FCPX’s Magnetic Timeline

When Final Cut Pro’s magnetic timeline hit the scene six years ago, professional editors were already quite adept at wielding the tools of Avid, Premiere Pro, and Final Cut Pro 7. The mechanics were straightforward. Clips go in bins and a source-record viewer previewed your bins and timelines.

Video tracks and audio tracks indicated visual priority. FCP7 allowed exports to many other platforms without plugins. Editors would lock and unlock tracks. We’d target tracks after carefully considering where clips would go in our timeline. And it seemed great—other than the occasional Avid editor asking “Does Final Cut have a real trim mode yet?”

Source: How The Magnetic Timeline Keeps You Focused on The Story