The real creative part is bringing it down to only TEN this is going to be tough

That could be your first one then Rory! "10 aint enough!"

Grazie

oops . . brevity, brevity . . .

being new to film editing,but coming from a sound engineering background,but also own two other major nle software packages,sony vegas is by far the best one of the bunch.
1 its simple yet can be as complex as you need it to be which turns you on to film making rather than digging through manuals like some others on the market.
2 i like the fact i can work with footage as easy as i can with audio again coming from sound to film this is a joy.
3 the sheer amount of file types which can be used no one else offers this amount without the use of more software,its good to keep everything in one box so to speak.
4 the timeline itself, being able to bring up frames into view not just heads and tails helps with the speed of editing.
5 the audio having used sound forge for many years for mastering work the tools in vegas are again far above the rest of the crowd and the sample rate conversion is stunning can hardly tell that a 44.1 has been put into a 48 sample based project unlike one or two of the others on the market.
6 video efx again are simple and uncluttered and do what they say on the tin.
7 stable,vegas is the most stable nle out of the other big two pp and avid in the last two years vegas has crashed about twice which in anyones books is dam good going for any software,try spending a week on avid but saying that i could not be without pro tools,strange really that vegas is the pro tools of the video world not avid.
8 play back is always good even with lots of edits knocking about.
9 sony support is very good they have always got back to me pretty fast and been as helpful as they could be,so they do listen
10 and lastly it has best the forum of all of them everyone helps each other and provides huge amounts of information which has been a great help to me over the years.

so thats my ten all real simple things but thats all it takes to make a piece of software great and thats what vegas is,so lets keep the best one out there.

refreshes the edits other nle's can't reach

(homage to heineken)

1. nested composites I can take parts of a veg, edit rename and composite it with my current veg all live real time leaving original media and project in original state
2. 3d space composites with alpha channel ie mask and lighten within the track…
3. Multiple channel composite ie. I can composite a mask track parent and child then ADD the alpha to my next track real time no pre-renders
4. now import layered PSD
5. import xml files ie generated text and web animations for my project live
6. drink beer and edit with speed without getting confused because all tracks and composites are visible all the time
7.Don’t need to drink beer and edit because Vegas refreshes instantly. ie any changes to graphics in graphics editor is updated instantly
8.Create templates for projects and interchange events and media in projects
9.Save empty event as a fx for example I have a 3d Boris extruded logo as an fx on an empty event use same animation but change logo for individual events
10.Consolidate media save project so I can edit on a different pc

Will change and edit live like Sony Vegas

<edit> I'm not in the contest, just showing some love for the Big V

Last night I gave an audio presentation to our local PVA. Getting good audio at weddings & events, and how to process it in the edit. I really tried to make the edit portion of it non-NLE specific. I really did. But every time I show something on Vegas everyone goes "WHAT did you just do?? Do that again! How can Vegas do that??"

the first few of these came up last night

1. Ability to use vst plugins such as noise reduction directly in Vegas w/o having to export to another audio tool (like FCP has to do with Soundtrack)

2. Ability to throw anything on the timeline and have it just work (as long as you have the codec, so 99% of the time)

3. Adjust the volume of audio during playback (same as JC said - adjust any parameter during playback)

4. It's NOT dependent on high-end video cards / accelerator cards to perform at its best. I maintain that the recent upgrade of Premiere to take advantage of $800+ video cards is no advantage. In one case it gets you realtime filter playback, which Vegas already has, in another it gets you better AVCHD editing experience - better than Vegas. BUT, if I put that $800+ toward a new CPU, it’s closer to a wash. And the upside to upgrading your CPU is that EVERYTHING will perform better, not just your NLE. This one is more my opinion I guess.

5. Scriptable interface allowing for tools like UltimateS & Excalibur . You can come up with 10 reasons involving that alone. Photomontages, powerful batch rendering, etc.

6. Stability. Not everyone will agree with me but that has been my experience. The only failures I've had in years, probably ever, has been with a corrupt piece of HDV media (which I was able to fix with some mpeg repair tool) and on older versions of Vegas, having a large number of hi-rez photos.

7. Can use HDTV preview w/o having to have a high-end interface card.

8. Powerful color grading filters built in, does not require a separate application.

9. Includes a good amount of compositing ability w/o having to go to another application like After Effects.

10. Provides DVD and Blu-ray authoring built in, making it a very affordable package.


Spot – please post the results of the “smackdown” no matter the outcome. I’m not a power user on any other NLE but I’m interested in what the others can really do, because certainly they excel at different things than what Vegas excels at. Last night’s experience drives home how thankful I am for how Vegas works. I’m no longer out to change anyone’s mind to switch from Brand X to Vegas; but just showing users of other NLEs standard Vegas stuff, stuff that we take for granted – it just blew their minds.

From a simple, hobbyist perspective:

0 - Easy to install;
1 - Easy to learn;
2 - Easy to use (project media bin, import, and export tools);
3 - Easy to alter the appearance for personal workflow and location preferences;
4 - Easy to customize input for personal workflow (still image duration, overlap presets, and a multitude of others);
5 - Easy to view alterations (live viewing of modifications as they are made);
6 - Easy to endure (few crashes, quick responses, and speedy renders (using appropriate hardware and techniques));
7 - Easy to own (registered software is always available for future download regardless of where the original installation disks end up (blush));
8 - Easy to expand (forums and helpful individuals make moving from hobbyist projects to professional projects quite simple, providing one has the requisite artistic skills from the start (wink)); especially with enhancements like the latest multi-layer PSD import function;
9 - Easy to showoff: I took a series of scanned images (high school freshman homeroom images) in Vegas to Las Vegas for a class reunion; used the Vegas timeline and a data projector to display the images; and employed the pan/zoom function on the primary monitor (to hide the functions from the crowd) to manually, and smoothly, zoom each face up to full frame size and smoothly pan from one face to the next... something not possible in powerpoint slides and never seen by anyone in our class - especially, with their own face as the ultimate target...!
I was quite the BMOC that night... quite a bit different than all those years ago. . . (grin)
Thanks to Sony Vegas...
* * *
There's my list; Sony and Easy are both four-letter words; in my view, these four letter words are Good - and all three are quite complementary in this case!
It could be the new SEG way for making video ... hmmmm. . . lol

I crack me up. . .

Until that time. . . Earl J.

Since I work daily with people who use several different NLE's, here is my list:

1. Has 32-Bit float processing for better compositing
2. Allows for native .r3d support without the need to convert
3. Allows full access to and adjustment of Red meta-data without stopping playback
4. Has 5.1 mixing directly inside the NLE itself without the need for another app.
5. Supports native 4K timelines.
6. Will never ever force the editor to render in order to playback project
7. Supports VST plug-ins for audio work within the NLE.
8. Is extend-able via scripting
9. Includes licenses for additional network render nodes.
10. Has easy speed changes with automatic pitch adjustment.

I think these are the things that make Vegas rather unique.

Some good things there. And the first list I've seen that actually reflects some of Vegas' advantages. Though the 32bit processing is a bit dubious. And the RED thing is not going to be unique to Vegas in a couple of months.

One thing I would say makes Vegas unique is the ability to have multiple installs with no dongle or licensure issues. That's VERY handy.

I am not a big time PRO but I do like to edit. here is my simple list.

1.. Crossfades ( no other NLE does it so easy and elegent)
2.. Automatic Crosfades
3.. Awesome support from the likes of Spot, Johnny Roy, Jet DV and many others for their Scripts
4.. The forum and all great help
5.. Great customization of the interface
6.. Ability to run more than one instance and copy and paste between them for project building
7.. Keeps cool people cool and makes wanabes want. :-)
8.. The new white balance plug-in (really needed it for an old project that I was never able to get done)
9.. Does not need Expensive hardware add-ons to run fast and stable
10.. Did I mention all the great people that make it GREAT.
Bonus
11.. Awesome audio editing and functionality
12.. Runs great on systems that may not be the latest and greatest , also works good on laptops.

Paul B

Spot,

While I admire the effort here, the problem is that darn few people here have ever USED any other professional application, and the answers we are seeing reflect this. People are positing about the stability of the application when there are literally DOZENS of posts below this one complaining about the LACK of stability. People are posting about the great Sony customer support, when we have people abandoning the product because of non-responsiveness from that same support.

People are bragging on the open timeline, but neglecting the fact that the playback speed is in single digit fps. People talking about how easy it is to customize the interface when they've never seen how customizeable something like Avid is.

To properly answer this question, someone SHOULD have used at least three major Pro NLEs. Otherwise it's just blatant fanboy bragging without context.

Perrone,

In addition to Vegas, I own Adobe Premiere CS4 and Avid Media Composer v4.0.5 and use FCP. If I get to choose which NLE to use for a project, 99% of the time I launch Vegas.

John

Awesome. Then your comments here about how Vegas excels over other products will have excellent context. I am looking forward to your list.

So you were on the Avid Beta Test team?

unless somebody edited, I don't see where anyone thus far has listed "great sony customer support" as you've indicated.

They have mentioned this forum, Spot, JR, etc.

<edit> whoops, I just saw it. At least one user got good support. :)

Sorry John,

I just realized you listed your two advantages already.

Subchaz, post #9

1.....Blue snaps
2.....Pink out of sync sound tracks
3.....Mouse wheel timeline expansion
4.....Scripts
5.....Veg transfers copy and paste
6.....White balance
7.....On the fly everything
8.....Timeline snapshot
9.....Cinescore integration
10...Sound Forge integration
11...5.1
12...Accepts just about any file
13...Not bogged down with excessive clicks to install fades, and other stuff.
14...Auto save no matter what
15...Unlimited tracks
16...Continuous timeline reset while playback engaged.
17...Timeline burning of Bluray and DVD
18...Cineform NEO integration
JJK

PerroneFord,
I take exception to your post (as well as many others) you most always seem so negitive toward sony and push your other PRO nle's. this list was for VEGAS and what is good about, not how does it compare to other's so why should we list what the others have.

Just to make myself clear I have Avid Liquid, Pinnacle Studio 14, Adobe Premiere Elements. and have used FCP, AVID Media Composer 4, Edius and even Premiere PRO. For the most part I prefer the speed and ease and for me the stability of VEGAS, yes some situations it is not good for but that can be said for all others as well.

So lets stick to the OP and list what we really like about VEGAS.

Sooo instead of complaining of what others have listed why dont you make your list, I do not see one...

Paul B

Feel free to take exception to what I post. And I am sorry you think I am negative toward Sony. Nothing could be further from the truth. I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE my EX1 and will say it to anyone. Sony make any number of products I feel are exceptional. I used to feel that way towards Vegas. I no longer feel that way towards Vegas, and I have the right to say that as well.

That aside, the OP did *NOT* ask you to list what you *liked* about Vegas. This was the direct quote:

"List the ten (10) things that you think make Vegas better than any other NLE."


In order to say what makes Vegas better than other NLEs, it seems like a prerequisite to have actually USED other NLEs. That was my point to Spot, and I stand by that statement. It also would seem logical to post things that Vegas has as features that other NLE's do not. In order to know that, one would have to have spent time in competing products. Preferably, similarly positioned products.

The vast majority of things that have been posted in response this question, are things that exist in the majority of other professional NLEs. There have been some notable exceptions and those are the things that Vegas is certainly better at. Some of those include it's excellent audio abilities, it's ability to manipulate things when the timeline is playing, it's wonderful implementation of the RED SDK, the ability to copy media and settings from project to project, even with a drag and drop. There are certainly others.

My list of what I feel makes Vegas better than other apps has been talked about here for years. And all of them have been covered already by other experienced editors. No need to re-hash them.

I'd go further and ask "why 10?"
You only need one deal breaker. As shown above once you get beyond a couple of reasons you force people into mirky waters.

Bob.

Why "ten?"
Because lists seem to come in groups of "ten."
I'd hoped that the community could stay on track for the ten things they personally feel Vegas does better than other NLE's.

Further, even if you haven't worked with other NLE's doesn't mean you don't have a right to an opinion about Vegas' best features.

I've been with Vegas since version 4 and typically ugrade every other version. I'm not a professional on the level of most of the users here but Vegas has suited my needs and more than paid for itself. I'm only qualifying my list because it is from a purely laypersons perspective..

10. I don't know much about formats and codecs but I do know that the Vegas timeline is like velcro. Everything I throw at it sticks.

9. My system isn't on the bleeding edge but unless I do something really crazy, I get full frame rate preview and that makes timing easy.

8. From the first time I used Vegas, the interface felt natural. It doesn't bog down my creativity with too many pulldowns and flyouts.

7. I love that I can play hollywood bigshot and create a short film with my friends that has 5.1 surround. They love it too!

6. An upgrade costs less than some cable TV bills.

5. I've tried Premier and never could get comfortable with it. It just doesn't make sense to me like Vegas did from the start.

4. I started with Vegas to do video work but have since branched out to voiceovers and radio spots with it as well. Versatile!

3. I've recommended it to several people with absolute confidence in their satisfaction.

2. I can't think of another NLE that can do as much as Vegas for under $600. Actually I can't think of another NLE under $600 period.

1. I am amazed that Vegas is so simple for a relatively new guy like me yet so feature packed for the longtime pros.