or experienced, this training will help you make your media look and sound great!
We are committed to providing the highest quality training at the lowest possible price and distributing it as widely as possible.

From subscriptions to individual downloads to free techniques and articles -- we've got your back.  And there's lots more to come.

Thanks!

Larry Jordan
Larry Jordan & Associates
P.S. I always love hearing from you. Feel free to write.