If you edit a lot of videos,
and you want to streamline and speed up your editing process,
using a dedicated controller can make your life a lot easier.
There’s quite a few out there you can use with Final Cut Pro,
and the one I’ve been using quite a bit lately,
is the Loupedeck CT editing console.
Today, I’m going to show you how I set mine up,
how I use it with Final Cut Pro,
and how I supercharged it with with the amazing,
free Final Cut Pro plugin, Command Post.
First, let’s take a look at the Loupedeck CT Editing Console.
This controller includes a main scroll wheel with a touch interface inside,
6 hard buttons on either side,
and another 8 buttons right above it, all within easy reach.
At the top, you get 6 more dials,
which are also buttons you can press down,
and 12 virtual touch buttons between the dials.
Everything except for a couple hard buttons is fully customizable,
so you can assign specific functions to each button to fit your workflow.
In this video, I will be focusing on using the Loupedeck CT with Final Cut Pro,
but this controller can be also used with a bunch of other apps
like Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Lightroom, DaVinci resolve
and much more.
To use the Loupedeck CT Editing Console,
you first need to download and install the Loupedeck software.
This runs the controller,
and this is also where you set up and customize all the buttons and dials.
Once the Loupedeck software is installed,
to make the most of it, we need to install CommandPost.
Click on the Marketplace button,
select plugins and find CommandPost.
Click Learn More, and download and install this plugin.
What CommandPost does,
is it adds a number of very useful features to Final Cut Pro,
including a scrolling timeline,
movable markers,
watch folders, clipboard history and much more.
I’ll add a few links in the video description
to where you can learn more about CommandPost,
but trust me, once you try it, you’ll love it.
And the best part, is it’s completely free.
After installing CommandPost,
click on its icon in the menu bar,
go to Control Surfaces,
and select Loupedeck Plugin.
In the next window,
check the Enable Loupedeck Plugin box,
and close the settings window.
Next, back in the Loupedeck software,
go back to Marketplace,
select the Profiles tab,
scroll down and find Final Cut Pro with CommandPost.
Download and install this profile.
This profile comes with there sets of default controls for Final Cut Pro,
one for Editing,
one for Color,
and one for Audio.
Click on any of the buttons to see what’s action is assigned to them.
This is a good start, but you can personalize them even more
and customize them to fit your workflow.
Let’s start with the main scroll wheel.
By default, the main scroll wheel is used to move your playhead,
with the touch interface inside used as a play/pause button.
If you click on this wheel in the software,
you can change it to the way you want it to behave.
Click on the three dots under the scroll wheel,
and add a new page.
What I like to do, is have it set up for three vertical button options.
To assign these buttons,
go to the sidebar on the right hand side,
select the Final Cut Pro controls,
and use the search bar at the top to find what you need.
I’ll set up the top button to navigate 1 frame at a time,
so I’ll just search for frame,
grab the Navigate 1 frame setting,
and drag and drop it over the top button.
I’ll set the middle button to navigate 10 frames,
and the bottom button to navigate between edits.
I’ll also move this up to the top to make it my default setting.
So now, in Final Cut Pro, if I want precision navigation,
I just tap the Navigate 1 Frame,
and use the scroll wheel to move my playhead.
If I want to move around faster,
I tap Navigate 10 frames or select edit,
and move my playhead around much quicker.
Setting up buttons is very similar.
The bottom right button is where my thumb naturally rests,
so it makes sense to make this the play/pause button.
Select the button to see what is currently assigned to it,
and if you want to change it,
just click on the X to remove the current preset.
Search for the control you want to assign to it,
and drag and drop it over the open spot.
You can assign up to 2 functions for each button.
The right arrow button for example,
I use to blade my clip in the timeline.
I’ll add the blade command to the top spot,
and blade all to the bottom.
In Final Cut Pro, if I want to blade a clip in my timeline,
I just tap the right arrow key on my Loupedeck.
If I want to blade all the clips in my timeline,
to access the second function of the button,
I just hold down the function key, and tap the button.
The round buttons can also be set up this way,
so when I edit my videos in Final Cut Pro,
all the controls I use frequently are right at my fingertips.
Next up the touchscreen buttons.
I use these for controls I use in all my projects,
but a little less frequently.
And this is also where Command Post comes is super handy.
It gives you a ton of extra controls
you can’t access with either the Loupedeck controls,
or even keyboard shortcuts.
For example, when framing my clips,
I often use the Horizon overlay.
To enable the horizon overlay,
I have to go to View, and select show horizon.
That’s the only way to do it in Final Cut Pro,
you don’t even have the option to add a keyboard shortcut for this command.
But, if you have command post,
you can set it up to come on and off with one button.
In the Loupedeck software, select the CommandPost controls,
search for Horizon,
and drag and drop this command to assign it to one of the buttons.
This makes it so much easier.
Another really cool use for Command Post
is the ability to assign a specific title, transition or effect to a button.
For example, if you use the flow transition all the time,
you can just search for flow,
select the transition and add it to a button.
When I need to apply it to my project,
instead of going through all the steps, I just tap a button.
So much faster.
Here’s what I have set up for myself.
With my most commonly used commands set up right at my fingertips,
my editing process is much faster.
With the Loupedeck CT, you also have different workspaces,
so depending on your editing stage,
your buttons and dials have different functions.
So, when your rough edit is complete,
and you’re ready for color correction stage,
just tap a button to switch to your color workspace,
and you have a whole new set of controls.
And this is where the extra dials come in so handy.
You can adjust the contrast, tint, color temperature,
or pretty much any adjustment you need with either the main dial,
or one of the 6 dials on top.
For example, if my clip need a bit more contrast,
all I do is turn the dial I have assigned to contrast,
and if you look at the color wheels,
you can see the shadow exposure wing going down,
and highlights going up as I turn the dial.
Way easier than doing it manually.
Besides assigning individual controls to each button,
Loupedeck CT allows you to make a chain of commands called Macros,
and assign that to a button.
Let me show you.
When I edit my voiceovers,
I often add 10 frame gap clips to my timeline to set pacing.
To do that, I press Option W to add a gap clip,
select the clip, press Control D to set the clip duration,
type in 10, and press Enter.
I do this quite a bit,
so you can see this can take quite a bit of time.
This is a perfect use for a Macro command.
To make one, in the Loupedeck software,
select the custom tab,
click the 3 dots beside Stored Custom Actions,
and select Macro.
Give it a name, and start recording commands.
The first one will be Option W,
so, I’ll just press Option W on my keyboard,
and its automatically filled out in this space here.
The next action will be moving my playhead ahead one frame
so it’s over the gap clip,
and I’ll achieve this by pressing the right arrow key.
Next action is the keyboard shortcut for selecting
the clip my playhead is over, which is C.
Control D to bring up clip duration,
1, 0, and enter.
Save it and add this action to one of the buttons.
Next time I need to add a 10 frame gap clip,
instead of going through all the steps,
all I need to do is tap this button.
So much faster.
Macros are amazing for multi step actions you do all the time.
Take a bit of time and set up one or two to try them out,
you’ll be amazed at how useful they are.
Before I go, I want to say thank you to Loupedeck for sponsoring this video.
I was using the Loupedeck CT long before they reached out to me,
so when they did,
to see if I wanted to share my workflow, it was an easy yes.
I’ll leave a link in the video description to Loupedeck’s website,
and if you buy it from there, you get a 45 day satisfaction guarantee.
If you don’t love it,
you can send it back for a full refund.
But chances are, if you use it for 45 days,
you’ll probably want to keep it.
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you back here next wee.