Avatar - Audio Media

How is Sony’s flagship
video editor keeping up
with the competition?
RICHARD WENTK finds out.
Vegas Pro has never quite overwhelmed the high-end
market that it’s pitched at. It remains a very competent
editing product, but has always lagged a little with
add-ons and extras. Version 9 is a slipstream upgrade that
adds some interface enhancements and supports a new
format or two, but doesn’t drastically update any of the
basic features.
A Quick Re-Cap
For newcomers to Vegas Pro, it’s worth recapping its main
features. The bundle includes the Vegas Pro editor, which
specialises in support for a wide range of formats, and
also the DVD Architect authoring package. Blu-ray support
is built into both products – you can burn a Blu-ray disk
directly from Vegas Pro – as is surround audio support,
with free AC3 encoding. Vegas Pro works with most of the
standard hardware controllers, so you’re not limited to
mouse-only editing. Its main strength is an editing system
that owes more to clip-based audio sequencing than some
Out Of The Box
Not in the box, but available as an optional extra is a
Production Assistant package. This adds a slew of useful
features that are missing from the main product, and which
professional users may find essential. The list includes
generic batch processing of both audio and video for format
conversion, grading, white balance presets, filtering and
marking, support for lower thirds, motion fly-ins, automatic
cross fading, and gap removal. For an extra GB£130 or so, this
is likely to be an essential purchase.
Not all the news is good. The DVD Architect authoring
package remains a good few steps behind the competition,
not least in its transcoding quality, which seems hit and
miss compared to the impressive click-and-go results you
can get elsewhere. And it would be positive to see more
enthusiastic support from vendors of third party plug-ins
and effects. Vegas Pro does have a small third party plug-in
market, but it’s nowhere near the size of that available for
Premiere or AfterEffects.
THE REVIEWER
RICHARD WENTK is the owner
of Skydancer Media, a digital
production company providing
sound, image, design and
consultancy services to various
clients in London and the
West Country.
of the legacy deck-based
non-linear video editing
concepts that still haunt
some of the competition.
You can edit audio as easily
as video, applying crossfades,
inserting FX, and
mixing and compositing
with equal ease. If you
can arrange a single time
code source, Vegas can
layout multi-camera shots
automatically, drastically
simplifying editing
and scene assembly.
There’s also support
for 32-bit colour with fine control of grading, and some
interesting networked and multi-processor rendering
features, which can significantly cut down on render times.
So what’s new? Aside from the inevitable darker charcoal
colour scheme – so this-season, but also easier on the eye
during long hours in front of a set of monitors – perhaps
the most useful new addition is enhanced pan and scan
support. You can now load huge gigapixel images, and skate
a virtual rostrum camera across them, in best Ken Morse
fashion. Also included are a handful of new effects. The lack
of development in the effects and transitions section of
Vegas has been a constant criticism for the last few updates,
and while it’s good to see some new additions – specifically
Glint, Rays, DeFocus, Starburst, Fill Light, and Soft Contrast
– I would have liked to have seen a wider range of options.
Even with the changes, Vegas continues to lack some of
the more creative effects taken for granted in competing
packages. This may not bother you if you’re assembling news
stories and documentaries, but Vegas might not be an ideal
platform for creative motion graphics, animated logos, or
impressive 3D titles and lower thirds.
More professionally, Vegas Pro now supports the RED
ONE and XDCAM formats directly. RED ONE files can be
output and edited up to 4K – as long as your PC can handle
the throughput. XDCAM support includes both SD and
HD. There’s also support for prosumer formats like AVCHD
and old-fashioned DV. 24p is included for those formats
that support it. Overall, format support remains a Vegas
strongpoint. It’s not completely universal – don’t expect
15-year old RealPlayer files to work – but Vegas can load and
edit almost any modern format.
SONY VEGAS PRO 9
Video Editing Software
Conclusion
For those who are
comfortable with the
interface, Vegas Pro
remains a fast and efficient
editor – arguably more
productive for basic clip
assembly than any other
product on any platform.
It’s perhaps not the best
option for high-end
compositing, movie work,
or promo production.
This is unfortunate,
because video is
developing rapidly, and
the high end is moving towards advanced techniques
like motion capture with split screen, and seamless links
between rendered 3D and live action. These and other
creative effects that are becoming standard in promos and
other creative projects, and are light years beyond the barn
door transitions and 3D spin-ins that were at the leading
edge ten years ago.
Even so, Vegas remains a good choice for mid-level
bread-and-butter commercial projects, where speed is
more important than creative open-endedness. For existing
users, this isn’t quite an essential upgrade – unless Santa
bought you a RED ONE last Christmas – but it’s still worth
considering if you need a little extra eye candy. For new
buyers, Vegas remains a competitive Windows-based video
editor, with particular strengths in speed and workflow.
It has some limitations and you should try out the free
demo before deciding if it matches your creative needs.
But for certain kinds of work, even with the limitations it
remains difficult to beat. ∫
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INFORMATION
$ Sony Vegas Pro 9 with DVD Architect: GB£499.95 (exc.VAT)
Upgrade: GB£166 (exc.VAT)
Production Assistant: GB£125 (exc.VAT)
Sony
W www.sonycreativesoftware.com
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AUDIO MEDIA JANUARY 2010