Just curious, are these cool little useful things ( I love this stuff ) in the new book ?

Excalibur Multi-cam 3.0-------

Now see....that doesn't count. Doesn't come with Vegas, isn't part of the Vegas software....But is indeed a nice tool.
got a nice list going, keep em' coming.
BTW, for whomever asked, yeah, some/most of these are in the Vegas 5 book.

Realtime stretching, realtime normalizing of audio. Too much things to write actually, if I had to marry a program it would be Vegas.

Some I found handy...

--Being able to delete files from inside Vegas using the Explorer window. nice to put clips on autoplay and do some "housecleaning"

--Love that DV Scene Detection in Video Capture. Nice I don't have to stay there and press stop and record all the time. Now when I shoot, I'm keeping that in mind.

--I absolutley love how Vegas really utilizes and shines with Dual Monitor Support

--Love the Select Ruler Format, selecting Measures And Beats, enter your song tempo from your Acid created song, then enable snapping to quarter ( or whatever ) beats. Makes cutting videos to music much more intuitive.

There is an article on many of these tools (from V4) that I did on the DMN. Couldn't find it in a search just now, but it's there, somewhere..

Options -> <SHIFT> + Preferences -> Internal -> Event Group Selection -> TRUE

Selects linked video and audio with single click on either. Great for ripple editing.

-Arrow key nudging in Pan/Crop and Track motion

-Mouse-wheel horizontal zooming has been mentioned, but bears repeating. I still can't believe programs like Sonar haven't implemented this. I mean, how many million times an hour do you zoom like this? Why not map it to the easiest button there is?

-Scripting! and the good people who have offered so many great scripts.

Greg

For those of us that use a Wacom Tablet/Pen for editing is there a way to emulate the wheel rolling of the mouse to enable zooming in on the timeline?

As for things I like:

1 Dual Monitor setup is great
2 Marking beats with the M key, highligting the area between successive markers and then using the A key to pull in a section of my clip from the Trimmer bin. Vegas then intuitively highlights the next marker region and I can then fill in that section with another trimmer clip with the A key. Very efficient way to edit to the beats.
3. Fine tune editing with the number keys
4. I like splitting a clip at several rapid rhythimic points and then using the pan/crop tool to flip/rotate/crop each section for interesting visual effects.
5. Adding fractal media generated loops ontop of my video clips with a screen and lowered opacity
6. Dragging Explorer clips or even mp3 clips from my ITunes registry right onto my media bin.


MarcS

Thought I'd bring back this ancient but great thread in the light of Cliff's "workflow frustration" thread.

Here's one more from me...

Get a mouse with a thumb button and program it to <ENTER> for playing and pausing the timeline.

Even better get a mouse with a 2nd thumb button and program it to <DELETE> (or alternatively S for split).

Zoom on the mouse wheel I really like. It's so annoying that other NLEs don't have it (and I've been using FCP a lot... I'm gotten all my shortcuts jumbled).

Crtl and Alt modifiers allow you to do slip and roll edits.

Crtl while dragging sliders gears down.

Some effects let you put in negative numbers. Interesting times. Usage in unsharp mask:
http://glennchan.info/articles/vegas/usm/usm.html

Ability to play a clip, loop it, and add FXs and change their parameters on the fly.

How the color picker works. Being able to select an area makes the task so much easier and accurate, especialy with video.
Did anyone mention assignable FXs on the audio side?
I'll admit these take a while to get your head around but very powerful.

FCP can't do mousewheel zoom? That's a huge bonus to Vegas.

Should just point out that some of the tips earlier in the thread are now a redundant since they apply to 2 or 3 releases ago and Vegas now includes them or does things in a better way

OK this is probably off-limits, being an outside script and all, but it's free and maybe my favorite feature even though it's really new:

The new Deshaker script. It just rocks!

Don't ALL NLE's have mouse wheel zoom??!?! Yikes!! Vegas IS the dog's bollox!


<spill edit!>

I've got a rotatable screen. When I've got a LOT of tracks, I'll rotate the screen to vertical and be able to include at least a dozen more tracks in a view, especially with a f11 keyclick.

And I hate the icon implemented ripple. I use CTRL/SHIFT/F to ripple. This way ripple isn't accidently left activated.

When I have a gap in the timeline I select the gap then DELETE then CTRL/SHIFT/F to close the gap. I do this dozens of times a day.

I also have set in Preferences my edit speed to FAST. Then mulitple clicks on JKL keys will send the track flying forward or reverse. I've found this the best way to review large quantities of footage when I don't want to miss a single frame.

I often avoid use of the Trimmer [ not always ] by building an extra Video and Audio track combination and placing it on top of the edit. I then bring clips directly there, and can easily size and move them around - particularly for insert editing.

Nick, thanks ... that's a Great tip, re thumb button on mouse for play, even more handy than my shuttle... appreciate it!

I have a logitech mx518 mouse but have never used the 2 buttons on the left thumb area of it, that's a perfect use for them, re play and delete etc.. super idea..

ken

Right-click, select events to end is in the Vegas context menu, at least in V7. No script required.

<edit> Ooops, sorry, that's not across multiple tracks.

Rob Mack

Scripting! (just that it exists)

Dockable windows

Scopes (but it'd be handy if FX windows had a button to open a scopes window)

EDIT DETAILS!!!! (This is incredibly useful)

Search feature in project media window

Media keeps playing even if Vegas loses focus (good to listen to dialog while looking at a Word doc)

Mouse wheel is the best thing since sliced bread

Trimmer (I learned to love it. I wish the interface could be reworked to make people see it as a "source" window)

Regions in Vegas explorer (but Vegas Explorer and Project Media window need to either merge or share features)

Bins (But wouldn't it be great if each bin could be undocked in a seperate window?)

Takes! (Love that edited audio can come back as a take)

Instant media update (Audio or stills that are changed outside Vegas get updated immediately and automatically)

nearly any media on the timeline

JKL keys

Active take labels

Manual ripple

Timeline feedback of how much you've moved or trimmed media

Visible snapping (better than what Flash does)

...The list just goes on and on. Honestly, as far as new versions go I'd be happy it the existing tools were refined.

Rob Mack

I like how in Vegas you can slide in a regular 44.1k mp3 even though the video is based around 48k audio. It's amazing the lengths other people have to go through with their music beds.

Renaming clips in Media Pool and to carry over new name to Explorer folders. John

I also have set in Preferences my edit speed to FAST. Then multiple clicks on JKL keys will send the track flying forward or reverse. I've found this the best way to review large quantities of footage when I don't want to miss a single frame.

Ah, but did you know that the JKL keys have a second way of operating?

If you merely press "J" the video goes backward; press "L" it immediately goes forward; press "K" it stops.

But did you know that if you press and hold "K," and while holding "K," you then press "L," that regardless of the speed setting in the Preferences dialog, the video starts in slow motion. Then, let go of the "K" key and press "L" again. The video speeds up a little, but only a little. Press "L" again. Just a little faster.

Now, press "J." Wow! instead of reversing motion all at once, the video gets slower. Each press of the key gets slower until it finally reverses.

So, J-K-L rocks, but in two entirely different ways!