I know this may be a bit too off topic but here goes anyway.
I'm thinking of trying out some basic video editing, nothing too serious or professional. I've been looking at Vegas Movie Studio 14 which seems like a good product at a cheap price. Anyone have any other suggestions?
Decent entry level video editor..?
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- KVRAF
- 1959 posts since 21 Sep, 2007 from The Infinite Void
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Richard deHove Richard deHove https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=376689
- KVRist
- 395 posts since 23 Mar, 2016
I know several people who use Vegas Movie Studio and have no complaints. Fast and simple. I've used the full version since the old Sonic Foundry days. Funny thing is it reminds me of Reaper and I automatically keeping trying to use Reaper shortcuts 
Which reminds me: Reaper does basic video editing. I haven't tried it but it seems a bit primitive.
Which reminds me: Reaper does basic video editing. I haven't tried it but it seems a bit primitive.Omnisphere & ArcSyn patches: https://richarddehove.com/soundware/
My music: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-XdT2 ... 55tGwjEDUA
My music: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-XdT2 ... 55tGwjEDUA
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- KVRAF
- 1794 posts since 9 Apr, 2011
I use Vegas Movie Studio and it's great. Missing some more "pro" features like histogram or flexible masking, but for actual editing it's quick and straightforward to get a good-looking product.
"musician."
http://soundcloud.com/nine-of-kings
http://soundcloud.com/nine-of-kings
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- KVRAF
- 2715 posts since 23 Mar, 2005 from Detroit
+1 Vegas Movie Studio
It couldn't be any more straight forward and simple to use with great results. Its a non cluttered worskspace, well it can be as windowed as you want it to be, but for basic trimming/cutting/fades/transitions and audio stuff its easy to get stuff done fast, as you can close all that other stuff out for a simple clean GUI work space. Right clicking has the commands you would expect to come up, plus use of the scroll wheel for clip zooming, and aarow keys for scrubbing. The pan/cropping/zooming is a little tricky to get used to, but I think they simplified that so you can do it within/on top the video preview window in the latest version. drag the end of clips to engage fades/cross fades. Insert a video track and add a Text Generator for text call-out overlays. VST compatible for audio effects but comes with basic track effects.
Tip: if you have a lot of VST plugs installed, on every startup it will automatically find that folder and scan everything, which can take a while (can be slower than most DAWs) if there's lots of course, and sometimes can be buggy. Better to create a seperate folder (i.e. Vegas VST) and point the vst path to that, with only the vital vst DLLs you would use for a given project copied into the folder for faster more stable startup times. If you hold CTRL+ALT on start up, or something close to that, it will reset defaults and not auto find a VST directory until you specify.
Easy to remember basic key commands you would use all the time:
Space bar: play/stop
Enter: Play/Pause
S: split
M: marker
Sometimes this program can be buggy and crash randomly, especially with lots of seperate HD video clips, it does autosave every 10 or 15 min, but I always save as often as i can remember to do (CTRL + S), and always after a major edit or just whenever. It wont always recover the work you did on a project.
It couldn't be any more straight forward and simple to use with great results. Its a non cluttered worskspace, well it can be as windowed as you want it to be, but for basic trimming/cutting/fades/transitions and audio stuff its easy to get stuff done fast, as you can close all that other stuff out for a simple clean GUI work space. Right clicking has the commands you would expect to come up, plus use of the scroll wheel for clip zooming, and aarow keys for scrubbing. The pan/cropping/zooming is a little tricky to get used to, but I think they simplified that so you can do it within/on top the video preview window in the latest version. drag the end of clips to engage fades/cross fades. Insert a video track and add a Text Generator for text call-out overlays. VST compatible for audio effects but comes with basic track effects.
Tip: if you have a lot of VST plugs installed, on every startup it will automatically find that folder and scan everything, which can take a while (can be slower than most DAWs) if there's lots of course, and sometimes can be buggy. Better to create a seperate folder (i.e. Vegas VST) and point the vst path to that, with only the vital vst DLLs you would use for a given project copied into the folder for faster more stable startup times. If you hold CTRL+ALT on start up, or something close to that, it will reset defaults and not auto find a VST directory until you specify.
Easy to remember basic key commands you would use all the time:
Space bar: play/stop
Enter: Play/Pause
S: split
M: marker
Sometimes this program can be buggy and crash randomly, especially with lots of seperate HD video clips, it does autosave every 10 or 15 min, but I always save as often as i can remember to do (CTRL + S), and always after a major edit or just whenever. It wont always recover the work you did on a project.
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experimental.crow experimental.crow https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=6258
- KVRAF
- 6895 posts since 9 Mar, 2003 from the bridge of sighs
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- KVRAF
- 8563 posts since 29 Sep, 2010 from Maui
Definitely awesome! Entry level, probably not. Expect a steep learning curve.experimental.crow wrote:https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/produc ... ciresolve/#
basic level is free ...
Certainly worth the effort though no doubt.
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experimental.crow experimental.crow https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=6258
- KVRAF
- 6895 posts since 9 Mar, 2003 from the bridge of sighs
yes ...pekbro wrote:Definitely awesome! Entry level, probably not. Expect a steep learning curve.experimental.crow wrote:https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/produc ... ciresolve/#
basic level is free ...
Certainly worth the effort though no doubt.
i should have read that a little better ...
i've just started messing about w/ it , and it is most certainly
not entry level ...
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 1959 posts since 21 Sep, 2007 from The Infinite Void
Thanks guys, sounds like Vegas is the way to go for me then.
So what about Suite vs Platinum? They are both on sale at the moment, $79 and $49 respectively. Are the extras in Suite worth spending another $30?
So what about Suite vs Platinum? They are both on sale at the moment, $79 and $49 respectively. Are the extras in Suite worth spending another $30?
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- KVRAF
- 2715 posts since 23 Mar, 2005 from Detroit
The only difference is a higher quality set of creative/basic video fx, plus a 3D text generator/titler. Depends if you're really going to get creative and do over the top stuff, but IMO, its looks very cliche and cheesy if not done subtle and right if you don't know what you're doing with more in depth video editing.
Studio/Platinum already come with a good set of basic light/color correcting type plugins that are excellent for basic editing duties. Really, rarely if I need to use one of those video fx utility tools, its for basic slight brightening or minor color correction etc. If you have good high quality composed video shots with proper lighting already, you shouldn't have to use those tools if much at all. It's a lot like audio when you can tell something is over corrected/processed to make it work as a last resort.
But you can trial/demo it first to see if you think you might want to mess around, or maybe there is an upgrade for the price difference if you decide later on you need that power. Depends on the projects your doing and the type of video. If its just basic 1 video track or a few multi cam tracks, you're probably fine with just Platinum if you really want to save the $30.
The real creative cool stuff i use the program for is when you start learning how to composite and layer video tracks and graphics/pics together with the different transparency modes, use transparent PNG images to create masks, alpha layers and layered Photoshop files, and key frame animate/automate effects, which can be done in the Studio version.
I mostly use it for dead simple multi cam editing, whether its a live band i recorded with multiple angle GoPros and DSLR setup around the stage, and later sync it with soundboard audio etc. Or I video my adult league hockey games with 2 cams. You can do super slow mo or sped up or reverse/forward cut edits, and I'll do a few shots for like highlight reel type goals from our games. But I do occasionally do visual animated graphic compositing stuff for like trippy music videos.
You never said what kind of projects you were planning on doing, but doesn't matter. Studio version has you covered for all the stuff i just mentioned. Plus there are lots of how-to tutorials for Vegas on youtube.
When rendering, there are certain format settings that will take advantage of your nVidia CUDA graphics card settings (if you have one) to render with that, and it's a lot faster render export time. And render/export template video formats for all the popular video sites, so you don't have to guess or research settings.
Here's a compositing example I did
Multi cam live band/soundboard audio edit
Studio/Platinum already come with a good set of basic light/color correcting type plugins that are excellent for basic editing duties. Really, rarely if I need to use one of those video fx utility tools, its for basic slight brightening or minor color correction etc. If you have good high quality composed video shots with proper lighting already, you shouldn't have to use those tools if much at all. It's a lot like audio when you can tell something is over corrected/processed to make it work as a last resort.
But you can trial/demo it first to see if you think you might want to mess around, or maybe there is an upgrade for the price difference if you decide later on you need that power. Depends on the projects your doing and the type of video. If its just basic 1 video track or a few multi cam tracks, you're probably fine with just Platinum if you really want to save the $30.
The real creative cool stuff i use the program for is when you start learning how to composite and layer video tracks and graphics/pics together with the different transparency modes, use transparent PNG images to create masks, alpha layers and layered Photoshop files, and key frame animate/automate effects, which can be done in the Studio version.
I mostly use it for dead simple multi cam editing, whether its a live band i recorded with multiple angle GoPros and DSLR setup around the stage, and later sync it with soundboard audio etc. Or I video my adult league hockey games with 2 cams. You can do super slow mo or sped up or reverse/forward cut edits, and I'll do a few shots for like highlight reel type goals from our games. But I do occasionally do visual animated graphic compositing stuff for like trippy music videos.
You never said what kind of projects you were planning on doing, but doesn't matter. Studio version has you covered for all the stuff i just mentioned. Plus there are lots of how-to tutorials for Vegas on youtube.
When rendering, there are certain format settings that will take advantage of your nVidia CUDA graphics card settings (if you have one) to render with that, and it's a lot faster render export time. And render/export template video formats for all the popular video sites, so you don't have to guess or research settings.
Here's a compositing example I did
Multi cam live band/soundboard audio edit
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- KVRAF
- 5851 posts since 9 Jul, 2002 from Helsinki
Resolve is massively better than any of the budget alternatives, and free.