Three months ago, Apple debuted their new vision for Final Cut Pro X, a radical departure from the legacy application that has dominated the professional market for some time. Now, on the heels of Adobe luring away customers to its own Premiere Pro solution, Cupertino fires back with the first update, adding back two critical features lost in the transition.

Apple Inc. has released Final Cut Pro X 10.0.1, a seemingly modest-sounding first update to the company’s $299.99 video editing solution which has largely been dismissed by legacy customers despite an impressive array of new features. While the update doesn’t completely silence those critics, it makes at least two big steps toward regaining their trust.

First up is the ability to now import and export XML files, meaning that third-party workflows are back in action, including access to source clips (now Events) and timelines (now Projects). “Final Cut Pro X is [no longer] an island,” quipped Richard Townhill, Apple’s director of pro video product marketing in a quick chat with Macworld on Tuesday following the announcement. Townhill’s comments appear to indicate the company is taking the complaints of its pro users seriously, and appears “fully committed” to the return of additional lost features such as multicam editing and broadcast video monitoring with another update in 2012.

Also back on the table is exporting audio and video stems into a single QuickTime movie or even as separate files using a new feature called Roles. This means editors can selectively tag elements to be routed to different audio channels, for example to create separate dialogue, sound FX and music stems or even M&E (music and effects only) tracks for use with dubbing a project into a foreign language.

The full list of changes, which also include the usual improvements to “overall stability and performance,” are as follows:

• Export audio and video stems as a single multitrack QuickTime movie or as separate files using Roles.
• Import and export XML to support third-party workflows.
• Place Projects and Events on Xsan to improve collaboration between editors.
• Set custom starting timecode for your projects.
• Add transitions to connected clips in a single step.
• Enable full-screen view in OS X Lion.
• Speed up delivery with GPU-accelerated export.

Now available via the Mac App Store, Apple has also pushed out new updates to Motion 5 and Compressor 4 as well, which adds support for dual displays with Motion 5.0.1 and a handful of bug fixes for Compressor 4.0.1.

Last but not least, Apple is now offering a free trial version of Final Cut Pro X directly from their website, which gives users 30 days to try out the app before committing with their hard-earned greenbacks. All that’s required is your first and last name as well as an email address, and the trial version expires exactly 30 days after you open the app for the first time.

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