Question regarding Final Cut Pro X on a Mac Pro with the older version
 

It's nice to read that more and more individuals are not only using Final Cut Pro X, but that they're appreciating the newer (and more productive??) workflow that it presents. I currently use Final Cut Suite 3 (with Final Cut Pro 7). I'm comfortable with its work flow which meets my modest needs. But, I'm interested (and have some spare time) in exploring Final Cut Pro X as well as the newer versions of Motion and Compression.

Can all versions of these programs co-exist on the same computer without one somehow corrupting the other?? If not, is there a work-a-round way to have them all co-exist?? If so, what is the work-a-round??

Here is my current set-up:

Mac Pro 2.26 (8 core, Early 2009); OS - Snow Leopard 10.6.8; 32 GB RAM; four 1-TB internal HDDs; 2 external HDDs via eSATA; ATI Radeon HD 5770 video card; MOTU 2408 MK3 audio device; a number of important (to me) video plug-ins for the current FCP 7 including Boris Complete 7 and RED (which might not work with FCP X??).

Thank you in advance. :)

Ted

Re: Question regarding Final Cut Pro X on a Mac Pro with the older version
 

I have the same MacPro (less RAM and no MOTU device but basically the same), here's what you will experience:

FCPX and FCP7 will co-exist fine but you can't have both running at the same time.

Some HDV files will have problems, especially those from old FireStore recorders and DV codec QuickTimes behave oddly in some third party programs due to a change in QuickTime that might be isolated to the Lion upgrade but the files are OK.

Compressor 4 is basically the same program but with two important changes. One, Qmaster is now controlled from within Compressor so you have to disable any QuickClusters you may have set up with FCS3 Qmaster before using Compressor 4. Two, Apple has changed the presets so you might not find what you need in 4. It's a good time to learn how to create your own presets. Compressor 3.5 will no longer export once Compressor 4 is installed but you can still launch it to research old settings you may have used or created. I had to create a DV export setting for my HD projects that are going to SD broadcast. Compressor 4 seems faster but you should check to see if anyone has done definitive speed tests.

Motion 5 is a faster program but as far as I'm concerned the biggest improvement is that it's now the effects engine for FCPX so you can easily create your own transitions, filters or titles and send them directly to the FCPX preset library or use the FCPX preset filters, titles and transition as a starting point to create you own.

Re: Question regarding Final Cut Pro X on a Mac Pro with the older version
 

Thank you for your thoughtful reply. Appreciate the information that you shared.