Re: Motion TRACKS versus FCP X Trackless (now OT: organization in FCPX vs FCP7)

Firstly let me qualify by saying that I am arguing about track vs magnetic or trackless timeline. NLEs need different ways to organise media and FCPX is heading in the right direction with ideas about tagging and using metadata, which as you say was already in FCP7 but not elegant so kudos there.

The perceived problem was overwriting. Most NLEs and a lot of DAWs overwrite when things are dragged, pasted or nudged around the timeline. Apple have been typical in that FCP, Logic and STP could overwrite clips on a track and erase complex edits. What Fairlight did (borrowed from dSP, another DAW company that they acquired the IP) is to allow clips to stack as layers on a track. Bingo no erasing when dragging copy pasting etc. But there the power begins. By treating audio as layers the same as the video tracks of NLEs they could edit and crossfade between layers. So they took the idea of NLEs that layers interact on the so called video tracks. I see video tracks in an NLE as layers of a single output stream. This is a track in audio parlance.

So the function of a track is that it can be a layered area where complex editing can be done, with alternate takes in place on lower layers streaming as a track to the downstream mix process. Where I see the power in controlling both audio and video streams is in retaining the advantages of a track based spatial layout with the advantage of being able to layer elements. I mentioned earlier that it would be very powerful to treat layered video as a track to interact with other complex video layers in other tracks. I have worked on a number of projects where video layers had to be nested or baked into a file and reimported in order to have another video layer or layers be blended or keyed.

If accidental overwriting or getting out of sync can be totally avoided by stacking layers on tracks then apart from solving the irritating problem that is solved by the magnetic timeline, a whole new power of 'in place' manipulation can be done without messy nesting or bouncing material to composite files.

To me the other great power of a track approach is track based processing. In audio, levels, EQ and dynamics processing can be done both at a clip level and the track level. If video had real tracks, not just layers and clip based processing, I can see that a single app could start to approach an all in one finishing tool. So to me the magnetic timeline takes away the power of tracks to solve a problem that layering within a track fixes. But worse, it means that the power of combining layers with tracks isn't realised.