Thanks. I appreciate that. I know there's a demo, but it's always nice to hear folks' real-world results.

I'll give it a whirl.

Thanks! :)

ForumAdmin: I totally support Sony's crackdown on petty feuding and non-productive, repetitive criticisms of the product, but it sure seems to me kentwolf was making a reasonable request for feedback from people who've used SF8. I think it's possible to go too far with this sort of crackdown. Are we only allowed to traffic in glowing, positive comments these days? This is a real community, and in a real community people sometimes have to say less than positive things. This shouldn't be Pleasantville, in my opinoin.

The positive-to-negative posting ratio in this forum is still like 10-to-1, it seems. Does Sony require that it be 11-to-0? Seriously, I love this forum, and I support Sony's attempt to cultivate it as a more civil and productive environment. But if Sony insists on jumping on a kentwolf every time he asks a legitimate question, then you're alienating folks like me, a hugely loyal Vegas user who talks up this software to anyone who will listen.

I'm saying all this because I value this forum and I'm really discouraged by the tone employed by the admins here. If I'm misperceiving the tone, I apologize, but the message above seems to be saying, albeit somewhat politely, "please take your vaguely critical comments offline."

After reading slacy's comments, I re-read ForumAdmin's post above 3 times. I just couldn't see it as Sony being harsh. It seemed - to me - like a, "we're aware of the problem, we're on it, check it out for yourself" kind of reply. Nothing to indicate any anomosity for posting a "negative" question (which it didn't even seem to me that it was ((a negative question)) ). Guess it's all in HOW you read it.

I agree, I couldn't read anything other than what was specifically said by admin into what he was saying. These fora have and continue to be very tolerant of negative comments, as they should be.
Visit a few other vendor run forums and you'll soon come to see that 'People who live in glass houses don't let others throw stones'
Bob.

I have always wanted to play with soun forge just to see if it should be part of my workflow. I use a much less expensive program which provides results but am curious. The Admin suggestion points out the trial availability an was helpful In my opinion.

True enough, it's all in how you read it. I just reread it again, and I still come away with the same feeling: kentwolf is welcome to try the software, to share his negative feedback with the support team, but not nearly as welcome to share these sentiments with the community at large. It's not an explicit message, granted, but it sure seems implicit to me.

But onward to video questions. Kentwolf, you say you used SF7 to make it through this latest project. As a guy who's never used SF, I'm wondering how you incorporate it into your video production workflow. In what instances are the Vegas audio tools insufficient for your video needs? It was a video project, right?

Hey:

I really did not take the moderators comments negatively. I really didn't. Thanks anyways for the defense. :)

Yes. It was a video project. About 2 hours worth. I have done 5 all-nighters in the last 8 days. I am video-ed and audio-ed out. :)

Regarding Sound Forge, I am by no means an expert, however, it was extremely helpful in conjunction with the Noise Reduction filter. It made a near miraculous difference in some very poor interviews (audio) I had to work with. Also, it is useful to use some of the filters on music.

It, my project, was essentially a project for our church with interviews and music. They are going to replicate about 170 or so DVD's, which will be my biggest distribution to date. I personally like to do what I can in Vegas, however, Sound Forge, as Spot says, allows for "surgical precision." It's a very impressive peice of software. This project was the most I've ever used it, but I see, for me, it is nearly indispensible with some upcoming projects I will have.

Being able to right click (in Vegas) on an event's audio, go to Sound Forge, tweak away, go back to Vegas , have the tweaked audiio as a take...and if I don't like it, I can switch back to the original. It's very handy.

Also, Sound Forge has a slew of settings and repair options that I do not see in Vegas. In the hands of a skilled operator, I can see where it would up-toppable. I hope to mybe approach that status someday... :)

I cannot say enough about the (expensive) Noise Reduction plugin. If you have to clean up a bad audio interview or some other bad audio, it is simply incredible.

I base all of this on Sound Forge 7.

...and there ya' go.

I can see where people would never need Sound Forge. But...once you really need it, you'll be hooked.

just a question on that last proceedure there ...
I have SF set up as Audio editor so I just right click it and it opens there. I tweak it and the Save - doesn't it change the "original" audio file? You mentioned "take" can you Save as a seperate take and still drop it back into Vegas synked?

tia, Garo

Thanks for the insights, kentwolf. If you can right-click an audio event, have it saved back to the Vegas project as a take, well ... that's pretty cool indeed. I may have to add another piece of software to the arsenal.

You have to 'Open as Copy' for it to come back as a Take.
Sound Forge is a destructive editor unlike Vegas, you can Undo in SF but I think once you hit Save it's for good.

Things I use in SF:
NR2
Spectrum Analyser
Snap to zero crossing
Pencil tool (lets you draw a waveform)
FM synthesis (for making test tones and sound FXs)
Click removal

Bob.