Final Cut Studio 5.1 ships

Apple today officially announced that it is shipping the first Universal version of its Final Cut Studio video production suite, following our note yesterday. The new version, it says, delivers up to 2.5 times the performance when running on a MacBook Pro. The suite includes native versions of Soundtrack Pro, an audio editing and sound design application that makes video projects sound as good as they look; Motion 2, the world's first real-time motion graphics application with GPU accelerated 32-bit float rendering; and DVD Studio Pro 4 for professional DVD authoring. "Final Cut Studio continues to set the standard in the new era of HD production," said Rob Schoeben, Apple's vice president of Applications Marketing. "Now with the incredible performance of Final Cut Studio on a MacBook Pro, customers can work more efficiently wherever they are."

In February, Apple released Logic Pro 7.2 music creation and audio production software, the first of the company’s pro applications to ship Universal versions which run on both Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs. Logic Pro 7.2 supports up to 4.5 times the effect plug-ins and up to two times the software instruments per session on the MacBook Pro, according to Apple. It also features integrated support for the Apogee Ensemble FireWire interface and compatibility with Pro Tools HD 7 DAE.

The Universal version of Final Cut Studio is available for $1,300. Registered Final Cut Studio customers can crossgrade to the Universal version for $50, while existing customers of the standalone versions of Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro, Motion, or DVD Studio Pro can upgrade to the Universal version of Final Cut Studio starting at $100.

Apple also announced that it has pushed back the release of Aperture 1.1, the first Universal version of the suite, would ship in April. The update to the application for professional photographers was originally shown in February and expected to ship in March.

by MacNN Staff