Adds more tools into the equation

Jul 23, 2009 14:35 GMT  ·  By

Cupertino-based Apple has announced today the release of an updated version of Final Cut Studio, which comes with more than 100 new features when compared to the previously available version. In addition, the company also released new flavors of the Final Cut Pro, Motion, Soundtrack Pro, Color and Compressor. The app comes with the Final Cut Pro 7, meant to widen the Apple ProRes codec family to offer support for almost any workflow, and which comes with Easy Export to deliver output to a variety of formats, and with iChat Theater to enable real-time collaboration.

“With 1.4 million users and 50 percent of the market,* Final Cut Pro is the number one professional video editing application,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The new Final Cut Studio includes more than 100 new features and dramatically expands Apple’s ProRes family of codecs so editors can work in the studio with the highest quality video or on location at low bandwidths.”

Final Cut Pro 7 comes with ProRes Proxy, enabling offline and mobile editing at low bandwidth, with ProRes LT and with ProRes 4444, the latter delivering the highest quality possible when it comes to editing and visual effects. With Easy Export, users will be able to continue the work on their projects while the encoding goes in the background, and exported to YouTube, MobileMe, iPhone, iPod, Apple TV, DVD or Blu-ray. Final Cut timelines can be shared with iChat Theater, and there are also a series of new tools for modifying clip speed, for alpha transitions and more.

Motion 4, comes with improved tools, including 3D shadows, reflections and depth of field, providing great animation tools for video editors. At the same time, Soundtrack Pro 3 comes with new audio editing tools, such as Voice Level Match, and an improved File Editor. With this tool, users will be able to do sophisticated editing and fine tune adjustments, while the new Advanced Time Stretch includes stretches and can compress audio using Apple-designed or third-party algorithms. Soundtrack Pro along with Compressor are part of the new Logic Studio, the company adds.

Other solutions available with the Final Cut Studio include Color 1.5, a professional grading application, as well as Compressor 3.5, which is able to encode and deliver in multiple formats. Color 1.5 comes with 4K support and can work with files from cameras, while also featuring high-quality formats like AVC-Intra, XDCAM 422 and ProRes 4444. Compressor 3.5 is capable of detecting QuickTime settings, and sports customizable sharing options, menu templates and encoding presets.

Final Cut Studio can be purchased online via Apple's Store, through Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers, and features a price tag of $999 (US). Final Cut Studio and Final Cut Pro users performing an upgrade will find it available at the price of $299 (US). More details on what is new in Final Cut Studio can be found here.