from adobe to vegas?

[Nick_Lee]

hey guys i was wondering if it was hard to get used to vegas after using premeire for a few years.

ive used vegas 4.0 before and i didnt really like it too much. but i hear good things about it so im thinking about getting it. i just dont wanna spend 600 dollars on software that im not going to like.

thanks guys.

[HorseFilms]

Download the demo and see if it's something you can get used to. Once I used it, I never turned back.

[Jive]

Yeah, what he said :)

You can download a fully-functional 30-day trial to see if you like it. None of the functionality is hindered (only rendering using certain licensed codecs (mpeg-2, ac-3, etc.) is).

A word of advice tho:
It's a very different beast from pretty much any other NLE out there. I came to Vegas after sevaral years of experience with Avid, FCP, and Premier (ugh) ;p. At first, I absolutely HATED it because I thought it didn't conform to the standard DVE workflow that pretty much every other program used. Turns out I was right :) Vegas does things very differently. However, in most cases where they've deviated from the norm, they provided a better way of doing the task IMHO.

Also, I'd suggest working on a real project to get a feel for Vegas as opposed to just messing around in it. Initially I almost abandoned the idea of using Vegas for serious work because I was pretty much mucking around in it and forgot about it for awhile. When I was about to start a new project, I decided to do it in Vegas to see how well I would fare. It was then that I really saw Vegas as a pretty powerful NLE.

[Nick_Lee]

okay

i see what you mean jive.

the one time i did use it, it was alot different that what i was used to.

thanks.

-nick

[Aaron Koolen]

As said, get the demo AND use ona real project. Even something you've already done, but re capture/edit etc from scratch. That way you'll get to see all the things Vegas can do, and be forced to look in the help etc to find solutions to the things you want to do. Vegas probably has an answer to most things, somewhere.

Aaron

[Norm Sanders]

I'm convinced that there's nothing Vegas can't do that others can with regards to NLE's. I have, however, seen some (Pinnacle Liquid for example) that come with some pretty nifty & powerful transitions, plug in's, etc., but anything they can do it can still be done in Vegas, and probably more intuitively.

I'm litterally self taught, have never even seen anyone else do anything on a NLE, and have only been doing it for a little over a year or so. Vegas, to me, is THAT easy. Not to toot a horn, but the stuff I've been able to turn out has impressed everyone that's seen the work, and I'm getting jobs in the 4-5 digit range for work/time, etc.

My ONLY hope for Vegas is that it will work in the Virtual Windows software/platform for Mac. I'm salivating over a Mac G5 dual 2.5Ghz system, but want to run Vegas on it through the virtual windows platform. That way, I'll have the system everyone drools over, but not have to be hindered by the learning curve of FCP.

[HorseFilms]

I've heard that Virtual Windows will slow your system down considerably. Anyone who's used it want to chime in here?

[Destrier]

I run Mac's and PCs although not a G5. I can say that on the older G3 and G4 platforms, virtual windows could, under high power apps, slow way down. I would find a way to test VW on the G5 with Vegas before buying one if you can.

[SafetyO]

PC's aren't that expensive. Virtual Windows programs for Mac's are by and large crap. In the long run, you're better off getting the real deal (a PC) and running Windows XP if you really plan on doing any serious or even casual video editing for that matter. Virtual Windows can run a word processor or a spread sheet, but they are extremely slow when it comes to video editing programs. Been there, done that...and never again.

[Jive]

You also may want to confirm a few things before jumping into a mac with the hopes of vegas working through virtual PC. Many apps that require certain hardware interfaces and use certain CPU-targeted instruction sets may work very very slow, or even not at all.

VPC is not meant for users who want to use a very specified set of programs.

Also, nothing against macs, but I guess I don't understand why you'd want to get a mac for video work if you don't plan on using FCP. While the mac is (slowly) catching up, the latest and greatest PCs still outperform the fastest macs out there when it comes to video-centric apps and tasks, including our buddy, "Mr. Render Time" :) And from a price:performance ratio, PCs still have the advantage.

[Norm Sanders]

I agree you can get two high end PC's for the price of one tricked out Mac G5 ... just gets so frickin' confusing when I constantly hear from my industry peers who have Macs about how much better they & FCP are, etc.

Don't get me wrong, I do quite well with my PC & Vegas ... it's just one of those wondering if the grass is greener sort of things. I question if I could do more with their music looping software, as compared to Acid, if I could get more broadcast quality effects than I can with Vegas, etc. Also, I've heard, the render times are supposed to be better in the Mac G5.

With all that said, learning FCP would set me back a ways, and a lot of people have certianly questioned the VCP on a Mac. I need to get a second DVX for two camera work prior to a computer upgrade anyway ... oh, and the light kit, and the indie track, and my skycrane, ..and ... and ....

[scharky]

Going back to the vegas vs premiere issue. I was working with a collegue the other day, he edited his entire project with premiere, but was having issues with the final 24p render, basically, it looked like crap. So I was there trying to help him out, but unfortunatly you can't change any project settings in premiere once the project is started. Strike one. We tried some other things, and the system froze up. He says, "oh, that's normal, premiere does this all the time, I have just learned to save frequently." Strike two. I remember when I worked with premiere pro, oh so long ago, experiencing the same problems, Then we finally go to render the project, half way through it has an error and stops. Strike three.
Personally I am glad to be rid of premiere's buggyness, it is the most unreliable NLE out there. My collegue is now in the process of learning vegas, and what is the first thing he tells me? "Wow, this program doesn't crash at all. Premiere would have crashed 3 or 4 times in the time I have been using vegas."

[HorseFilms]

That's another great thing about Vegas. If you mess up and have a setting wrong, you can always fix it later without any problems. I don't know how many times that's saved my ass.

[ReneH]

It's better that Vegas did not conform to the "NLE Norm, imo. You can do all the editing on the timeline vs calling multiple dialogue boxes, which can get very crowded. To me, Vegas is like a paint program: whatever effect you want Vegas can many times reproduce it with some finagling. If you have an imagination, Vegas will actalize it.

[pmark23]

With news the the Mac is now going to be running on Intel processors (though I don't know yet which processors), will that mean that emulators will run a lot better? Will you be able to run Vegas on a Mac and actually be able to use it?

[scharky]

It's not so much running it on a mac, or whatever processor is in the computer, it is the operating system. Vegas on OSX seems very unlikely.

[Jive]

It's a while off yet (at least a year), but there is talk that Windows may be able to run on the mac hardware. But then again, why wait until then when you can run vegas on windows right now? :)

[GenJerDan]

Vegas uses DirectX (there are third-party DirectX libraries for the Mac. No idea if they'd work) and .Net

I think the .Net is what would kill any Mac version. Apple isn't stupid enough to include .Net on their systems.

Dan