Re crossfades, have you got the "Automatic Crossfades" button activated in the timeline toolbar just under the timeline?

Wowl I love this quote/break quote option (the button on the toolbar after using the "quote" from the post). Yes. I used that. I also tried it with the option turned off and that is when I ran into the issue with control-z not working after attempting the crossfade issue (which I refer to in my OP). I had to exit the program without saving so that the change would not be applied. This is very Corel-ish and has definitely put a pause on my decision to buy. I have looked for answers online and just cannot get Crossfade to work at all. This is true for ALL default options I have tried by the way. NONE of them work unless I select something other than the default.

Re Ripple, from what you've described, it seems that Video Studio might have a ripple function automatically applied. In Vegas Pro, having ripple on or off is the editor's choice. The Ripple button is also in the timeline toolbar under the timeline, but if you click on the arrow button just to the R of the ripple button provides of choice of whch tracks/features are rippled. Unfortunately. 'All Tracks, Markers and Regions" is not set as the default setting.

This is true for only one track (the "main" video track). For the rest, it works very similarly to Vegas Pro. I really like that aspect of VideoStudio. Honestly, I love many of the ideas it incorporates but... well I mention the reason I am looking elsewhere below. Vegas seems much more professional in most ways. This, however, is one way it doesn't:

Re velocity envelopes (changing speed), I'm not sure if there is a way to enable the length of the video event to sel-fadjust on the timeline, but from point-of-view, I'm happy that it doesn't because I've mostly just wanted the speed change to apply the video event within its fixed length on the timeline. It's easy enough to adjust manually with ripple activated.

This is a must have for me unfortunately. I use this ability CONSTANTLY. Every music video I create as part of my hobby uses this because I slow down the motion to match the music. To quote Elysian Fields (that's a band you may not have heard of...): "Timing is everything" with my hobby. I don't use it nearly as much for other types of video but because of the the frequency I work on these types of project makes it a must have. I will either have to find a simple enough work around or look elsewhere.

One of the best things about Vegas Pro is there is often a number of ways to activate or use a feature. If you go to the Help menu and choose 'Keyboard Shortcuts), there's a comprehensive list of keyboard shortcuts that may make some tasks quicker for you.

BTW, I went from ULead Video Studio to Vegas Pro some 14 years ago (prior to Corel assuming ownership of ULead products) and found the learning curve for Vegas Pro quite easy - but then both programs were much more basic back then.

One of Corel's unfortunate habits is to buy a product/brand from another company and completely ruin it. They did that with Photoshop. This is particularly true when it comes to bugs. I don't think their development team is competent at all. Personally, I am a programmer so that is coming from someone who has significant experience in the area. I must have started using VideoStudio just after you. (I think it was version 8 or so. Around version 18 they started using the year instead of a version number.) I got to VideoStudio 17 and the next version I upgraded to was 2020, and finally VideoStudio 2020. I am so fed up with them not fixing bugs that I am looking for another product. I was hoping to transition to Pinnacle Studio but that is now owned by Corel too... not even going to bother after finding people say its buggy as well. The only Corel Product I still like is CorelDraw.

Incidentally, I think I read somewhere that this product uses .NET (specifically c#). It makes me wish I was part of the development team as I am very good with that language and would love to have a crack at implementing these features myself. Too bad this isn't open source haha.

ncidentally, I think I read somewhere that this product uses .NET (specifically c#). It makes me wish I was part of the development team as I am very good with that language and would love to have a crack at implementing these features myself. Too bad this isn't open source haha.

Your hobby can be brought into play in Vegas. Vegas's scripting/extension system is based on C#. You can develop various add-ons for it.

BTW, I went from ULead Video Studio to Vegas Pro some 14 years ago (prior to Corel assuming ownership of ULead products) and found the learning curve for Vegas Pro quite easy - but then both programs were much more basic back then.

One of Corel's unfortunate habits is to buy a product/brand from another company and completely ruin it. They did that with Photoshop. This is particularly true when it comes to bugs. I don't think their development team is competent at all. Personally, I am a programmer so that is coming from someone who has significant experience in the area. I must have started using VideoStudio just after you. (I think it was version 8 or so. Around version 18 they started using the year instead of a version number.) I got to VideoStudio 17 and the next version I upgraded to was 2020, and finally VideoStudio 2020. I am so fed up with them not fixing bugs that I am looking for another product. I was hoping to transition to Pinnacle Studio but that is now owned by Corel too... not even going to bother after finding people say its buggy as well. The only Corel Product I still like is CorelDraw.

The first NLE I used was Windows Movie Maker, and then I switched to ULead Video Studio and Power Director, and then I faced Premiere and Vegas. At that time, Vegas was much ahead of Premiere, so I chose Vegas at that time.

Your hobby can be brought into play in Vegas. Vegas's scripting/extension system is based on C#. You can develop various add-ons for it.

Thanks for letting me know about this. This post on reddit directly addresses my concerns with Vegas (other than the issue with crossfades/default transitions). The kind of thing mentioned in that post is something I do all the time (and was never resolved in the post). If I can resolve these two issues (auto rippling with speed transitions and the crossfade/default issue), on top of the extension system, then Vegas would be a definite yes... so hoping to resolve these issues here. It would be nice (particularly with the crossfade issue as that seems to be a bug) if I didn't have to write my own plugin to get around this, though for the auto-rippling, I would be ok with it as long as it wasn't overly complicated (I have a lot of projects on my plate right now).

The first NLE I used was Windows Movie Maker, and then I switched to ULead Video Studio and Power Director, and then I faced Premiere and Vegas. At that time, Vegas was much ahead of Premiere, so I chose Vegas at that time.

LOL. Me too (with VS). I switched to VideoStudio just over 10 years ago. I considered switching to Power Director but don't like the subscription model. Vegas is my current hopeful... I do like many of the advanced features and the UI is fairly intuitive even if some of the methodology isn't (at least to me). So I am really hoping to either resolve these two things or find simple enough workarounds before purchasing.

How are you trying to do a crossfade? And what, exactly is happening. Just drag an event on the right over an event on the left and it creates a crossfade. That's it. Nothing else to do.

Speed changes - have you looked at the "Playback Rate"? You can hold down the CTRL key and resize a video event and it will change the speed accordingly.

As for scripting, you might look at my YouTube channel here:

How are you trying to do a crossfade? And what, exactly is happening. Just drag an event on the right over an event on the left and it creates a crossfade. That's it. Nothing else to do.

That is exactly what I was doing. It did't work. I tried for around an hour experimenting with things to get it to work and it didn't. So today I tried a second project from scratch to see what happened and it worked. Going back into the first test, it finally worked. Everything I did today, I did yesterday (and much more), and redid several more times... so there isn't a good explanation that I can think of for what happened. It seems to be working now... so as long as it consistently works from now on and I can resolve the other issue/need, then we might have a winner here.

Speed changes - have you looked at the "Playback Rate"? You can hold down the CTRL key and resize a video event and it will change the speed accordingly.

I tried what you suggested here and it doesn't work. This is what I need to be able to do:

1. Edit the playback speed of an event/clip from properties (so that I can enter an exact %) and have it resize the clip and ripple all subsequent clips/events rather than keep the clip the same size and and either repeat, or not play through the whole thing (depending on whether I slowed down or sped up the clip).

2. Apply and edit a velocity envelope and have it do the same after each change (such as adding a key frame on the timeline and altering its play speed).

These two actions are basic features of Corel VideoStudio, ones which I have been using almost for as long as I have been using VS; and they are both rare features of that program which don't have any bugs. All I have to do is right click the clip I want to modify, select either "Speed/Time Lapse" (for a specific rate), or "Variable Speed" which allows me to remove and add keyframes to control the speed through the duration of the clip (functionally equivalent to the velocity "envelope"). Once either of these options is selected and modified (without clicking "cancel") the size of the clip matches the needed size for the modifications (in ANY track) and all subsequent clip positions are adjusted accordingly if this option is applied performed on the "primary" video track.

1. Edit the playback speed of an event/clip from properties (so that I can enter an exact %) and have it resize the clip and ripple all subsequent clips/events rather than keep the clip the same size and and either repeat, or not play through the whole thing (depending on whether I slowed down or sped up the clip).

2. Apply and edit a velocity envelope and have it do the same after each change (such as adding a key frame on the timeline and altering its play speed).

These two actions are basic features of Corel VideoStudio, ones which I have been using almost for as long as I have been using VS; and they are both rare features of that program which don't have any bugs. All I have to do is right click the clip I want to modify, select either "Speed/Time Lapse" (for a specific rate), or "Variable Speed" which allows me to remove and add keyframes to control the speed through the duration of the clip (functionally equivalent to the velocity "envelope"). Once either of these options is selected and modified (without clicking "cancel") the size of the clip matches the needed size for the modifications (in ANY track) and all subsequent clip positions are adjusted accordingly if this option is applied performed on the "primary" video track.

Can you make a screen recording of these, which will help everyone understand what you mean.

By doing the CTRL-Drag, you change the length of the video event to match the audio which should make it a precise match. If you change the percentage in the properties, it will not change the length of the event. However, if you do have the full event on the timeline, the "notch" indicating the "end" of the event will show you where the new end should be. Same is true with a velocity envelope change, it will not change the length of the event.

One way around that would be to make the changes using a script and have the script calculate the new "length" and adjust as needed.

Or, you could try using the "Slow Motion" effect which does have an option to adjust the event length.

Can you make a screen recording of these, which will help everyone understand what you mean.

I am assuming you mean in VideoStudio... correct? Also, are you asking for photos or video? I suppose a video will work, though I am not if I can post that here. YouTube?

One way around that would be to make the changes using a script and have the script calculate the new "length" and adjust as needed.

Or, you could try using the "Slow Motion" effect which does have an option to adjust the event length.

I use "fast motion" too but from the looks of things, perhaps I can set it greater than one?

Can you make a screen recording of these, which will help everyone understand what you mean.

I am assuming you mean in VideoStudio... correct? Also, are you asking for photos or video? I suppose a video will work, though I am not if I can post that here. YouTube?

Yes, in any way, as long as everyone can see the video.

............... If you change the percentage in the properties, it will not change the length of the event. However, if you do have the full event on the timeline, the "notch" indicating the "end" of the event will show you where the new end should be. Same is true with a velocity envelope change, it will not change the length of the event.

@jetdv @primem0ver Hi, if either right click or in the Properties - Trim event to include all frames is ticked it will change the length whether you change the Playback rate or add a Velocity envelope, however the audio doesn't change to match & even if ripple is on future events don't move to close the gap.

@Gid thanks. I've never turned that switch on. I don't like things automatically changing and prefer adjusting things myself so I've never used that to realize it would auto adjust.

Here is a video demonstrating what I am talking about in Corel VideoStudio. Very simple and hassle free (though it is one of the few "more advanced" features that is bug-free).

Thank you @jetdv for highlighting Vegas' SloMo FX. By habit. I've always used velocity envelopes to up/down velocity, but then - as mentioned before - I mostly only need to lower the speed of an event within its own length on the timeline.

Also, thanks to @Gid for pointing out the Properties option which I didn't know about but equally which I probably wouldn't need to use for the same reason as above. Of course, useful for others.

@primem0ver  ... please take into account that not every NLE - consumer or professional - has the same features as available in every other NLE on the market. It's up to the user/consumer to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of each product to decide which is best for their personal circumstances and requirements - in the same way as occurs with a purchase of a computer, car, refrigerator, etc, etc.

As was said, "Auto ripple" does not work when changing the speed via Properties or Velocity Envelope. However, it does when changing speeds via a CTRL-Resize. And even though it doesn't with the properties or envelope, you can easily move all events after that event by moving the first one after the fact.