Vegas Video discussions from 2006 (Q3Q4)

[Jon Fairhurst]

The easiest way is to "stretch" the audio to fit the video. Before changing the video rate, make sure that the audio and video segments have the exact same start and end points. Change the speed of the video, then hold the Ctrl key when dragging the ends of the audio segment to stretch it and match the video duration as needed.

One nit that I have with Vegas is that some of the numerical entry forms have too few decimal places, or don't allow direct entry. There are times when you want things to be exact, and it's frustrating when the best you can do with the tool is to mess with a slider.

Anyway, if you "snap" the audio to have the exact same duration as the video, you should be golden.

[William LiPera]

Can vegas 7 handle the Panasonic P2 cards? Is there a tutorial available?

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

http://www.vasst.com/resource.aspx?i...a-d07e5bbc018f has a tutorial.
Serious Magic, CineForm, and DVFilmmaker all have conversion utilities. This tutorial deals with the Raylight app from DVfilmmaker. I've used it extensively, and use the Serious Magic (now Adobe) as well. No real experience with the CineForm.
HTH

[David Jimerson]

The Trimmer is very helpful for big projects.

[Jason Robinson]

Originally Posted by Jamie Hellmich

In going through the manual or help (I can't remember right now) it was mentioned that "while one instance of Vegas is rendering, you can edit in another".

I took this as meaning the program will operate in 2 separate "windows", ie... start the program from the icon or start menu, minimize it, and start another session from the icon or start menu. I know windows allows this and have done it many times with other programs such as CAD.

Has anyone actually tried this, rendering in one and working in another session?

Jamie

I do this all the time, but mostly when my second render machine is not available (away from home office). That way I can kick off a quick "how is that going to look" render, while I continue to work. Note that trying 2 renders at once won't do anything special other than make each render slow and take possibly longer because the two processes are swapping for CPU . HD / RAM access. The only advantage is kicking off two different project renders so you can come back in 6-7 hours and have them both finished. If you need two different renders of the same project (ie wmv and mov) then you can just batch them up. Be careful not to give the quicktime render a file name longer than 4 characters because it will get confused and error out (just kidding on 4 characters, but it does have an insanely shot character limitation that NO OTHER render format has).

jason

[Jason Robinson]

Originally Posted by James Harring

Yes, I do occasionally run two sessions. I may render a composite super in one window while editing in the other. I try to limit the editing to roughcuts or other non-demanding work.

While I have 2 gig RAM, it does consume most of it while this is going on. Performance takes a hit. I am editing m2t's at HDV res though, so my expectations are adjusted accordingly.

I have been able to set the process priority on the rendering window down to minimum so that I can continue to work unobstructed on the other which would be set to a high process priority.

But I'm running SD video instead of two HDVs.

jason

[Seth Bloombaum]

Originally Posted by Jason Robinson

...The only advantage is kicking off two different project renders so you can come back in 6-7 hours and have them both finished...

Me too - I've run 6 to 8 renders overnight. Easy and quick to set up. Mostly this has been for "chapterizing" event video, say, a 2 hour timeline that needs to be rendered to multiple wmv segments of 20 minutes or whatever.

Even this can be done with batch render, to a single (***edit*** or multiple***) destination format(s), by using the "render by regions" option.

Background rendering while editing in another instance works fine for me, too, but my work doesn't demand it much. Usually, I'll find a way to batch when I'm away from the pc so I don't suffer degraded performance.

It's all about finding the workflow that's most efficient for you.

[Vince Curtis]

I use Vegas with my HVX200 footage all the time, I use Raylight to convert the files.

http://www.dvfilm.com/raylight/index.htm

Here is a tutorial on using Raylight here. . .

http://dvfilm.com/raylight/raylightTutorial1.htm

Its free to try, around $200 to purchase, and a great addition to Vegas.
Vegas (Sony) wont be adding Panasonic native codec to Vegas anytime soon, so you have to use Raylight, Cineform. . .
http://www.cineform.com/products/ConnectHD.htm
Those two are the most popular. Raylight is simple and quick, no experience with Cineform, but try both before you buy. . .

[Theodore McNeil]

Seth - what's your computer's specs?

My boss hit the roof when he saw me rendering two things at once.

[Will Hanlon]

Anyone know of some good audio cleanup plugins for Vegas? To remove noise of AC, wind, planes, etc. Just trying to get a feel for my options, and what everyone thinks is the best.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

SoundSoap, WAVES XNoise, Pinnacle CLEEN, and my personal fave; Sony Noise Reduction 2.0.
Forget trying to do much with wind and planes; the frequencies are wide and varied. AC? Easy as pie. Vegas already has EQ settings that will kill 50Hz and 60Hz hum. Air conditioning requires noise reduction.
You know how in spy movies they always turn on water to prevent the bad guy from listening in? Guess what? That's not just Hollywood, it's real life. Water, wind, traffic, mechanical noises are all very difficult to remove without negatively impacting the original dialog.
Constant sounds such as humming refrigerators, air conditioning, AC line noise, transformers; they're quite easy to get rid of. Everything else falls in between.
Jeffrey Fisher has a Noise Reduction for Vegas DVD that's available; that might help you grasp the techniques that fall outside of using a plug in.

[Will Hanlon]

I never thought I'd use the zoom feature of Vegas, but poor framing on my part necessitated it. I imagine there's no way to get around the loss of quality, but does anyone know of better zoom plugins? Or some plugins that remove noise from images?

I used HD video so I think I have a little bit of room without completely degrading the image... mostly, I notice noise in black areas... like my actor's jacket... any tips for concealing this or removing it?

The reason I ask about a better zooming plugin is I've seen programs that create high quality slow motion from non-slow-motion footage by extrapolating the missing data... just curious if there could be something similar for zooming in on video? I kinda doubt it, but I figured I'd ask.

Thanks for any help.

[Bill Ravens]

zooming is a pretty noisy process, no matter what tool you use. you can try repairing an image, but, the pixelation and noise really cause problems if you zoom to far. a couple of useful plugin tools to try to repair damaged images are:
1-THRESHOLD
2-BLACK RESTORE
3-Mike Crash makes some 3rd party freeware plugin tools. One good one is SMART SMOOTHER.

[Bill Ravens]

I've been mastering most of my audio with a tool called HARBAL, which is essentially an EQ shaper. Douglas is right, Sony's Noise Reduction plugin works wonders. But for that final polish, a notch filter applied with HARBAL does amazing things, as well. It works outside of Vegas, ie, it's not a plugin, and it takes a little bit of learning to use, effectively.
www.har-bal.com

[Dan Keaton]

I agree with Spot, Sony's Noise Reduction 2.0 can do wonders in certain cases.

Road noise, and planes are harder to remove.

Recently I was given an audio track that had very loud pops every few seconds. The audio was unusable as it was. Sony's Noise Reduction 2.0 removed all the pops successfully.

The same audio track had, in some instances some very serious clipping. I could not remove all of the clipping successfully. In other cases I have been successful in removing clipping with NR 2.0.

In one case, I was given a track with a very loud and unusual squeal. Sony's NR 2.0 removed the squeal. I was amazed. Our director was very pleased!

Using NR 2.0 requires some practice and expertise. There are many options available. But, it is very easy to try various options until you get what you need.