Sony Vegas Pro 10

Sony released Vegas Pro 10 last month in the Middle East. Paul Mongey takes the software through its paces

 My first non linear editing (NLE) system was Final Cut Pro v3.0 when I worked with an American TV network to cover the 2003 Iraq war. We needed a lightweight, durable and portable system throughout the assignment. We chose to work with the Apple Mac G4 which, at that time, had only 256MB of RAM, allowing for basic DV editing with two audio channels. This was sufficient for cutting news packages on the field.

Since then, I have spent a few years working on both tape and AVID with the BBC before returning to FCP back in 2007. I am a big fan of FCP over Avid and was very keen on seeing what Sony’s new release — Vegas Pro 10 — could offer.

I was given a quick tutorial on operating this NLE by a friend, who uses Vegas for cutting quick promotional clips. He often works with a mix of video formats. With a layout similar to Adobe Premier Pro, it took me a little time to get used to editing on Vegas Pro 10.

The first major point that impressed me is that Vegas can deal with almost any format that you can throw on the time line. Now I know FCP can manage the same but the speed of manipulating the clip while playing on the Vegas Pro 10 time line was impressive.

For an NLE editor used to working with Avid, Final Cut or Premier Pro, apart for the usual ‘J,K,L’ and space bar control of clips — it may take a little time to get familiar with Vegas Pro’s short cuts.

When I first worked on Vegas Pro, I found the layout a bit “boxey” — similar in design to Adobe Premier Pro but less clinical and far more cluttered. The preview monitor tells you that the NTSC project is DV 720×480 but the preview monitor only shows 180×120. I guess this is to save processing power during the edit. This is a good feature and you can always drag and increase the size of the preview window thus increasing the resolution of the video playback.

I was very impressed with the wide variety of video formats available in the project properties — every flavour from ‘multimedia’ [320×240] all the way to 4K @ 24P (4096×2304) with native support of XDcam, AVC-HD and RED formats.

I would suggest using an iCore7 12Gb of RAM PC desktop to crunch the 4K clips. But for those starting out on the road of non-linear editing with their home PC, Vegas Pro 10 is ideal, especially for DV or HDV projects. The timeline can handle effects, transitions, time-stretching, colour grading and motion effects in real time.

Let’s now look at some of the key elements of this editing software including 3D stereoscopic editing and closed caption support.

3D

The big thing with Sony’s Vegas Pro 10 is the introduction of native 3D stereoscopic editing. Under the stereoscopic drop down menu, you can select a variety of 3D editing formats including the 3x major modes — Anaglyphic (red/cyan), side by side or top/bottom. I find the top/bottom is easier to work with for long edits — with the ‘left’ camera and ‘right’ camera on top of each other in the preview window.

An AVID Media Composer editor at IBC, when talking about a 3D plug-in, told me that he would not be able to sit and watch/edit 10 hours with 3D glasses on, as it would make him feel ill. So once you have synced up the left and right video tracks, it is easier to work with the top/bottom mode in a single video stream on the timeline.

I think it would be very useful if Sony had a sample of 3D footage available to download. This could help editors with testing the 3D tool.

 Track management — Track Grouping

This new function with Vegas Pro 10 allows you to group tracks. Similar to Final Cut’s “nesting”, you can group tracks by collapsing the audio and video tracks on the timeline under a single header track. This makes managing specific sections of video/audio easier thus giving you more space on the timeline — making it easier to move “blocks” of media around and which helps to organise complex projects.

 Multicam Editing

Recently, I have had some great footage to test the multicam editing function with a mix of XDcam HD 1920×1080, HDV 1440×1080 and Canon 5d2 1920×1080 converted to .AVI.

I was up in Abu Dhabi to shoot an interview with the singer Prince following the F1 race. We shot the first two songs and I originally cut on FCP in 1920×1080 HD for my client‘s broadcast but was also able to experiment with the rushes on Vegas Pro 10 after using multicam editing.

I used track grouping, where I embedded the three-camera video tracks following syncing up the tight, medium and wide shots on the timeline. The multicam function gives you a single video channel where you can select each individual shot to move, cut and crop the video.

 Closed captioning

Sony has made enhancements with the closed captioning support in Vegas Pro 10 including Line 21 closed captioning. I have always associated closed captioning with TV in the USA, when you see the “CC available in your area” logo on the screen. In this part of the world, I am used to editing with ‘in vision’ subtitles for bi-lingual corporate video productions, which means that the titles are always on the screen. But I am interested in the CC function of Vegas Pro 10, which allows you to create the text and move it around on the timeline. When the edit is complete, the CC option can be switched on or off depending on the client’s requirements. You can export the CC data for Sony’s DVD architect software or a variety of output formats including .MOV and WMV.

 Specs — what’s needed

To get the best out of this editing software, I suggest working on an iCore7 12Gb RAM PC 32bit or even 64bit. I have done some tests with a small Acer 10″ netbook with only 1Gb RAM. It managed to cut some DV, AVI and MP4 video but a laptop with 4Gb RAM or more would be ideal to get the best out of this software.

 Conclusion

I have always viewed Sony Vegas as a consumer piece of editing software not targeted at the broadcast industry unlike the big hitters Final Cut Studio, Avid Media Composer or even Adobe CS5 Premier Pro. But I was impressed with the benefits and the cost at just under US $600.

Vegas Pro 10 is ideal for beginners. As a preferred MAC user, Sony Vegas Pro is not a cross-platform software. It is for the Windows operating system only.

Over all, I am impressed with Vegas Pro 10’s ability to work with native XDcam, 2K and 4K. For those unfamiliar with the workflow of Vegas Pro, online interactive tutorials are available and provide walkthrough demonstrations of the most common functions in this software.

For those experienced with Vegas Pro 9, there’s no difference in layout design. But Sony has added some up-to-date effects, better closed captioning and of course, native 3D stereoscopic editing.

I can see Sony Vegas Pro 10 being the ideal low-cost NLE software for videographers and producers entering the industry. If you need to produce a quick promotional video for a presentation or a website, similar to more expensive NLEs such as FCP, Avid MC or Premier Pro, the Vegas Pro 10 software works very well with mixed formats and works quicker with photo zooms and graphics with less rendering on the timeline.

 Paul Mongey is a Dubai-based freelance lighting cameraman and editor.