This is just a very small review / appreciation. I am a long time user of Vegas, starting at V13 (I think) all the way up to v18.
I am not a professional. Not even close. Occasionally, I do some multi cam work on concerts, services, talks, presentations, retreats or even parties. I don't have time to spend endless hours researching how to use a video editing tool. I want to import my media, get some titles done, cut and blend the clips I want and to just export it.
My first steps were with Adobe premiere, which I found was way too complex for my taste, but when I tried Vegas for the first time, it was like "wow". I didn't have to even read a manual. As if there was some sort of telepathic connection between me and this program, I just started working entirely intuitively and I loved how Vegas understood me instead of me trying effortfully to understand Vegas.
Sure, occasionally I had to look up some settings, but it was mostly a matter of a minute or two to find an appropriate solution or tip on google to any kind of problem or question.
What I also loved was the cool bundles with Soundforge, numerous extra Video plugins e.g. from NewBlue of BFX.
Still, I was pondering a lot whether or not to upgrade to Vegas Pro 19, and this is why: While I truly loved Vegas Pro for its super intuitive workflow, I hated its instability. 3-4 years ago, I was rendering a 20 min video file that had to be presented at our Christmas party. The party was about to start at 8 pm and it's been already late afternoon, while my PC was "chewing" on the rendering and simply stopped some 5 minutes before end of video file. Nothing really helped. No settings, nothing.
Ultimately, I rendered each video track separately with all the tansitions, blendings and text renderings and combined those rendered tracks again in a new Vegas project to render again the final video.
Trith be told: This happened to me with ALL versions of Vegas ....... - before Vegas v19 entered the stage!!!!
I have done a couple of video projects with v19 and - knock on wood - this is the very first version of Vegas that yet didn't crash while rendering a project. Not once!
The look and feel is more responsive, it feels snappier, and it feels just stable. It really feels like a very mature, yer sleek piece of advanced software that one cannot help but enjoy every bit of it,
I do remember a user survey by Magix 1-2 years ago about what things were important to me/the user for future versions of Vegas. And my response back in the day was: 1. Stability, 2. Stability and 3. Stability. And then add some more stability.
And you know what: Magix delivered. And more than delivered on that stability.
For my needs and my amount of time I spend with this hobby, Vegas 19 is just the perfect combination between ease of use, complex tools and stability.
For Vegas 20, I would wish for some more improved text/titles functionality. Now, we have dozens of cool presets, however, I think of more cinematic/serious presets and cinematic fonts.
All in all, big thumbs up to the guys and gals form Magix for advancing and refining this wonderful piece of software, Keep it on!