The screenshot of the workspace sure makes me appreciate Vegas even more.

Mario

I'm thinking once the new PCI-E video cards become more common place we'll see a lot more NLEs finally utilising the horsepower of the GPU. At the moment the downlink bandwith on the AGP bus holds things back a lot. The new 16x AGP slot means rendered frames can be retrieved from the video card much faster.

Bob.

I'm one of those (unknown) hands-on filmmakers who believe sound is half the movie. Where's the audio features? (That's a rhetorical question.)

Audio Timewarp
Audio clips, which were previously excluded from Timewarp, can now also be accelerated or decelerated in real time while the pitch remains the same. Computation can be optimized for voice or music.

Compatibility with VST Plugins
Audio effect plugins based on the popular VST standard are compatible with Pinnacle Liquid 6 and, if desired, can be integrated in the program.
Version 6 comes already equipped with about a dozen VST plugins. These plugins can, as usual, be used as audio clip effects, but they can also be used as Insert effects in the Audio Mixer.

Surround Sound 5.1 / Matrix Surround
Pinnacle Liquid Version 6 lets you produce genuine 5.1 surround sound mixes and output these mixes - provided you have an ASIO-2.0-capable multichannel sound card or a connection box with enough outputs in the system. If not, you can use the integrated Matrix Surround Encoder to create an impression of spatial sound in a two-channel stereo downmix that can be played by virtually any state-of-the-art surround system.
_ Assignment of surround channels (Left, Right, Center, Left Surround, Right Surround) in the Audio
Mixer’s Surround Panner.
_ LFE (Low Frequency Subwoofer) adjustable for each individual channel.
_ Display of room position on the Timeline using special Surround Pan Lines.
_ Creation of DVDs with AC3 (Dolby Digital) and Matrix Surround Sound is possible.
_ Export of Matrix Surround (stereo downmix) by means of Export Sequence...

ASIO 2.0
Pinnacle Liquid 6 supports ASIO, the professional audio driver standard. For multichannel output (more than two audio channels, 5.1/7.1 surround), you must have a sound card that is compatible with the ASIO 2.0 standard(or a suitable breakout box). Naturally, you can continue to use your existing sound card but you will be limited to two channels.

Mixer
The central module of the Audio Editor now offers:
_ The assignment of Fader Units by means of Audio Playback On/Off (loudspeaker icon in the Track Header). Each Track activated for Audio Playback is assigned a separate fader. Any number of faders (= mixer channels) possible.
_ Track-specific faders possible for audio levels and panorama/balance (i.e. for all the clips on a Timeline Track). (It is also still possible to adjust clips individually.)
_ A peak meter for each Fader Unit; faders can be toggled between sliders and knobs.
_ Mixer configuration can be customized (for example, switchable audio faders before/after SendFX/InsertFX section.
_ Each individual Fader (channel) can be routed to a Logical Output Bus.
_ Multiple Logical Output Busses are possible.
_ Insert and send effects are possible (see below).
_ Different fader types are identified by color.

Send Effects/Insert Effects
_ Up to 16 audio effects can be inserted (therefore “insert effects”) directly into the signal path of each Fader Unit (channel).
_ Signals from different channels can be fully or partially diverted in the fader and routed to send busses where they are processed with identical effects. SendFX Busses (multiple possible) can be routed to different Logical Output Busses.
_ Insert effects are VST-compatible effect plugins (see below).
_ All audio effects can also be applied directly to a Track (drag and drop on a Track name).

Hey Grazie,

Edition has a few nice features like background rendering, loads of true 3D FX, they claim that there CX colour correction is the best out there but I could not do anything with it - I here there is a flaw in there Fast DV codec - Every time I tried to do colour replace like Vegas does so well; I got nothing but pixelated, bleeding colours.

The install is a nightmare!!! It takes over 800MB to install and makes a complete mess in the registry! It is BLOTWARE for sure. The DVD timeline thing didn't and still doesn't work.

NO AUDIO FEATURES "PERIOD"!!! You'll will be dazzeled by the quick renders and fanzy/cheesy FX; but after a few minutes you will notice features that are missing that we have all come to love in Vegas.

I've not heard of this new HD Edition, but I'm sure it's just the same - with all the flaws, just HD added. The PRO version with the graphics card for output is real buggy I hear.

Anyway - enough ranting... I'll just say the only thing I was impressed with was the very quick render times - due to it's background rendering. I have suggested this to the powers that be here and I hope they think about implementing background rendering , its way better than network rendering.

.. .hmmm . . " .. background rendering" . . Powers That Be hear our Plea .. . !

Thanks, "pixelated, bleeding colours." . . Don't yah just hate them Bleeding Pixie Colours ?

Thanks Guys,

We know what we want - eh?

and . . . We know what we don't want . . .

Grazie

I use LE's CX Color Correction Tools all the time. I have never experienced any of the bleeding you described! Did you try using the color isolations tools (you can uniquely adjust the range and softness of your Luminance, Hue and Saturation selections). What flaw did you hear about the Fast DV Codec? What is the bugginess you refer to with the PRO version?

Of course LE has its bugs and limitations. Is there an editing package which doesn't? But by and large I find LE responsive, easy to use (although I also prefer Vegas' interface), extremely powerful, and perfect for 99% of all my editing work.

I agree that audio is 50% of what you see, and Vegas is renowned for its superb audio tools (hardly surprising considering its history). It is spoken highly of in the LE forums by the Pinnacle staff (one responded to a post on it just a few days ago) on that point. However, to say LE 6 has NO audio tools is incorrect. However, I will be the first to admit that Vegas will almost certainly always be at the forefront in this area.

Lots of people who post about LE actually know very little about it. I'd be interested in hearing your actual experiences. I might even be able to help you understand how you could have got round them (or acknowledge a problem).

Btw, I am not dissing Vegas. It's an excellent editor, so is Premiere Pro. However, do not underestimate the feature set and stability of LE either.

I have used a lot of the various major NLE system out there and I have had the hardest time wrapping my brain around Edition. I don't care for it at all for myriad reasons. The user interface makes very little sense (to me) but I suppose that if I spent much more time with it, I might eventually get comfortable. But I've been playing with it for years now and, frankly, why do I bother? I'm not going to give up Vegas for any reason. Curiously, I am still an Edition beta tester and Pinnacle continues to send me new versions all the time to get my opinion. I still don't like it.

A few of you may know that several years ago I got in a very public "war" with Pinnacle about a serious flaw in the DV codec they used in their entire product line. Their DV codec had a color space conversion issue. After I got enough people to see the flaw and complain about it, Pinnacle finally had to admit there really was a problem and eventually fixed the codec. Nevertheless, even their "new" codec doesn't look anywhere near as good as the Vegas codec. I consider the Vegas codec to be the best looking DV codec there is. It's a bit slow, but it looks terrific and I'll take image quality over speed any day.

John

Well said John,

I read the link refering to the new edition 6 but the whole thing sounds like cheap junk - USB break out box for HD???? That sounds like a bad idea!

LJR - I've tried the CX colour corection and I know that you can make multiple seletions to replace a certian colour but with hours of tweeking I still couldn't get even close to Vegas results.

It's good to hear you still favor Vegas and I do tinker with edition from time to time, but every time I install it (which takes a half hour) I wounder why I do it?
It's just to big of an install. Sony writes very efficient code that installs in 1 minute an takes about 70MB

One other thing I really don't like about edition is that it takes over your desktop.

Grazie, are you thinking of defecting?

Paul

What an aPAWling idea! ! !

" . . . thinking of defecting? " Nope .. . I'm regular as clockwork... every morning . .. plenty of ruffage!

Grazie

As a refugee from Pinnacle software, I know I am in a lot of good company here (a lot of us kept our forum nicknames when we defected ......)

Let me put it this way, Pinnacle bought Steinberg because their coding was so crappy they couldn't figure out their own routines, and now 2 years later they still have the same glut ol' problems (stability, audio sync, poor quality, file corruption, failed renders, etc. etc. etc.)

So would I go back because they introduced a new piece of "professional" software??
A trip over to the Pinnacle forums will give you the answer -- while the majority here are looking for creative ways to use Vegas, and take glee and delight in identifying an occasional minor "bug" in Vegas, the preponderance of posts at Pinnacle are about . . . well, you just need to read for yourselves.
http://webboard.pinnaclesys.com/default.asp?lng=1

> "several years ago I got in a very public "war" with Pinnacle about a serious flaw in the DV codec"

Yes, I remember the old dc30 mailing list well, John - that's where, thanks to you, I first heard about Vegas...version 3 at the time.

The only thing I like about Liquid Edition is the background rendering which I wish Vegas had. Other than that Pinnacle sucks. They have a bad habit of moving a product to the legacy bin within two years. That is enough reason for me to NEVER purchase another product from them.

Oh, and there dv codec sucks ass.

Sequence is also a very useful feature.
And LIQUID ships in many languages (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, ....).

Maybe with Vegas 6 ?