Trials of a Media Manager Virgin

PeterWright wrote on 4/3/2006, 3:21 AM
Now that Acid 6 Pro is here I want to start using/learning the Media Manager - I have never enabled it for Vegas, but with Acid one does rely on being able to find material from a "library" of loops, so I've enabled it and there it is ...

BUT

When I open either Acid 6 or Vegas, the Media Manager contains a total of 206 items which it can't locate - I've no idea why they're there and all I want to do is delete everything and start again. When I select one, a window opens and I click on "remove", and I get a fatal error message and either Acid of Vegas closes spontaneously.

Please - how do I clean the Media Manager of this unwanted material?

Thanks

Edit - some time later, I have now deleted all 206 - mostly one at a time (!!), though occasionally I was able to use Shift to select 4 or 5 at a time. Have I missed some way I could have selected all then deleted them in one go?

Now to find out how to use the thing properly ........

Comments

JohnnyRoy wrote on 4/3/2006, 7:30 AM
> Have I missed some way I could have selected all then deleted them in one go?

Yes. The easiest way is to select the first item, press Ctrl+A (this is the standard Select All key in every Windows application) and then press the Delete key. So again that’s 1) Click, 2) Ctrl+A, 3) Delete.

The question is: Where did all those broken links come from and will they come back?

The answer is: The Media Manager keeps track of all of the media that you use in Vegas or ACID by default. Whenever you drop something on the timeline, it gets added to the Media Manager as well. This can be very helpful when trying to find media that you have used together. Unfortunately, most people have to delete the media used for their projects to make room for the next project and all the links get broken. Luckily, there is a way to turn this behavior off.

If you want your libraries to just contain what you put in them:

1. Go to Options > Preferences > General tab
2. Scroll down to [X] Save media-usage relationships in active media library and Uncheck this option.

Don’t forget, you can have as many media libraries as you want. So the quickest way to start over is to simply create a new library.

~jr
PeterWright wrote on 4/3/2006, 6:18 PM
Thanks Johnny - that's very helpful - I certainly don't want MM putting anything in there unless I want it, so I'm glad there's a way.

Incidentally, I did try Ctrl+A at the outset, but as soon as I selected one item a window popped up with a range of options including Remove, which only applied to the selected item.

Peter
Serena wrote on 4/3/2006, 7:55 PM
There's a very good DVD tutorial on this from VASST. Very quick way to learn to make best use of Media Manager. Then it becomes a great help rather than the bugbear that people seem to complain about.
je@on wrote on 4/3/2006, 8:47 PM
It's a shame that Sony leaves it to a 3rd party to explain the damn thing.
JohnnyRoy wrote on 4/3/2006, 11:13 PM
> There's a very good DVD tutorial on this from VASST

Thank You and we’re actually working on another one that is dedicated to the Media Manager alone. More in depth and full featured. Look for it soon.

> It's a shame that Sony leaves it to a 3rd party to explain the damn thing.

Actually there is rather extensive documentation on the Media Manager with Vegas 6.0 and ACID Pro 6.0. Have you tried searching for Media Manager in the help file? It’s all there. The Vegas 6 manual has an entire chapter (18 pages) on the Media Manager!

Some people just don’t work well with written instructions. They are more visually oriented. For them, I believe 3rd parties play an important role in providing training that puts the knowledge to practical use. Part of what you get from training DVD’s is the experience of the trainer as a practitioner in the field. The manufacturer can’t give you that.

~jr
Grazie wrote on 4/3/2006, 11:55 PM
You got that right JR! - "Some people just don’t work well with written instructions. They are more visually oriented. For them, I believe 3rd parties play an important role in providing training that puts the knowledge to practical use. Part of what you get from training DVD’s is the experience of the trainer as a practitioner in the field. The manufacturer can’t give you that."

Nice to be valued as being "visually-orientated". There is more, MUCH more in what you say than can be covered here.

I was one of the first here to go overboard about MM. It is truly a stunning way to retrieve & naturally & organically audition and "feel" the value of clips that I have. I've changed the way I shoot now, KNOWING that I have MM to use to sample and collate and scrub the few frames within a 10 second event that will MAKE a movie for me.

While we share and compare notes and yes, DVDs, whatever, to get an understanding of this s/w, leave Madison to get on with the tough work of implementing our suggestions and feedback.

Now all I need is a "JR" DVD for Boris Graffiti-3!

Oh yes, folks, there is always SKYPE too! What a tool for assisting each other.

Grazie