Is vegas really a professional editor?

J

J5 squared

Well-known member
So i've been a vegas editor for about two years now and its still my favorite editor hands down. But i've started a new job where i edit on FCP all day. Theres lots of things about final cut i find annoying but one thing that really sets it apart from vegas is the formats and codecs it supports. Varicam, hd, hdv, ton's of formats. Plus another thing i find great is the "support" software that comes in the FCP bundle. Motion and livetype are great for knocking out decent looking projects quickly. So with the lack of formats and support do you think vegas really qualifies as a true high end editor?
 
I don't think Vegas has ever tried to position themselves as a "high end" editor, but more as a complete package for the closed-shop production house. And for that purpose I think it serves very, very well. If it had native DVCPRO-HD support and proper MXF support I wouldn't even be looking at anything else.

Avid doesn't consider XPress Pro HD a "high end" editor either, it's the baby in the family, they consider Nitris and those types of products to be high end. FCP is a desktop editor, and I consider Vegas up there and a generally viable alternative to FCP and XPress Pro HD. But all three of them should properly be considered low-end professional editors; they're certainly all capable of doing professional work but they're not in the same class as Discreet *edit or Smoke or Henry or Flame or Film Composer or any of that type of stuff.
 
Well, first, the only codec FCP supports natively that Vegas doesn't is DVCPRO, and you can download those codecs for free from Avid and Matrox, giving Vegas full timeline support for DVCPRO, DVCPRO 50, and DVCPRO HD. What it doesn't have is support for the OP-Atom MXF format. RayLight is a workaround, sure, but it's not the same as native support.

Vegas natively supports HDV (especially the 24p varieties) much better than FCP does.

Also, there's a number of codecs (WMV, for one) that Vegas natively supports that FCP doesn't. You can throw pretty much anything on the timeline and Vegas will edit it without a hiccup. The same is not true for FCP.

FCP does come in its Studio package with Motion, etc., but remember that it's also $1200. If you spent the same amount of money for additional software with Vegas, you could have Acid and After Effects, which would give you about the same tools as in the FCP Studio bundle.

Stuff to think about.

But also remember that a lot of things you need to go out to these support programs for when working with FCP, Vegas can do right on the timeline -- sophisticated chromakey/compositing, audio processing, audio looping, etc..
 
David Jimerson said:
Well, first, the only codec FCP supports natively that Vegas doesn't is DVCPRO, and you can download those codecs for free from Avid and Matrox, giving Vegas full timeline support for DVCPRO, DVCPRO 50, and DVCPRO HD. What it doesn't have is support for the OP-Atom MXF format. RayLight is a workaround, sure, but it's not the same as native support.

Vegas natively supports HDV (especially the 24p varieties) much better than FCP does.

Also, there's a number of codecs (WMV, for one) that Vegas natively supports that FCP doesn't. You can throw pretty much anything on the timeline and Vegas will edit it without a hiccup. The same is not true for FCP.

FCP does come in its Studio package with Motion, etc., but remember that it's also $1200. If you spent the same amount of money for additional software with Vegas, you could have Acid and After Effects, which would give you about the same tools as in the FCP Studio bundle.

Stuff to think about.

But also remember that a lot of things you need to go out to these support programs for when working with FCP, Vegas can do right on the timeline -- sophisticated chromakey/compositing, audio processing, audio looping, etc..
Click to expand...

true true and true. I knew that therehad to be some kinda support for codecs for vegas, because i've seen a "fresh" install of FCP and it doesn't have near the list of possibles that the version i work on has. The things that are nice for me in that bundle are things like livetype and motion which have the premade animations you can tweak and throw out quick, so when i have jobs where i only really get one day to get it completed i don't have to waste alot of time just to get basic effects and media made. I've heard trapcode is a good add on for AE to give it alot more flexibility. And as far as vegas supporting different formats of files, wmv. .mov. etc. etc. thats one of the things i love about it, no messing around with converting or whatever, throw anything on a line and it will generally work. I'm just trying to decided wether to stay with pc and vegas at home where i do my own work or to jump on the FCP bandwagon.
 
depends on the user and what they do. Me? I have done everything on it. Full length movies with CC and post audio, News opens, ads, docs, etc. So yes, it is a pro app in my opinion. It does almost everything FCP, PPro and Avid can do and all those apps can "almost" do what Vegas can do. SO they all have some down points and good points. I find Vegas the easiest and fastest so I have extra time to fine tune and be creative. You can put anuthing on the timerline while the other apps are making you concert everything on import.

GG
 
David Jimerson said:
Well, first, the only codec FCP supports natively that Vegas doesn't is DVCPRO, and you can download those codecs for free from Avid and Matrox, giving Vegas full timeline support for DVCPRO, DVCPRO 50, and DVCPRO HD.
Click to expand...

Hmm, are you sure about that, at least the Avid part? The last I checked, the Avid codec was QT-only and not compatible with the majority of the DV50 and DV100 files out there, which are from FCP. It uses a different codec-type identifier than the Apple codec, and therefore QuickTime will not use it to play DV50/100 material captured in FCP.

The original poster hit it pretty squarely: Vegas is decent, but the poor codec selection under Windows (and Vegas's unstable use of some codecs) really hampers it. The codec-selection problem isn't really Vegas's fault. You have to look at the perplexing failure of hardware companies to release AVI codecs in order to enable the majority of computer users to use their hardware. Panasonic tops the list for me. DVCPro50 and 100 cameras have been out for how many years now, and they still haven't released a Windows version of the codecs?

Why are we still largely stuck with crappy old DV25 much of the time on Windows? Look at Canopus: The ADVC-100 is a cool little product, but they should have released a DV50 version of it years ago. The quality increase when going to DV50 is substantial, for a very affordable increase in data rate. Any modern machine has enough speed and storage for DV50. Where are the capture devices for Windows? Same thing on the Aja Io: Windows drivers, where?

It looked like the Convergent Design SD-Connect was going to be an Io rival, but nope: Its only Firewire output is DV25, meaning still no DV50.

Most of today's NLEs seem to barely hang together; piecing the system together is still more difficult on Windows today. Perhaps it's up to Microsoft to spend some time developing state-of-the-art codecs to freely distribute for use across all NLEs. They might as well, because they appear to be doing precious little else of any value.
 
John_Hudson said:
Vegas rules.

They've done us right thus far; one has to be positive they'll ante up and stay in the game.

-
Click to expand...

It more than rules. I've tried most of the high-end ones, and I like vegas the best. And despite what anyone says, a timeline on top is MUCH better than on the bottom.
 
pto2212 said:
What Vegas needs in version 7 is MultiCam editing, like in FCP.


And dvcpro HD native support. And fast, before I buy my pair of hvx200's and get a 4 grand mac and have to learn FCP. I was just starting to learn a little about VEGAS!! But, I'm a beginner when it comes to editing :)
jason
Click to expand...
 
Vegas is a professional editor if you have paying clients. There are many people using it for corporate work, event videography, etc.

Now if you define professional as broadcast work (commercials, series, MOW)... then Vegas certainly isn't that popular in this regard. Of course, the real question would be whether Vegas has the right tools for this kind of work.
 
So whats the conclusion Glenn Chann. Would you say it has the tools for broadcast quality work or commercials etc ? Does Vegas have the right tools for all that. I hope youd answer yes because i love Vegas.
 
vegas has an audio pedigree. is that good or bad? well i think it's great. audio is way a head of video when it comes to being "in the box". and because vegas uses the audio paradigm for editing it beats the dog sh!t out of other video editros that try to lock you into a more traditional video editing paradigm. vegas has been the most user friendly video editing software i've used. never had problems with format or file types. if you can think it, vegas seems to be able to do it.
 
I feel the same way Johnny Cola. I love Vegas. In fact yesterday night i tried some masking etc. Like wiping out a buildings name in a video so that the building doesnt show the name but you wouldnt notice i camoflauged the name board. Worked decently enough. And i thought one would have to resort to aftereffects for something like this. I love vegas. Very stable too.
 
I use Vegas to produce training video and internal communications for my company almost every day. I also use After Effects for some really fancy compositing, but for the most part I find that a lot of compositing can more easily be done in Vegas. So unless it's some whacked out special filter, I stick with Vegas because it's just so fast and easy. And ever since they got really serious about color correction tools, I don't think anyone comes close. And the fact that you can drop just about anything on the timeline and it doesn't blink, well, can't beat that with a stick. And if you did beat it with a stick, you'd just look silly beating your computer with a stick and then you'd have to buy a new computer.

Steven
 
David Jimerson said:
FCP does come in its Studio package with Motion, etc., but remember that it's also $1200. If you spent the same amount of money for additional software with Vegas, you could have Acid and After Effects, which would give you about the same tools as in the FCP Studio bundle.

Stuff to think about.

But also remember that a lot of things you need to go out to these support programs for when working with FCP, Vegas can do right on the timeline -- sophisticated chromakey/compositing, audio processing, audio looping, etc..
Click to expand...

Food for thought David
 
Give vegas MXF support (panasonic), AE filter support and dual core support not just when rendering but also playing back etc., or graphic rendering and it will smoke everyone, it already does considering the audio

Vegas didn't let me down for two years
 
pto2212 said:
I knew someone would. What Vegas needs in version 7 is MultiCam editing, like in FCP.
Click to expand...

For a great value, I picked up Ultimate S2, which does a FANTASTIC job with multicam, and is then native right inside of Vegas, as Ultimate S2 is really more about scripting than anything else (or so that's my impression of it).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top