[Mike Calla]

creatively dave:)
Remember you can drop whole projects(.veg) on to another timeline. here’s how I’d do it:

save your 25min project as a third project > split all tracks at the minute marker > delete everything after minute one > save it > drop that .veg on to your trailers timeline with ripple edit on. Obviously you would delete the first minute of your trailer and replace with it the new .veg.

mike

[Mike Calla]

DOH:(

Thanks DSE,

Although I know AJA makes a very reputable product, the xena cards are too much for me; financially, technically, and availability wise!

Financially: The breakout boxes for XENA cost more alone than the BMD Intensity itself!

Technically: The amount of i/o is too much for me. True – i may in the future require HD-SDI i/o, but not now. Even for the preview I’d still need a SDI > HDMI/Component out converter to match to any monitor I’d likely use

Availability: Unfortunately I’m not really in a place where i can just pick up an AJA product. I would have to order…

However there is a BMD dealer here.

Doh Doh Doh!

How about graphics cards that can output a timeline like my old matrox card? I’m not up to date on graphics cards. Are graphics these days outputting HD timelines?

I wish video was more like audio – Firewire or XLR everything and output via 10 gauge speaker cable:)

thanks again DSE

[Mike Calla]

Very interesting question!!

Soon I’ll be taking a nice long (14 hour) flight. I wanted to bring my laptop along to work on some lower thirds/graphics for an HD project. However my laptop is not powerful enough for HDV and I thought I could use lower project settings so I could keep my full frame rate previews. I was going to use a DV widescreen project as sort of proxy project template. And then when I arrived back at my workstation I was hoping I could just change the project settings to HDV and voila!!! my generated media would magic rescale perfectly. Well after reading the above post I decided to do some tests to answer the question:

WILL MY GENERATED MEDIA CORRECTLY RESCALE FROM LOWER RESOLUTIONS PROJECTS TO HIGHER RESOLUTIONS PROJECTS AND DIFFERENT ASPECT RATIO SETTINGS?

sooooo…

I generated some lower thirds and titles in a Multimedia (320×240, 15.000 fps) project. I rendered it, took at look at the quality…obviously not great. I saved the project and then dumped the veg on a new HDV 1080-60i (1440×1080, 29.970 fps) timeline – once again I rendered it to see the quality. No difference, it still maintains the qualities of the Multimedia project including the aspect ratio, which would corroborate Spot’s answer above.

Also:
I opened up the original Multimedia project i used and changed it’s properties to HDV 1080-60i. Now i don’t know if you’ve ever noticed but in the Video Event FX window it displays the resolutions of the generated media. In this case, even when the project has changed to higher quality settings the generated media keeps its original resolutions of 320×240, the aspect ratio again stayed the same.

I decided to physically go through and change the resolutions of the generated media, in this case 320×240 to 1440×1080(the new project settings), the media “lost its way” …meaning my lower thirds graphics didn’t scale up properly. Previously butted images now had gaps between them and vice versa, and the titles had also moved.

I thought this might have something to do with the aspect ratio change of the project and not the resolution, so I did the same thing only this time I started with media generated in a 16:9 DV project. Once again I changed the DV project to an HDV project and again I physically went through and changed the resolutions of the generated media from to 720×480 DV Widescreen to1440x1080. Scaled better but not perfect. Once again previously graphics the butted up against one another had gaps between them and vice versa, and once again the titles had moved

So…

WILL MY GENERATED MEDIA CORRECTLY RESCALE FROM LOWER RESOLUTIONS PROJECTS TO HIGHER RESOLUTIONS PROJECTS AND DIFFERENT ASPECT RATIO SETTINGS?

NO!

Just something to keep in mind if you are going to repurpose some generated media for higher resolutions or different aspect ratios projects – you’ll almost always have to readjust everything!

mike

[Mike Calla]

“meters per track is part of Vegas Pro 8.”

Ahhh, forgot about that. I’,m still on Veg 7. Correct me if I’m wrong though, per track meters are only available in the audio mixer view? Or are they viewable on the header of the track?

If they are viewable on the track header then that will be great news for ACID version 7!!!!

[Mike Calla]

That would be a great thing!! In addition to automated node placement, maybe an envelope tool for nodes so i can change multiple fade curves at once…

my list could go on and on and on…

No software is perfect, as the long as the developer’s and company listen, then I’m happy.

My wish for audio in both Vegas and ACID is level meters for each track. I’ve been using ACID since version 1, but that point has always kept doing my final mixes in Protools and Sonar.

[Mike Calla]

As far as i know Jeremy is right.

Put a Volume Envelope on the track. You’ll get up to 6bd extra.

Vegas’s audio engine is held over from its audio roots. In audio production, generally speaking, you always lower before raising. i.e.: to get a treble boost, you’ll first attempt to lower the bass. Same as raising the volume, you should first attempt to lower other tracks.

But nonetheless, i see your point!!!! Especially if you have a tons of clips that need this action.

Hopefully Jeremy and i are wrong:)

mike

[Mike Calla]

ohhh, my bad Alan.

Sorry:)

[Mike Calla]

Just like Allen i’m not familiar with Vegas Movie Studio but don’t start with normalizing and limiting. Start with your volume level. You might try to simply turn down your levels until they are bearable.

Normalizing and limiting are two very specific audio tools. First normalizing is a pretty bad to begin with and is almost never used in professional audio. And a limiter is simply a way of not exceeding a certain pre-set level. Used lightly it will be transparent – used poorly and you’ll likely get a pumping effect (audio volume goes down quickly any time something loud happens then rises again until something loud happens, etc). Using the limiter in this situation might actually make everything louder. Limiters are most often used in trying to gain volume:)

My guess is, and i could be wrong, is that the levels of your subjects are hard to hear in relation to the background level of the location and you raised the master level to be able to hear your subjects.

Welcome to hell. It would take a considerable finesse and experience to correct such a problem – not software or effects. I don’t know the extent of Vegas Movie Studio’s audio capabilities, but i doubt it could correct this.

sorry,
mike

[Mike Calla]

For longer projects i just save the project as a .veg file. I don’t render it.

When you save a project Vegas allows you to drop that project file (.veg) on to the timeline of another project.

When I’m ready for a final output/render i put these .veg files together on a new project timeline. Then i render them together. That way I’m only rendering them once, and all at the same time.

mike

[Mike Calla]

Click File > render as > mainconcept mpg2 > custom button > Video (tab at the bottom)

You’ll find yourself in the DVD (NTSC or PAL) Video Template.
You can see the “aspect ratio” pull down menu, set this to match your footage which I assume is widescreen. This should hopefully correct your stretched problem presuming your project settings were correct.

As for not being sharp, it’s hard to say. You said you imported in HD. What project settings did you use?

Your project settings might be the culprit for both problems. You might have imported one format, edited it as another and then rendered it to a third format.

Mike