Sony Vegas vs. FCP

[John Rofrano]

[Michael Cerdeiros] “… I can color grade and apply filters in Sony vegas and render a 30 min video in about 35 min. If I do the same in FCP the render time is 2 hours plus. I would rather use FCP as its a industry standard or one of them instead of Sony Vegas.”

I guess you should be asking this in the FCP forum. Have them explain why their “industry standard” editor can’t keep up with Sony Vegas. 😉

Seriously though, once you start adding FX it is hard to say why anything takes as long as it does. You can add Mike Crash’s Noise Reduction to Vegas and render in real-time, then you can add Neat Video Noise Reduction and it takes 10x longer to render. Some FX are doing more than others. Some FX are more efficient that others. You really can’t compare FCP and Vegas based on rendering plug-in FX unless they are the same FX (e.g., BCC7 on both).

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Mike Kujbida]

” I would rather use FCP as its a industry standard or one of them instead of Sony Vegas.”

As long as Vegas gets the job done (in your case, in 1/4 of the time that FCP does), why do you care?
Time is money and in this case Vegas beats FCP hands down so stay with Vegas.

[Stephen Mann]

” I would rather use FCP as its a industry standard or one of them instead of Sony Vegas.”

Says who? The people who shelled out the kilobucks for an FCP workstation? The resellers who sell FCP?

It’s the user, not the tool. Do you ask your plumber what brand of tool he uses to clear your drains?

Steve Mann

Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com

[Greg Barringer]

First let me say that I am not a full time professional editor but here’s my experience with the two.
I started with Vegas 4.0 in 2003. I bought Vaast trainng DVD’s and finished the entire series, so I had a good start.

In 2005 I bought my first Mac G5 and FCP. For the past five years I’ve tried to like this program and was committed to it. I put in many hours of training. Now I’ve given up on FCP.

I recently bought Vegas 10.0 and Win7 to run in Boot Camp on the Mac Pro.
The constant need to render when mixing media in FCP was the killer. Now that I’m back using Vegas I’ve found that the render times are significantly faster. My present project is to convert old VHS family analog video to digital and burn it all to Blu-Ray. Last night I rendered 3 hrs. 53 min. of video to .AVI in 1 hr. 10 min. using Vegas.
During the editing I mixed in a little AVCHD and some jpeg just to see what would happen. There was no need to render the timeline. FCP would need to stop and render.

[Bob Peterson]

and, the last I heard, FCP will not render to Blu-Ray. Steve Jobs does not like Blu-Ray, so it will not be supported.

[Michael Cerdeiros]

@John, Actually That makes sense I should be comparing the Same Plugins

@Mike & @Steve – I totally agree, When I told my Professors at the college I’m going to I was questioned on why I would use such an elementary tool. I should be using FCP or Avid. I mean I started editing on my own for a businesses I run. 1000 Videos later, now I decided to go to school for Film and this is what I’m Finding out. Even my classmates agree… I’m almost embarrassed to admit it. So now im just looking to see why this may be. I’m Trying to learn the new tools and don’t get me wrong I have watched hours of tutorials on FCP via Lynda.com and I can edit a videos with ease. I just don’t understand all this extra render time. Especially with Mixed Media. I guess im just looking for some unbiased opinions.

@Greg That is my setup. I have a MacPro that I run windows on and edit with Vegas. and It seems you have the exact same experience as me.

You all have been super helpful so far thank you very much for your responses.

Michael Cerdeiros
Cerious Productions
https://www.CeriousProductions.com

[Greg Barringer]

FCP can render to BD quality. It can not burn to BD directly, you have to use Toast or another program like Adobe, I was using DVDA under Boot Camp to do it. I installed a Panasonic BD burner in the Mac Pro.

[John Rofrano]

[Michael Cerdeiros] “I totally agree, When I told my Professors at the college I’m going to I was questioned on why I would use such an elementary tool.”

Elementary tool??? I take it that your professor is not speaking from experience. I get a good laugh with every new release of FCP as it announced new features that Vegas had 10 years ago (like multiple formats on the timeline). In many respects Vegas is superior to FCP which is why we use. They each have their pros and cons.

FCP is the industry standard there is no arguing about that. FCP knowledge is required for getting a job in the industry there is no argument about that and for those reasons alone, you should continue to study and use FCP not because it’s better but because it’s what everybody uses. It’s like going to a recording studio and telling them they shouldn’t be using ProTools. hey, it’s the standard… what can you do. I still use Vegas for all of my video editing because I like the workflow and capabilities. I’m sure if I got a job working for a major FCP shop, I’d buy a Mac and use FCP. It’s just a tool like any other.

Learn the craft of story telling and don’t sweat the tooling. 😉

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Michael Cerdeiros]

Thanks John, That Helps a lot!

Michael Cerdeiros
Cerious Productions
https://www.CeriousProductions.com

[John Rofrano]

[Greg Barringer] “FCP can render to BD quality. It can not burn to BD directly, you have to use Toast or another program like Adobe, I was using DVDA under Boot Camp to do it. I installed a Panasonic BD burner in the Mac Pro”

Yea, but what Bob was pointing out is that the reason is “political” and not “technical”. Draw your own conclusions. 😉

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com