This release brings three useful new features and some interface changes. Final Cut Pro can now also be accessed through Apple Creator Studio, an optional subscription. Anyone who’s already bought Final Cut Pro can continue to use it and expect to receive future updates for free, but there are additional titles, transitions and generators that only subscription customers will receive.
I’ve written a detailed review of the new features for ProVideo Coalition, here. As a brief summary:
Transcript Search lets you find part of a video where specific words have been said. It’s quick and effective, but unfortunately you can’t view or export the transcript directly.
Visual Search lets you find part of a video by describing its content. It works pretty well, and may mean you don’t need to spend as long creating keywords manually. You’ll probably still need to manually mark parts of clips as Favorites, though.
Beat Detection finds the major and minor beats in a music piece, allowing you to sync edits or moments in clips to those beats. Use ⌥B to analyze a clip’s beats first. The new Beat Grid can be turned on or off using the new button to the right of the central grey bar, or with the new shortcut “0” (zero), though the icon only appears when a clip has been analysed for beats in the current timeline. Beat Detection also makes it easy to repeat or remove part of a track to make it longer or shorter.
Note that in the current edition of the book I recommend mapping the “0” key to Silence, and that will change in the next edition.
User interface changes include some helpful new notices to guide new users toward creating and naming a library and a project. Additional pop-ups now also appear when an icon is seen for the first time.
You’ll also see a new plus-in-a-circle button to the left of the Import button in the top left corner — this helps you make a new Library, Event or Project. If you’re using the subscription version of FCP, you’ll see blue dots on subscription-only Titles, Generators and Transitions.
Everything else in the book is still current, and plans for an update are currently being discussed.