First Multi-Cam Project in Vegas

video777 wrote on 10/29/2008, 12:08 AM

I am blown away by how easy it is to edit multi-cam in Vegas. I watched the VASST training video and within about 15 minutes I had three videos synced up and was watching all three of them at the same time. My family and I were blown away.

I have two questions:

1) What is it doing with the audio? Often times I blend the audio from the three cameras and sometimes I even fade the sound down briefly if someone coughs, etc. near one of the cameras.

2) I assume I can add dissolves and other effects after the fact. What effect does that have on the video? Is it the same as editing on a single track? I'm guessing "yes" but wanted to know your opinion.

Anything else I need to know? Thanks.

Comments

PeterWright wrote on 10/29/2008, 12:48 AM

When you set up the Multicam, there is an option to NOT include audio, which leaves all the audio tracks to be mixed as you wish later, as a separate job.

Yes, you can add dissolves or other transitionas afterwards - and because it's based on Takes, you can change your mind any time about which camera you want for any particular part.

I agree, it's amazingly easy, because the Takes approach makes it just like editing a single track.

Tim L wrote on 10/29/2008, 6:05 AM

I think if you hold CTRL while clicking in the camera window you will get a crossfade at that switch. The duration of the crossfade is controlled by the normal "Cut to Overlap" setting. Easy to then drag a transition and drop it on top of the crossfade if you want.

Tim L

video777 wrote on 10/29/2008, 12:06 PM

Thanks everyone. What I'm most amazed about is how incredibly easy this is compared to Liquid. I'm sure that it's all possible with Liquid but this is much, much more intuitive AND it works. Your tips have helped greatly.

P.S. I'm wondering if you're the same Tim L. that I knew over in the Avid/Pinnacle world? If so, you can e-mail me at the same address as it has not changed.

UlfLaursen wrote on 10/29/2008, 12:26 PM

Yes it's great, Allen. I did 2 concert videos in the start of the year, and it was great. I had separate audio track, a channel mixdown burned on CD, and that worked great too after syncing.

/Ulf

video777 wrote on 10/29/2008, 3:44 PM

Thanks Ulf. So if I'm understanding this correctly, I can do the multi-cam thing but leave out the audio. That will combine all the video into a single track but will leave the audio on separate tracks. Is that correct so far?

johnmeyer wrote on 10/29/2008, 5:23 PM

And if you do a lot of event recording, invest in iZotope RX. You can remove chair squeaks, coughs, even baby crys. It is absolutely magic.

Tim L wrote on 10/29/2008, 6:19 PM

P.S. I'm wondering if you're the same Tim L. that I knew over in the Avid/Pinnacle world?
Nope -- not me. But not a very unique username, I admit. I think the Sony VMS message board was the first message board I ever signed on to, and I guess I wasn't very creative that night. On newer boards I've joined more recently I've started using "timlan635", which is at least a tiny bit more unique.

video777 wrote on 10/29/2008, 11:34 PM

[quotes]And if you do a lot of event recording, invest in iZotope RX. You can remove chair squeaks, coughs, even baby crys. It is absolutely magic.[\quote]
Thanks for that tip. I checked it out and it looks amazing; exactly what I've been looking for. However, I've spent way too much money recently. I've had a project on hold for quite some time to deal with my audio issues. I have a drive for one of my computers that has UbuntuStudio on it with a bunch of audio apps. However, it is kind of weird the way you have to configure it just to get sound to come from an app to the speakers. I think it was some sort of junction. Anyway, that's something for down the road.

Right now I'm thrilled with the Vegas Multi-Cam feature and will likely never go back to Liquid for any reason (this was the only reason up to this point).

video777 wrote on 10/30/2008, 12:15 PM

Just to make sure I understand here's what I did:

1) I tried to deselect the box to include audio with the multicam track. However, the box was greyed out.

2) I selected the three video tracks but NOT the audio tracks. When I created the multicam track the videos were one track and the audio tracks were still three separate tracks.

I'm not sure why the selection was greyed out or even if it matters. What I mainly want to confirm with you is if this method I described in point #2 is acceptable? I do not plan on cutting out anything at this point, only in selecting which cameras to use. I will then adjust the audio and after that cut out any sections I no longer want to keep. Thanks for your input.