Initial reactions from a newbie

riredale wrote on 5/27/2002, 3:00 PM
Hi to the Vegas Video community!

I have been using Studio7 for the past year, and have produced a couple of significant projects using that product. I have watched with interest however as the Vegas Video product has evolved, and finally a few weeks ago I spent some serious effort in reading the manuals and playing with the functions.

Some early impressions:

(1) VV has lots of power, and that's good. For a neophyte in the world of video, however, that power comes with complexity and confusion. Would it be possible to have a user-selectable switch that changes the personality of the product from stone-simple to sophisticated? In that way a new user could get the hang of things before being exposed to every little nuance.

(2) One of the most useful attributes of Studio7 is the ability to capture raw footage in a "Preview" mode, which allows one to load enormous amounts of video in the bin. One of my projects last year involved 14 hours of video. Studio7's preview mode meant that I had full access to that footage at the cost of only about 15GB of disk space. Once the project was finished, the software would automatically go back to the master tapes and load in only those portions that were needed for the final render.

(3) Vegas Video is destined to become a long-term winner, which prompts the next suggestion--any thought given to porting this great product over to Linux? My gut feel is that Linux is going to make some incredible inroads into Microsoft territory in the next year or two, and it would be good for Sonic Foundry to anticipate that.

(4) With a product as good as Vegas Video, its time for Sonic Foundry to make a name change. I would suggest "Media Foundry."

(5) Finally, given the size of this web board list, it would now be appropriate to break the list down into further categories, such as (a) installation, (b) bug reports and suggestions, (c) editing, (d) capture/writing.

Anyway, just wanted to pass on a couple of thoughts. A fine piece of software!

Comments

PeterMac wrote on 5/27/2002, 3:05 PM
What about SmartSounds, don't you miss them?
Cheesehole wrote on 5/27/2002, 3:17 PM
hi riredale and welcome. you have some great information to share. make sure you hit the product suggestion page with some of those items:
http://www.sonicfoundry.com/support/productsuggestion.asp
riredale wrote on 5/27/2002, 3:17 PM
SmartSound is another clever aspect of Studio7. I know how to use the product, but have never actually used them in my projects.

For those unfamiliar with the term, SmartSound is a product that produces generic music in various genres. What's cool about it is that you can specify a length, and SmartSound will deliver a score that sounds pretty good and ends exactly at the time specified.

As I understand it, there are other products out there that can accomplish a similar result, but this is an area that I have not explored (yet).
Cheesehole wrote on 5/27/2002, 3:39 PM
>>>SmartSound is a product that produces generic music in various genres.

okay, I'm a musician. is my career over? this is a truly terrifying concept! ;D
DOGoodman wrote on 5/27/2002, 5:14 PM
And, if you use them, incredibly boring. They do allow some background sound but it's pretty repititous.
Chienworks wrote on 5/27/2002, 5:16 PM
ACID would probably be SonicFoundry's answer to smartsounds. It's more manual labor, but the results can be fantastic.
riredale wrote on 5/27/2002, 7:07 PM
Okay, here are some others I found, but haven't used yet. Go to www.musicmachines.net and you will find some freeware stuff, MS Music Producer and SuperJam.

I have no idea how all these programs compare, but I suspect the folks at Sonic Foundry get paid for Acid downloads for a reason.
BD wrote on 5/27/2002, 9:43 PM
I had a Pinnacle Studio product (Studio 400), and this qualified me to buy a $99 upgrade to SonicFire Pro which is the top-end SmartSound program. It works fine with Vegas Video (externally, not integrated into VV). For more info, go to http://www.smartsound.com/support/faq/sfpfaq.html#qualifies

I use SmartSound -- but if I had some musical knowledge, or could spend more time assembling the music tracks for our home movies, then I'd get Sonic Foundry's Acid program.