audio quality

shaft wrote on 11/8/2002, 4:05 PM

I'm interested in how Vegas users think it compares sonically to other software such as Nuendo, Pro Tools, Cool Edit Pro, Sonar or any other progran. I like the setup in Vegas but I've heard others might sound better. In addition is there any difference sonically between Vegas 2.0 and 3.0.

Comments

bgc wrote on 11/8/2002, 4:30 PM

I believe that since programs like Vegas and the others are essentially digital mixing programs (combining audio and putting them through effects), talking about the "sound" of them isn't really valid (of course you can get picky and talk about the mixing subroutines and algorithms, but those seem to be minor for these apps). For example it's not the same as comparing a Neve console to and SSL console. They have lots of signal processing (eqs, amplifiers) in their systems that definitely color the sound one way or the other.

What will really affect the sound of anything you do on any of these programs are the EQs, FXs, Processing plug-ins that you use as track effects and assignable effects. At this point there are truly top-notch plug-ins available through other vendors (Waves, TC, Timeworks, etc.) that work with Vegas and (imho) sound better than the default eq's and effects that come bundled with Vegas.
Vegas 3.0 has many more features than 2.0 which doesn't affect sound quality so much as ease of use.
My personal opinion is that Vegas sounds great and is easy to use. Make sure it has the features you need (it doesn't support midi recording or external hardware controllers (yet?)) which the others do.
Any one with talent and passion can create wonderful sounding audio with the programs you mention. Any one with limited talent can make horrible sounding audio with the programs you mention. Vegas is affordable and powerful and I recommend it but make sure it does what you need.
bgc