When the Mac mini with M4 was announced, Apple briefly teased the upcoming features that Final Cut Pro on Mac will bring in the future, and it looks like it’s that time right now, as Apple launches several major updates to its Pro apps for both the Mac and iPad, most notably Final Cut Pro 11, which is jam-packed with the most advanced and powerful features for professionals. Fun fact, Final Cut Pro X was launched back in 2011, so after over thirteen years, Final Cut Pro is finally turning it up to 11.
Final Cut Pro 11
This year has been a big year for artificial intelligence, particularly for Apple with the recent launch of Apple Intelligence for Macs and iPads with M-series chips (and iPad mini with A17 Pro chip), and this major release is no exception as it’s bringing AI-powered tools that are super optimized for Apple Silicon to take full advantage of.
- Magnetic Mask – pro videographers can easily isolate subjects in a video clip with the need for a green screen, sothey can add any custom background and environments for their selected subjects.
- Transcribe to Captions – Final Cut Pro uses several language models to transcribe spoken audio in a clip to automatically generate closed captions for you.
- Smart Conform – with the expansion of social media platforms, Final Cut Pro can dynamically make square or vertical formats that are optimized for a portrait-oriented interface such as Instagram Reels and TikTok.
- Enhance Light and Color – automatically improves the color, color balance, contrast, and brightness of the imported content in Final Cut Pro.
- Smooth Slo-Mo – generates and blends together frames of video of up to 4K120 fps on iPhone 16 Pro
- Voice Isolation – optimize speech and sound levels with greater background noise reduction
With spatial video playback on Apple Vision Pro and spatial video recording on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16, and iPhone 16 Pro, Final Cut Pro now lets videographers edit spatial videos. Other notable features that make Final Cut Pro stand out are Magnetic Timeline, Multicam editing, optimizations for Apple Silicon (with 4K/8K ProRes streams), enhanced proxy tools, and Compressor/Motion apps.
Final Cut Pro for iPad 2.1
Final Cut Pro on iPad was introduced in May 2023, and the second version debuted in May 2024, and the latest iPad mini now supports Final Cut Pro. So with 2.1, the touch-first interface of Final Cut Pro gets even better. Taking full advantage of the Apple Pencil Pro and Magic Keyboard, users will be able to feel certain haptic feedback whenever they work around with video projects with all new gestures. And users can now use the Apple Pencil to draw new inks from the Live Drawing feature.
Final Cut Camera
Final Cut Camera allows users to use multiple iPhones and iPads for Multicam recording, so with version 1.1, videographers can now capture Log-encoded HEVC video at up to 4K120 fps when using an iPhone 16 Pro.
Logic Pro for Mac 11.1 & iPad 2.1
Logic Pro has been the perfect companion for Final Cut Pro for audio-related projects such as songwriting, producing, composing, and arranging, and with the new Quantec Room Simulator plug-in and Reorder Mixer Channels, the experience gets even better. The Mac version gets enhanced search capabilities while the iPad counterpart introduces Sample Folders for easy access to their personal collection of samples from anywhere. Here’s what musician Peter Gabriel has to say about the new Quantec Room Simulator:
“The Quantec Room Simulator has been a key element to my sound for many years, appearing on records like Passion and Us. I also used it to build harmonic drones to start my live set, which then evolved into songs like ‘Across the River.’ It’s wonderful that Apple is bringing the Quantec QRS back to life as a plug-in for Logic users around the world.”
Pricing (all U.S. based, pricing may vary)
- Final Cut Pro for Mac 11 is available on the Mac App Store for $299.99 for new users on the Mac App Store. New users may download a free 90-day trial.
- Final Cut Pro for iPad 2.1 is available on the App Store on a subscription-based pricing ($4.99/month or $49/year) with a one-month free trial for new users.
- Final Cut Camera 1.1 is available today as a free standalone app on the App Store.
- Logic Pro for Mac 11.1 costs $199.99 for new users.
- Logic Pro for iPad 2.1 is also on a subscription-based pricing ($4.99/month or $49/year) with a one-month free trial for new users.
- All of the applicable apps are available for existing users as a free update.
