Bj Ahlen
Forum Replies Created
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I like vegas as a basic DV25 editor…
“Basic DV25 editor???’
For the last year, I have done nothing but uncompressed 10-bit, animation codecs, high resolution image sequences, and a little bit of high definition.
FCP is used for feature films, and they were still gasping at the LAFCPUG “NLE Shootout” when they saw what Vegas could do.
So I guess I’m baffled by the thought that Vegas is a “basic editor.” :O)
I took the Combustion route instead of AE Pro for compositing, because I thought it was easier to learn (even though I have a fair amount of Photoshop experience).
Still, if I could have afforded it, I would have gotten Digital Fusion ($4K) which blows both out of the water for some compositing tasks.
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The quickest way to pick up the Vegas workflow from scratch is probably the book “Instant Vegas” that is probably available in bookstores worldwide (or from Amazon). For a beefier book that covers just about everything you might need, there is “Vegas 5 Editing Workshop.” Both of these are for V5, but 99% of the user interface is unchanged.
There are also great video training programs, my favorite is one by COW host Gary Kleiner, see https://www.vegastrainingandtools.com/index.html. His videos are not like sitting in the back of a classroom, but instead like sitting down next to a pro who shows you the quickest ways to do things in a real environment.
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“There is probably a reason why Sony’s higher priced NLE systems look a lot more like Avid, Edit, PP, FCP, and not like Vegas.”
Yeah, when you ask customers to pay $90K for an NLE (XPRI), you can’t expect them to want to learn something new also :O) :O)
When Vegas 5 was shown at the LAFCPUG “NLE Shootout” a few months ago, a lot of people were gasping at how quickly major editing tasks could be done.
I don’t think Vegas has more features than Avid or FCP, but its scripting capability is a phenomenal time saver, the competent audio handling (at least equal to Protools) saves time, being able to mix more than a dozen video formats from animation, SD, HD, uncompressed, etc., and 20 or so audio formats freely saves conversion time, multiple takes is a phenomenal feature for voice overs and much else, etc. etc.
ABC started using it a few months ago, and I think many others will follow.
So what is Vegas not good for? It doesn’t support film matchback, and there are some newsroom workflows where the rendering method doesn’t fit (station bugs inserted last minute). It doesn’t run on Tiger (on the other hand, I have been using “Spotlight” since last fall on my Windows work station, it’s called “Google Desktop” and it’s free :O). It does support Avid interchange formats, but it’s early days yet and I wouldn’t bet my shop on this working without headaches in Vegas.
I think there is room for more than one way to edit video!
The one shining light on the Mac side right now is Soundtrack Pro. If this thing works, it is truly revolutionary.
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It was really a rhetorical question.
I’m using traces of edit* in Combustion.
Can understand if Discr…, er, AME felt a need to focus their development though, NLEs have gotten more complicated over the years…
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Where would you buy Edit*? Is that still a supported product?
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You gotta see what you can do with scripting in Vegas, it lets you do many common tasks in a fraction of the time it would take in the “Moviola-simulators”. :O)
Excalibur is outstanding, for multicam there is nothing better, and there is so much more you can do with one button click…
Ditto for serious audio editing, no other NLE comes close, and you don’t have to roundtrip to an outside audio app. You can use WAVES plugins, and Izotope, and …
Mackie (or Behringer if you’re cheap) control surfaces with full automation to run everything in Vegas with your hands in realtime…
The best DV codec on the market, one of the top two MPEG-2 codecs, realtime preview of lots of tracks with effects, etc.
Mix 20 audio formats on the same timeline, and just about any video format and frame rate together without problems.
Very good 60i to 24P conversion built into Vegas 6, and effects and transitions are native 24P (some say it’s the only NLE that has this).
Exceptional compositing with really advanced features. Free six-vector color corrector available.
And and and…
But I agree that it requires some fresh thinking to use.
Very well worth it though, IMHO.
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10-disc U320… Snif! My P4 3.2E only sees a measly 3-drive WD Raptor 10K SATA RAID (+ a ditto system drive). Supermicro mobo, 2GB Corsair CAS 2-2-2 RAM.
Always captured in 10-bit and always perfectly, 45-60 minutes each time.
It is really really important, for 10-bit uncompressed especially, to follow BMD’s hardware specs. Don’t use desktop mobos, slower drives, etc. Many have tried…
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See the BMD web site for minimum requirements.
A single P4 3GHz is OK for non-HD, but you need to have a fast enough disk subsystem and a high performance motherboard, it’s all on their web site.
If you follow their specs, it WILL work.
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I’m on V5 still (may have time to try V6 sometime next week), but use the Decklink utility for live capture of 10-bit uncompressed directly from SDI camera to disk, using DL Extreme. No tape master output, just DVDs.
Please don’t forget us tapeless folks!
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Adolfo: I still would like full certainty about FCP’s 10-bit internal processing.
Vegas has supported 10-bit output since many years, and uncompressed at least since Blackmagic released their 10-bit Windows codec. Unfortunately, Vegas will internally truncate the output of any effects or transitions to 8-bit. These must be handled in Combustion or equivalent and put back on the timeline in 10-bit, after which Vegas can render to any supported 10-bit codec without loss.
My concern is that having a 10-bit codec doesn’t guarantee that the internal effects and transitions output true 10-bit. It didn’t in Vegas.
I like the extra latitude in post that 10-bit gives me, even as the eventual rendering will be in 8-bit. It’s not that it gives me a “better picture” as much as it is giving me more freedom in color correction and other post processing.