Forgive me if there is already a thread for this, I did a search and came up empty.
While I want Magix to focus on stability above all, you can't release a new version of software without new features. I've been seeing some features in Reaper that I think could be beneficial to Vegas. I figured I'd throw out some suggestions for ways that the VP16 interface can be streamlined. Magix could gain a lot by downloading that software (it's only $60 and has an endless evaluation period, they just annoy you about buying it) and looking into its interface and configuration options.
One thing Vegas could gain from it, completely, and I mean completely, customized layouts. You can assign a button to anything the program is capable of doing, make a button for it, import an icon for that button if you like (for instance, I have icons of my guitar, my drummer's kit, etc. for the track presets I've made for each band member), and then place that button anywhere on the layout that you want. People can make and share their own skins, and there are thousands of options to choose from, including some that only work on 4K or higher displays. You can switch between skins using the top menu, and can easily create your own as well. Make sure to put in some sort of easy way to revert to the default skin, in case one gets loaded that doesn't work on that display, other than that, it works great.
The track presets thing is another that I really like. Let's say I have 5 cameras from 3 different models and 2 different brands, and I have a starting LUT I apply to each one to get me going with the color matching process for a multicamera shoot. It would be great if I could make a button, import a pic of that camera to that button, and when I press it, a track containing that LUT and any other FX I want to get started with is added to the timeline.
I'm not sure if Vegas supports anything like it, but track nesting is another feature that could be useful. I've seen it appearing in a lot of DAWs lately. For video, if I was shooting a music video, for instance, and I have multiple cameras with multiple takes each, it would be cool to be able to nest each take into one camera's video track, be able to easily collapse and expand the nested tracks, and have the one I click on with my mouse be the track that gets soloed, and the rest of the nested clips get muted. That way, I can click on the video clip I want to play during that scene, easily swapping between takes to spot the best one as it plays.
Some sort of point based time dilation system rather than the rubber band velocity control. It can be difficult to nail down the exact frame I want my slowmo or speedup effect to end on when that frame moves on the timeline based on where the velocity envelope is. If each clip had one point on each side that could be clicked on and dragged, lengthening or shortening the clip (and actually speeding it up or slowing it down to compensate, rather than just moving the in/out point like it currently does), when used alongside the velocity rubber band, I think it could make complex time dilation effects easier to pull off. So, if I film someone doing a slam dunk at 180fps, speed it up to normal speed, then as soon as he jumps for the goal, I put a split on the clip. I put another split at my out point, after he slams the ball through the hoop. I click the time dilation point (after enabling it) on the edge of the clip between the two splits, and drag it out until it has slowed to the desired speed. Auto-ripple can then move the normal-speed clip where it needs to be to come back in, the clip resumes at normal speed and the player falls back to the ground. Reaper lets you put a point anywhere in an audio event as well, and you can drag them around to speed up and slow down the audio as the clip plays. Great for, if you're making a quick demo recording and don't have time to re-record that slightly off time note... there are uses for such a feature in the video world.
With video both being captured and now delivered in 10 bit, Vegas really needs to look into modernizing all of its effects to supporting it, as well as GPU on as many as possible. HDR support in the HEVC and AVC encoders would be cool too...
Last but not least, some great motion tracking. Built in integration with something like Mocha or a proprietary equivalent would be great. The less stuff we have to do outside of Vegas, and the less plugins we have to buy to give Vegas features that come stock with its competition... the better.
