Does Edius permit multiple instances of the program to be run simultaneously, permitting me to copy and paste clips from one project to another, or even the entire timeline, with all FX retained after pasting?

A second question: When I am editing a multicamera project in Vegas (using Ultimate S) I have have full view and availability of my individual camera's video clips, as well as separate lines of audio that I can choose to edit as I go along. I can thus edit video, select camera angles, color correct, adjust volume to individual audio tracks as I go along as easily as if I am editing a single track of video.

These are two of the most important features of Vegas to me. Can I expect to be able to do the same in Edius 6? I recall CS3 lacked flexibility with audio in multicamera mode, and would not permit multiple instances of PP to be open at one time. I might be mistaken, but that's what I recall.

I'm thinking of playing with Edius, but if I cannot do the above I'm not sure it would work out. I rely on the ability to run multiple instances of my NLE and to copy/paste from one instance to another.

I love Vegas' features and flexibility, but I am absolutely sick of it's poor preview performance. I have a CPU running at 4gzh. I'm using 15K SAS drives and running off a great Adaptect controller, and when I edit 4 cameras worth of 1080 24p footage it just sucks. I want smooth, perfect playback while I'm editing, all while running at full resolution, and from what I hear Edius can do that.

No you cannot have multiply instances of EDIUS open.

But you can export a sequence from the open timeline and then import that sequence into any other project and all the clips will be there on the timeline just like the original project you had opened :-)

Multicam watch this.
Efficient Multicam Editing With Grass Valley EDIUS 6 on Vimeo

With that CPU you should get 4 streams running of 1080p native files.

Thanks, Paul. I see that Plural Eyes has a Edius version, that is comforting. I'm downloading a trial. I doubt that in 30 days I'll have enough time to learn it well enough to make a decision, as I'm really backlogged, but I want to try it anyway. Thanks again.

The multicam feature in Edius is very similar to using Ultimate S in Vegas I have found, but a bit more efficient. I like the dual windows for multicamera in Edius, it's a very nice feature.