OT: Ditigital Juice, anyone use them? (looking @ stacktrax and Editors toolkits)

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 10/9/2004, 11:34 AM

I'm looking at ordering some things from Digital Juice and wondering if anyone here uses the stacktrax royalty free audio that you can add and remove different tracks of audio at different points or use as just a song. If so, do you find that the stackability is useful or do you just use the full audio song?

Also, does anyone use the Editors toolkits from them? What are your impressions?

Comments

randy-stewart wrote on 10/9/2004, 12:28 PM

FrigidNDEditing,
I've briefly played with Stacktraxx as it came with my Backtraxx volumes and it seems to be a pretty cool application. Each instrument is presented on it's own timeline and you can mix and match with other tracks. For someone in the audio/music world, I think it would be very useful. For me, I prefer to use the Backtraxx songs which are already complete. As for the video editor toolkits, I don't have any experience with them but I've heard from others that they are very good. In fact, I notice what looks like their elements on TV quite often. So far I'm very happy with DigitalJuice products even though they are quite expensive. Hope this helps.
Randy

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 10/9/2004, 12:40 PM

I do have one question for you randy. I thought the Backtraxx were midi based music is this the case with all of them or are there real instruments too? (I think the stacktraxx is based on actual recordings if I'm not mistaken (Highly Possilbe).

thanx

jmeredith wrote on 10/9/2004, 12:42 PM

I own ETK1, ETK2, JuiceDrops 1, 2, and 3 and several Jump Backs - if you don't change the defaults in any way... you could, start to look like everyone else. It's when you start mixing, matching, adding your own footage, images, audio, etc., that you can get real creative. I haven't purchased any Stacktraxx yet but only because I'm already used to using Acid and Sound Forge to create audio.

Some have said these are "too canned" for the Broadcast world - I work for a High Tech Market Research firm and do a lot of web, multimedia, video for ad testing and computer research so I love Digital Juice - like I said, mix them with other materials, change the color, resize, crop, etc and you can really create some unique stuff.

To answer your question, I really like the Editors toolkits - they are a great starting point, provide plenty of ideas and work well either straight off the disc or tweaked - and don't forget to check their site for monthly specials and bundle prices.

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 10/9/2004, 1:09 PM

One company I work with has some Jumpbacks and I love getting to work with them. I always enjoy getting to crank away at stuff for them, because I have so much to work with. (Exept when they tell me there's a presentation this weekend and they want some work done for it, and it's all of 2-3 days away - those are fun weeks :)

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 10/9/2004, 1:14 PM

is there a particular codec you encode your JumpBacks with, I usually do .avi no recompression but wish it wasn't taking up 600MB - 1.04 GB per file. Any suggestions?

Liam_Vegas wrote on 10/9/2004, 1:35 PM

Maybe I am missing something in your workflow/setup but why are you rendering these Jumpbacks as uncompressed?

The jumpbacks already come in NTSC DV format or as a PAL PNG still image sequence (in Quicktime format) - so nothing else needs to be done to them for you to use them in Vegas.

For the ETK backgrounds - which do come in PNG image sequences - I just load those into the vegas timeline and then render a loop as regular DV AVI file. This saves space, and makes for quicker final renders of my projects.

Rendering them out as truly uncompressed will not add anything to the quality either.

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 10/9/2004, 3:13 PM

The only .mov files that I find on the DVD's are the demo .mov files and they are very low res. Perhaps they have changed there formats from the time that they purchased them and the time that you purchased them. However I only have .png files and the preview .mov files. purchased them back when it was still juicer 1 software not juicer 2 software. probably about 1-2 years ago.

randy-stewart wrote on 10/9/2004, 9:02 PM

Well, you are already over my head with your question about if they are midi or real instruments. I believe they are midi (as both Spot and Rob have told me) but the tracks that show up in Stacktraxx are named as separate instrument tracks like a bass, guitar, drums, flute, or whatever. I don't own the Stacktraxx volumes but was playing with what was distributed in my BackTraxx box. Sorry but not much help here.
Randy

Chanimal wrote on 10/9/2004, 9:37 PM

Liam,

The older versions of Jumpbacks that shipped on CD-ROM were pre-rendered in the formats you mentioned. However, all newer ones ship on DVD's and you are required to render them yourself--gives you more freedom to pick the exact format you prefer.

I have most of the DVD versions, along with several volumes of the older CD-ROM's. These were recorded in Quicktime .mov format, which is the format I used when I render them (not avi--which is too big).

Liam_Vegas wrote on 10/9/2004, 10:31 PM

I have 3 sets of jumpbacks that I got from NAB in April... and those do come with the AVI's already rendered. The ETK1 that I have does have PNG image sequences.

Either way, unless anyone cal explain otherwise, I cannot see ANY point in rendering the still image sequence to truly uncompressed AVI if you will be using these within a Vegas project that will ultimately be rendered to DV AVI.

that is the point I am making.

Liam_Vegas wrote on 10/9/2004, 10:34 PM

The only .mov files that I find on the DVD's are the demo .mov files

Yep - you are probably right. I don't use the quicktime files anyway - I just use the DV AVI files.

So - do you still think you need to render to uncompressed AVI?

ken c wrote on 10/10/2004, 3:02 PM

Tip for using DJ backs, which are great... using the juicer you can change the clip color, which is excellent, so most of mine are blue instead of the defaults, as I render to .movs to use in vegas/ultra for projects..

ken

Liam_Vegas wrote on 10/10/2004, 6:36 PM

using the juicer you can change the clip color,

Although changing the color in Vegas is a snap. No need to use the juicer at all. But - each to their own!

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 10/12/2004, 3:20 PM

Is there a particular reason that you would use .mov instead instead of another format? mpeg for instance? or perhaps DivX?

ken c wrote on 10/12/2004, 7:17 PM

actually I should render from juice to avi I'd think.. though there's a reason why, I forgot why, using .movs is better via juicer..

thx re the color balance in Vegas vs juicer etc to do color changes, good idea for future color modifications ... forgot about that, haven't learned how to use the color wheels, I'll go back and watch Spot's dvds again to learn..

ken

Liam_Vegas wrote on 10/12/2004, 9:53 PM

Is there a particular reason that you would use .mov instead instead of another format? mpeg for instance? or perhaps DivX?

Native editing in Vegas IS DV AVI... so that is why I use DV AVI. IMO DIVX or MPEG renders of the Digital Juice stuff would be a DISASTER to use in a vegas project as they are highly compressed (in comparison to DV AVI) formats and will result in lower quality (and also much slower rendering times).

Liam_Vegas wrote on 10/12/2004, 9:56 PM

haven't learned how to use the color wheels

No need to make it so hard... the HSL FX is all you need - and just mess with the Hue (or at least thats how I do it).

Coursedesign wrote on 10/13/2004, 11:07 AM

Agree on the compressed formats, they would be painful.

Native editing in Vegas though is not DV AVI. My understanding is that technically it is 8-bit uncompressed, so DV video has to be decompressed on a "frame-by-frame" basis for any effect or transition. This is most likely the best way to support many digital video formats.

ken c wrote on 10/13/2004, 1:08 PM

Here's an example of a new preview clip I authored out for you folks from a new 6- DVD series I'm producing in Vegas/DVDA, using a DJ jump back (.mov format), followed by a menu w/a mov video back... feedback?

it's still rough edit draft 1... 10 megs, mpg2 fullframe format:

www.DaytradingUniversity.com/samuraiclip.mpg

Ken

Liam_Vegas wrote on 10/13/2004, 8:34 PM

Native in terms of Capture - Edit - Print-toTape. If your input format of video is DV tape - and the ourput format of your project is DV tape - then in my book the native format is DV. But.. depending on what you are doing - that may be different.

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 10/14/2004, 12:54 PM

thanks for all the input. You have provided a great help and service to me.