Apple Upgrades Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro, Motion, Compressor
Apr 17, 2007 12:02 PM
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This Month in Mix
At NAB, Apple announced major upgrades of its Final Cut Pro Suite, including Soundtrack Pro 2. The new Final Cut Studio 2 production bundle includes Final Cut Pro 6, which introduces Apple's ProRes 422 format for uncompressed HD quality at SD file sizes; Motion 3's intuitive 3-D environment; Compressor 3 batch encoding; DVD Studio Pro 4.2 for SD/HD DVD authoring; and Soundtrack Pro 2, with new tools for multitrack editing, surround mixing and conforming sound to picture. Final Cut Studio 2 also introduces "Color," a pro color grading and finishing application.
Extended details about Final Cut Studio 2 are available on Apple's Website, but Mix readers will be most interested in the revamped Soundtrack Pro 2, audio editing/mixing/processing app, now equipped with powerful new multitrack editing and recording tools and a streamlined interface. It also debuts a clever spotting display that lets editors precisely align effects and dialog with picture. Advanced take-management tools enable editors to quickly combine pieces of the best takes to craft seamless performances. A new Conform tool allows users to synchronize and track changes between picture and sound editorial.
Stereo and surround mixing tools enable users to create 5.1 and stereo mixes in the same project. The bundle also comes with a royalty-free library of more than 5,000 pro Foley and sound effects, and some 1,000 surround SFX and multichannel music tracks. Soundtrack Pro 2 has more than 50 audio effect plug-ins—many in true surround, including the Space Designer convolution reverb. Among its other surround enhancementsare: discrete 5.1 mixing, busing, routing and an innovative surround panner for dynamically moving sounds within the surround field.
System requirements for Final Cut Studio 2 are a Mac computer with a 1.25GHz or faster G4/G5/Intel Core Duo/Intel Xeon processor; OS 10.4.9 or later; and 1 GB of RAM (a minimum of 2GB or 4GB RAM recommended when using HD or uncompressed SD sources).
Final Cut Studio 2 will be available in May at a MSRP of $1,299 (U.S.). Registered users of the current version of Final Cut Studio can upgrade for $499, and registered users from any previous version of Final Cut Pro can upgrade for $699. More info on Final Cut Studio 2 can be found at www.apple.com/finalcutstudio.
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