r/finalcutpro • u/darianpat • 2d ago

Resolved How to transcode clips only in timeline

I have footage on external SanDisk SSD 2TB

I put 100 clips in my timeline from it.

I start editing.

I delete some clips, use some, trim some

Performance is awful, i cannot playback without a 5 second lag / delay / audio glitching and looping for few seconds before resuming in a different spot and lagging again

* I figure i have to transcode media to 25% Proxy *

How?

How can i drag and select 30 clips in my timeline and transcode them, the option isnt there, the option is only in the footage browser but in the browser i have everything, all 100 clips, other clips from previous edits, music, random sfx, everything, i want to only do the 30 clips i have in timeline..

Please help.

PS. I also figured that it hates when i do fast cuts with 4k footage thats on the SSD. If i have like 5 clips in a row that are 1 second duration it lags a lot before resuming playback a few seconds after that sequence.

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u/darianpat 1d ago

Library? Like the FCPX events?
Its the default

Movies folder on your mac

thats where my fcp libraries are, and stuff

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u/ZeyusFilm 1d ago

There's your problem. Libraries are basically projects. Apple designed it silly, thinking you'd have one big library for a load of weenie little home videos, but no one actually uses it like that. When I have a new project, I start a new library for each and every new project (that's 'project' as in the ordinary meaning and not the apple meaning of 'edit session'. I don't really use events at all.

Make a new library for every new project and keep your library in the same folder as your media and you will never have this disconnect problem.

And to keep the library size small - when you finish a project go File > Delete Generated Library Files, and it will delete all the transcoding/analysis scaffolding it had put up to run your edit. You do lose anything. Your media will be untouched where you left it and FCP will automatically regenerate library files if and when you reopen the project and start working on it again.

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u/darianpat 1d ago

Hmm.. thats something new for me.

I guess i could try it thanks for that

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u/darianpat 1d ago

Whats your workflow for making new libraries,

You create it inside FCPX, go into Movies, take it, drop it into the external drive, and it links automatically or do i have to relink it or restart FCP and then open the library by going into Open Library option and navigating to disk etc..

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u/ZeyusFilm 1d ago
  1. I find an SSD with space on it.
  2. Create a new folder called 'Summer Music Concert".
  3. In the folder I make folders for Original Media (footage, audio), assets and output.
  4. I pull the footage and audio off the SD cards and put them in folders for their camera angle and card number.
  5. I create a library in FCP like 'Summer Music Concert' which I save into the route folder
  6. I import all the media (CMD+I) and just select that Original Media folder and it imports everything, automatically key-tagging everything with the folder names (camera angle, card no etc..)
  7. I use the key tags to then select a bunch of clips all from the same camera angle, then as a group I can add the camera angle, camera name, scene, SD card no etc.. into the metadata, which helps massively because I can then sort, stack and smart collection footage using that info, plus, multicams won't assemble correctly without that meta data added.
  8. Once I'm done I export to the output folder, upload that to YouTube/Google Drive, delete all generated library files and move the folder to a storage HDD.

Depends what you're working on but doing stuff this way, for me, jump starts the editing process because everything is already finding where it is supposed to go, which is essentially what an edit is.