Which NLE?  Vegas or FCP

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I am almost afraid to ask this question. I know how passionate people are for the programs they use and I don’t want to start a war of words. I am very new to Video and have just purchased two DVX100s and I am now about to purchase a NLE system. I have looked at Premier, FCP and Vegas. I am not a fan of Premier. Both FCP and Vegas look like great programs. Vegas appears to be an unbelievable value but FCP appears to have more support in the professional ranks, and with potential clients. I have also been told that Vegas’s future is uncertain. I have had conflicting opinions as to which program works best with the DVX100. I have a budget of $7500.00 for my NLE system and I want to get the best system possible for that amount. What do you suggest? I have posted this question on both the Vegas and FCP forums to get all opinions. Thanks
 
Re: Which NLE?  Vegas or FCP

Re: Which NLE?  Vegas or FCP

to be honest (& I'm a Vegas user) - either one will probably be great. The advantage with FCP is that you can tell client's you have FCP, also FCP has a big user base. The advantage with Vegas, at least for me, is the audio side & the price. The audio tools in Vegas are awesome - you won't need to go to another audio only app. to tweak stuff & for me this is a huge time saver. I used to edit in Premiere - export each audio track and then tweak it in Cubase and re-import back to premiere, it was a big pain in the ass. Now I can do it all in Vegas & it works.

I haven't used FCP 4 so I don't know how good it's audio is but I know it doesn't support surround sound. I'm just finishing up a kayak video I shot with the DVX100 at 24pA in surround sound & it is so cool & I did it all in Vegas (well, I did use After Effects/Photoshop for some titles). I guess it's up to your preference and specific needs but now is a good time to be picking out an NLE. I've got a Pinnacle dv500 card I'll sell ya, cheap!

good luck and have fun
Yoyodyne
 
Re: Which NLE?  Vegas or FCP

Re: Which NLE?  Vegas or FCP

Yoyo, for your 5.1 track how did you record that in the kayak? or are you just placing stock effects in the effects channels?
 
Re: Which NLE?  Vegas or FCP

Re: Which NLE?  Vegas or FCP

I wish I could have got some shots from inside a Kayak! I was shooting from a bunch of rocks out in the river as these kayak guys did all sorts of spins and summersaults on this "play feature" in the river, which is kind of like a permanent wave - water rolling back on itself.

I just used the stereo camera mic audio panned to the center of the sound stage and then added a bunch of river "rumble" in the LFE. I created the river rumble in Sound Forge by sampling a chunk of river noise and slowing it way down and then EQ-ing all the highs out (I think I cut of anything above 120). I then just copy pasted the chunk till I had a couple minutes, render it out & tada - cool river LFE effect. Nothing fancy but it sounds really convincing.

One of the cool things about mixing in surround is that there is tons of "sonic" room for all your audio. I could put my voice stuff in the center channel and still mix the river sounds pretty loud without competing with the voice track. It just sounds like your standing in the river & when that sub comes up - it really gets your attention - but it still leaves the dialog totally clear. When I did my stereo version I had to pull all the river sounds way down because they were competing with the voice - and the lack of the LFE just sucked the life out of the Kayak shots. It just kills me that so few people have surround systems.

Yoyodyne
 
Re: Which NLE?  Vegas or FCP

Re: Which NLE?  Vegas or FCP

did you use and surround panning? I just figured out in Vegas that you can pan from LR to RR, is really cool. Benifits of reading the manual i guess.

Are you making DVD's of your little trip? I would love to check it out.
 
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