Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro coming to iPad — is the iPad PRO now?

iPad images in background courtesy of Apple Inc.

Oh my goodness! I almost gave up hope. But Apple recently announced that Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro is finally coming to iPad. Now that has my Apple juices going, my mind is racing to questions such as:

“Will the iPad version be a dumbed down/‘light’ version of its desktop sibling or will it actually be desktop class? Or better yet, will it leapfrog it’s desktop sibling and make it THE powerhouse for video editors?”

And the penultimate question,

“Does this now mean the iPad is finally Pro?”

Let’s dive in. But first, let’s get some key things out of the way.

RELEASE DATE: May 23rd, 2023
PRICE: $4.99 per month or $49 per year (with a one-month free trial)
IPAD COMPATIBILITY: M1 or M2 based iPads

In this article, I am going to focus mainly on Final Cut Pro.

Based on Apple’s website, here are five features i am most excited about in Apple’s reimagining of Final Cut Pro for a ‘touch first’ interface client:

1. A jog wheel to scroll through footage and your timeline.
   This appears to be like a virtual version of the physical wheel on Blackmagic editor keyboards.
2. Putting the Apple Pencil to use by:
   — skimming through footage/timeline and using the ‘hover’ feature
   (for M2 based iPad Pro models)
   — drawing/writing directly on to frames to create easy animations to
   help punch up your video
3. Auto cropping to repurpose video for multiple platforms (like vertical mode for YouTube shorts and TikTok and instagram)
4. Isolating subjects and remove backgrounds without a green screen
5. Directly recording in to FCP from the camera in ProRes

Also reassuring for desktop users is the fact that so many of the desktop features appear to be present. For those combining their iPads with Apple’s keyboards, we will still have access to all the keyboard shortcuts we are familiar with and should help ease our transition to the iPad version.

Some open questions, however, do remain about what features may not be available. Questions such as:

1. Will we be able to edit footage directly stored on a connected external storage SSD, like you can with the Mac version or other software already available on iPad (like LumaFusion)?
   This is something I do regularly when it comes to editing footage on my Mac
2. Will existing 3rd party options (such as LUTs, plugins, etc.) purchased for the Mac work with the iPad version or will we have to wait for and buy new 3rd party versions to be available for the iPad?
   As I currently have a library of 3rd party purchases, I am eager to see if I need to ‘repurchase’ these or if my existing library can be used, saving my some additional expense.
3. Will we be able to start a project on the desktop and then move/export it to iPad?
   Apple mentions you would be able to export projects from the iPad version to the Mac version, but they did not mention if you can go from Mac to iPad.

All in all — this is still huge!

I am very excited to try the iPad version out.

Is the iPad now finally Pro?

Although the iPad has been used by professionals for quite some time as a key tool in their workflow, many continued to question if the iPad is truly Pro. This continued to be a black cloud over Apple, even though they gave the iPad some impressive processing horsepower with the inclusion of M1 and M2 processors.

Professionals from creators (such as writers, artists, illustrators, photographers, musicians) to medical practitioners, manufacturing workers, pilots and real estate professionals have been using the iPad with some very sophisticated 3rd party software that enabled them to do things they couldn’t do, or do as effectively/efficiently on a desktop/laptop.

One could argue that now that Apple’s pro apps are available on the iPad — it is now a Pro device. However, from this creator’s perspective, the iPad Pro has been a pro device for quite some time and Apple is now joining the party with its pro apps. Well, it looks like that before that black cloud goes away, it is about to put a nail in the coffin to all the naysayers who would otherwise see the iPad as a consumption only device or something less than it’s Mac counterpart. I will dare say it — ’the iPad is PRO!’.

It is interesting that Apple chose to announce this via an Apple Press release ahead of World Wide Developer’s Conference (WWDC), instead of showcasing it as part of its keynote. In reading between the tea leaves, that only means that WWDC this year is so jammed pack with exciting new things, that they were not able to include this at the event. This truly does set the stage (pun intended) and the expectation that we have a lot of exciting things in store next month from Apple!

Well readers, dreams do come true and i am so excited to try Final Cut Pro for iPad out when it drops on May 23rd and report back to you.

Until next time, stay curious!

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