As a user of Sonic Foundry’s Vegas 3 nonlinear editor (NLE), I was quite excited about the prospect of reviewing the first release of Vegas since Sony’s acquisition of Sonic Foundry’s media related products in 2003. CPM was provided a copy of Sony Vegas+DVD Production Suite, which includes both Sony Vegas 5 non-linear editor and Sony DVD Architect 2, their DVD authoring package. A magazine article isn’t nearly long enough to discuss in detail all the features and options such a package, but I’ll do my best to present a brief tour of the product and my impressions of it.
One of the things I appreciated about Vegas 3 when I first used it two years ago was its ease-of-use. With Vegas 3 being my first introduction to a professional grade NLE, I was able to install the software, capture video from a Canon XL1s digital video camera, and edit a two and a half minute video in just a few hours, with only having to use the on-line help system once to learn how get portions of a video clip to run in slow motion. For an application as sophisticated as an NLE, this speaks volumes for its ease-of-use. I am pleased to find this ease-of-use is still present in the newest release of the Vegas product, Vegas 5.
Overview
As with most NLEs, Vegas presents the project workspace as a set of video and audio tracks stretched horizontally along a timeline. The only limit to the number of video and audio tracks is the horsepower of your computer. Vegas provides an intuitive process for specifying transitions between clips by overlapping the video clips in the timeline, and allows you to drag-and-drop any of the numerous transitions available onto the overlapped area to alter how the transition will be made.
A preview window shows the resulting video, with four levels of preview quality available. Alternatively, PCs with second video devices connected can use that second monitor as a preview window. When previewing a video project, most transitions display accurately without requiring any pre-rendering. Only the more complicated transitions, such as a page-peel, appear a little rough in the preview window. However, that’s to be expected, and it is certainly smooth enough to know what the end-result will look like.
Effects
One of the extraordinary features of Vegas is the number of effects and generated media options available. It’s unnecessary to use a second video application to add text or animated effects to your video, as these features are built into the application. New to Vegas 5 is the ability to animate video tracks in 3D – moving a video clip or still picture not only in the normal x and y directions, but in the z direction as well. Rotation along all three axes is also fully supported.
Effects are animated through the use of keyframes (marks along a timeline to indicate where changes in an effect or position are to occur). You can easily create flying and rotating text, still photos and video. You merely indicate the position and orientation for the start of the clip, and create keyframes along the timeline indicating the position and rotation of the clip at that keyframe. Vegas interpolates the position and orientation of the clip for each frame in between the two keyframes, creating a flowing transition from one keyframe to the next. With a little experimentation, it quickly becomes trivial to create professional, exciting video segments.
Surround Sound
Introduced in Vegas 4 and augmented in Vegas 5 is the ability to create videos with 5.1 surround audio tracks. Included in Vegas are several surround models as well as the ability to animate the panning through keyframes just as you can with video and audio effects. Once the project properties are modified to include 5.1 surround sound, the standard left-right panning control is replaced with a joystick control. I found the surround sound panning to be less intuitive than other aspects of the application. In my exploration of the functionality, I managed to get my project into a state where the audio was not coming out the speakers that the automated panning controls indicated. For example, while the joystick control indicated that the sound should be coming from the center speaker, the audio in fact was routed to the right front and right rear speakers. After a call into Sony for assistance, I learned that automated panning and non-automated panning are two different functions. If you pan an audio track before turning on panning automation, the non-automated panning alters the effect of the automated panning. Once this was ascertained, it was easy to correct my settings to obtain the desired results. However, there’s no obvious visual indication in the user interface as to there being two levels of panning in effect, nor was I able to locate anything in the online help that assisted me with this problem. Suffice to say, if you want automated panning on an audio track, turn the automation option on before you attempt to pan the track.
Bézier Masks
Another new feature in Vegas 5 is the addition of Bézier masks for video tracks. This enables you to draw an outline on a track to indicate what portion of the track you want visible, with the non-visible areas allowing any underlying video tracks to show through. As with most other effects in Vegas, the mask can be animated, changing its shape over time. This is a powerful feature and works very well. However, previewing tracks using Bézier masks with the mask animated and feathering turned on did not preview well on my computer due to the computational demands this places on the computer. Previewing this accurately may require prerendering that segment of the timeline.
Network Rendering
Another advanced feature included in this version of Vegas is the ability to create a network of PCs available to handle the rendering of the final video. The primary PC hands off smaller portions of the video for rendering, enabling multiple computers to work on the rendering simultaneously. I was not able to test this feature of the application, but it promises significantly reduced rendering times for large projects.
Vegas Summary
My test project for this review was a video of a funeral, interment and memorial luncheon of an Elder of our church for his family. With the addition of a memorial music video made from still photos taken throughout his lifetime, the finished video was 1.5 hours long, with extensive use of panning and cropping, and some use of animated Bézier masks. Four layers of video tracks and four audio tracks were used in this project. Other than the confusion I ran into with the surround sound panning, Vegas 5 performed excellently, and had no problem at all handling a video of this length.
DVD Architect
To create a final DVD, I used the Sony DVD Architect 2 application included in the software bundle. DVD Architect is a powerful authoring application, giving the user an amazing amount of control over menu layout, appearance and functionality. While most of my review time was spent on the NLE, I did explore the DVD Architect 2 application to get a feel for its power and ease-of-use. My overall impression is that while still fairly easy to use, it’s not at the same level of user-friendliness as Vegas 5. Stability isn’t at the same level either – I experienced one fatal GPF (general protection fault – an error that occurs when an application attempts to perform an illegal function with the operating system) while designing the DVD menus. However, upon restarting the project, I was able to complete the DVD design with no further mishaps.
Complete control is allowed over graphics, audio, button functionality and placement. Pages can be added with buttons whose functionality can be set by the user. In many ways it reminds me of a web site authoring application, where pages and links (buttons) can be created in any way the user desires. Videos or still images can be used as backgrounds for the pages, and background audio tracks can be associated with pages as well. This is a powerful tool, allowing the user to create DVDs that rival commercially purchased DVDs. I believe it has everything a church would desire for any DVD project it attempts. Despite the one GPF I experienced with this application, I wouldn’t hesitate to use it again. I’d just save my project a little more frequently next time—just in case.
Overall, Sony Vegas+DVD Production Suite does not disappoint. With all the capabilities this application includes and the user (and volunteer) friendliness it possesses, it’s well worth considering when you entertain purchasing an NLE system. Sony Vegas+DVD Production Suite has an MSRP of $1,199.91.
Jim Kumorek is the Managing Editor of Church Production Magazine. He can be reached at jkumorek@churchproduction.com.
