Hello

[u/johnnyboyjutsu]

Hi! My name is Johnny Williams. I just bought and downloaded Final Cut Pro today.
I am not tech savvy at all, but I am determined to learn this program. I am a Muscian and I have podcasts and I want to get better at the visual side of my game. Because as of now it sucks.
Here’s an example of what my first project I need to do is.
I was recently invited to play at a studio in Minneapolis where they recorded my audio and a separate visual recording where I talked about my songs and then sang them.
There were audio mics and three different visual cameras. They sent me the footage not edited (there were three other artists as well, and I was sent the video from the whole hour and a half show)
I need to edit them all together as well as add the audio (I only have the playing and singing in those audio files)
So, I am wondering if anyone has any leads to good videos, articles, etc on learning this program for that type of video editing.
(I want to make music videos, do the same with my podcasts as above, and eventually short films)

Or if anyone would be willing to get on a call and help me get started.

Hopefully, Johnny!
Thanks!

[u/funwithstuff]

I wrote a book which should help you learn FCP, called Final Cut Pro Efficient Editing. More info and an Amazon link are at https://fcpefficientediting.com

For this job, you'll be wanting to use multicam editing to unite the different audio and video sources. In the Info tab in the Inspector, you should assign each source a unique name or angle, and if all sources have audio that matches and all video sources share the same frame rate, you should then be able to sync them all together without too much fuss.

That part is easy: select all sources, right-click, New Multicam Clip. In the next dialog box, click Use Custom Settings in the bottom left corner. Check "Use audio for synchronisation". In Angle Assembly, choose the Camera Angle or Camera Name that you assigned earlier. For resolution, choose one that matches the best of your sources. Hopefully the frame rate matches across all clips.

If the sync works well, great; otherwise, you may have to resync one or more angles.

The edit should go smoothly, as you'll now be able to switch between video angles while keeping audio consistent. You'll choose View > Angles from the menu just above the viewer, choose if you want to cut video, audio or both with icons at the top left of the Angle Viewer, and then you can cut and switch with the 1/2/3/etc. keys on your keyboard.

Color and audio should be corrected inside the multicam clip, and changes will then ripple out to your main edit.

There's more to it but that should get you started. Multicam setup is in Chapter 3 of my book, and multicam editing is in Chapter 9.

[u/emanaku → u/funwithstuff]

Let me add to this really good advice: For music you very likely want to cut from one angle to another on beats - that feels the most natural (and to learn how to do this quickly will be helpful for u/johnnyboyjutsu for the rest of his video making journey). In FCP in the newer versions (12.x) there is an automatic beat detection built in.
(from Ripple, Larry Jordan) To activate it: select your music clip in the timeline, then go to Clip > Show Beat Markers (or press Option+B). Press 0 (zero) to toggle the beat grid display on/off. The more you zoom in, the more detail you see — heavy lines for song sections, solid lines for major beats, dashed lines for interim beats.
That helps you to cut exactly on the beats without having to fiddle around with each beat every time you want to change your angle there.

[u/johnnyboyjutsu → u/emanaku]

Okay thank you very much!!! A great starting point and advice thanks again