Vegas Book

C

cassese

Active member
Ok, having listened, read, and researched, I am buying Vegas 6 + DVD package, and burning the four tons of Avid manuals. I have de-installed Avid, and everything else I won't need to clear my PC space, and I now have about 170GB free, on two physical drives.
Now my question is: is there an equivilant book about Vegas 6 to Barry's book on the DVX? I have downloaded and read the manuals for Vegas, DVD Architect, and even Sound Forge 8 (not buying it yet, but probably will.).They are indeed straight forward as you have all described, but don't really delve into any of the technical things, like using Boris, After Effects, etc. Looking for recommendations please.

My seccond question is on a DVD burner. It will have to be external - I am running this entire setup on a laptop (Dell C840) 2.2 P4, and I of course have few options on selection of video cards - as in none. Which burner is the best?

I have a video monitor also, and the PC is running a 19" LCD display. Short of buying a new PC, and realizing that Vegas uses much less in the way of physical resources, am I ok with what I have to produce anything I want up to and inluding 35mm film out? Right now I am shooting a documentary on a band, which will go to DVD only, but I may want to enter it in some of the festivals of course (no, I do not have the finances to go film out to enter). What am I missing? (for editing - have a list for the camera related equipment already)

Lots of questions - but I am willing to do whatever it takes to get truly professional results both technically and for content.
 
Congrats on choosing Vegas! The learning curve on Vegas should be about 1 day, provided if you change your mindset that you got used to (Avid).

All editing can be done on the timeline on the clip itself. Rarely do I need to refer to the manual for anything other than a technical 24p related question. Also, if you have a heavy paint program background your transition to Vegas will be an enjoyable one. If you enjoy tinkering with effects to their fullest, Vegas will surprise you with a smile across your face. If you need a book on Vegas, try the VASST.com, Douglas Spotted Eagle is to Vegas what Barry Green is to DVX100A. BorisFX, don't get me started, it is the most confusing piece of software I've ever tried.
 
When you dive in, you really dive in.:) I recommend Douglas Spotted Eagle's Vegas 5 Workshop as a good book to get started in Vegas. Even the manual is pretty well-written, so you could start with that. Vegas is pretty efficient, so it should run fine on your laptop, you may find yourself wanting an external hard drive, so you're not squeezed for space.

I'd hold off on After Effects until you feel comfortable with Vegas--it's a whole world of it's own and a lot of compositing and titling can now be done with Vegas alone. For a documentary, I'd say you'll be pretty much set with Vegas + DVDA for any potential output, including the one-in-a-million 35mm transfer.
 
Keep in mind that the Help function in Vegas is *outstanding*. You'll probably never need to refer the manual. I'd spend some time just reading through Help topics.
 
I assume by "one in a million" you mean finding the funding? Of course your right, but hope springs eternal. It's the content and writing especially that gets funded, not the technical end, assuming it's up to par and meets minimum criteria, avoiding anoyance on the part of the viewer. I appreciate your honesty.
Just in case I am not being clear Barry -
when I was a bit younger I saw two films that made me decide filmmkaing was an art. The first was "Twelve Angry Men" with Henry Fonda, and the second, was "Fail Safe" directed by Sidney Lumet. Both films have be re-done since, and is the case most times - were disappointing to me. Literary license was taken with both, to update mostly to todays understandings of the subject matter, but even the slight adjustments they made caused irreperable harm to the final product. It was then that I realized that technical procfeciency takes such a back seat to content that the point becomes almost moot.
However, without these minimum profeciencies we cannot produce that end product. This is why I was so attached to using Avid - because every DV shot film I see is done on it. It's either Composer, Unity, or Xpress, etc. So why do all these producers and Directors NOT see that another product such as Vegas is easier to use and can produce the same end result?
 
Everyone knows Avid from their history in the high-end of the business. Vegas has more humble beginnings, but from small acorns, great oaks grow. I'm seeing a lot more DV films being produced with Vegas these days and Avid cut stuff seems to be in the minority compared to FCP and Vegas. Every time I hear someone spouting about Avid Express (and they *never* say the "Express" part)--it's invariably a producer who loves to toss around the name Avid. Or sometimes a totally green editor that's thinks he's the sh*t because he cuts on an "Avid". If you can afford to cut on one of their high-end hardware/software systems, you're in the money, but Avid Express struck me more as a "gateway" program to lead people into the high end. The one place where Avid is really on the ball is with the ability to edit DVCPRO HD and DVCPRO50 footage, and seamlessly ingest MXF files, but I suspect Vegas will catch up within the next 12 months.

On the other hand, Vegas can edit 5.1 Dolby surround in commercial theater configuration, and *that* is pretty cinematic. The stuff folks around here recommend is what really works to produce the absolute highest quality and not necessarily the marketing hype that floats around.
 
People use what their friends are using or what's recommended to them because they don't know, or don't know how, or want to think critically. It's easier to plop down a bunch of dough and use what everyone else is using.

But that's okay. I'm slaying my competition because I can get jobs done faster with higher-quality results and a lower day-rate.

On a fundamental/technical level, Vegas has what it takes to meet or surpass any of the high-end editors. It's new software, written from scratch using newer object-oriented and "open" programming styles, and is infinitely expandable at the most basic levels. I don't think we've even began to see what Vegas can do.

As for learning Vegas, just experiment! A lot of head-scratchers quickly become a-ha's.
 
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