Working with Tools and Audio Meters In Final Cut Pro For Avid Users

You select Avid tools by using the keyboard, pressing command buttons, or selecting an option from the Fast menu. Final Cut Pro follows the design of certain desktop graphics programs (such as Adobe Photoshop) by placing editing tools in a Tool palette. This is like tearing off the Fast menu of functions in Avid. The FCP Tool palette provides a convenient way to select many editing operations. In addition, each of the four primary FCP interface windows has its own button bar that you can customize with your personal set of command buttons. This will be discussed more in new book in Lesson 3.

Tool Palette

When working within FCP, the default tool is the Selection tool, which is a black arrow. Its shortcut key is the letter A. You use this tool to select clips, transitions, and groups of clips; it’s the tool you will work with most of the time. The FCP Tool palette contains editing, selection, and trim tools, as well as other tools, which are covered in upcoming lessons.

Final Cut Pro’s Tool Palette

If a tool icon includes a tiny arrow, there are more tools of a similar nature associated with that tool. Click and hold a tool icon to see those options. Some tool icons, such as the Zoom In (magnifying glass), Crop, and Pen tools, may look familiar if you have worked in desktop graphics programs. These tools perform the same functions in FCP.

TIP: To see what a tool icon represents, hold the cursor over it with your pointer. The name of the tool and the shortcut key will appear as a tooltip. Tooltips with keyboard shortcuts will also appear over most buttons in the interface. While this option is turned on as a default, you can toggle tooltips off or on in the User Preferences window (Option-Q).

Audio Meters

The FCP Audio Meters do only one thing: display your audio levels. You can choose to keep the Audio Meters open all the time or just when you’re working with audio levels. Unlike in Avid, neither the Audio Meters window nor the Tool palette can be resized. In addition to the Audio Meters, FCP has an Audio Mixing tool that you can use to monitor and control audio levels; it’s covered more in Lesson 8 of the new book.

FCP’s Audio Meters

NOTE: All FCP interface windows can be closed independently by clicking their Mac OS X Close button. In the Window menu, you will find keyboard shortcuts to close and open individual windows.

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