Now that's a very interesting suggestion! For dance recital type projects that could work - less so for full length plays etc. I confess I have shied away from nested VEG projects. My experience in the very early days was less than positive (Vegas 5? 6?). I'm sure it's come along though, so I will explore. Thanks Edward.

Going back to the audio only Vegas 1 beta, I have many times inadvertently nudged an event out of sync, I have many times requested a way to lock an event to the timeline without locking all the other event's parameter.. The same with multiple audio side-chaining requests, also going back to Vegas 1).

I was going to suggest making extensive use of grouping groups, but I think you are doing that.

Would making use of the Auto Ripple tool, more on than off, prevent leaving strays behind.

@Ian_S There is a way to trim a locked event on the timeline, but you need to use the trimmer's "Add to timeline from cursor" and "Add to timeline up to cursor" commands. I just tried this for the first time. What you would have to do is put some arbitrary media in the trimmer, then set the trimmer's loop region to cover the length you want to trim (content doesn't matter, it doesn't have to be the same media that you want to trim on the timeline). If you want to trim the end of your event on the timeline, make sure the timeline cursor is set exactly where you want to start to trim and that the event is selected, then in the trimmer select from the popup menu or click the icon to "add to timeline from cursor." That will split your event at the end and all you have to do is delete the arbitrary event that was added there. If you want to trim the beginning of the event, set the timeline cursor to the beginning of the event and make sure it is selected, then in the trimmer select from the popup menu or click the icon to "Add to timeline up to cursor." Just delete the arbitrary bit that was added on the timeline. Seems tedious, but it works.

Locking just the position of events would be great. I always miss that when editing multicam footage.

I switched to use timecode on all recordings, to always have a consistent timing for audio and video, but when I started with multicam, I aligned audio and video manually and used a script to derive the (virtual) media timecode from the aligned event positions on the timeline, to get a "position snapshot":

using System;
using ScriptPortal.Vegas;

public class EntryPoint
{
    public static Vegas myVegas;
    public void FromVegas(Vegas vegas)
    {
        myVegas = vegas;
        
        foreach (Track theTrack in vegas.Project.Tracks)
        {
            foreach (TrackEvent ev in theTrack.Events)
            {
                if (!ev.Selected) continue;

                Timecode position = ev.Start - ev.ActiveTake.Offset;
                Take takeName = ev.ActiveTake;
                Media media = takeName.Media;
                
                media.UseCustomTimecode = true;
                media.TimecodeIn = position;    
                media.Comment = "Timecode from Event Start";
                
            }
        }
        vegas.Project.MediaPool.OpenAllMedia();
    }
}

So, if something gets wrong, I'm able to realign all events with another script I found somewhere:

using System;
using ScriptPortal.Vegas;

public class EntryPoint
{
    public void FromVegas(Vegas vegas)
    {                
        foreach (Track theTrack in vegas.Project.Tracks)
        {
            foreach (TrackEvent ev in theTrack.Events)
            {
                if (!ev.Selected) continue;

                Timecode position = ev.ActiveTake.Media.TimecodeIn + ev.ActiveTake.Offset;
                ev.Start = position;

                // if (ev.Group != null)
                // {
                    // foreach (TrackEvent groupevent in ev.Group)
                    // {
                    // groupevent.Start = position;
                    // }
                // }
            }
        }
    }
}

Sometimes, the separate group handling is needed to get all events positioned correctly and sometimes not. I haven't figured out why.

Of course, this workflow only works correctly, if every media is used only once on the timeline or all events using one media are not shifted in time, so that the medias "TimcodeIn" calculated from all events using this media is the same. This is because a media can only have one value for TimecodeIn.

I hope this helps as a workaround, though.

Nils

I was going to suggest making extensive use of grouping groups, but I think you are doing that.

Would making use of the Auto Ripple tool, more on than off, prevent leaving strays behind.

Thanks Johnny - I think autoripple is going to hinder rather than help in this situation. I need everything to remain exactly where it is on the timeline and with autoripple that wouldn't happen. Unless I'm misunderstanding what you're saying? Certainly, creating and dissolving groups is the way I'm working right now.

@Ian_S There is a way to trim a locked event on the timeline, but you need to use the trimmer's "Add to timeline from cursor" and "Add to timeline up to cursor" commands. I just tried this for the first time. What you would have to do is put some arbitrary media in the trimmer, then set the trimmer's loop region to cover the length you want to trim (content doesn't matter, it doesn't have to be the same media that you want to trim on the timeline). If you want to trim the end of your event on the timeline, make sure the timeline cursor is set exactly where you want to start to trim and that the event is selected, then in the trimmer select from the popup menu or click the icon to "add to timeline from cursor." That will split your event at the end and all you have to do is delete the arbitrary event that was added there. If you want to trim the beginning of the event, set the timeline cursor to the beginning of the event and make sure it is selected, then in the trimmer select from the popup menu or click the icon to "Add to timeline up to cursor." Just delete the arbitrary bit that was added on the timeline. Seems tedious, but it works.

I'll look at that, thanks. At first glance it seems a bit over-complicated, but never say never!

Of course, this workflow only works correctly, if every media is used only once on the timeline or all events using one media are not shifted in time,

And there's the snag for me! I typically shoot a performance with two cameras (sometimes three) in 4k - one static, locked a bit wide on the whole stage and one roaming around the stage. However, I deliver in 1080. I duplicate the static camera footage on the timeline and crop one track so, when used together with the roaming footage from the second camera, it gives me three options to cut to. Additionally, I try and excise any unwanted delays between scenes, so I often group everything, cut, and shift to the left.

I'm curious to try out your idea, though, as it might work in other situations. Thanks!

Of course, this workflow only works correctly, if every media is used only once on the timeline or all events using one media are not shifted in time,

And there's the snag for me! I typically shoot a performance with two cameras (sometimes three) in 4k - one static, locked a bit wide on the whole stage and one roaming around the stage. However, I deliver in 1080. I duplicate the static camera footage on the timeline and crop one track so, when used together with the roaming footage from the second camera, it gives me three options to cut to. Additionally, I try and excise any unwanted delays between scenes, so I often group everything, cut, and shift to the left.

I'm curious to try out your idea, though, as it might work in other situations. Thanks!

Funny, that's the exact same workflow I use! But in order to use the vegas multicam track, I duplicate the 4K media with the Trimmer as a Sub-Clip. So, I have two media in the media pool referencing to the same file (e.g. one for total, one for crop). Then, I use the PIP tool (media fx) for cropping them. This also allowes me to use different effects on media level, so they are not deleted when creating the multicam track.

I do all my camera-switch-editing on the timeline where all events are at their "realtime" position, so I can use their timecodes at any time to realign their relative position. Cutting out unwanted parts is my very last step, so that the chance of mispositioning an event is as low as possible. But even then, using the timecode, the timing between events can be corrected again, just the gaps have to be removed afterwards again, but this is easy using ripple editing.

Nils

Ah, I hadn't thought of doing it that way. Interesting!

Of couse it would all be a ton easier if we could just lock the position of events on the timeline but still perform cuts etc!