Help: Lost my VASST vol-5 Noise Reduction DVD
 

Two questions:

1) Back in Nov I gave an arm & leg to VASST and bought the complete Vegas training series up through disc 7 for Vegas 8 Pro. (VASST has record of my purchase because I bought it directly from them and posted about it here on DVInfo.net). But I lost disc #5, audio cleanup after only having time to go through about the first 2 or 3 segments. The disc might have been left on a weekend trip I took (lots of down time so I brought a portable DVD player).

Rather than shell out and buy it again does someone have one I can copy? (assuming I could because it is listed as "unavailable" on the VASST site hopefully due to an updated version soon to be released).

I'm not trying to violate copyright rules here because I already purchased the disc, and I didn't sell it / give it away.

That brings up

2) What the heck is up with these VASST training discs that tell you how to do things, but do so using audio plugins that don't work for Vegas 8 (ie made for vegas 6 and older) or that are commercial? I can't use the Vegas Noise reduction because it beeps ever few seconds unless I license it separately. Am I missing something?

I understood the general ideas of the parts I watched, but I couldn't do anything with what I learned, because of the plugins being commercial. I am a bit annoyed at VASST for this reason. There wasn't any warning on the VASST site that #5 would need so many other licenses in order to follow what they were going to teach or that it would only work for Vegas 6 and older.

Is this a problem of
a) the DVD being written for the Vegas 6 world and it is just too out of date for Vegas 8?
or
b) I completely missed applicable disclaimers regarding all these commercial plugins that were crippled?
or
c) some combination of the two or some other third option?

Thanks for any help.

Just contact VASST directly for a replacement disc.

Doh!
 

Heh, I'm amused to realize that I didn't even consider that! Thanks for the use of your brain to help me find that answer. :-)

The terms "Demo Version" means essentially the same thing as "trialware." the back of the DVD mentions "demo versions" as does the DVD. These are beep-inclusive plugins that allow you to work with the noise reduction in the segments that teach the use of those tools. The majority of the DVD deals with non-plugin noise reduction; the plugins are not free, and there is no claim of "free noise reduction tool."
The tools also work in Vegas 8 Pro, but you need to properly install them to the VST folder.
As Chris mentioned, please contact us directly/privately to learn if you can obtain a replacement disc.

Thanks Douglas
 

Thank you Douglas for the clarification. Volume #5 Audio Cleanup & Noise Reduction is not listed anywhere on the site. I had to search for the phrase "audio cleanup" in order to find a reference to the product. It appears to have been pulled from the product catalog.

I understand if the DVD cover mentions the limitations of the plugins involved, but the DVD cover is not made available / visible prior to purchase on the VASST site. The VASST page that talks about the training DVD does not mention the demos / trial nature of the contents of the DVD. This is the only page I could find that talks about volume #5

I guess I was just a bit surprised by what I got on the DVD compared to what I expected to receive.

Jason, there seems to be some sort of confusion about what the DVD contains. The page specifies what is on the DVD, and at no point does the page, the cover, the contents of the visual aspects of the DVD suggest that there is a free noise reduction plugin. I'm not sure where you got the idea that the DVD *does* include the Noise Reduction plugin as a freebie (or not).
I suspect that had we not included the trial/demo ware of the Sony Noise Reduction plugin, we'd have had folks complaining that we teach the use of a tool that they can't easily access. This is the first comment of this nature we've ever seen, in the three years that particular DVD has been available.
Chapters and listing as follows (and as on our web page);

-Removing Sibilance
-Pulling Plosives
-Zapping Glitches
-Removing Hum
-Reducing Subsonic Noises
-Repairing Reverberant Rooms
-Noise Prevention Techniques
-Using Noise Gates
-Building Audio Masks
-Using Third-Party tools

Extras include:
Free VST Audio plugin tools

###
The VST plugin tools are indeed free, and fully functional. There is a picture of one of the free plugin tools on the VASST website advertising this DVD. The entire DVD, excepting the last chapter, deals entirely with the tools included in Vegas. The final chapter "Using Third-Party Tools" does use the Sony Noise Reduction Plug in, which used to sell for 300.00 on its own. Now, Sound Forge comes with the plugin. The final chapter "Using Third-Party Tools" also demonstrates the use of the free, fully functional plugins that are included as extras on the DVD, as indicated on the DVD's product page on the VASST site.
In any event, a community forum is generally not considered the appropriate place to seek customer service as a point of first contact. You do have the VASST email address for support; it's typically the best idea to make contact through the customer support channels set up by the manufacturer/developer.
I hope this clears up any confusion.

Not wanting to get in the middle of anything but it's a waste of money to just buy Sony Noise Reduction tool as it's the exact (identical) price as Sound Forge and that includes NR at no extra cost.

Ducking and Running for cover.

I entirely agree. Since it's in Forge, no point in purchasing separately.

Yeah, only because of Sound Forge 9.0 being on the machine is the reason I won't abandon my Dell laptop totally. I like Sound Forge better than even Soundtrack Pro!

I am running Parallels Desktop on my MacBook Pro but I don't think I have enough hd space to put any more apps on. :(

Ahhh more pieces to the puzzle
 

Ok so that might solve my problem of having the demo / trial NR plugin that comes by default with Vegas. Then why does vegas come with the demo version at all? I suppose it is to show you what you could be doing if your purchased SF.

if I buy and have SF installed, will Vegas be able to correctly use the NR plugin so I can follow the VASST DVD and perform the same steps they do?

That brings up Audacity, which is the only Audio utility I have access to at this point. Its NR is horrible. Introduces lots of ringing and artifacts when using NR. I'm hoping SF's NR plugin does not do that. Any experience with Audacity?

The demo does not come with Vegas. The demo comes with:
~The VASST Noise Reduction DVD
or
a fully functioning version of the professional grade of Sound Forge.
I think you might want to revisit Disc 2 of the training, in which we show how to install VST plugs, as does the Volume 5 disc. Noise Reduction isn't VST, it's DirectX, but somewhere in how you're thinking all this out, there is a disconnect in how to install what where, and what comes with what.

Confusion Abounds!
 

Oh I'm sure that my confusion over what comes with what is part of the problem (if not the entire problem). I had not been differentiating between VST & DirectX, rather thinking of both types as "plug-ins" in general.

Like I mentioned above, it didn't even occur to me to contact VASST directly. I have no explanation for why, other than I have come to use and reply on DVInfo to learn about pretty much every aspect of video productions.