Post workflow from PPro to Vegas Pro

Cliff Etzel wrote on 11/30/2014, 2:43 PM

As I explore VP13 in depth again I'm seeking input/advice from those who are neck deep in using Vegas Pro on a day to day basis for post production.

Having worked in Premiere Pro now since version 5, I've gotten use to working with their implementation of Bins and having multiple sequences available to me within a single interface.

Having to unlearn this workflow isnt' coming easy and was wondering what advice there is with regards to making as smooth a transition as possible from Premiere Pro CS6 as possible to Vegas Pro. Is there such a thing or am I relegated to the massive hardware requirements that Premiere Pro is now wanting to do more serious editing?

I'm so confused by hardware these days that I look at these specs like a deer looking into headlights of an oncoming car.

The price for current technology mobos/CPU's/RAM is beyond my financial ability and I"m looking at turnkey solutions like refurb HP Z800's with more RAM and dual CPU's.

The machines I've bene looking at have dual 2.93 ghz hex core processors, 24-48GB RAM with a boot drive and medicore graphics card. I'm willing to invest in the card upgrade but was wondering about these base hardware specs for CPU's and RAM - are they sufficient to last me 2-3 years when I'm sure I will eventually foray into 4k editing? I've read the sweet spot for RAID is Raid 3 (At least on the Adobe Hardware forums) but TBH, I have no idea. I will be moving back to using Cineform intermediates as I've been editing native DSLR footage and have seen color quality issues of banding and such that I didn't' have when I made the effort to transcode to Cineform intermediates.

What about the gamma shift that I constantly read about withing Vegas Pro - what is the best way to alleviate that?

I mainly edit DSLR footage but I'm also looking at the expense of getting a Canon C100 with an Atomos external recorder next year so I"m planning my workstation needs around that. 4K is as well outside my budget unless Canon or R3D releases something that is affordable that can utilize all my EF mount lenses I have as a photographer.

The advice around the graphics card deviating from nVidia based technology to Radeon cards for Vegas Pro has me feeling somewhat uneasy as I'm not sure about that since I also work in Photoshop CS6 quite a bit. I don't' do ANY gaming but it seems that the Radeon cards offer a better experience in Vegas Pro.

Are there issues with running mixed nVidia and AMD cards on one machine?

I'm needing to make some EOY expenses for tax purposes so I'm getting down to the wire on needing to purchase soon.

TIA,

Cliff

Back to post

Comments

OldSmoke wrote on 12/8/2014, 10:35 AM

apply denoising and Magic Bullet Looks, my system comes to an absolute crawl - and my understanding is, the graphics card plays a huge role

Yes it does and AMD/ATI is better for those FX then Nvidia. HD6970 or R9 290 or 290X will help you greatly.

Cliff Etzel wrote on 12/8/2014, 12:16 PM

@OldSmoke - are you saying that Magic Bullet Looks as well as Neat Video works better/faster with AMD cards than nVidia Cuda cards?

OldSmoke wrote on 12/8/2014, 12:41 PM

@Cliff

Any plug in that is written for OpenCL and specifically for CUDA will run better on AMD cards. For example; I can finally sue my in the meantime dated BCC8 plugins of 1080 60p projects and have full fps playback at Best/Full.

I also tried the suggested DI route for 4K with MagicYUV but found that aside from rather large files the timeline performance was not any better then the native XAVC-S; transitions where as "bad" as the where with native XAVC-S.

Cliff Etzel wrote on 12/8/2014, 1:25 PM

@OldSmoke - I'm still editing 1080p footage from my DSLR's but I'm trying to plan accordingly for the move to 4K when I am able to - I 'm still having mixed feelings about Vegas but given that my copy of Premiere Pro CS6 doesn't support anything outside of RED and won't support future 4K file formats coming down the pipeline, I'm having to make decisions for 2015 and beyond. I'm a one man shop as many here on Vegas are but I also shoot all my work 99% of the time solo so need as streamline and efficient a post production workflow as possible. I know I"m asking alot of questions but I am trying to make sure I'm making a SMART business decision. I don't foresee myself jumping to the MAC platform and the other choices on Windows for post work other than SONY have gone subscription based ransom-ware.

If you really feel that going Radeon 6970 is a good stop gap to get Vegas Pro running smoothly, then I'll bite - I just want to make sure it's the best route to go with Vegas Pro as once I install that card, Premiere Pro becomes pretty much crippled at that point and I have a lot of projects edited in Premiere Pro CS6 - it would mean opening each PPro project, and modify/removing all my Bins and saving them again so that they will import correctly/without failing into Vegas Pro.

Cliff Etzel wrote on 12/8/2014, 3:38 PM

I just learned Photoshop CS6 is fully tested with AMD Radeon series graphics cards and supports the Mercury Graphics Engine (MGE). According to the Adobe website, MGE is a part of Photoshop CS6 and uses both the OpenGL and OpenCL frameworks. It DOES NOT USE the proprietary CUDA framework from nVidia.

Since I use Photoshop CS6 extensively, this comes as great news that the following ATI/Radeon cards are supported:

AMD/ATI Radeon 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000, 7000 series

AMD/ATI FirePro 3800, 4800, 5800, 7800, 8800, 9800, 3900, 4900, 5900, 7900

AMD/ATI FireGL W5000, W7000, W8000

I just placed my order for a Radeon HD 6970 so I'm committed now. After I receive it and get it installed I'll be running some tests to see how well it performs. In the meantime I'll be transitioning all my Premiere Pro project files to import into Vegas to save as VEG project files.