Yet Another Reason Vegas Needs BWF write

cchoy wrote on 10/23/2008, 7:45 AM

So we had an ADR session at the studio the other day. And we needed to send the files to another studio (where the director was) that ran ProTools, and have them be able to see the files on the same place on the time line.

Now, we don't have ISDN, so that wasn't an option. Vegas doesn't have anyway of locking clocks over the internet with ProTools, so that wasn't an option.
So the engineer over there had a great idea! We'd use time stamped .BWF files so that when they dragged them in to their session, the time stamp would place the files for them.

Oh wait. Vegas can't write BWF files. And we can't send them OMF files. And the AAF files we tested didn't work cross-DAW. So what did we do?

We had to buy an LE version of ProTools that day and use that instead. How lame is that? I HATE proTools. I think it is clunky. I think DigiDesign and their proprietary crap is TERRIBLE. But I need to be able to interface with other studios that use other DAWs than Vegas.

ACTUAL BWF support anyone? We have the CuiBonoSoft EDL Convert (thank god before SSL bought it).... but now it's a legacy product. I don't want Vegas to become a legacy DAW. How many other DAWs have BWF write? Audition? Logic? Nuendo? ProTools? Reaper? Sonar?

The reason I like Vegas is that it is plug-and-play. Back in the day it supported more formats than anything out there. I loved that it was on the front edge of mp3 support, dvd and cd support. The fact that the UI was the best out there. The envelopes are fantastic! Vegas has continued to innovate with the best GUI out there. Sadly, it has now fallen behind in terms of functionality.

I don't care how easy a car is to drive in reverse if I can't move forward.

Comments

JMacSTL wrote on 10/23/2008, 8:03 AM

Ya know, I agree with everything you said. I have been in the same boat, and i DO have ISDN and have been asked to send SMPTE TC down one channel in order to get a VTR on the other end to chase my session. I can get ProTools LE to slave to incoming TC (SMPTE to MTC) but not spit it back out. Same with Vegas (I'm running 8.03 or whatever the current is). Here is a trick, altho it requires prep work ahead of session time: record some time code as a wave file at the location of the scenes you need to do ADR for.....then send that track output to a sound card output channel that you can send wherever it is that you need to send it. Only issue is: if they suddenly throw you a curve and say "oh, and we have four more scenes to do, so shuttle to the following time codes on your tape" then you will have to hustle to get things working with video tape lock. Have you tried doing your session in Vegas, and exporting AAF and then importing that into ProTools and then saving?

jmm in stl

Geoff_Wood wrote on 10/23/2008, 12:56 PM

Sure, why not BWF write.

Why not just direct import and export of The Evil One's project files ?

Vegas, to survive ( or prosper), needs to maximise the ease for users to access from/to it ,compared with the 'closed' application/s - not remain amoungst them (to it's own detriment).

Just lost a job that was started on PT because the originating studio would not part with the $495 they wanted for an add-on to simply enable export of an AAF file ;-(

geoff

CDM wrote on 10/24/2008, 9:18 AM

Cory -
I'm so with you here. The fact that Sony decided to support AAF, a format NO ONE uses, is beyond me. Crazy, in fact. So out of touch. Point in fact: people need to be able to give sessions to clients and have them be compatible with Pro Tools.

I do exactly what you are doing. I do ADR/looping all the time. In fact, I just recently did a session for a feature where the director was in Utah, so they had Pro Tools running there and they locked to my timecode track in Pro Tools over the ISDN. (I had the session all setup in Vegas to do the exact same thing, tested it, but then chickened out because I don't trust the recording aspect of Vegas enough to trust this kind of job with it)

I RECORDED smpte as an audio file, locked it on a track starting at 01:00:00:00 with the picture. I fed that to channel 1 on the ISDN and the voice on channel 2. They then read my TC and locked to me. It worked perfectly.

But, when that's not possible, and even when it is, they want a PTools session as a backup. That's the reality.

I use EDL Convert to convert a Vegas XML to Pro Tools 9, or OMF. But it's very problematic when you're converting a session with multiple takes, which you inevitably have in a looping session. What a drag - see my post in the scripting forum about a script to extract the takes to other tracks and remove inactive takes for this very reason.

Cory, feel free to call me to discuss this. So funny that you're posting this as this is my current nightmare with Vegas that I'm really trying to hammer Sony about.

cchoy wrote on 10/27/2008, 12:08 PM

Thanks. Will definitely contact you sometime to discuss Sony Vegas actual post for film wishlist/workarounds for things that don't/may never work.

Geoff_Wood wrote on 10/28/2008, 3:07 AM

Hey, I've successfully exchanged data from/to PT with AAF. But the PT dude had to spend $495 extra to be able to read/write it, and of course it still doesn't do FX or envelopes. ( I suspect he didn't actually pay the $495, and who can blame him !).

But why not just go the whole hog and have BWF, PT project , OMF, and whatever else whatever Read and Write as far as possible ? Vegas does not need to fend off other apps - it needs to get out there and grasp at them !

geoff

FuTz wrote on 11/4/2008, 10:42 AM

I second all of that too, gents...
BWF export has been on the wishlist of many users since a few Vegas versions now.
Let's just hope they'll listen for the next version.