Everyone is going crazy with the fact the iPad Pro is getting some Pro apps.
Luckily you’ve got me to take a more realistic approach here and break it down so we don’t
get fooled by Apple.
Again.
It’s not all doom and gloom though, there are some positives here, depending on how
you use the iPad.
I will also discuss what this update means for the iPad Pro in general…
who Apple seem to be targeting this at… and whether or not you should care!
I mean not everyone is a music producer or a content creator right?
Speak for yourself mate!
Okay…fair enough!
I am Alex and I do down-to-earth tech videos
Yes, Apple have done it.
They announced a major software update to the iPad Pro, bringing Final Cut Pro and Logic
Pro to the iPad.
Interestingly though…
They did that about three weeks before the yearly developer event, WWDC….where they
normally announce...
you guessed it!
Software updates!
So this is raising a lot of questions which we will discuss in this video, but before
we get into that, let’s focus on what that means for the iPad Pro.
By the way, I don’t want this to be a rant and will try to provide my usual balance view
here.
On the surface, Apple has done what many people, including myself…have been asking for.
For many years!
I’ve done countless videos complaining about the iPad Pro specifically...and the fact that
they were giving us all of this power, a new M chip and more memory...
and what the heck for?
So in a way… they have listened right?
We now finally have access to Pro apps on the iPad.
And I for one, hope this is just the beginning.
What this means for the iPad Pro is that it is finally making more sense for some creators
to rely on this tablet… for more advanced work.
I wouldn’t go as far as saying…Professionals, because it’s a bit early still but from
what I can tell right now, it looks a bit...
Basic.
Especially Final Cut Pro
And don’t fret...
I will discuss what this means for you, if you are NOT a content creator as well, but
before we get into that let’s talk about the details of the update.
AND THERE ARE TWO MAJOR GOTCHAS.
Well, let’s call it…
A Word of caution!!
Well two of them.
The first detail is kinda of an elephant in the room.
Yes I used that term so I could use that picture again.
Eivind that is for you, mate.
Why is this an elephant in the room?
I think this is the first move from Apple, towards turning Final Cut Pro in general,
on the Mac into subscription model as well.
I came from Adobe Premiere Pro, and Iactually enjoyed the fact that Final Cut Pro on the
Mac is a one-off cost.
To a lot of people that is the reason they stick with Final Cut instead of Adobe for
instance.
But on the other hand, for the iPad it’s only $4.99 per month or $50 bucks a year which
to be fair is quite reasonable, especially if you are making money from your content.
So right now, it;s not a problem.
But I’d be careful and maybe wait until after WWDC in June before fully committing
to Final Cut in general.
Personally I don’t like the sound of this because I am pretty sure the Final Cut Pro
on the Mac would not be just $4.99, right?.
So DaVinci Resolve, maybe that’s my next move.
The second WORD OF CAUTION… is storage.
Apple will not allow you to use an external drive for the footage.
Which tells me they’re kind of expecting you to use the iPad or the iPhone as the cameras.
And use the iPad storage for your videos.
Don’t know many creators out there who would be able to work with this in the long run...
So it’s a strange move from Apple.
Especially knowing that there are other options out there that allow you to use external drives!
Sure you can move files from a camera to the iPad, but this video here for example, took
about 120GB of storage.
If I only use the iPad, and assuming I try 4K videos, we are talking about 1GB for every
2 minutes of video, recording with the iPad.
Which is not a lot, but when you record hundreds of clips...
This could become not only a STORAGE nightmare, but a file management nightmare.
whether you are recorging with the iPad or not, it doesn't matter.
I mean, have you tried copying, moving, deleting files on the iPad?
Without a 3rd party app, it’s virtually impossible to do it.
Anyway, that’s another video...
But the point is, I don’t mess around with the video quality when it comes to videos
for you, you know?…
So I am recording 10bit 4:2:2 which in the highest possible in my setup here.
By the time I add some b-roll footage, like the one you're watching right now, yeah some
of my videos can take up to half a terabyte of storage if not more.
So not being able to use external storage for me, is a bummer.Almost like, a non-starter.
Especially when we know that other software like Lumafusion is able to support that.
I think.Yep, it does!
Check this out, If you to to Preferences (in Lumafusion) you can see it here.
Naturally…
the cynic in me kicks in at this point...
I think Apple will just want you to buy a big boy iPad Pro with lots of storage.
With a new iPad Pro looming, with a bigger 14 inch display...
This is starting to make sense from an Apple sales’ perspective.
So, who is this update for?
Honestly, this can be a really exciting update for creators who are just starting out.
This is me just trying to be balanced here, and tryiong to put myself in the shoes of
someone who never used Final Cut Pro (on the Mac)
I can totally imagine if you have an iPad Pro and you’re not really doing much with
it right now…
Final Cut Pro could give the iPad a new life.
This could get you into content creation, for an extra 5 bucks a month.
And that’s great, I honestly do!
Sure there are limitations which I will highlight shortly, but I can’t ignore these positives.
For the right sort of content and for creators who are seeing this as an additional tool
to their arsenal as well, this COULD be great!
For example Live drawing, right?
It seems to be something that I’d love to use.
I am showing you here some rough examples of how I can see myself using it...
You know, the thing with content creation for me is about being able to be ourselves
and being unique...
So being able to draw on the video, AND animate it, feels like a great way again… to bring
out what is unique about ourselves.
The Apple Pencil gestures and features will definitely come to life here as well, but
even without the pencil, it looks very intuitive, very Apple you could even say.
But let me level with you.. this is where the positives kind of end…
If you used Final Cut Pro for a long time, you’re gonna hate this app the first time
you use it.
I tried to look past it, and I try to remain balanced when I was using the app and not
criticise it until I really gave it a go.
I even went back and re-ordered the same iPad I had returned a few months ago, to really
give Apple the benefit of the doubt.
But I personally just couldn’t get on with it.
Let me explain what I think it’s going on.
I think this is because our brain is expecting Final Cut Pro and you can see some resemblance
when you start using it…
But you quickly realise there are many things that are just not there or are just... not
as easy to use.
There’s also some bugs, or at least I hope these are bugs.
Something you do after you cut your video is go over it and apply some sound and visual
effects to keep that video nice and engaging.
One of things I noticed is that, it doesn’t matter what effect you are trying to apply,
the frame gets skipped forward so you are only seeing the effect on a reference that
may not be what you wanted.
For a lot of cases where the footage looks similar, this won’t matter.
But if you have dozens of clips and you’re trying to keep those clips looking consistent...
this could be a problem.
Keyboard shortcuts don’t work.
Why?
Split View is not supported.
When I am editing I find it really useful to have another window open, it could be my
script, it could be a browser window.
Not all the time, but it would be useful.
I thought, it’s ok..
I will just go into settings and customise it.
I could end the video here to be honest, but
I thought.
Let me persevere.
Let me put myself in the shoes of someone who never used Final Cut Pro.
They have this new Scene removal mask which sounded awesome from the ads.
Again, whether you are just starting out or not… you might have limited space, they’ve
got this scene removal mask which lets you remove the background and boom, you’ve got
yourself into any scene, without green screen.
Sounds awesome right?
Well, it wasn’t perfect I managed to get my background removed and put some cool background
in the footage.
So really, two layers of footage and a bit of colour correction.
When you play it back though…
It feels like I am editing on a Pentium III machine, remember those?
It’s just not good enough for me.
I am pretty sure if I used simple footage, it would be ok.
As someone who edits video pretty much every single day, this is not for me.
It’s too limited for me.
But let me know if you’d like to see a video where I share the optimal settings for video.
Because I appreciate you may not care about 10bit 4:2:2 in 30 or 60 fps.
But you might be ok with 1080p or 4K in a friendlier format.
Will ever I use it?
I am not sure right now.
There are some big deal breakers here.
As you can see I did give this a real go…
But if you can go past those limitations I mentioned…
there’s couple more limitations that you should be aware of.
The first one is the ability to share projects between the Mac and the iPad
For example, you can’t start a project on the Mac and finish it on the iPad.
That is a major no no for me.
This could change in future, but out of the gates…
It’s not gonna work for me.
I would have loved to be able to export my project from the Mac, or even if it was just
a section of the edit..
And then, maybe later…
go to a cafe or whatever and edit that section on the iPad… using the Pencil to add some
hand drawing animations, that would have been awesome, right?
Or perhaps you’re in the office, and you want to go home, export the project to a hard
drive and edit it on the iPad later from the couch, whilst sipping a Pina Colada or something.
As I said on the storage section…
That is another blow that makes this pretty useless for me.
There is another gotcha but before I forget, this YouTube business is extremely hard and
getting the channel discovered is the hardest part of this.
But you can really help me very easily, by just giving this video a thumbs up, commenting
on it, I still try to respond to every single comment… or sharing this video with someone.
All of that really helps.
And after this video, take a look around, and if you like my stuff it would be awesome
if you subscribed.
I’m here at least once a week with a new, down-to-earth tech video for you.
Right, the next gotcha that I mentioned, is about plug-ins.
Good news is that this is coming.
Soon.
But for me it’s a bit risky to rely on that.
Because I don’t know what they mean by “soon” and also, I don’t know if the companies
I use will be the ones they support.
If you read the fine print, it says they will support MOTIONVFX.
All the effects that you see on this video, are MOTIONVFX.
So I am hopeful, because they are awesome.
I have a discount code by the way!
But we’ve been here before.
I don’t know if they will support all of them or even if we need to update the plug-ins
or pay extra…
You know, some of these are really expensive too so I wouldn’t assume this “coming
soon” means it will come at no additional cost.
Oh by the way, as you can imagine I am heavy user of video editing software and Final Cut
is what I actually use on a daily basis.
So naturally, I did focus on that and won’t really talk about Logic Pro here…
I only used Logic a few times and I don’t consider myself a heavy user of it.
But a lot of the points I raise here will apply to both Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro.
But the good news for Logic Pro users is that you can move back and forth between the Mac
and the iPad.
And you can also export your LOGIC music tracks
to Final Cut on the iPad.
So that could be very useful.
For Logic that’s amazing, and if that workflow between Logic and Final Cut on the iPad is
something you see yourself doing, this could be such a time saver for you!
I know this is probably not what you wanted to hear.
But it’s experience, I can’t sugar coat it.
It’s pretty terrible.
If none of these issues I raised here apply to you, and you’re starting out with very
simple footage, then the next question you might have is…
Do I need the latest iPad Pro for this?
I share my thoughts on the iPad in general on this video here, but hear me out…
And here is where my previous experience with Apple, and more specifically Apple Marketing…
has taught me a few things.
If Final Cut Pro or Logic Pro is something you really want on the iPad, your first reaction
might be…
Oh gosh, I need the latest M2 iPad Pro, completely maxed out, you know… so I can use this.
Realistically, I would say, wait a few weeks, watch a few reviews.
I will be doing some comparisons myself here on the channel, but don’t jump to the latest
iPad Pro too soon, just because Apple Marketing tells you to.
I’ve tested this on the M1 and the M2 iPad Pros here, and I can tell you… without all
the fluffiness that you might get on some of these other channels..
Oh it’s so pretty…It’s pink.
Do me a favour…
Right…
Apple are the masters at making you feel like your device which is only…1 or two years
old is already outdated.
In my comparison between M1 and M2 iPad Pro there really wasn’t much in between them.
And the same was true with Final Cut Pro.
But there is a chance that the M2 will be much better for rendering, because of the
Media engine on the M2 chip.
I wasn’t gonna bother.
But then I thought… that’s lazy content.
So let’s render the same video on the M1 and M2 and see how they perform.
So as you can see, the difference is not that much between the M1 and M2.
But here is another great reason not to jump too soon:
Apple could be planning a for new iPad Pro.
With a bigger screen, and hopefully with a few updates to make the software better…
And more “Pro” where using Final Cut and Logic would make even more sense!
Like a 14” inch device?
That can allow you to multitask.
Well, that’s a story for another video.
See you soon