I really like the new version of ripple edit in Vegas 4 and started using it again (I just kept it off in Vegas 3) but I’ve noticed a strange behavior and I’m wondering if this is how it should be. I’m doing a photomontage but the behavior is the same even if you’re using video clips. What I want to be able to do is decide the piece is too long and delete some pictures from the timeline and have the timeline automatically fill in the gaps. This a typical use for ripple edit but here is the strange behavior that makes it not work as expected:

With ripple edit on and cut-to-overlap set at one second: Drag and drop three images onto the timeline. You should now see three events that are overlapped by a one second crossfade. Select the middle event and hit the delete key. I would now expect to see the right side event shift over (which I do) and be left with two events that are overlapped by a one second crossfade. Not so! I now have two events that are overlapped by a two second crossfade!!! (and I have to move one back to the right to get a one second crossfade back).

So what’s happening is that the transition times are being added together. This kind of defeats the purpose of ripple edit because I have to manually adjust the events and I can’t think of a single instance when I would want the transitions times to be added together when I delete an event. Is this the expected behavior cuz’ it’s not what I expected.

I would have expected Vegas to use the same duration as the transition that it selected to keep. If the left transition is a Push and the right is a Page Peel and I delete the middle clip, the remaining transition is whatever the transition at the end of the deleted clip was, which in this example was the Page Peel. I would also expect it to maintain the duration of that Page Peel. What do you guys think?

~jr