As I mentioned in some other posts, I just got through with my first big (2 hours) project with Vegas 6. Lots of audio work (interviews), photo montages, and regular video. This was the most audio-centric project I’ve ever done. The use of the Noise Reduction filter was absolutely huge. It went a long way to making my project look really, really good. (I hope...) I told the recipients of my work that people don’t notice if your audio is good; but they sure do notice if it’s bad. I had some really bad audio made respectable and some good audio made pristine…all with the Noise Reduction 2 filter. It’s very, very cool. I will use it a lot now that I see what it can do.
In my opinion, all went pretty well with some exceptions.
The “nested projects” is an absolutely killer feature. This is enough to upgrade to Vegas 6 if for no other reason. It is extremely helpful for modularizing a project. This makes it easy to rearrange things if people need. You can even nest projects inside of nested projects. I went, I believe, 4 layers deep with this nesting feature. This is where some issues were seen.
Sometimes, when working on a nested project, say 4 layers deep, when I updated a level 4 project, it would sometimes not update all the way back up to the upper level. I would sometimes not get updated waveforms and thus actually *no audio* on the next level(s) up. If I saved the non-rendering project as a new Veg name, then it always would update as appropriate. Sometimes it would update as designed, sometimes it would not. This needs to be addressed. I wonder if there is a recommended max levels deep that we should go. I know of no reference to this.
When you adjust a nested project, it goes through some sort of small rendering routine all the way back up to the highest level. I had some small edited projects do this little render thing perpetually. It positively would not stop. I let one run for 30 minutes. It should just take a few seconds. If I saved that perpetually rendering project as a new filename, all was OK. While it was workable, one should not have to go through this and have to change filenames to either get it to start rendering or to stop rendering. I am sure this is not the intention of the developers. All in all, this is a hugely beneficial feature, but it needs some tweaking.
Other findings: Sometimes, you have to place a 1 frame gap between events so you can have a fade out on one event and a fade in the proceeding event. With Vegas positively in ripple mode, I sometimes lost that 1 frame gap. I thus lost some fade outs and fade ins on adjacent events. You could miss this happening if you’re not careful. This happened on several occasions. Vegas 6 ripple edit would sometimes lose the 1 frame gap. Other event spacing did not seem errant with Vegas ripple mode.
Very Significant issue: With multiple Vegas projects open, 3 of 4, I would very often lose the ability to view on an external monitor. I would have to close all of the events, and then open the one I wanted to view externally. This was particularly frustrating when in the middle of things. This also would happen when going a couple layers deep in nested projects. You would lose the ability to view externally. I am not positive, but it seems this is a post XP SP2 upgrade issue. SP2 has been out for some time now and this really needs to be fixed.
Very Significant issue: Sometimes when editing a project with external monitor, the project would lock up. I would need to turn off my ADVC 100 feeding my external monitor, then all would stabilize out, then I could turn my ADVC-100 back on and I could then view externally. I had this same problem starting with Vegas 5. It *never* happened in Vegas 4. It appears this issue exists also in Vegas 6. This really needs to be fixed. It does not happen often, but it happens often enough. It also appears that if you wait long enough, maybe 2 minutes or so, it would stabilize out. I recently redid my entire system due to motherboard/processor change and the problem has never been eradicated. This also happens on my other dual boot stripped OS partition.
I still haven’t figured out how to use the media manager, I believe it’s called. I keep it turned off. It looks like it could be very useful. I’ve just had no time to learn it.
Boris Red 3GL and Pixelan Spice Master all work very well as plugins from within Vegas 6. No problems there. Excalibur 4 was also a tremendous timesaver.
Of course, some of the built-in Vegas video FX either do not work correctly, or, like in the case of TV Effect, do not work at all. I had to go back to Vegas 5 to use the TV Effect. I know this will be fixed, but just trying to be thorough…
When opening a copy of an audio event to Sound Forge 7 from within Vegas, even if you just open it as a copy in SF 7, do no editing, and then close SF 7, the Vegas event is advanced to the next take. This should only advance as a take if the file is somehow edited/changed. You get a new take just by simply opening the event in Sound Forge. This is not right. Seeing “Take 2” in the event name tells me that this audio is different than the original version, when in fact, it may not be.
Sometimes the active take name will scroll out of view toward the left of the timeline. If you have, say a 15 character take name, you may only see the right 7 characters. The preceding 8 characters are scrolled off to the left, out of view. You then need to scroll all the way to the left to the start of the event name to tell what it is. This is troublesome. (Sometimes you cannot see the active take name at all toward the left. It is scrolled off. I cannot repeat this though. It has positively happened. I never had this issue with either Vegas 4 or 5.) The changing of the active take name when replacing media is a very welcome feature. Now, it’s how it should have always been, in my opinion.
Very Significant issue: I tried/checked this last night because I feared this may happen with nested projects. What I feared would happen did: If you have a Master Veg file with nested Veg files to say 3 or 4 levels deep, then you save the Master Veg file to a new location and check the box to trim and copy the media used, you do NOT get the media used in the nested sub-projects. You just get the Master Veg file and its’ media and the associated nested Veg file; no sub-Veg accompanying media. This positively should not work this way. You should get the nested Veg file with that nested Veg file’s needed media. Currently, to get this desired function, you need to go to each sub-Veg and save the media with each one. This really needs to be fixed. I hope this is not how it’s supposed to work this way. Please say it isn’t so. :)
When performing some general system intensive operations like rendering, large file copies, all with multiple Vegas projects open, we still have the disappearing toolbar icon issue. I have a pretty good system (AMD 64 processor, 1 GB RAM, etc.). The customised toolbar script icons will disappear. Rescanning the scripts folder does fix this immediately, but one should not have to do that.
I remember hearing people talk of a “Black Frame Issue.” I never paid much attention to it, but I believe I may have encountered it:
I made a DVD transition video to go right into the DVD menu. Essentially, this is a First Play video of your DVD menu that has the DVD menu elements (buttons, titles, etc.) gradually appearing, then the last frame of that video is “held” untl your menu comes into view. It should be a pretty seemless event if you do it right. Well, 90 minutes before I was to deliver my final master DVD, I noticed that there was a big black frame frame seen right before the DVD menu appeared. This completely destroyed the desired effect. I opened my first play video in the Vegas timeline, zoomed WAY in, and saw that my very last frame of the video I created from PSD files was now a black frame. I did not put a black frame there at all. My total first play video length was designed to be 00:00:30:00. I removed the single black frame. My total first play video length was NOW 00:00:29:29. My video length was changed (not my me) by 1 frame. The last frame was material not introduced by me. This could be “deadly,” depending on the application. In my case, this was “leathal.” I quickly redid my modular nested project and was able to fix this relatively quickly. Again, this was 90 minutes before my work was to be delivered. If you missed it, you could really be hosed. It is my understanding that the Sony team has been unable to reproduce this issue. I could not tell you how to reproduct it either. All I can tell you is that, “it happened to me.”
Feature still needed: Edited Video FX settings need to retain their settings name, if it is a saved setting.
Well, that’s pretty much it. While it needs some work, Vegas 6 is a tremendous upgrade, in my opinion. I had no crashes; I did have some lockups on my very good running system seemingly in conjunction with the firewire out to external minotor. I have no issues with any other software.
I also am considering upgrading to Sound Forge 8, but it looks like the biggest touted feature of SF8 is the inclusion of CD Architect, which I do not need. I do, however want the use of JKL shuttle keys and the use of VST plugins. I tried the demo, but I do not seem to be able to add VST plugins in the demo version of Sound Forge 8. That is unfortunate. Maybe I am doing something wrong??
…Thank you. :)
In my opinion, all went pretty well with some exceptions.
The “nested projects” is an absolutely killer feature. This is enough to upgrade to Vegas 6 if for no other reason. It is extremely helpful for modularizing a project. This makes it easy to rearrange things if people need. You can even nest projects inside of nested projects. I went, I believe, 4 layers deep with this nesting feature. This is where some issues were seen.
Sometimes, when working on a nested project, say 4 layers deep, when I updated a level 4 project, it would sometimes not update all the way back up to the upper level. I would sometimes not get updated waveforms and thus actually *no audio* on the next level(s) up. If I saved the non-rendering project as a new Veg name, then it always would update as appropriate. Sometimes it would update as designed, sometimes it would not. This needs to be addressed. I wonder if there is a recommended max levels deep that we should go. I know of no reference to this.
When you adjust a nested project, it goes through some sort of small rendering routine all the way back up to the highest level. I had some small edited projects do this little render thing perpetually. It positively would not stop. I let one run for 30 minutes. It should just take a few seconds. If I saved that perpetually rendering project as a new filename, all was OK. While it was workable, one should not have to go through this and have to change filenames to either get it to start rendering or to stop rendering. I am sure this is not the intention of the developers. All in all, this is a hugely beneficial feature, but it needs some tweaking.
Other findings: Sometimes, you have to place a 1 frame gap between events so you can have a fade out on one event and a fade in the proceeding event. With Vegas positively in ripple mode, I sometimes lost that 1 frame gap. I thus lost some fade outs and fade ins on adjacent events. You could miss this happening if you’re not careful. This happened on several occasions. Vegas 6 ripple edit would sometimes lose the 1 frame gap. Other event spacing did not seem errant with Vegas ripple mode.
Very Significant issue: With multiple Vegas projects open, 3 of 4, I would very often lose the ability to view on an external monitor. I would have to close all of the events, and then open the one I wanted to view externally. This was particularly frustrating when in the middle of things. This also would happen when going a couple layers deep in nested projects. You would lose the ability to view externally. I am not positive, but it seems this is a post XP SP2 upgrade issue. SP2 has been out for some time now and this really needs to be fixed.
Very Significant issue: Sometimes when editing a project with external monitor, the project would lock up. I would need to turn off my ADVC 100 feeding my external monitor, then all would stabilize out, then I could turn my ADVC-100 back on and I could then view externally. I had this same problem starting with Vegas 5. It *never* happened in Vegas 4. It appears this issue exists also in Vegas 6. This really needs to be fixed. It does not happen often, but it happens often enough. It also appears that if you wait long enough, maybe 2 minutes or so, it would stabilize out. I recently redid my entire system due to motherboard/processor change and the problem has never been eradicated. This also happens on my other dual boot stripped OS partition.
I still haven’t figured out how to use the media manager, I believe it’s called. I keep it turned off. It looks like it could be very useful. I’ve just had no time to learn it.
Boris Red 3GL and Pixelan Spice Master all work very well as plugins from within Vegas 6. No problems there. Excalibur 4 was also a tremendous timesaver.
Of course, some of the built-in Vegas video FX either do not work correctly, or, like in the case of TV Effect, do not work at all. I had to go back to Vegas 5 to use the TV Effect. I know this will be fixed, but just trying to be thorough…
When opening a copy of an audio event to Sound Forge 7 from within Vegas, even if you just open it as a copy in SF 7, do no editing, and then close SF 7, the Vegas event is advanced to the next take. This should only advance as a take if the file is somehow edited/changed. You get a new take just by simply opening the event in Sound Forge. This is not right. Seeing “Take 2” in the event name tells me that this audio is different than the original version, when in fact, it may not be.
Sometimes the active take name will scroll out of view toward the left of the timeline. If you have, say a 15 character take name, you may only see the right 7 characters. The preceding 8 characters are scrolled off to the left, out of view. You then need to scroll all the way to the left to the start of the event name to tell what it is. This is troublesome. (Sometimes you cannot see the active take name at all toward the left. It is scrolled off. I cannot repeat this though. It has positively happened. I never had this issue with either Vegas 4 or 5.) The changing of the active take name when replacing media is a very welcome feature. Now, it’s how it should have always been, in my opinion.
Very Significant issue: I tried/checked this last night because I feared this may happen with nested projects. What I feared would happen did: If you have a Master Veg file with nested Veg files to say 3 or 4 levels deep, then you save the Master Veg file to a new location and check the box to trim and copy the media used, you do NOT get the media used in the nested sub-projects. You just get the Master Veg file and its’ media and the associated nested Veg file; no sub-Veg accompanying media. This positively should not work this way. You should get the nested Veg file with that nested Veg file’s needed media. Currently, to get this desired function, you need to go to each sub-Veg and save the media with each one. This really needs to be fixed. I hope this is not how it’s supposed to work this way. Please say it isn’t so. :)
When performing some general system intensive operations like rendering, large file copies, all with multiple Vegas projects open, we still have the disappearing toolbar icon issue. I have a pretty good system (AMD 64 processor, 1 GB RAM, etc.). The customised toolbar script icons will disappear. Rescanning the scripts folder does fix this immediately, but one should not have to do that.
I remember hearing people talk of a “Black Frame Issue.” I never paid much attention to it, but I believe I may have encountered it:
I made a DVD transition video to go right into the DVD menu. Essentially, this is a First Play video of your DVD menu that has the DVD menu elements (buttons, titles, etc.) gradually appearing, then the last frame of that video is “held” untl your menu comes into view. It should be a pretty seemless event if you do it right. Well, 90 minutes before I was to deliver my final master DVD, I noticed that there was a big black frame frame seen right before the DVD menu appeared. This completely destroyed the desired effect. I opened my first play video in the Vegas timeline, zoomed WAY in, and saw that my very last frame of the video I created from PSD files was now a black frame. I did not put a black frame there at all. My total first play video length was designed to be 00:00:30:00. I removed the single black frame. My total first play video length was NOW 00:00:29:29. My video length was changed (not my me) by 1 frame. The last frame was material not introduced by me. This could be “deadly,” depending on the application. In my case, this was “leathal.” I quickly redid my modular nested project and was able to fix this relatively quickly. Again, this was 90 minutes before my work was to be delivered. If you missed it, you could really be hosed. It is my understanding that the Sony team has been unable to reproduce this issue. I could not tell you how to reproduct it either. All I can tell you is that, “it happened to me.”
Feature still needed: Edited Video FX settings need to retain their settings name, if it is a saved setting.
Well, that’s pretty much it. While it needs some work, Vegas 6 is a tremendous upgrade, in my opinion. I had no crashes; I did have some lockups on my very good running system seemingly in conjunction with the firewire out to external minotor. I have no issues with any other software.
I also am considering upgrading to Sound Forge 8, but it looks like the biggest touted feature of SF8 is the inclusion of CD Architect, which I do not need. I do, however want the use of JKL shuttle keys and the use of VST plugins. I tried the demo, but I do not seem to be able to add VST plugins in the demo version of Sound Forge 8. That is unfortunate. Maybe I am doing something wrong??
…Thank you. :)