Vegas Editors: Why you'll love a Surface Pro

dirtynbl wrote on 9/20/2014, 6:45 PM

I'm a longtime Vegas Pro editor who works as a video editor now. (I started in Vegas Pro 3 in high school). I bought a Surface Pro a few years back and now have the Surface Pro 2. If you're an editor who hates always being chained to a desk Vegas works incredibly well with touchscreen and a pen. It's amazing.

Here's a very basic video of how I do most of my basic assembly edits now. Often from the comfort of my couch, or a park, or a chair on the beach.

Video:

I do a lot of motion graphics and After Effects doesn't work that well. Neither does Premiere. I've heard some grumbling about touch and where Sony might focus future features for Vegas Pro and I have to tell you that I hope they embrace the Surface. Their software already works incredibly well.

That said...does anyone know how to add a toolbar button somewhere to make a simple cut? IE replace the need for the "S" key? That would be incredible.

Comments

PeterWright wrote on 9/20/2014, 8:04 PM

Very interesting to see Vegas operated that way, thanks.

One thing I wondered - why don't you put the preview at the top of screen, then your hand wouldn't cover it whilst you're working on the timeline?

dirtynbl wrote on 9/21/2014, 1:53 AM

Hmm...I probably should.

For whatever reason since I've been editing in Vegas for so long, I'm used to the preview window in the lower right in Vegas. On the desktop it drives me nuts in the top. I couldn't handle it when they moved the preview window by default to the top in Vegas 9 or 10.

PeterWright wrote on 9/21/2014, 2:46 AM

Yes I understand - we all have such habits ...

How fluent preview playback have you been getting with the Surface Pro 2, and at what quality preview ?

The reason I ask is that I see the Surface Pro 3 comes in 3 "flavours": i3, i5 and i7, ranging from about $900 to $1800. I was wondering which would be necessary for video editing, particularly with an external USB HD. Maybe the SPro 2 would be ok at $400 ?

dirtynbl wrote on 9/21/2014, 10:58 PM

The Core i5 / 8GB RAM in my Surface Pro 2 handles HD editing just fine. I've never had any real lag issues at all. I do motion graphics as well and it's pretty solid there.

The place I feel it vs. my Core i7 / 32gb desktop is in rendering. That's where it takes about twice as long.

I've been looking at a Core i7 Surface Pro 3. The screen is incredible. Surface Pro 2 is only 1080p and 10 inches. The 3 is 13 inches and better than Retina resolution. Somehow the Surface Pro 3 is lighter. You really can't go wrong either way. I just bought the SP 1 and the SP 2 both in the last year so I can't really justify buying the 3. Now the 4...

PeterWright wrote on 9/21/2014, 11:36 PM

Thanks for that.

Two more questions - What's the app you use to house those favourite Vegas shortcuts?

And, did it take long to become fluent with the pen based way of working?

Peter

dirtynbl wrote on 9/22/2014, 3:04 PM

I use a program called Art Keys. It was created by a Surface user on Reddit for Photoshop users. It works well for that (you can have different palattes of shortcuts).

However with this tip from another thread I don't need it anymore:
"Vegas Pro 13 already has a button for 'split' on the 'time-line' toolbar at the bottom.

With Vegas Pro 12, go to Tools, Customize Toolbar and you should see a Split you
can add to the top toolbar"

Pen based took me a week or so. Probably in actuality a month, but I did tiny projects for awhile and then once I finally tried a meaty project on the Surface I realized it could do it and I loved it.

Terje wrote on 9/23/2014, 6:37 AM

I have edited a bit on the Surface Pro 2, and it is an amazing machine. Beats anything from anyone when it comes to usability on the road. Nothing can touch it. It is also great for Photoshop once you install the Pen drivers for Photoshop.

I wouldn't mind the bigger screen (and the i7) of the Surface Pro 3 though. Particularly the bigger screen. The Pro 2 is plenty fast for HD.

Editguy43 wrote on 9/23/2014, 11:16 AM

hey Dirtynbl

Great vid I have been looking at getting a surface pro and now that the 3 is out it is really calling my name. just curious have you tried the new Movie Studio 13 that is touch enabled I know it is the studio version not the pro but I would like to see what you think.

Paul B

dirtynbl wrote on 9/23/2014, 4:50 PM

I've never used Movie Studio 13.

I use Pro for work and freelancing. It would incredibly well with a mouse or pen. Touch isn't as good as either of those two options, but it still works.

engellion wrote on 9/23/2014, 11:46 PM

Hi. Thanks for this post.

I have the Surface Pro 3. But have an issue with it running Vegas Pro 12. See my post here: http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=906631&Replies=0

the top Menu bar (File, Edit, etc) is half obscured by the top toolbar that should sit just below it. Maximising the Vegas window makes no difference. I think it may be a function of the higher resolution screen.

Any advice on how to resolve this?

Cheers.

engellion wrote on 9/24/2014, 12:14 AM

Don't worry. Problem solved, thanks to the tip by ddm on the other thread.

accessed the compatibility settings for the exe file, ticked the check box: "disable display scaling on high DPI settings"

All good.

Wolfmancamera wrote on 2/12/2017, 3:08 AM

Is it possible to run vegas on surface pro one!?

astar wrote on 2/12/2017, 11:59 AM

Yes. Vegas will run on a Surface Pro 1. With only:

3rd Gen Intel Core i5 Processor
4GB RAM

The experience might not be great or that fast. You do not list your project settings of Codec that you are looking to edit. AVCHD generally requires an 8 thread CPU, and the i5 is only 4 threads.

NickHope wrote on 2/12/2017, 8:58 PM

Not sure which version of the Surface this was: https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/vegas-pro-12-on-a-microsoft-surface-pro--93134/

Skywatcher wrote on 2/14/2017, 6:14 PM

Love the Surface Pro line . . . .

Skywatcher

OldSmoke wrote on 2/14/2017, 8:12 PM

I own a Surface Pro 3 with an i7 and 16GB RAM and still, editing is not a smooth thing. The main reason in my opinion is that even the i7 is only a dual core processor. It might be ok with HDV and preview set to Draft or Preview but XAVC-S 1080 60p is a no go, lets not talk about 4K. Rendering is at minimum an overnight affair depending on the size of you project. This kind of device is just not designed for it.

ushere wrote on 2/14/2017, 9:36 PM

i suppose i'm old-fashioned, but the idea of trying to edit anything on anything less than a proper two monitor setup seems somewhat pointless. yes, i've edited offline on laptops, and still log footage and the like on my laptops when i'm away, but the idea of actually editing on one is rather like using notepad instead of word to create and send out a cv ;-)