Vegas 5 Annoyances and work-arounds

smhontz wrote on 4/26/2004, 9:36 AM
Ok, I'm starting a new thread for people to contribute to - a list of annoyances found in Vegas 5 and any known work-arounds. By "annoyances" I don't mean "I don't like the look of the UI" or "Better media management" - I mean the little things that you run into where you scratch your head and go "huh?" - things that used to work and now don't, or work differently than you expect. I don't want this to be a thread where people debate workflow style, etc. - just a short, to-the-point list of things that you ran into and how you worked around the problem. And, just to let you know, I am a Vegas fanatic, use it every day, wouldn't use any other NLE, and think Vegas rocks. Ok, enough yakking - here's my first list:

- Save/restore displays doesn't work properly if window is a different size. I set up Alt-D-1 to be my full-size, standard Vegas layout (explorer, mixer, preview at the bottom.) I set up Alt-D-2 to be a vertical half-screen window with just the media pool at the bottom so I can copy from one Vegas to another. When I hit Alt-D-1 to go back to the first setup, the mixer and preview window are squished to the right side. Work-around: hit it again and they jump into place.

- Acoustic mirror/Wave Hammer plug-ins switched into Demo mode. They work fine in all my other apps (Sound Forge 6, Vegas 4, Acid Pro 4). I've run all the migration utilities but still no joy. Work-around - none yet, waiting til I have time to get with Sony tech support.

- F3/F9 no longer move cursor in keyframe controllers. This was nice because I could open an FX properties window, turn sync cursor on, and use my ShuttlePro to move the cursor in the keyframe controller back and forth. Work-around - have to use arrow keys, can't use ShuttlePro.

- Loss of Track Motion presets. Workaround: none yet, Sony said they will fix in an update.

Comments

jardeano wrote on 4/26/2004, 9:50 AM
Yea ,,I hear ya,,,It must be something we all have in common on the computer,,,I'm in the middle of a recovery operation to see if it will fix some issues...
jardeano wrote on 4/26/2004, 10:06 AM
I just finished doing a full system recovery and everything is working perfect, I can capture video,,the preview is clear,,no problems,, except I'm using vegas 4 and I'm going to stay with it until I hear from a sony tech...Vegas 4 somehow got corrupted after i updated to 5,,,,,,,
logiquem wrote on 4/26/2004, 10:21 AM
What about this (it's more a matter of wishes than real bugs reports, btw)

1. the default save as and render folder should be the last one used in the current veg project, not the last one used in Vegas.

2. deleting a video event should also delete the associated audio event (unless ignore event grooping is selected)

3.Total frames to render should be displayed along the actual frame number rendered in the preview window
Cheesehole wrote on 4/26/2004, 11:03 AM
1. the default save as and render folder should be the last one used in the current veg project, not the last one used in Vegas.

YES this has been driving me insane. I'm working on two projects at the same time - saving them alternatively. So EVERY time I hit save as... I'm in the wrong folder! :D :P

2. deleting a video event should also delete the associated audio event (unless ignore event grooping is selected)

I guess a work around would be to hit SHIFT+G before hitting delete.

3.Total frames to render should be displayed along the actual frame number rendered in the preview window

Cool idea. I was hoping for an update to the render progress dialog. Pause button... not defaulting to the "Cancel" button... a bit more feedback.
Ben  wrote on 4/26/2004, 11:11 AM
We're also missing a 'recently used folder' drop down menu on the save-as dialog in Vegas 5. For some reason I don't think this has ever been in Vegas and have got no idea why!

Would be very useful.

Ben
AlistairLock wrote on 4/26/2004, 11:21 AM
I've been doing a lot with the new masks, which work very well, but.

After I've added a keyframe, if I later try to click on it, the cursor firstly does not jump to the keyframe I've just clicked on, and then when I click on the keyframe again, will jump just to the left or right of it.

Keyframe clicking and moving are generally behaving oddly like this in version five, at least on my system. Grabbing and moving keyframes can be a bit fiddly. Another example of trying to click on a keyframe causes the keyframe panel to zoom out completely.

Also, if I magnify a picture frame to draw a detailed mask, any existing mask gradually moves out of register with the frame.

Apart from this, having fun with the new version, doing stuff that would take huge workarounds in four. Version five's release has tied in nicely with a video project containing a number of visual FX that I'm revamping for DVD release.
JJKizak wrote on 4/26/2004, 11:51 AM
Vegas 5.0A capture will give dropped frames if your network mapped
drives are turned off and the drives are checked in the capture options.

JJK
TheHappyFriar wrote on 4/26/2004, 11:58 AM
slambubba found that when you use the pan/crop (didn't try trackmotion) & setup keyframes with the zoom, the "hold" option for the keyframes doesn't work (they zoom in smoothly). It does work however for non-zoom movements.

workaround: you need double keyframes @ every zoom point. One for the previous settings & one (1 frame later) for the new settings.
filmy wrote on 4/26/2004, 12:19 PM
>>>2. deleting a video event should also delete the associated audio event (unless ignore event grooping is selected)<<<

This is an issue with Vegas 4 and has been talked about a lot in various threads...so I take it that a sort of 'maintain sync' is still missing?
logiquem wrote on 4/26/2004, 1:04 PM
This behavior is especially annoying when you are in Ripple Edit mode. Forget to double select, delete only the video part and , et voilà, everything is out of sync. **Very** disturbing...
logiquem wrote on 4/26/2004, 1:09 PM
I forgot something really important for me:

When pasting attributes on events you should be able to choice between replace or append to the other plugins already in the chain. (this is the case with Media Studio and Premiere , if i remember well) .
Rednroll wrote on 4/26/2004, 1:28 PM
"- Save/restore displays doesn't work properly if window is a different size."
1- I have a similar annoyance with this feature. I would like the Saved display layout to include the current size of the window. For instance, when I'm editing I will drag the track faders to the far left to give me more editing view of the events. When I'm mixing audio, I like to drag those track faders futher out so I can control them easier. So I was hoping with this feature I could quickly toggle back and forth between when I'm editing vs. mixing, but no such luck it only stores the windows that I have open/closed, not the size layout.

2- My ongoing annoyance since V1.0. MUTE/SOLO operation. If you have a pre fader send on an audio track and you press MUTE, it will not Mute the pre-fader send, so you still will hear the FX's that the Pre-fader send is being sent too. If you Solo a track, again the pre-fader sends from other audio tracks will not be muted, so you will hear the track you soloed along with any other tracks that have a pre-fader send.

3-When you click the "remove selected plugins" button on the Track inserts and remove all the plugins, it leaves you with a blank screen that says "no FX selected". Where what I wanted to do was remove all those selected plugins and then add additional ones. So then I have to close that screen out and reopen it to add the additional ones. My work around has been remove selected plugins except for the last one, then add the plugins that I want, then delete the last one that I didn't want.

Other than that I'm pretty happy, and if I'm feeling annoyed by anything else, I just open up another NLE and get totally annoyed, making Vegas feel like a breath of fresh air.
MUTTLEY wrote on 4/26/2004, 2:46 PM
For me I would rather have to select both the video and the audio, there are many times when I would like to keep the audio and bail the video ... and vice versa.

- Ray

www.undergroundplanet.com

HPV wrote on 4/26/2004, 2:56 PM
When I'm mixing audio, I like to drag those track faders futher out so I can control them easier.
----------------------------
Rednroll, if you hold down the ctrl key while dragging a slider it gives you tons of control. Might let you work without messing with the track header size.

Craig H.
SonyEPM wrote on 4/26/2004, 3:06 PM
"deleting a video event should also delete the associated audio event (unless ignore event grooping is selected)"

Try this: Go into Options>Prefs> Keyboard

Choose context: Trackview

Show commands containing: edit.group

Click on "edit.group.CutAll"

Assign this to "Ctrl+X"

Apply.

Check out how this affects grouped a/v events when cutting via "ctrl+X"- all events in the group are cut in this operation, not just the event(s) you selected. One could map "edit.group.deleteAll" to the delete key too. Now you only have to select a or v for the a/v pair and delete or cut - works great with ripple. You'll have to click the "ignore event grouping" toolbar button to defeat this newly mapped behavior but that sounds like what you are after anyway.

Please let me know if this helps solve the problem you are describing.



TheHappyFriar wrote on 4/26/2004, 4:05 PM
I'd like it so you can have multiple FX propertie windows open (ie track FX window & master track FX window). So far I have to open one, write down some stuff (or remember), open other... etc.
cef wrote on 4/26/2004, 4:08 PM
Hi all. I had this posted in another thread but it quickly sank down to the hundreds due to a lot of people posting. anyway, i have this set of stills that i formed into a box. i want to use this as a motion menu. i could not get the box to spin more than 10 times. the max value i could put in the rotation amount is 1,800 degrees. that is only 5 rotations. if i start out the motion at minus 1,800 and end at +1,800, then that is only a total of 10 rotations. maybe i am just missing some other control..... am i?
RedEyeRob wrote on 4/26/2004, 4:16 PM
I sure dont appreciate loosing all my track motion presets. They don't work in V4 anymore either. I had some intricate things saved and they don't work. This is a problem for me.
Rednroll wrote on 4/26/2004, 4:38 PM
"Rednroll, if you hold down the ctrl key while dragging a slider it gives you tons of control. Might let you work without messing with the track header size."

Thanks for the reply, but not quite there's still a few problems. One of the main reasons for expanding it, is for a visual feedback of where the faders are in level relative to one another. The major problem is that I usually work with the track fader heights minimized, so I have more faders on the screen at one time for mix down without having to scroll up/down so much. Well when you drag the track mixer section out it will place the pan control to the right of the volume fader. When you start to make it smaller the pan control will disappear and you lose total sight of that. So that's a major reason why I would like it to save both, so at a click of a button I could go back and forth between edit mode and mix mode.
PeterWright wrote on 4/26/2004, 6:33 PM
After using a Preset in an FX, closing then reopening window, it still says "(Untitled)" instead of the Preset name.
rmack350 wrote on 4/26/2004, 10:50 PM
Still image duration and Generated media duration can be set to partial frame lengths. This happens automatically in NTSC projects where the default generated media is 10 seconds.

10 seconds x 29.970 fps = 299.70 frames

I'd rather these settings snap to whole frames somehow. Maybe these settings need to be at the project level instead of the global level

Workaround-for stills set the default duration to a number that yields whole frames. You can increment the time setting in thousandths. I usually increment up until the frame count advances. Generally, 1.001 second = 30 frames so any mutliple of this gives you whole frames.

For generated media, if you insert it by right-clicking on a track then the still photo default is used (which you can set). Use this method to create generated media.

Rob Mack
Nat wrote on 4/26/2004, 11:02 PM
Hey about the windows layout that doesn't remember position :

Pressing the layout shorcut twice seems to solve the problem.

Anyone can confirm ?
BJ_M wrote on 4/27/2004, 12:47 PM
i have noticed that some jpeg and some tiff and some tga files no longer open in V5 , though they do in V4

no idea the diff. , other than some were made on a mac ... and its not all of them ..

the workaround is of course to convert them to something else -- not such a fun thing when you have like 75,000 of them though ...
Rosebud wrote on 4/27/2004, 1:28 PM
2. deleting a video event should also delete the associated audio event (unless ignore event grooping is selected)

Go into Options > Preferences (+Shift) > Internal > set “Event Group Selection” to TRUE.