Thanks Steve, for the info... I'll take a look at these....

Hey snicholshms, my background is almost exactly like yours and I thought I would never stoop to buying any of that canned generic crap when I can write my own snappy little diddlys that were much better and free! Anyway, like you the video thing has taken over composing time and my (small) recording studio (video is bigger,better market). Now that you've heard all of the tracks ...is it worth the money? Is there more than 10% of the material that is actually useful? I've heard people say the samples are the only good tracks on them. What do you think...I value your opinion.
TIA,
Randy

None of us is a musician so we have to use canned music. Best bargains out there are the Gene Michael Productions Ad Shop series, quite a bit of the Fresh Music Library and for real live instruments and catchy tunes, Music2Hues. We have others such as Impact and the one that uses a lizard as part of the logo and Music Bakery but the the first three I listed are best bang for the buck.

Peter

Thanks Peter, I'll check em out.
Randy

AnotherMusicMaker, I'm in the same boat. I just purchased Vegas 4+DVD. I've been a Studio (DV, 7, 8) user for about a year and a half. Studio's integrated SmartSound made it really easy to create a music soundtrack. The closest I have found is to purchase SmartSound's (www.smartsound.com) Movie Maestro. It isn't integrated into Vegas, but you can bring your clips into Movie Maestro and add the music there.

If there's some relatively inexpensive product that's integrated into Vegas like SmartSound is into Studio, I'd sure like to hear about it.

Gary

Sonic Fire Pro and Music Maestro are both made by www.SmartSound.com.
Yes, g_randybrown, SFP is worth it to me. I was surprised at how extensive their music library is. But the kicker was...the software let's you use ANY music!....it just speeds up the process of placing the music to the right sections.

It used to take me hours to get a soundtrack placed properly with the fades in and out...at the right spot musically... you know what I mean! SFP does a very good job of automating that process. And it doesn't just fade in and out...it comes up with several different beginnings, endings and arrangements of the same musical piece that you can choose from!

It’s amazing how many of us came from Studio 7 & 8 to Vegas. (Me too) I still use the SmartSound in Studio. I downloaded the demo of Movie Maestro and realized that it was just a stand-alone app and that the version packaged in Studio did the same thing. So when I need music, I just fire up Studio, drop in the SmartSound for the duration I need and render as a WAV file and bring it into Vegas just like it was Movie Maestro. So you already have the cheapest SmartSound solution. Just pretend Studio is Music Maestro. You can buy extra libraries and add them to studio so you loose nothing.

I also still use Studio for Hollywood FX Pro. Vegas makes it real easy to render just the section of the clip you need to add the FX to. Then I bring it into Studio, add the FX and render back out to Vegas. Once again I just pretend Studio is the stand-alone version of Hollywood FX Pro. This is how Adobe Premiere users work with After Effects all the time.

I agree it would be nice to have SmartSound and Hollywood FX integrated into Vegas. I think I read somewhere that Boris FX is going to come out with a Vegas plugin. Perhaps if we email the SmartSound folks they would consider it. They currently support Ulead’s NLE’s. I doubt Pinnacle will ever make a Hollywood FX plugin for Vegas but they make one for Premiere so who knows. If we make a market, they might go there.

There are also freeware MIDI programs that are quite good at creating royalty free music. Do a search for Melody Maestro, SuperJAM, and Microsoft MusicProducer. All are now free and do a surprisingly good job.

~jr

I don't know if they got them on the SoFo web site somewhere but version 3 in the boxed version came with a whole CD of royality free loops, background images, common sound effects, etc.. SoFo's catalog also has a bunch of loops you can purchase.

Here's an embarrassing admission. Long ago in the distant past I used to play Hawaiian guitar. Learned way back when I was a kid. Got fairly accomplished with it. Even played on the radio. Haven't touched in maybe thirty years, just grew tired of it. A few months ago I dug it out of the closet and while I can still play, I'll be damned, I can't read music worth a #$#(%$# anymore!

Ouch!

Hi all,

I actually bought studio7 for the smartsound... after I owned Vegas. (it was cheap)

This may have been obvious to all but me; but the temp .wav files that Studio makes when using the smartsound can be used directly in Vegas.

I would use the loop-selector to assess the duration I needed, then use S7 to create the tempfile... just alt-tabbing between S7 and Vegas to tweek.



HTH, MPH

Tips:
http://www.martyhedler.com/homepage/Vegas_Tutorials.html

If you are a musician and know how to put a tune together, I'd say keep doing it. There's probably a free trial deal on Acid - try it. Your videos will benefit from the originality (even if it doesn't sound original, the fact that it is will mean something to your client). Also you will (eventually) find it easier to stay within your own moods, tempo changes etc when you control both the music creation and the editing.
Remember that film and video music does not need to be compleat music in its own right. A slow succession of chords or a simple rhythmic pattern is often enough.
Tor

You're right Tor, and sometimes I do if time permits. By the way if you guys want some free stuff of mine let me know. I just went to my old (almost forgotten about) mp3.com site ( www.mp3.com/maydjalook ) and noticed they must be trying to save space and deleted all but 3 of my pieces. I've got about 20 that I'll upload if I get enough requests (I also have some full length rock stuff). E-mail me personally at randy@ccpro.net if you're interested.
Randy