Sony Vegas 6 + DVD

It’s amazing to think that Sony’s – formerly Sonic Foundry’s – Vegas video editor has already made it to version 6, but it has been around for almost a decade now and in that time has made some significant inroads into both professional and prosumer video making.

Until now though, the asking price has been a significant drawback for many. At £499 – £750 for the package that included DVD Architect – Vegas 5 was expensive, risky and unfamiliar to many, but exchange rate changes have slashed that price to something far more attractive and combined with a free web trial there’s every reason to give it a go.

So what’s does Vegas 6 have to offer? Unlike older editors, which refer back to the now-obsolete video deck metaphor, Vegas is designed more like a multi-track audio editor. There’s no need to laboriously trim in and out points or set up a crossfade by hand. Instead you can just pick up the start and end markers of a clip while it’s on the timeline and slide one clip over another to fade between them. It only takes a couple more clicks to select and add a more complex transition from the supplied library.

Each clip can have its own separate collection of creative or corrective effects, and these can easily be keyframed and animated. The software’s interface is a work of genius because it automatically hides the details away when you don’t want them. Overall it’s hard to think of another video editor that’s faster or more intuitive.

Powerful features such as colour correction and matching, film-look effects, a full collection of vectorscopes and support for a multitude of video formats might seem a little bread and butter, but they do help shift Vegas firmly into the pro market. There are also separate bolt-on versions of BorisFX and titling tools – an attempt to spruce up the useful but basic collection of video effects already included. As such they’re more of a distraction than a hit because while output quality is good, integration is poor. This is Vegas’s main weakness – the effects are useful rather than spectacular, and an extra production value edge is quite hard to achieve.

In terms of new features, Vegas 6 stands out because it’s the first version to include HD support. This means you can work natively in one of the HD formats or, for ultimate quality, in uncompressed 1,920x1,080 that can then be downconverted to 720p or 1,080i for broadcast. These formats require better than average PC hardware and, especially with uncompressed HD, a very fast machine.

Professionals will be interested in DeckLink support, which makes true HD possible. Interfacing and previewing have been improved over earlier versions and it’s now easier to send previews to a variety of hardware display options. It’s true that the main appeal here seems to be HD, but other additions such as the arrival of broadcast WAVE and AAF file support help pitch Vegas more pointedly at the pro market.

Vegas 6 is available in two formats – a standalone editor or a bundled package that includes DVD Architect 3 (reviewed here). There are some nice integration touches to be found between the two such as the ability to add chapter markers and titles in Vegas 6 and import them directly into DVD Architect 3.

Feature-wise, DVD Architect 3 includes support for all the usual menu design and viewing flow options, but the library of preset templates is pretty limited and integrating your own designs requires some fairly advanced XML. This package does the job, but isn’t quite a joy to work with. You can certainly produce professional results, but it can be a time consuming process compared to the workflow of some of the alternatives.

The less useful of the two packages reviewed here is DVD Architect 3. There are some interesting new features in this release, but the editing isn’t as streamlined as it could be and the interface could do with a makeover. As an addition to the Vegas package it’s a competent but rather uninspired performer. If you only author occasionally you’ll find that the bundle is worth the relatively small price difference, but professionals may find it frustrating for commercial projects and we think there are better alternatives.

Vegas has a lot more going for it. Reliability is very good and there are relatively few flaws, other than a rather odd preview bug that sometimes causes the software’s Best mode to show less than perfect renders. But at the new, lower price we still think that Vegas 6 is a steal. It will produce much the same results as AfterEffects and FinalCut Pro but at a tiny fraction of the price.

While it’s not quite in the same league for very high production value projects that require high-end effects, Vegas is an extremely fast and hugely productive environment and the effects are still ample for anything less than prestige broadcast or feature film projects.

VJs will love Vegas 6, corporates may well find themselves weaned off a long-standing Premiere habit, and at this price it’s well within reach of enthusiastic amateur newcomers, too. If only Sony could make the software compatible with AfterEffects plug-ins, it would be unbeatable. But that said, upgraders who don’t plan to make the move to HD just yet will find relatively little here to tempt them.

Sony Media Software: http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com

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