A bit of perspective...

Jessariah67 wrote on 4/20/2004, 2:14 PM
Up front, this is just my two cents, but I think some people in here are getting into quite an uneccesary twist over Vegas 5 & all its "failings." As someone who is not a code-crunching, know-the-entire-app-like-the-back-of-my-hand hardcore user, yet owns all of Sony's Pro apps and makes a living using them, I'd like to offer a few things to consider.

1) The last time I showed a client a work in progress, I don't recall the color of the buttons in my NLE ever coming up. The next time I show a client something that they absolutely hate, I'll remember to blame it on the new Vegas interface.

2) Anyone who thinks that Premiere Pro is more intuitive and easier to use than Vegas and is threatening to make the switch, I say, "God's speed." I know 5 people personally who have come here from Adobe. I know no one who has ever LEFT Vegas once they gave it a fair shot.

3) How many albums have been cut in Premiere? There's a whole audio side to this that many of us seem to forget about, though they were "here first." Looks like they finally got some goodies of their own, which is good for all of us, cuz that's the more who will upgrade/buy and will speed along the next upgrade. I also like it for myself as well, since my projects tend to have sound.

4) Personally, I like the compositing & masking additions. That was something I wanted, and I got it. "Real" nesting would have been nice. I don't give a hoot about the media bin. Next time you might get more of what you want, and maybe I won't get anything I'd like to see. What good does it do me to bitch about it in here? Sony has email addresses. They have a product suggestion form. Use that. Not many people in here can do anything about it anyway.

5) If you don't think Vegas 5 is worth the $$$, you can practice good 'ol Amercian Marketplace-rules Capitalism and simply not buy it. Acid 5 is probably going to continue to try and expand on VSTi, recording & MIDI -- all things I NEVER use in it -- and so I will probably not be interested in upgrading to Acid 5. Of course, there's the long-range thing to consider as well -- which is support for the product at this stage will further the development and eventually get me to where I want to be. So maybe I'll spring for Acid 5 after all...

I've read in a few places that Sony, as an entity, has actually done a few things successfully in the past. I'm willing to accept that they have a direction and that, ultimately, Vegas will find itself on the short list of NLE "must-haves" -- a place it should and could be. I'm just thankful Sony DIDN'T dismantle it like so many other title buyouts seem to go. Could you imagine turning to page 1 of the Vegas 5 manual and seeing the Adobe logo at the bottom?

KH

Comments

planders wrote on 4/20/2004, 2:39 PM
Thank you, Lone Voice In The Wilderness!

I just posted something kind of similar elsewhere; the audio guys felt left out of the Vegas 4 upgrade, this time around they got the big new features. Fair enough, since as far as I'm concerned version 4 already had the "big guys" beat in all but very specific areas when it came to video.

My number one problem with Adobe's stuff (and I use many of their print/web apps) is that the user interfaces are hardly even consistent among Adobe apps, much less among Windows apps as a whole. Considering that "consistent user interfaces" was a major selling point of their Creative Suite upgrade, this is pretty weird.

And among their audio/video tools, the problem is even more obvious--as they took the one-program universe of Cool Edit Pro and dropped it essentially untouched into the equally--but differently--weird universe of Premiere and After Effects. At least all of my Sony/Sonic Foundry programs look and feel more or less the same, and follow the same rules.
Jessariah67 wrote on 4/20/2004, 5:16 PM
The function of Vegas is absolutely efficient and intuitive -- regardless of whether or not it has brushed metal borders and Starfleet Command icons...That's what's great about ALL the Sony products. Shallow learning curve.
kosins wrote on 4/20/2004, 7:22 PM
Jessariah ,
Agreed.
That was a pretty good "two cents" worth. Well said.

I've got a whole of wall of software that I "used once or twice", that now gathers dust.

I'm pretty happy with the SF/Sony line of products, and I haven't regretted the purchase of any of them thus far.
They simply,well .........work the way I expected.
I like that.

Paul_Holmes wrote on 4/20/2004, 7:53 PM
I think the word needed is "perspective." I add an amen to all the above. I came from Premiere and fell in love with Vegas and can't look back. In the end it's, "What results can you get from this NLE."

As far as the $250 upgrade from my Vegas 4 to Vegas 5 plus DVDA -- I think that rocks. I really expected it to be more. When I played with the first version of DVDA I loved it, but needed end actions. Well they're there plus a whole lot more. I'm still experimenting with the new track motion Z axis stuff in Vegas 5 and like it, but am not overwhelmed. Eventually I'll have to test it against Satish's 3D plug in to see which is easier to use and does a better job.

Still, the Bezier masking, the keyframable transition envelopes, the film-look plugins and the (I'm assuming) even better MPEG encoding (2 Pass with Main
Concepts latest codec) all makes it worth the nominal $100 to $150 to upgrade. Add DVDA on top of that with AC3 encoding for only another $100 and I'm blown away!