At the moment Vegas Pro 18 Edit is available for $ 249.

Download a trial and follow some tutorials to learn it to see if it meets your needs..

I think Vegas is superior to other NLEs out there for the user. But it doesn't play well with other NLEs and hardware support is not as strong as Avid or Premiere. If you don't have to collaborate with editors using other software, then Vegas is the best there is. It could use multiple resolutions, multiple audio formats and sample rates long before Avid and Final Cut and Premiere. And the price is the best.

For the average user, Vegas still offers the best of all worlds: Inexpensive, powerful, super-easy learning curve. My co-workers are locked into industry-standard workflows (e.g., Avid and Final Cut Pro, specifically), but as a non-professional editor and occasional filmmaker, Vegas is clearly the best choice for me. Plus, Vegas is fun!

You may read my reply over here https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/why-isn-t-vegas-pro-taken-seriously--129791/#ca806894

But otherwise, Vegas Pro is far better than others mainly because it is very easy to use, it has all the features one would need in a video editing program and the best of all, it would run on your old computer also though the speed will be somewhat slow and no doubt it would happen with any other software.

In fact, Premiere Pro refused to run on my laptop, and a few other software's that I tried were crashing again repeatedly. Vegas Pro is the only software that accepted the challenge to run on my laptop without giving any troubles.

In your other thread, you have mentioned that you learned video editing on Vegas, so I believe you are already familiar with the software. Besides, the best way is to download & install the free 30 days trial and try out for yourself what best it can serve you.

I work on a very basic principle to go with what is easy & convenient for me then no matter how difficult it is for the rest of the world. At the end it's you who is going to work with the software and if you are not comfortable with the software, then you will never enjoy working with that software.

You can download Vegas Pro as trial, but with Avid you can get the limited version - Avid Media Composer First - for free, without any time limitations. But it has other limitations (from the top of my head) - 5 bins, 5 video tracks, 8 audio tracks, exports to H.264 and dnxhd (+ youtube etc). Composer First projects are not compatible with Media Composer projects. You will find that Avid has a much steeper learning curve than Vegas, but both are very flexible and you can create your own user interfaces/workspaces to suit your workflow. This you cannot do with for instance BlackMagic DaVinci Resolve. Avid is better with media management, but again this depend on your requirements.

With Vegas you can also use more plugins, both for video and audio, as compared to Avid, which is more restricted.

You say that Vegas cant be as amazing as Avid and Premiere, but in my opinion that is not true. You can configure it as you like and the workflow will not most likely be more joyful and less frustrating. If I was you I would start with Vegas Movie Studio Platinum. This is a reduced version of Vegas Pro and can do most of what the pro versions does. I have used Movie Studio for years (now usd 49 for the Platinum version) and when I recently upgraded to Vegas Pro 18 Edit (at usd 99 for upgrade) I had no problems opening those Movie Studio Projects in Vegas Pro. I could even copy/paste a timeline from Movie Studio to Vegas Pro without any problems.

So: Start with your needs/requirements/budget and compare versions to find the one that suits you.

So I am looking for a professional program but don't have the cash for Avid. I was looking at subscribing to Premiere for the $280 year but I would like to own the software.

Sony Vegas looks decent for the $600 price tag and it is compatible with Pro Tools 11 which I already have. SO are there any downsides to using it versus Avid or Premier?

I know it wont be as amazing as Avid but as long as it can edit HD videos and can deal with variable frame rates and renders find I can be okay with it.

Hi,

Regarding Pro Tools 11 functionality, I would question that because since the 1st build (I think) of Version 18 Magix took the Pro Tools export functionality out of it.

I used to use that feature a lot, as I’ve got PT11 as well.

Why Magix did that, I don’t know 🙁

At the moment Vegas Pro 18 Edit is available for $ 249.

Cheaper still if you get Vegas Studio 17 Platinum £29, with the option of upgrade to pro for £74. Includes a heck of a lot of add-ons.

 

Regarding Pro Tools 11 functionality, I would question that because since the 1st build (I think) of Version 18 Magix took the Pro Tools export functionality out of it.

I used to use that feature a lot, as I’ve got PT11 as well.

Why Magix did that, I don’t know 🙁

Interesting. I see they similarly removed the export to Media Coder AAF export as well in VP18. A similar scenario is that they removed Stem creator in Acid Pro 10. Except there, they did it in an AP10 update release. The word they did it due to a licensing issue. Probably same scenario with Vegas and .AAF export.

Seems like Magix needs to create a feature removal list if these types of trends continue.

Most likely workaround would be to export your project as an EDL txt file, then open that in Vegas 17, then export to PT AAF. Unsure all what you would lose doing that.