Filmy: Paste Insert?

BrianStanding wrote on 10/27/2003, 11:46 AM
Filmy,

A while back you were talking about Vegas not having a true "insert" feature. (see http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=220081).

I just discovered the "Paste Insert" feature in Vegas, and was wondering if this is what you're looking for. Try this:

1. open up a media file in the Trimmer
2. select a time region in the file
3. copy (CTRL-C) the selected area into the clipboard
4. put the cursor on the spot on the timeline you want to insert the clip
5. hit "Paste Insert" (CTRL-SHIFT-V)

Try this with different Ripple settings Does this behave more the way you would expect?

Comments

filmy wrote on 10/27/2003, 6:49 PM
I have been using the "a paste" as well as "paste insert". This method isn't so much the "how to" it is the "end result" of the way VV handles the inserts. For example - the other day I was doing a 'directors' cut of the film (I was doing a Dp's cut because the director vanished for about 5 months and no one knew how the film was supposed to be cut because he was the only person with a complete script - don't ask) and overall using "paste" or "paste insert" made not one bit of differance. At one point I had the mystery problem happen - I selected the end of a scene/cut and "inserted" at that point. Instead of placing it after the cut it just plopped everything down on top of the next scene and rippled everything a few cuts down the line. So I did an undo and tried again...same thing. Did not matter if I used "paste" or "paste insert", the results were the same. This tied me up for about 15 minutes of doing various things - maunally placing the cursor at the in point, using the ] key to go to the end of the event - It just would not insert and ripple the way it was supposed to. I think I finally just put the insert on the top most video track and pulled everything down as a group after. The thing is when it did finally work the "black frame/gap" thing happened except it inserted correct but moved the next cut creating a long gap. I just manually pulled everything up after that. All extra work caused by some weird bug that only happens to some people some of the time and none of the people most of the time. :)

I know some people like to jump in at this point and make a "You must be doing something wrong, I never have this problem - vegas is perfect" comment. But I stress again this is something that happens and as of yet I can not seem to find any rhyme or reason. Aside from a few single frame gaps being put in every now and than (And believe me I zoom in and look after every edit now - an extra step but one that is needed) the assembly I was doing went along ok except for this one insert. Nothing changed - all before and all after was done using the same "paste" insert method.

Now - the other thing that I have made mention of as far as inserts go is selecting what goes where. the "paste insert" does not adress that at all - whatever you "cut" or "copy" is simply pasted, starting on the track that is "selected". You are not asked what audio track you want to place audio on. So if I have, say, a track layout of V1, V2, A1, A2, A3 and I "select" V1 as my insert track VV will automaticly place a new audio track under V1.

So to answer your question of "Try this with different Ripple settings Does this behave more the way you would expect?" I would have to say - on the "paste" or "paste insert" method - yes because in will "insert" and, most of the time, ripple fine. But on the slection - no, because there really isn't any user interaction (ie: I want video to go on V2, and Audio 1 to go on A4) other than just clicking one track and pasting.
BrianStanding wrote on 10/28/2003, 10:13 AM
The black frame thing is a mystery to me, too. I think it's a problem with the snapping behavior of Vegas (i.e., things don't really snap to where they should.) I've experienced this problem, too, and now make sure my cursor is at the edit point (fade begin or end of clip; use {CTRL-ALT-LEFT/RIGHT}) before dragging a clip onto the timeline. If you have "Snap to Cursor" enabled, this seems to help avoid the black frame thing. I agree this is messy, but is the best workaround I've found. I'd love to be able to specify the type of snapping, such as: "snap only to last frame of previous event with no (or specified) overlap." Meanwhile, Ed Troxel's "Gap Wizard" tool in Excalibur (http://www.vegastrainingandtools.com) seems to do a pretty good job.

I also agree the 3-point editing and track targeting of Vegas is pretty crude. This is one area where Premiere really shines. I've (and I'm sure you have, too) made suggestions on this on the Product Suggestion page. Hopefully, version 5.0 will show some improvements here.

I had only recently discovered "Paste Insert" and it at least seems to do a decent job of inserting something at the point I wish it to go on the timeline.