Assembling Your 3rd Party Tool Belt: Two Key Questions

It's been well documented how many features were missing when FCPX was initially released. Apple has done a decent job of adding many features back that editors clamored for before they would remotely consider using X.

But Apple has still left many holes it expects third party developers to fill. It's possible Apple will eventually replace or modify features that editors live by in broadcast or feature environments. There's no telling really. I have a hunch that, from here forward, Apple will continue to let developers take on the features that either a) Apple still deems part of the "old workflow" or b) that Apple would like to have us think FCPX can take care of itself (a good example of this is color correction. FCPX's color correction tools aren't bad, but I wouldn't necessarily grade a feature with them).

Before launching into a feature film with X, we needed to determine we could take our edit to the next two stages of the post-production workflow: Export for a professional color correct and export our sound to Avid Pro Tools for a professional sound mix.

The first question was answered fairly quickly: Da Vinci Resolve can import FCPX's new XML file format natively. I've read in forums that there are have been a few issues that have come up for folks that have utilized this workflow, but that overall its fairly smooth.

Less straightforward is how to get your sound to Pro Tools. In FCP7, the editor would (ideally) organize the soundscape by placing different sound elements in designated track assignments. Then you would export directly out of FCP7 to OMF. Sometimes if a feature's soundscape is complex, it would require several, well-labeled OMFs to get the job done.

You can't export OMFs out of FCPX. Not without a little help.


X2Pro by Marguis Broadcast appears to be the leading third party application that will get your sound out of FCPX and into Pro Tools. It is a program that translates FCPX's trackless soundscape to Avid Pro Tools' track-based environment. In its own words:

Using the enhanced metadata in XML 1.1 from Final Cut Pro X, X2Pro provides a high fidelity conversion to a Pro Tools session, with planned support for audio gain and key frames.

Taking advantage of the innovative metadata-based organizing features in Final Cut Pro X, unlimited numbers of audio Roles in Final Cut Pro X are converted into Pro Tools tracks, allowing sound designers and mixers to start working immediately.

This was a huge question when editors first attempted to use and understand the Magnetic Timeline. Many (myself included) were so flummoxed and disheartened by the notion that there was no support for a Pro Tools workflow that this was one of the reasons they abandoned any notion of taking FCPX seriously.

As it turns out, the tight lipped Apple did have a workflow in mind even though it was an available feature upon release. But as with most of the other controversial changes to the editing workflow most editors are familiar with, Apple found a different approach to exporting sound. This approach was another major overhaul that would require FCP editors to unlearn how they've done things in the past.

In one of its updates, Apple introduced Roles. Instead of assigning sound elements to a given track, you instead assign it a Role. Some Roles, like music, are assigned automatically by FCPX. Other Roles, like effects, you might have to assign yourself. And you can create sub-categories called Sub-Roles. More on Roles in future posts, but for those who like to study ahead:

So X2Pro reads the Roles you've created and assigns them to tracks in Pro Tools. That's it in a nutshell. Just as with the workflow to DaVinci Resolve, I've read about bumps in the workflow, especially on large projects. But for the most part it appears to be a viable option to get your movie into post sound.

This is one of those features I question whether Apple will actually address. They may expect that the majority of editors who use X over the next decade will do all their mixing right in the magnetic timeline. For those who want to stick to the tried and true Pro Tools workflow, X2Pro seems to be working so well Apple may decide to leave the issue alone.

X2Pro is available at two price points: $59.99 for a "Lite" version; $149.99 for a "Pro" version.

And so begins our tally of how much an "FCPX suite" will cost since Apple has left many features to third party developers. I'll continue this tally in the next post. Once you factor in what it costs for third party apps, will a modern Final Cut Pro suite end up costing as much as Final Cut Studio did back in the day?