[Mark Waldo]

Before you select the multicamera option, you need to ctrl-select all of the video and audio tracks you want to include in the multicam. If you select more than one audio track, they will be combined. If you want only one audio track, make sure not to select the others. In fact, you should mute them.

After selecting the tracks you want included, then select Tools->Multicamera->Enable Multicamera Editing, then select Tools->Multicamera->Create Multicamera Track.

As you watch the resulting video, select between cameras by pressing the 1 and 2 keys, or to fade between them, ctrl-1, ctrl-2. You can do this in real time or stop the viewing and do it. You can always hit ctrl-Z to undo a camera switch. You can read what little more there is to say about this on the Vegas Help screen under multicamera.

I have been using multicamera for two months now. The one thing I very much dislike about it is that it hides each track you have selected and you can edit only the one multicamera track that is created. There is no way to unhide the tracks in case you made a mistake somewhere down the line and have not totally synced all the tracks. You have to start over. So the most important thing to do before using multicamera is to make sure all of your footage is lined up.

What I do is, once I believe I have everything lined up, I save that veg file. Then when I am editing the multi-camera track, I save the project as a different veg file so that I can always return to just before I set up the multi-camera option and can edit the individual tracks.

Once the multicam track has been edited between the cameras, I save the resulting video as an .avi file and start a new project with that file to fine-tune any other editing and special effects I need to do.

I hope this saves you hours of frustration that I have had with it.

Mark

[Mark Waldo]

I do not use any plug-ins for my audio. I use Vegas in its native mode only.

[Mark Waldo]

I have been using Vegas for about 5 years now. I currently have version 8. In all versions since I started with version 5, I also have noticed that I occasionally get errors in the audio output. The errors appear and are heard on the video/audio timeline. I will load the file again and get the same errors in the same spots. I download my videos from the camera in standard def .avi format using Microsoft MovieMaker 2 since I have a problem using the Vegas interface with a Panasonic camera. When I get audio glitches, I check the original avi footage using Windows Media Player and no audio errors appear at the locations they appear on the Vegas timeline. If I render the footage from Vegas, the audio glitches are there in the output, whether I render in avi or MP2 format.

With that said, I would also be interested in seeing if anyone has a good answer for this occasional problem.

Mark

[Mark Waldo]

First, make sure that your video has scene markers in it that you placed in your video stream using Vegas (using ‘M’ at the start of the scene and naming the scene). In Architect, load your video into the main menu. It has all of the scene names now. You will get 1 menu item. Right click on the menu item and select ‘Button Style’ to change the button type to your liking. I usually select ‘Text Only’. You may also want to further set up the color, boldness, or whatever you want each button to look like by using the tools located just below the Menu. Once the button characteristics are set, hit Ctrl-C to copy the button. Keep hitting Ctrl-V to paste it continuously until you have as many buttons as you have scenes. If you need more than one page for all of your buttons, that is more complicated and will not be discussed here. Next, hit on each menu button to change the text of the button to whatever you want to call each scene. Do whatever is necessary to line up the buttons to the way you want them using the tools on the left of the Menu. Then, click once on a menu button, go to the right of the screen and on ‘Button Properties’, select ‘Action’. Go to the ‘Destination Chapter’, and to the right of it, select the scene you want for that menu button. When you have done that for each button, go back to each button and double-click it. To the right, under ‘Media Properties’, select ‘End Action’. Under it, ‘Command’ should be ‘Link’. ‘Destination’, if you want it to go back to the Menu after the scene, select Most Recent Menu. Otherwise, you can redirect it to whatever scene you want. You may also stop playing the DVD by selecting the Command ‘Stop’. In my working with Architect, this is the easiest way to do what you want to do. There may be other ways. Good Luck!