I threw together ****™ quick video in appreciation of SONY VEGAS VIDEO 12 -Compared with the more modern versions of MAGIX VEGAS.
It's not a marriage contract. There is no expectation that you use a Magix branded version of Vegas Pro. I used Vegas Pro 13-453 for the whole run of 14, 15, 16. I started projects in 17 for a while and now start all projects in Vegas Pro 19-550. I'm not going back, but if, in the future, I find some reason to use 9-18, I have them loaded on a machine.
Sony Vegas Pro 12 was the first version to have it's own FHD AVC encoder, and it was very solid. As long as you're OK without 4k HDR, it's an excellent choice to stay with.
The classic 12.0.0.770 ( build 770 ) version did have some nice points :
The perfect icon :
The seamless UI :
But it had more downsides than the modern Vegas. For example, you can't adjust the UI to be modern dark. Of course, it would have been better if the seamless UI had been combined with Modern Dark. (Unfortunately, the seamless UI was removed since Vegas15, and was replaced with a dockable UI with a gap of different sizes. )
Notwithstanding ALL of the above comments, made by people who understand far MORE than I can ever aspire to, for me, the crucial, crucial nexus is the continued development of our much loved NLE, during that period of process-wrenching turmoil, in moving away from SONY to MAGIX, is for me the most important achievement that was in sustaining the original 1999 germ of the idea carried on through it’s very DNA till now, in 2022. So, which is best? All of the above, coupled with VegasPro’s ability, Team-VP, to sustain change and implement innovation. I’m making the case for something additional than the majestic feature-set/s, which, in themselves, is so attainable by so many, at what ever level of expertise, and it’s this, sustainability.
I’ll shut up now 😉.
Just a thought experiment:
Where would the software be if it had remained at the level of 12 Pro and no further development had been attempted?
.........
Exactly.
But, of course, everything was better in the past - and there is no request at all from customers who long for a "small improvement" in this or that part of the program.
https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/vegas-pro-feature-requests--134374/
The video removed from the OP as a self-proclaimed spam.
I've been using Vegas Video to complete paid work for over 20 years, since version 3.0. Although I am STILL disappointed that Magix only lets us run our license on 2 systems vs. 3, I am thrilled that they did not let a great NLE like Vegas die, and that they have made improvements that add to my success, like increased ProRes, RAW, GPU, etc. support.
I agree that Vegas 12 was one of my favorite most stable releases, and I used it to start all new projects when I was unhappy with how 13 & 14 behaved across 3 workstations with identical hardware... If I needed a new feature in V13 or 14, I would only load the project into those after I had done most of the heavy editing in V12 - keeping a backup of the last V12 save so I could always go back to that point...
Eventually V15 became my next favorite. At that point I was still running Vegas on 2009-2011 hardware, so the newer versions' increased GPU acceleration, etc. did not offset the loss of stability. I used V15 until I upgraded to my current 9900K & 11700K CPUs and VEGA 64 / 56 GPUs.
On my new systems, V18 has been rock-solid from the beginning, and I only had one issue with V19 that was solved by upgrading my GPU drivers to the latest one recommended in the Vegas Help tab. The official ProRes & RAW support is huge for me. I am able to collaborate with other professionals who primarily use FCP or Adobe PP, so it's important that I can send them high quality intermediates in the formats requested.
As long as Magix keeps the upgrade price affordable, I plan to continue to buy each year's updated release. I prefer having this choice to upgrade being forced into the monthly subscription like Adobe's.