> I couldn't agree more.

Actually, I COULD agree more but then... who would sit and listen to me wax poetic about Vegas? I'd be preaching to the choir! :-D

Dito Grazie. There are a really nice set of tools available that integrate with Vegas and make our jobs a lot easier.

~jr

And every time I get back to Vegas from using another piece of software, it feels like someone just opened a window and turned on a light.

Best damn GUI in the business.

(except maybe the part in Track Motion where it all of a sudden for no apparent reason, it zooms you all the way out and to time 00:00.)

Definitely agree. I shoot and edit ca. 50 interviews a year [on top of a full-time regular job] and produce both archive and distributable DVDs of same. Most, not all, are 3 camera shoots. If it wasn't for Vegas, Excalibur, and Cinescore this just would not be possible.

It's the scripts as much as the program. Every time I think about using something else I start thinking about questions like: how am I going to batch normalize all the dialog tracks in one pass, when am I going to find time to transcode all my raw material into a common format, or when am I going to find the time to resample all my source music into 48k (vs 44k) and where am I going to find the hard disc space to put it, or how am I going to fold all my source footage into more manageable prerenders without losing a generation or expanding into a much larger intermediate, or how am I going to going to schedule my time around my various renders (vs setting them all up at once then going to sleep).

Yeah I'm a Vegas fanboy.

[I]
"how am I going to fold all my source footage into more manageable prerenders without losing a generation or expanding into a much larger intermediate"
[/I]

OK...so how DO you do that in Vegas?

"Yeah I'm a Vegas fanboy."

Ditto.

Vegas has a few short-comings as with any other NLE, and there are a few out there that can do "this" better or maybe "that" better..... but overall.... Vegas just simply beats the pants off anything else out there. The ease and the workflow can not be beaten.

> "how am I going to fold all my source footage into more manageable prerenders without losing a generation or expanding into a much

After I transfer my footage, I put it all on a timeline and start trimming away the crap (using the ripple edit so that there aren't gaps after I cut the junk out).

Then I run a "put markers at events" script (or do it from Ultimate-S), labeling the important markers and sometimes putting labeled regions where I know I am going to use a certain section in my later edits.

Then I go through the audio, picking out the better of the two tracks and normalizing any parts with dialog or important sound.

If it is an interview, at all the markers where an answer begins, I put in a black against white title frame which states the question that is answered by the following footage. In this way, later I will be able to go to the markers within an interview and see exactly what questions are being discussed by the marked footage.

After that I smart-render the timeline into sections with descriptive names like "Dr. Grant interview" or "Jessup Georgia B-Roll" or whatever.

What I end up with is nice sections of organized video with notes built right into the footage which is all still first generation and mpeg2 compact.

Ahhhh....I misunderstood what you meant by "prerender". For some reason I thought you were rendering media files ("prerenders") for use on the timeline prior to the final output render. That's why I wondered how you did it without a generation loss or intermediate.

Your use of Smart Render is basically like cut and splice -- hence no generation loss.

Thanks for your explanation!

>Ahhhh....I misunderstood what you meant by "prerender". For some reason I thought you were rendering media files ("prerenders") for use on the timeline prior to the final output render. That's why I wondered how you did it without a generation loss or intermediate.

Well, if you render your final masters to Blu-ray compatible HD mpeg2, it does that too. You can be watching the final project off a Blu-ray player in your living room and seeing the same first generation footage your camera captured.

Yeah I know, what about color correction and other finishing touch. Well the new cameras like the EX1, EX3, the HVR-S270 and my own HVR-Z7 have these really cool profile settings that let you do much of the same magic as you are shooting. Probably my biggest goal of late is to figure out how to make use of this.

Smart-renders look so good and they render so fast, it's really something.

Sweet! That internal camera color correction sounds wonderful. ...one more thing to dream for some day. I've been so tied up with the audio side of things as a classical violinist, composer and recording engineer, that I've yet to buy my first serious DV camera. I'm hoping for an XL-2 in the next year or so.

It's great to know that the tools are out there to present quality first-generation video direct to the viewer.

Thanks for filling me in. I love to learn.

Case in point: I'm reading Practical DV Filmmaking, 2nd edition (and about a dozen other film/3D/scriptwriting/composing/biography books) right now! :-) What terrific book.

I wanted to say that I am enjoying using this truly flexible software.

nothing says "vegas kicks ass!" more then taking a laptop, external HD, extra monitor & trackball to a client @ 1 day notice and editing everything (credits, FX, etc) in a few hours with them. All on a crummy laptop. :D

The more I use Vegas the more creative doors start opening

And I am learning from you good folks all the time for free

You gotta love it

Rory

Hell, I love the blue snaps and the out of sync pinks.

JJK

Does anyone else use the Vegas Networking Feature much, but use it locally.
Many times I want to to work on a few projects at once rather than opening up multiple sessions.
Starting from the first project for rendering when I goto render I'll check on the "Use networked Computers". Then that starts the network render program (you should start it before doing this but Vegas will start it).
Use the defaults and save the video where you want it rendered to. The program will render your project in the background. Then you can go back to the regular editing session, save the project and start a new one.

You can also make multiple rendering engines and select them (all on the same machine).
The instructions are in the Vegas help files to make multiple instances of a local rendering process.
I know, I can also open up multiple instances of Vegas.

Great feature, especially for rendering multiple projects in the background. Especially if your working on all standard definition projects.

ps - Providing you don't have any corruption in your source videos.

...and the community here is great. You can learn so much, not only reg. editing :-)

/Ulf

I too have found Vegas to be a truly great NLE. I've used so many others and this is the one I use for virtually everything. I have five different NLEs installed on my system (yeah, I know I shouldn't do that).