I have been a user of Vegas Video 3 for several years now, as an audio editor; I hardly ever use the video component of the application. I have found Vegas to be the fastest, most intuitive audio editor I have ever used in my 7 years of running a recording studio, I will challenge any ProTools editor to a face off any day with Vegas as my weapon of choice. I never use MIDI and find that all my needs are met combining Vegas 3 with SoundForge 6. I manage to get about 35 tracks of audio with around 10 to 15 third party plugins running realtime, while tracking a stereo file back in. I'm running a Pentium 4 2.8GHz with two 160 gig drives, I have M Audio Delta 10/10 cards. Win XP Pro.
After reading a review on Vegas 5 and seeing that it had been bought out by Sony I was interested in upgrading, my main reason being the new automation features, being able to draw envelopes for threshold levels for compressors and the like is very enticing. I downloaded the Vegas 5 demo to test it out.
The first hassle I had was mainly due to the fact that my internet PC is at home and my audio PC is at the studio, and I do not allow the studio PC to go online. When I tried to install Vegas5, I was informed I needed Microsoft NET, which meant waiting until the next day to install, after a hefty 26 MB download that night. After installing NET Vegas 5 installed flawlessly.
I was pleased to see the familiar layout of Vegas was still true, yet it has a classier updated feel, especially the fader movement in the "track optimized" EQ & Compressor FX.
As I said I have used Vegas 3 as my main app so i had plenty of Vegas 3 session files and I loaded one up into Vegas 5. After about 20 seconds of playback - GLITCH. It drops out for about 0.2 of a second, then continiues, and drops out again about 5 seconds later. Then it just gets very choppy. Not good - I tweaked the audio device settings, tried different playback bauufer settings. Increasing this to max (1.00) gave me a longer period before a dropout, but this was nowhere near the performance of Vegas 3. I tried both ASIO and Classic Windows Drivers (Classic Win drivers worked best for me on Vegas 3) but no change was experienced.
I was sure that this session was no sweat in Vegas 3, so I reinstalled it. I ran the exact same Vegas session in Vegas three with no dropouts whatsoever - I even managed to import a further 10 stereo tracks of audio and it took it all in it's stride.
I started a fresh project in Vegas 5, importing about 12 wave files. Same problem - glitches after about a minute or so, and then really bad staggered playback. No plugins running. No edits in the wave files and no envelopes drawn. Trying the same test in Vegas 3; no problems, I got up to about 50 tracks before a few dropouts occured.
Your advice may be to stick with Vegas 3 but I feel it's starting to get left behind, having that automation would be great. If I was to never be able to upgrade past Vegas 3 I would feel I should start learning a new application before I find myself knowing a program no system will support anymore, or some plugins wont work in.
Any advice would be graetly appreciated, I really want to stick with Vegas and if I can get Version 5 to run as good as I has Vegas 3 then I would be set, I was actually hoping a bit more track count & performance from version 5.... oh well.
Adam B
After reading a review on Vegas 5 and seeing that it had been bought out by Sony I was interested in upgrading, my main reason being the new automation features, being able to draw envelopes for threshold levels for compressors and the like is very enticing. I downloaded the Vegas 5 demo to test it out.
The first hassle I had was mainly due to the fact that my internet PC is at home and my audio PC is at the studio, and I do not allow the studio PC to go online. When I tried to install Vegas5, I was informed I needed Microsoft NET, which meant waiting until the next day to install, after a hefty 26 MB download that night. After installing NET Vegas 5 installed flawlessly.
I was pleased to see the familiar layout of Vegas was still true, yet it has a classier updated feel, especially the fader movement in the "track optimized" EQ & Compressor FX.
As I said I have used Vegas 3 as my main app so i had plenty of Vegas 3 session files and I loaded one up into Vegas 5. After about 20 seconds of playback - GLITCH. It drops out for about 0.2 of a second, then continiues, and drops out again about 5 seconds later. Then it just gets very choppy. Not good - I tweaked the audio device settings, tried different playback bauufer settings. Increasing this to max (1.00) gave me a longer period before a dropout, but this was nowhere near the performance of Vegas 3. I tried both ASIO and Classic Windows Drivers (Classic Win drivers worked best for me on Vegas 3) but no change was experienced.
I was sure that this session was no sweat in Vegas 3, so I reinstalled it. I ran the exact same Vegas session in Vegas three with no dropouts whatsoever - I even managed to import a further 10 stereo tracks of audio and it took it all in it's stride.
I started a fresh project in Vegas 5, importing about 12 wave files. Same problem - glitches after about a minute or so, and then really bad staggered playback. No plugins running. No edits in the wave files and no envelopes drawn. Trying the same test in Vegas 3; no problems, I got up to about 50 tracks before a few dropouts occured.
Your advice may be to stick with Vegas 3 but I feel it's starting to get left behind, having that automation would be great. If I was to never be able to upgrade past Vegas 3 I would feel I should start learning a new application before I find myself knowing a program no system will support anymore, or some plugins wont work in.
Any advice would be graetly appreciated, I really want to stick with Vegas and if I can get Version 5 to run as good as I has Vegas 3 then I would be set, I was actually hoping a bit more track count & performance from version 5.... oh well.
Adam B