10 Things Why I Hate Final Cut Pro (but still use it)
I’ve worked in Adobe Premiere Pro 7 years (here’s article comparing two apps). I’m using Final Cut Pro during last 3 years. I have edited hundreds videos in FCP.
Sadly, but this is not the perfect editing app.
In this article I will tell 10 things why I hate Final Cut Pro.
Video version:
1. Audio Mixer
I hate audio mixing in FCP. In Premiere Pro you have two windows to use for audio mixing. For example, you can apply effects for audio track, not on separate audio files on the timeline.
It’s handy to use when you need to edit a lot of A-Rolls, or whey you have separate tracks with voices, sound effects and music.
Yes, Final Cut Pro don’t have typical tracks as in Premiere Pro. All your knowledge and feeling from final audio is based on just listening and monitoring Audio Meter (which shows volume of all sequence only, yeah). That’s all.
Steal audio mixer from Premiere Pro or (at least) from Logic Pro.
2. Apple Motion is useless
It’s powerful app, I know it. But you can’t achieve seamless work between Motion and Final Cut Pro.
Premiere Pro easily support other apps like Audition and After Effects when you can simple click on one button to continue work with the same project in other app.
You need to change something in After Effects? Change it -> get new results in Premiere Pro immediately.
If you make a mistake in Motion project or want to correct something you need to make a lot of unneeded actions: render this project again and import it in Final Cut Pro.
That’s why I opened Apple Motion year ago and never open it again.
3. Compressor is good but (again) useless
Compare Adobe Media Encoder where you have a lot of stuff and functions. For Media Encoder you can make a bunch of tutorials how to work with it.
For Apple Compressor you need to watch one 15-minutes video to learn everything about the app’s functions..
Integration of Compressor in Final Cut Pro is ridiculous. You need to create specific settings inside Compressor and add these settings in Final Cut Pro.
If you need to change this preset, you can’t do it in FCP. You need to open Compressor again to create another preset with adjusted setting.
Oh, speaking about settings…
4.Where are normal settings?
When I open “Preferences” and “Destinations” menus I have only one question – Apple, are you serious?
These are not settings, even Spotify that plays music and podcasts ONLY has more settings than professional app called Final Cut Pro.
Settings for professionals.
Again, Pro. For professionals. I don’t see difference between free iMovie and Final Cut Pro. And that’s sad because pro tools should think about nerds who want to adjust everything for yourself.
This leads to another problem.
5.You can’t hide useless s__t
If you open “Titles and Generators” tab you will see a lot of crappy templates. They are okay when you’re beginner editor who doesn’t have complex tasks.
You can use these strange ugly titles because you don’t have any other solution which you can find in my course for beginners, by the way.
But when you start working every single day and edit a lot of projects you understand that all this stuff is useless.
You can’t hide it in separate folder.
You can’t create “Master folder” with your favourite titles and generators.
Maximum that you can do – manually drag files from folders to folders using Finder.
Yes, you can set one transition and one title as a default but this is not a solution.
I want to boost my workflow and this mess doesn’t help me.
Pro editors remember every single transition and every style for titles. Even if they don’t use them 🤡
6. Open multiple projects simultaneously
In Premiere Pro this is default workflow when you have several opened timelines. For example, in one timeline you have a clean final project, in other you have raw footage which you copy in the final timeline.
Final Cut Pro has… nothing. It’s simply not comfortable to use and jump between opened projects and other multi-cam / compound clips. At the same time you have so much free space in this bar where name of the sequence located.
What the problem to make Premiere Pro type of layout?
One thing when you edit using small screen of 13-inch MacBook. But when you have ultra-wide monitor or multiple monitors – it’s annoying when you can’t do this simple operation using a lot of free space.
How I work on huge project using two monitors with multiple sequences.
7. Better keyframing
I have dedicated video about keyframing and this keyframes makes me cry. It’s uncomfortable piece of garbage.
To manage keyframes you need to open strange window where you can do only one thing – move these keyframes.
That’s all.
You can’t open curves to create nice and different animations, even copy and paste these frames.
In Premiere Pro you do this in two clicks.
8. Usage of Neural Cores
In one of previous updates they implemented motion tracking without using additional plugins. Premiere Pro has this feature years ago.
Recently Apple released Final Cut Pro with new features – automatic background removal and smart noise reduction.
But where other usage of these fancy Neural Cores which should improve our lives? I don’t see tools which use all power of machines powered my M-chips.
9. Automatic Speech Recognition
This is sequel of previous point but this is freaking important when you publish content with subtitles.
Years passed but process of making subtitles is same. You need to suffer listening all these voices and coping text layers to insert bunch of words.
Apple has huge database with voice recognition:
– Hey Siri, why Final Cut Pro is not evolving?
– Because Apples doesn’t make enough money on selling Final Cut Pro.
Right now you need to buy dedicated plugin for speech recognition.
So I’m using other solution – CapCut 😁
When I have to make YouTube Shorts / Instagram Reels, firstly I export videos from Final Cut Pro and use CapCut to create all subtitles automatically.
It takes less time when creating them by myself in FCP.
For my channel I’ve created 70+ videos with subtitles. More videos are created for my clients. So that’s a big problem for my workflow.
10. Final Cut Pro is for solo creators
You don’t have features to collaborate with someone and edit one project with ease.
Again, if you want to build a production company with several video editors, you will have a problem.
Apple creative ecosystem works terrible (return to 2nd and 3rd points) and cloud technologies didn’t reach Final Cut Pro.
Maybe, I don’t know a secret knowledge, but I saw tutorials how to build collaborative workspace in Premiere Pro using Adobe Creative Cloud.
Final Cut Pro is for sad and lonely creators 🫥
I have strong feeling that in Apple works ~5 people who develop Final Cut Pro. Maybe it’s all because of monetisation way when you buy once and don’t pay for subscription.
I think in Apple revenue report profit percentage from selling Final Cut Pro is around 0,0005%. One hour of selling AirPods gives Apple more money than Final Cut Pro for whole year.
After releasing version for iPad they changed monetization a little bit.
But still it’s not enough because for last 3 years I’ve got 3 new features. And pack of optimization updates...
I know that there is no perfect app, especially in video editing world.
I use Final Cut Pro almost every single day. And I don’t want to switch back on Adobe Premiere Pro.
I want to teach people how to take maximum out of Final Cut Pro.
So if you want to become better video editor, I recommend to check out my beginner-friendly course about editing in Final Cut Pro.
It’s the only one course that you need to become pro video editor:
Learn how to edit great videos for social media in Final Cut Pro in one day.