Which is better? Vegas or Premiere?

MattinSTL

MattinSTL

Sound Modulator
No flaming the other NLE... just please tell me what you think are the advantages of one over the other... as it pertains to YOU.

From what I can tell the biggest difference is that Vegas integrates SOUND and DVD authoring extremely well... plus I've always loved the velocity envelope feature... so that is what's pulling me that way.

Premiere integrates other Adobe apps really well and I'm more comfortable in the Premiere environment... so that is what's pulling me that way.

My background is Premiere 6 and Vegas 5... so I'm somewhat familiar with Vegas and VERY familiar with Premiere... therefore I'm leaning towards Premiere Pro.

By next spring I'll have both again anyway... but I'm curious if anybody has some horror or hero stories one way or the other?
 
Personally I can say that I use Vegas because of the way it deals with 24p. I love the fact that I can do my titles in Vegas (albeit, I'm not very good with titles) and through a render I can export out to After Effects for, well, I don't use After Effects because I can't figure it out.

Vegas to me is very intuitive and very deep. It is a lot more than meets the eye. I am still using Vegas 5b and have no problems. It has only ever crashed on me when I tried to run some Wax Plugin, but it integrates perfectly with Sound Forge, which I like like also.

For me, Vegas = stable, affordable, perfect 24p integration, and everything right there in an easy to use but incredibly deep package.
 
The 24p integration is a glaring advantage Vegas has over ANY NLE. To be honest, if you're working with 24p, I don't know why you'd want to use anything else. That's what brought me to it.

Also, in my experience, the compositing tools (especially the keyers) are beyond those of most other NLEs. Sure it's no After Effects or Commotion, but I have less and less reason to go to either of those these days.
 
Ditto what David said.

With that said, if you think an HVX is in your future, you may not want to stay with either of these platforms -- or, at least, you may not want to commit big bucks to either until we find out what their HVX support plans are (if any).
 
i thnk that vegas is better than PPRO, but PPRO is better than vegas. honestly i dont think either one is "better" but after using one and then the other youll likely find that one of them suits your workflow and style better than the other. I havent had any issues doing what i wanted with either one. all said and done I use PPRO for the working style, and tight adobe integration .. copying and pasting between PPRO and AE pro is very nice for me as well as other integration features. vegas, not to be left behind in the least has its own perks as well of course. realistically i find that most people only have problems with one or the other simply because they dont know what they are doing, or dont know how to do what they want to do the right way.. poor planning. improper usage.. on and on. and on occasion, theres something actually wrong with the NLE itself. harsh .. sad.. ..maybe.. but oh so true. to add to it all as barry said, right now we dont know if either of them is worth buying into right now as we dont know whats around the corner for HD support. whether that means DVCPRO HD or HDV or whatever your flavor of HD may be. its important to know that the company you choose to run with has its feet underneath it in the big industry shift towards HD and 24p.. and all the other things that matter to us forum going movie making-video producing-what the heck was that i just watched and what punishement on this earth is this that i cant get the time i spent watching it back-artistic nerd types.
 
Not to redirect the content of this conversation, but: What would you all say are the advantages of either one of these to Final Cut Pro? FCP has always been the environment that I've been comfortable in (with Avid a close second), but I fear that I'm missing out on the abilities and feels of some other programs.
 
Oh Lord dude... don't look the gift horse in the mouth. If I could be on a mac I wouldn't even be running this thread right now!

If you have FCP and then get Motion then there's NO advantage to running a PC... Motion integrates with FCP like AE integrates with PPRO... but the difference is where AE can really build up in the rendering department... Motion just cranks the sh*t out.

Forget you ever wandered into this discussion!

Don't pull up to the gokart track in your vette and wonder if you're missing anything.


As to the rest of you guys... I think I'll return the PPRO package that isn't even HERE yet and get Vegas. The Vegas package includes DVD Architect 3 anyway... Plus I've always loved the Vegas velocity envelopes. During the Zombie thing my Premiere 6.0 was wreaking HAVOC on me! I was losing my mind with the crashes and inexplainable problems.

That's why I'm asking questions as if I never used an NLE before even though I've got 5 years experience. I didn't want to influence the answer you give me even though the fact is I'm WAY more comfortable in Premiere... even though I've had both. Since I finally just threw my hands in the air and did a TOTAL reformat of my system I want to just start a clean install with whichever NLE it's gonna' be!

For the record PPRO claims perfect 24p support and an easy integration of HD... so what's that all about? I know that Vegas has no problems with variable frame-rate in the same time line... but is Premiere still lacking in that department?

Also the one thing about PPRO that caught my eye is Photoshop style image manipulation. If you've played around in PS then you know how incredible the shadow/highlight detail plus CC tools are. It's freakin' easy as pie!

But still... I could be easily nudged to Vegas... especially since I'm not even sure if I want to put my Canopus card back in my computer. Which brings up another question. Do you guys just use your mobo firewire and capture like that? Or did you get specific capture cards? What about analog monitor out? I've always liked editing my video for TV ON a TV... can I do that with Vegas? Then what card do I need? I could never get my Canopus to send the analog out when in Vegas before... even though I saw the box to click for that.

I know a lot of people are really happy with Vegas... so should I see this as a no-brainer and just go Vegas? Or are those parameters of shadow detail, etc. really as powerful in Premiere as they are in PS?
 
Okay so PPRO will probably arrive today. Should I immediately return it and get Vegas 6 plus DA3? I currently have 5... is there a big advantage in 6? Should I just keep the PPRO and NOT get Vegas?

Please don't hold back... I know I'm pulling this dialog all over the place, but I'm hoping to bring out some strong opinions with a few backing comments.

Honestly Jimerson... you've got me ready to forget PPRO all together! That is the kind of reply I want to see... in either direction. If anybody is as insistant about PPRO being great and gives some reasons... maybe I'll just keep it and add Vegas 6 later... but I'm already anxious about the problems I had last time in getting my DVD submission in for the Zombie contest. That is why I'm not on the DVD... but I also know Vegas users who also didn't make the DVD due to technical issues.

So... how about some more heavy opinions like D. Jimerson's?

PPRO CLAIMS tight integration with 24p now... and as I said, if you haven't played around with the shadow/highlight plus color correction tools in PS then you can't understand why that is so appealing to me in PPRO. Once you do a photo in PS and use these features... which litterally takes just SECONDS to massively improve a picture... then you hear that PPRO has this feature... that is very appealing. IF IT WORKS!

So please more heavy opinions!

If I get PPRO there will be no DVD authoring in the sense that DA3 handles it... but I can still write my project to DVD... and I can use one of my outdated authoring programs.

Still this is a tough call for me... and obviously I can't afford both right now. Heck I was tempted to deal with my old Vegas and Premiere... but Premiere at least... was killing my spirit and desire to work on video. I'm hoping that all my problems are over with the reformat.

Now I want to take a totally fresh start and just put all my energy in one direction.

EDIT: Take a look at this page HERE and you'll see that Adobe claims total integration with not only 24p AND 24PA... but also HD editing. So what's up with that?
 
I have been using various flavors of premiere for years. PPRO is a big step up from Prem 6.5, a far better tool. One of premiers strong points id the huge range of plugins available. I have also played with vegas and was impressed, I liked the way clips get nested in the timeline. However I was not impressed enough to switch to Vegas, basically PPRO has always done every thing that I have asked of it. Plus you can create projects with almost any frame rate, frame size, progressive or interlaced with just about any codec that you have on your PC. It will work with HDV or uncompressed HD (via a decklink card, as will vegas). It can slow down with big projects with lots of clips, but it rarely crashes and if it does in most cases it will save the project as it shuts down. Both packages are very good and will produce the goods, the interface in vegas is a little different to most NLE's but it works well. I guess I have been using PPRO for so long now that I don't wont to have to re learn all the tricks and shortcuts that help me get the most out of PPRO. I do also use Avid Xpress Pro, which is very slick and reliable but lacks the flexibility of both Vegas and PPRO.
 
hmm, i think most all the mods prefer vegas.. perhaps you guys will convert me yet. but right now its just fence sitting time for me untill we see whats new on the playing field. Ive got a freind who is in pretty tight with adobe, and i think ill talk to him when were out here over the holidays. perhaps i can squeeze some sweet morsels of info out of the cold rock that is adobe. been there.. tried that, with sony.. i think they both have some stuffs up their sleeves though.
 
Matt,

As a friend this is my opinion. Make the switch to Vegas because:
It will do EVERYTHING you want. The color correction filters are extremely deep, there are a TON of free plugins to help with this available online (or I can email them to you), and you have www.vasst.com, quite possibly the best training, tutorial, site available online. On top of that, Jimmerson is very knowledgable and is always quick to answer any problems, plus there are a ton of Vegas users here to help with anything (Hudson, Spot). It has a great community behind it. Furthermore, Vegas simply works perfectly with 24p. At this point that is all I shoot in, and it works 100% of the time, all the time. Next, people like Macs because they are stable. I have NEVER had Vegas crash on me except when I tried to run a plugin that I had improperly installed. It has NEVER crashed on me during a render, a preview, or any other editing situation. To add to this, you preview directly through the firewire card (I'm sounding like a pro, although I only started doing this two weeks ago). It is a flawless system that works very well, just use your DV camera as the bridge.

On top of that, Vegas also has an awesome splitscreen function to see your natural footage and then with the effects removed (good for color correction). The titler in Vegas is awesome, key framing is so simple, and the media pool is so clean that I love it. Perhaps the best feature of Vegas (if NEVER crashing isn't good enough) is that it is just so damned DEEP. I am constantly amazed with some of the things that I find by reading the Vegas forum and then just going into the menus. Vegas is something that a complete beginner can dive right into and start to cut with, or something that has enough tools, bells and whistles that a seasoned pro has everything they need.

It is the perfect editor (except that you are supporting THE multinational conglomerate, Sony).

There's my pitch...
 
David Jimerson said:
I'd also point out that mixng and exporting a 5.1 surround-sound mix is so easy it hurts.
Click to expand...

Yet another good point that I forgot to mention in my most recent pitch. Also, the integration with Sound Forge is seamless, but on top of that DVDA is so sweet...

So you can't copy and paste into After Effects or Photoshop... Render or do a screengrab and then drop it in... No big deal... If you need an effect just for a section, render just that section to a new track and import it into another software package. Vegas doesn't care, it won't crash on you
 
stidle said:
Not to redirect the content of this conversation, but: What would you all say are the advantages of either one of these to Final Cut Pro? FCP has always been the environment that I've been comfortable in (with Avid a close second), but I fear that I'm missing out on the abilities and feels of some other programs.
Click to expand...

Vegas:

Obviously, 24p integration and ease of use with both 24pA and 24pN.

The timeline is format and timebase agnostic; any file format (almost) and any timebase can be dropped into any timeline; mix and match as you please. (Some combinations are better than others for specific uses, of course).

More options for export, both video and audio.

Compositing, chromakey, effects editing, color-correction.

Sound tools. 5.1 surround. Vegas started as a multitrack sound editor and retains the capabilities of a full-service sound editing program and sound looper.

Complete customizablility of workspace.

And, of course, price -- of both Vegas itself and the hardware required to run it on.
 
alisterchapman said:
It can slow down with big projects with lots of clips, but it rarely crashes . . .
Click to expand...
Wow! What universe are you running Premiere in? I've had to set up a completely separate machine with ONLY Premiere on it to keep it from crashing! I've been eyeing Vegas for some time now, and I didn't even realize all the benefits until I saw this thread. Only question is . . . DVCPRO100 support.

If I do eventually decide to buy my SD 4:1:1 DSR450 DVCAM camera, I'll be all set and may seriously consider switching then. I'm planning to mix a LOT of 60i and 24PA footage in my upcoming projects to include "news" footage in the same timeline. If Vegas can handle that, I'm in.

I already own the entire Adobe Creative Suite and Pro Video Suite, so I'll miss that tight integration with Photoshop and After Effects, plus I already own a few Premiere-specific plug-ins, so alister's points are well taken here as well. But I like that 5.1 surround sound deal (especially since I own a 5.1 surround sound field recording set-up), the mixed timebase timeline capability, and its claimed robustness on the PC platform. Plus, I'm ready for a change of pace . . .
 
I'm surprised none of the Vegas users mentioned network rendering. If I could have gotten along with the Vegas interface, this would have been a big seller for me.
 
But the Vegas interface can be pretty much customized.

I have never done network rendering, so that hasn't been an issue for me, but as David said, you can throw ANYTHING into the timeline and it works.

Vegas is just idiot proof but still deep.
 
dakotapod said:
I'm surprised none of the Vegas users mentioned network rendering. If I could have gotten along with the Vegas interface, this would have been a big seller for me.
Click to expand...

That's a very good point -- I knew I was leaving something big out re: advantages of Vegas over FCP . . .

If you want to network render with FCP, you can, but you need to have an individual license for each copy of FCP, at a thousand bucks a pop.

With Vegas, you can install it -- on the same license -- on up to three machines. That's the full, functional version of Vegas on all three.
 
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