Yes, I purchased the book in December after I purchased VV3. I found it very helpful and learned some basic techniques and a lot of navigation methods that probably would have taken a lot more time without the tutorials. SPOT (aka DSE, aka Douglas Spotted Eagle) is just releasing a comprehensive book on Vegas 4 which should be terrific but not sure what the price is yet.

I would highly recommend this book (along with reading this forum and the Creative Cow forum) as an entry level to learning the NLE business.

FWIW,
TomG

Ok - I am going to ask a n00b question here - what do you mean by limited to 2 video tracks and 4 audio tracks?

Cliff

With the LE version, you are limited to the number of tracks you can have on the timeline. With the full version, you can have an unlimited number of tracks.

A video track is a string of video displayed on a timeline on the screen. Same for audio, except, of course, it is audio. Sort of like this:

V = a scene of video A = some sounds, either from the video, or added.

VVVVVVVVVVVV________________VVVVV__VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
______AAAAAA______AAAAA_________AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
VVVVVV______VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV_____VV________________________
AAAAAA______AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA_____AA________________________
______AAAAAA________________AAAAA__AAAAA___________________

When Vegas finishes with it, it is reduced to one Video and one Audio track which is sent back to your camcorder or VCR.

Full versions are essentially unlimited in the number of video and audio tracks. LE versions are limited in the number of tracks. I recommend the book and the LE version, but expect to want to move up to version 4 soon. You will want MORE! You will then probably want the Douglas Spotted Eagle book on version 4.

Welcome to the forum ;)

Cliff,

Let me put it in perspective for you. Last year, I bought VideoFactory for $59 and a book on video editing for $39. The book did not use VideoFactory and so I had to translate what they were doing into what Videofactory could do. Together that cost me $98. If I wanted Sound Forge XP Studio 5.0 I would have had to spend another $59 at that time. The total cost would have been $157. I didn’t know about the Digital Video and Audio Production book at that time but I was very disappointed when I did find out about it. (read: I wish I had bought it instead of the path I took)

The Digital Video and Audio Production book gives you Vegas 3 LE (very similar to VideoFactory with 2 video and 3 audio tracks), a book that teaches you a full workflow from capture, though editing, to rendering geared specifically for the software you are using, AND you get Sound Forge XP Studio 5.0 all for $49. (ACID Express is free anyway) This is an outstanding offer in my opinion. You can go really far with just this software alone.

The user interface between Vegas 3 LE, VideoFactory, and Vegas 4 are the same. Learn one, you learn them all. They differ only in their features but essentially work the same. You are definitely not shooting yourself in the foot and can use what you learn in Vegas 3 LE to transition to Vegas 4. As I said, it’s a great deal and Sonic Factory is an outstanding company. They make quality products and you’ll be glad you bought from them. (...and we’re all here to help you) Just my 2 cents.

~jr

Thanks jr,

That was what I wanted to find out - Thanks for taking the time to answer my question as thoroughly as you did.

I had been debating on what I would be missing out on, but from the what I gather, I will be learning what I need to learn to transition to the full blown version at a later date.

I'm off to order right now... :-)

Thanks again,

Cliff

Cliff,

Great! Welcome to the community. ;-)

~jr