Strange 'Close Gap' (Ctrl-G) behavior

I have a freshly installed FCP7 on a 2.66 mac pro system with Snow Leopard (fully updated), and I've been having a recurring problem. When I place the playhead in a gap I want to close with ctrl-G, it closes a gap earlier in the sequence, not the one chosen. It's both very random, and also consistent. It'll close the same 'wrong' gap each time I try, but why it chooses that particular gap (and not an even earlier one) is beyond me. If I try another gap altogether, and try to close it, again the same problem; it'll close a separate, earlier gap, but randomly chosen. Has anyone else had this problem?

Forum search is your friend.

[www.lafcpug.org]

Whoops, sorry to not have run a basic search...but it still doesn't address the problem.

This was a project started in FCP7, in Snow Leopard and everything. Very perplexing. I suppose I can switch to the delete key, but it's that dang half of a half of a second in the time it takes to do that that's messing with my 'flow'...

Anyway, the guy before has reported it to Apple...I think I will as well, just to keep them on their toes.

King33, put the Playhead in the empty space then click Close Gap.

vic.
that's what's supposed to work, but in this case isn't. (or at least the shortcut Control G isnt working)

king:
i started having this happen to me the other day, too.
in the other post Tom mentions "This seems to occur sometimes in projects updated from an earlier version"

in my case this is a project started on the same system i'm working on now.
brand new installs all 'round about 6 weeks ago.

i'm pretty sure it was always an earlier gap that closed.
i had a vague sense that there was some other pattern to the problem, but wasn't really paying enough attention.
in the end, i trashed prefs and haven't noticed it since.


cheers,
nick

Is this 7.0.2?

All the best,

Tom

hi Tom.

yes, it's the latest version & ProAps kit update.

OS is Snow Leopard

media is DVCProHD 1080i60 @ 24fps


cheers,
nick

Thanks Nick. I can't figure out what's causing it. I can make it happen on updated projects, but haven't been able to make it happen on an FCP7 created project, but obviously there's some trick that triggers it.

All the best,

Tom

The close gap function was improved with FCP 7, it's supposed to work even if you are not within the gap but on the last frame of an existing clip (but don't quote me on that!)

Something is confusing FCP when an older version of a project is brought into the current version. I think this happens sometimes when features are changed or upgraded.

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my current workflow (it's my usual workflow) is that i have an assistant working on another system and we have duplicated media drives.

every day i am opening a new scene project created on her system and copying the clips into my master project prior to editing.

there is no reconnecting involved.

i'm not sure this is a contributing factor, but thought i'd mention it.

i almost hoping the problem comes back so i can get a better feel for what might be causing it.


nick

Same problem on FCP 7.0.2, close gap was working on this same project, same sequence previously, all of the sudden it's not working. This project is NOT updated from an earlier version.
Tried trashing prefs but it didn't solve the issue.
I have tracked it down to being only sequences with multiple tracks of video, A sequence with video on only one track the "close gap" works just fine.

interesting...

you know you have to quit FCP,
THEN trash prefs & re-open.


nick

Very interesting indeed. And yes thats what I did.

is it something you can make happen?
if you make a new sequence with multiple tracks, and more than one gap,
does trying to close the second gap close the first?

i had the issue pop up again for me recently, but trashing prefs did get rid of it.
almost all my sequences have more than one track of video, so hard to say how much that contributed in my case.


nick

Nick Meyers Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> is it something you can make happen?
> if you make a new sequence with multiple tracks,
> and more than one gap,
> does trying to close the second gap close the
> first?

Yes, If I make a new sequence and there is only one track of video.... no problem

As soon as I add video to a second track... trying to close gap 2 would close gap 1 (seems to be consistent this way )

Now, If I delete the video from track 2... close gap works right again.

I am finding myself with the same problem. It always closes the the gap, approximately 2 or 3 gaps ahead of the gap that I want to close. Very frustrating, as it's a shortcut I've come to rely on. Even a right click and a selection of "close gap" in the pop-up window yields the same results.

I am using FCP 7.02, and unlike the weird glitchiness of 2V tracks vs. 1 video track as above, I only have one video track and it's giving me the same problem. It doesn't matter how large or small the gap is, it's very arbitrary.

I trashed my preferences as suggested and it has not solved the issue.

Any other suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated!

i think this is still a mystery,
so the more info you provide the better it is.

have you updated the project from an earlier version of FCP?

what sort of media are you using?


nick

I had been using FCP 7, from 7.01 to 7.02. When I installed the ProApp update, it's not like I ever got one of those warning messages explaining to me that my project file was from an older version and needed to be updated, so as far as I know, I have not consciously "updated" my project file. FCP 7 was a clean install from scratch, not an upgrade from FCP 6.

If by update you mean, saved it with a new name, since the software update... I just tried that to see if it made a difference. With this "new" project file, ctrl-G worked exactly 3 times before reverting to the same annoying weirdness.

I'm operating on Leopard still, 10.5.8, not yet updated to Snow Leopard, on a MacPro 2x3 GHz Quad Core. I'm at the beginnings of my rough cut, just basically pulling soundbite media into a sequence timeline, so there is absolutely nothing complex about my edit, which is why I found it such an annoying, baffling glitch or bug (I googled "close gap not working" and have discovered that many users are running into this issue... nothing solved yet from what I could see, alas).

The media is a combo of XDCAM and DVCPRO HD at 720/24p. The media is mixed, but it doesn't seem to matter which kind of codec in a timeline, this bug is not discriminating. Though it is oddly consistent in that it often will close the gap 2 previous to the one that I want it to be closing. It doesn't matter whether there is only one video track, or only 2 audio tracks, or in my case, I had 4 audio tracks. I deleted 2 of them, to test to see if that would "solve" the issue (though I'm not sure how that solves it because I need additional audio tracks no matter what!)... but still, it keeps closing the wrong gap!


In the meantime, my alternative has been to highlight the blank space/gap and do a ripple delete. But my fingers are just so ingrained with the close gap shortcut.... I miss it.

Thanks in advance for any input or help.

J.

3 out of 5 systems are now having this problem here all the same versions I mentioned above. The most recent one started right after the latest pro app update. Maybe thats the root of the problem. Either way I'll probly be trained to highlight gap and delete by time the issue is resolved.

I'm having this problem as well. Snow Leopard. FCP 7.0.2 2.66 Quad Core Intel

I am working with XDCAM 1080i60 material.

It was an interesting comment about the double video tracks. I need to try taking the double video tracks out of my sequence when I get back to my computer at work and try it.

I noticed this pattern. The first gap in my sequence always closed when I hit control-G. But subsequent gaps that I try to close seem to occasionally close a gap further up (to the left) in the timeline. It didn't seem random, however.

I had at most 2 tracks of audio for each clip. But I had them on different tracks in the timeline. For instance for one set of interview clips I might have 2 tracks of audio on tracks 3 and 4. Then I might have a clip from another interview with audio on tracks 1 and 2. If I tried to close a gap within a sequence of aligned audio tracks (i.e. all audio on tracks 3 and 4) it worked fine. But if there were audio tracks that were "jagged" i.e. a clip with audio on 3 and 4, followed by a clip with a single track of audio on 2, followed by a clip with audio on tracks 1 and 2 and I tried to close a gap somewhere in there, it would behave strangely and delete an earlier gap.

Has anybody else noticed this behavior?

Steve