How to Use Final Cut Pro's AI Transcribe to Captions Feature

Final Cut Pro has a built-in AI feature called Transcribe to Captions that automatically generates captions from your audio. It's pretty straightforward to use once you know the basics.

What You Need First

Before you get started, make sure you have a Mac with Apple silicon (M1, M2, M3, or newer) and macOS Sequoia or later. The feature won't work on older Intel Macs. You can check Apple Support for the full system requirements.

Right now, the AI transcription only works with English audio. If you're working with other languages, you'll need to use a third-party tool or create captions manually.

How to Generate Captions

Here's the simple process:

• Select the clip you want to caption in your timeline
• Press Shift-Command-C (or go to the Enhancements menu)
• Wait while Final Cut Pro processes your audio
• Review and edit the generated captions

The processing time depends on your clip length. A 10-minute video might take a minute or two. Final Cut Pro creates the captions in iTT format, which works great for most platforms.

Tips for Better Results

The AI is pretty good, but it's not perfect. Here's what helps it work better:

Clean audio makes a huge difference. If your audio has a lot of background noise or multiple people talking over each other, the AI will struggle. Try to clean up your audio first using noise reduction tools.

Lock your audio track before generating captions. This is important. If you edit your audio after creating captions, you'll have to redo the timing, which wastes time.

Always review the captions. The AI might mess up technical terms, names, or words that sound alike. Spend a few minutes watching through with the captions visible. Discussions on Reddit's Final Cut Pro community often mention this as the most important step.

Editing Your Captions

Once the captions are generated, you can edit them right in the timeline. Click on any caption to fix typos or change the text. You can also adjust the timing by dragging the edges of caption blocks.

The Inspector panel gives you more control over appearance. You can change fonts, colors, size, and positioning. But don't go too crazy with styling unless you have a specific reason.

Common Issues and Fixes

Sometimes the feature doesn't appear in your menu. This usually means either your Mac doesn't have Apple silicon, or you need to update macOS. Check System Settings to see if an update is available.

If captions are way off, your audio might be too quiet or unclear. Try boosting the volume or using Final Cut Pro's Voice Isolation feature first, then regenerate the captions.

For words that keep getting transcribed wrong, you might need to manually fix them each time. Unfortunately, there's no custom dictionary feature yet. This is one area where third-party tools sometimes have an advantage.

Exporting Your Captions

When you're ready to export, you have two options. You can burn the captions into your video (they become part of the image), or export them as a separate SRT file. Apple Support has detailed guides on both methods.

For social media, burned-in captions usually work better because they're guaranteed to show up. For YouTube or professional work, separate SRT files give viewers more control.

When to Use Third-Party Tools Instead

The built-in AI is convenient, but it has limitations. If you need captions in languages other than English, want more styling options, or work with a lot of videos at once, third-party extensions might be worth it.

Tools like Caption Cut Pro, mCaptionsAI, or others available on FCP Cafe offer features like batch processing, multi-language support, and advanced animations. They cost money, but they can save time if you caption videos regularly.

Final Thoughts

Final Cut Pro's Transcribe to Captions is a solid starting point for adding captions to your videos. It's free, built-in, and works well for straightforward English dialogue.

Just remember to lock your audio first, review the results, and don't expect perfection. With a few minutes of editing, you'll have professional captions ready to go.

If you run into issues or want to share tips, the Final Cut Pro community is pretty helpful. Both Reddit and the official Apple forums have active users who've figured out most of the edge cases.