Update:

The QuadCam feature of Ultimate S seems to be precisely what I'm looking for so I guess my question is answered!

There are multiple ways to do multi-cam either manually or via a script. Take a look at Vol 1 #9 of my newsletters to see several various methods.

Not really sure what subject this post falls under. I filmed a movie with a crappy microphone and the dialogue sounds very tiny... not a lot of bass. Has anyone found a good way to counter this?

Edward, thank you. That's an extremely useful article. I realise (somewhat sheepishly) that I have, in fact, already read it some time back!

Of course for the sake of completeness (and assuming modesty prevented you from mentioning it yourself!) I must now also take a look at Excalibur which has multiple camera editing tools as well.

At the time the article was written, Excalibur was the only scripting option for Multi-cam. Now Ultimate S also adds multi-cam editing to Vegas as well. Check them both out as they both have 15 day free trials.

You would have to route the output of the Keyrig to one of the Mona outputs that is not being used to monitor the mix (i.e., not channel 1 or 2 assuming this is a stereo mix). Then physically attach a 1/4" patch cable from that output back into one of the analog inputs. Finally record that analog input in Vegas 5.

I don’t have a Mona so I don’t know if this type of routing is possible right within the Mona’s software control panel, but I have an M-Audio Firewire 410 and this is the only way I’ve found to do this with the FW410.

~jr

It is hard to put back what was not recorded, but I would start with using the Track EQ and boosting the bass and see what you get. You might also try and add some compression via the Track Compressor to make what is there sound fuller. Then get a better microphone for next time. ;-)

~jr

Ok,
So this latest project I am delivering tommorrow goes to a guy with a plasma HD tv. Is there a way for me to render a standard aspet project shot with standard aspect that will look decent on a widescreen? If this is a stupid question just check my status (New Boot) that will tell you how much I know...

Bill Grant
www.grantphotovideo.com

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=48689

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=46361

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=39395

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=35105

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=50579

You can simply do a search on "widescreen" for many more hits.

How do I use track compression in Vegas 6?
Can I compress the audio in Soundofrge 6?

How do I use track compression in Vegas 6?
The audio track header should already have a compressor effect on it. Just open the dialog, pick one of the presets, and make any other adjustments as needed. If you have other compressors installed, they can be used.


Can I compress the audio in Soundofrge 6?
Yes

Sorry, I knew as soon as I posted that I should have searched first. Thanks, that was perfect...

Bill

I am going to be either picking up a Sony A1U or an FX1 to shoot weddings with along with my VX2100, and Canon GL1 (CYA cam). The HDV cam would trun into my primary cam and the VX2100 would be secondary wide angle cutaway cam.

I would shoot in HD and downconvert (using GearShift) to either a proxy or intermediary codec (Cineform) for editing in Sony Veags 6c.

My question is, when I am mixing both HDV (Proxy of Cineform) and DV footage on the same timeline, which project setting should I be using for the editing (DV template for DVD, which would be the final destination or HDV template)?
Keeping in mind that my final destination for this will be standard MPEG2 for DVD.

I would like to take full advantage of the added resolution from the HDV footage to zoom in a cop the picture even better. I do know that doing this would unfortuantely add considerably to my render time.

Eventually, once there is a mainstream delivery format for DVD and editing and delivery can be done in less time, I will only be shoting with HDV cams of the same brand at least.
So if I get an A1U then I would get the same or at least an FX1. I would still keep my VX2100 for emergencies, but obviously sell my GL1 for funds to purchase the new HDV camera.

Thanks for the feedback
Michael

I'm trying to import an image that is roughly 7,000 X 5,000. I need that resolution because i will be zooming in very close to image. When I try to render the video, it has an error and says something like "your system is low on memory"

is there a limit to the size of an image that vegas can handle and/or is there a trick to bring in large images?

thanks

j.

What version of Vegas are you running?

I don't know of a specified limit within the documentation but I do know others have had the same problem with larger files.

What version of Vegas are you running?

I don't know of a specified limit within the documentation but I do know others have had the same problem with larger files.

It's the latest version 6c

j

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the suggestions.

John, you made my friggin day man. Works perfectly. Mona 5/6s outs to the Mona 1/2 ins.

Thanks.

Dan

Anything you can do to reduce the size will help. You can also try reducing the RAM Preview amount if you've changed that back to the default.

John, this may not be the effect you're after but I had a similar problem a while back with a large image.

To overcome the issue I created a lower res version of the entire image and placed that on one track. I then created an image at full res from just the section I wanted to enlarge, placed that on a second (higher) track and sized it so that it looked as though it was part of the full image.

At the point where I wanted to zoom I moved the focus to the full res image to fill the screen and continued to zoom in until I hit the desired point in the picture. I also slightly defocused the lower res image and the edges of the higher res portion as I panned, which helped with the illusion.

It worked reasonably well but obviously wasn't a replacement for simply zooming in on a single picture. If you have multiple points to zoom to I suspect it would also be a bit complicated!

I have been looking for the veg file but for some reason I can't find it (I lost a 250gb external drive earlier this year - sigh - I suspect that's where it is).

You’re welcome. Sometimes we get so focused on doing everything in the computer, we forget that a simple patch cable might be the solution. ;-)

~jr

Until you actually go HDV for everything( all cameras) you could downconvert in camera ( capture to DV ) and just carry on as you would for DV editing. That is what I have done with my FX1 when mixed with other DV cameras. Saves a lot of time and you still have the original HDV tape to use in the future.

Ron Evans

Something has happened to my Vegas 6. The scrub panel on the lower part of the timeline (you know where you can size the events and scrub through them) has disappeared. The vertical one is there but looks odd. This is crippling my editing ability. Anyone have any suggestions how to get that back? Reboots have been unsuccessful.

Thanks

Did you change your XP Windows theme? If you put it on the default theme does it come back?

I didn't change anything. I had just finished capturing a massive video file until my hardrive was nearly full. I then opened V6 and it froze, wouldn't open (an unusual occurrence). So I rebooted the computer and when I opened V6 I had lost the scrub bar. Should I just uninstall and then reinstall it? I switched back to Vegas 4 for the current project and it works fine.

my exported avi is interlaced for 2 frames then deinterlaced for 3, and the pattern continues, producing a vibrating effect. My original footage is 60i, and I'm going for 24p.

Project properties:

Frame rate: 23.976
Motion blur type: gaussian
Deinterlace method: blend fields
Ruler time format: 23.976

Smart resampling and 'reduce interlace flicker' are both on.

When I go to export, I select NTSC DV 24p: 2-3 pulldown

What am I doing wrong here? Should I keep the project settings at 29.97 until I export?

Also, when I eventually convert to MPEG-2, should I use 23.976 as the frame rate, or continue to use 29.97, seeing as the exported avi is in a 29.97 shell?

Help computer.

I would first try holding down CTRL-SHIFT while opening Vegas 6. This reverts it back to "default" settings.

Did a small segment yesterday shooting an interview against a solid white background. We lit the scene the best we could and it looked fine on the LCD and monitor. However I have noticed that the top corner of the background has some light fallout. How can I make the entire background pure white?
I have played around with the glow and it works well for the background, but not the look I want for the subject.
Is there an easy way to cut out the subject and place him on a seperate track and then apply glow to the background?

Thanks

Jeff you are welcome to send me sample and I will see what I can do. Apart from anything else I'll, be able to see what you mean.

Grazie

Jeff, you could add the shot again but above on the timeline, then move the frame until you get the area you need pure white from and then you can just apply a soft-edge wipe to matte it in.
I don't know Vegas, but the technique is the same - unless you have a clone tool available?

Robin

Here is a screenshot, it is kind of hard to see, but the top right hand side is not as white as the rest of the background
http://www.digitaliso.ca/Image8.jpg

Well, I tried chroma-keying out as much of the b/g as poss. I then replaced the b/g with Vegas solid "white". If you want it I can email to you? Up to you. - G

Hmmm . . the other thing I notice is that YOUR background is not WHITE. Well it might appear that way . . but I suppose you aren't "too" fussy about the white? Well, if this IS the case there is another way.

What I then did was duplicate the track above, and selected an lump of "whitish" area - this I chose the piece to the left of the chap. Then I made a Bezier mask of THAT area and then moved this area over to the RIGHT side of the picture. Using careful and subtle use of feather and colour corrector I think I've blended IN an area of this whiter "paint . .as it were. I think It kinda works. I'll do a Vegas grab of this and have it ready - if you want it?

You have probably realised that the problem you've got is that your backgrounds is not evenly non-white, so I needed to make a matching "blend" that would mask the greying area, in a gradual way . . yeah? I think the BEzier approach works better than the Chromakeying . . .

Grazie

Yes, Robin, this is exactly what you can do I Vegas - no "clone" tool, but Bezier yes. . . I just read your post. Above is my approach which is an "echo" of what you say. G

I think Sorenson has the worst customer support and I'm ready to go to Cleaner any day. Today, however, the Sorenson Squeeze app really impressed me.

We host our streams on a streaming server (Akamai) and it was always a three step process to get the files up there, 1. Render from vegas, 2. Encode in sorenson, 3. FTP upload.

Today I right-clicked a job in Sorenson and found "assign additional tasks" and "Copy to FTP" under tasks. This in combination with the Squeeeze Watch folder feature over our Gigabit LAN means...

1. Export from Vegas on Editing box to the watchfolder on the Sorenson encoder box
2. Squeeze kicks in immediately and starts encoding whatever it finds in the watch folder.
3. When Squeeze finishes it uploads to the streaming server automagically.

Summary: Flash 8 (and everything else) from the Vegas timeline!
Sweet!

Also noticed that o2 has a Flash 8 Video Exporter http://www.on2.com/support-resources/flix-tutorials/FlixExporter_Basic/
Anyone tried this with vegas?

/magnus

hey guys,

I've been doing a weekly TV series here in Hawaii. I recently started noticing a problem in Vegas. Sometimes to do a preview for the producer ill do a prerender on the whole project. When this is done the normal blue bars show up above the timeline. However, i find that if i make any changes anywhere in the timeline, all the blue bars disappear.

Let me clarify. If I make a change to the credits at the end, the blue bars dissappear from the beginning of the timline, for instance the intro and all the way down. so theres no blue bars left. This means that when finalize the project I gotta re-render all over again.

Thanks,

Greg

My new AMD dual-core, NVidia, NEC 3250 problem with DVDA3 and V6c has been successfully resolved by Sony. 3 new *dll files were required in both DVDA and Vegas, but all functions in both applications have been verified by me. Some of you were victims of this configuration, contact Sony Support.

Darryl

Glad to hear a resolution was found.

Yes, bless you!

hey guys,

I've been doing a weekly TV series here in Hawaii. I recently started noticing a problem in Vegas. Sometimes to do a preview for the producer ill do a prerender on the whole project. When this is done the normal blue bars show up above the timeline. However, i find that if i make any changes anywhere in the timeline, all the blue bars disappear.

Let me clarify. If I make a change to the credits at the end, the blue bars dissappear from the beginning of the timline, for instance the intro and all the way down. so theres no blue bars left. This means that when finalize the project I gotta re-render all over again.

Thanks,

Greg

Not sure I'm totally following what you're meaning...

Are you saying that after you make a change - only the clip/effect that has been changed renders?

The 'blue bars' above the media in the timeline are the "loop region" and if you have "render loop region only" selected in your "render as" options, then only that region will render for you...

It's pretty easy to make the loop region as long or as short as you desire... You can manually drag either of the yellow triangular markers (at left and right of the blue bar) to where-ever you want.

To render the whole project every time you render - turn off "render loop region only".

To render only a specific region, turn on "render loop region only", and use the yellow 'flags' to set the loop region.

I hope that's what you're after...

I did a search and found nothing so here it goes. What does enabling joystick support really do? I plugged on in and nothing, I checked external controls but that seems to be all stuff for midi.

i would look at procoder before cleaner, definitely... you can frame-serve from the vegas timeline directly into procoder, without the additional step of rendering a file out of vegas first... i believe that procoder also has network rendering capability, but i'm not sure about the auto-ftp function?

why dont Sony hook up with ATI??

heres why...
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1880669,00.asp

this link was posted in the DV News forum, however, if Sony can work out how to access this engine feature from within Vegas, and using either the Sony or Cineform Codecs or what have you.. .im sure it would save ALOT of people the nightmare of rendering to a deadline..

On top of that, this acceleration seems to be akin to the way a Matrox RTx100 and Storm2 card behave, being that all the encoding/decoding is done in hardware...

Now with afew tweaks, im sure it would be possible considering the net framework system within Vegas, as well as the DX grunt that it has...

who knows, maybe one day we'll have a Vegas RT....

Yep, did same thing!
NTSC MPEG2 rendered straight from the timeline (1h20min) finished in 3h30min
Same project (NTSC DV) rendered to PAL took 17h30min.

Using just titles, few transitions, not really effects applied to the whole video.
CPU P4 Northwood 3GHz.

AC3 render time was exactly 10 min.

Note:
... It should go faster however if you put the rendered ntsc back on the timeline and render it out ...


No way - it means you re-render MPEG2 NTSC to MPEG2 PAL - results should be awful!

just curious.. why bother doing that when DVDA doesnt region encode ur discs?? i know for a fact that my Pal dvds play on almost any machine i throw them in.. whether they be in the US, canada, NZ, france, england..

I used to transcode, but found it to be a great waste of time when it isnt neede for DVD Delivery worldwide..

Here is the problem I am faced with. Captured m2t files with AspectHD, applied Gearshift with HDV 1080 - 60i Intermediate, created sublips from the GSProxy generated. Went to shift gears and received the error "Errors were found when replacing media".

Placed the GSProxy file, rendered avi, and m2t file in a new Vegas project. All files were the same overall length, but at timecode 0;32:15:08 the footage in the GSProxy and the avi file were the same; the m2t file was off by 01:43:15. The correct image in the m2t file was at 0;33:58:21.

Is there an easy fix, or just tell me what went wrong so I won't do it again.

Appreciate the help

Jim

According to the Vegas Help file:

You can use a joystick to adjust faders, surround panning, and the color wheel controls in the color corrector plug-ins. If you're using a force-feedback joystick, force feedback adds a tactile element to your editing sessions.

I’ve never tried this but that’s what it can be used for.

~jr

Hi Jim,

Sorry you are having trouble with GearShift. Here is what I need to know:

1. What did you use as your source: Filesystem? Mediabin? Timeline? Regions?

2. What did you render to: Proxy only? Intermediate only? Proxy + Intermediate?
(it sounds like you created a proxy + intermediate)

3. Did you place the rendered files in the same folder as the source? or in a new folder?

These answers will help me recreate the problem and provide you with a fix or an explanation.

~jr

Dear Fred,

If you are like me, you may want to use a joystick for more functions than Vegas supports for joysticks.

I am currently using a CH Products Flight Simulator Yoke (USB) version and it has helped immensely.

The yoke has three "Throttle" type controls, two up/down switches, two very handly pushbuttons, two more pushbuttons, an 8-way hat switch and more.

I programmed the unit using CH-Product control software (using mapping to Vegas's keystroke functions).

I am able to:

Start/Stop (same as spacebar) using left pushbutton
Start/Stop (same as Enter key) using right pushbutton

Perform the "Ripple" function (Post-Edit Ripple across all tracks) using one button.

One up/down switch takes me to the end (up) or beginning (down) of an event.

Another down switch spits the event at the cursor. The up switch sets the focus to the timeline, if it was in the trimmer or other location

One set of switches sets the beginning point in the trimmer, another is the end point.

Another set of switches takes me to the start or end of the timeline.

One Throttle allows me to zoom in/out.
Another Throttle centers the event on the cursor.
Another toggles the "Ignore Event Grouping" flag.

I am doing this all from memory, and I know I left out some features.


The above settings were what I wanted, others may want to control other features. In general, if you can do it with a keystroke, you can assign the keystroke to the yoke using this software.

All of this is a mouthful to say, but the layout is very logical and easy to learn (in my opinion). For example, playing an event in the trimmer to select the in and out points is very easy. Just press one button when you reach the in and another when you reach the out.

The 8-Way hat switch can be used to control the speed of the playback in 5 or more increments, and also can be used to start and stop playback.

In my opionion, this yoke is a natural for editing, but it sure looks funny at first glance to other editors. They quit laughing when they see how natural it is.

I bought the yoke for $99 for use with Flight Simulator and I wanted a better way to edit. The control software for this yoke is free from CH Products.

The layout of the yoke and it's button's and switches helps keep things organized, it is not as hard to learn as it sounds.

I also have a Contour Pro Shuttle, which is good, but I find myself using the yoke instead for almost all functions.

John

1. Filesystem

2. Proxy + Intermediate

3. Same folder

I am re-doing the troublesome file right now. My concern with timecode being off is that the subclips will also be off from the ones I originally used.

Thanks for everything

Jim

I cannot recreate either of your problems but I believe that GearShift should give you more information about what went wrong. I will work on an update that does better error reporting so that you can determine exactly what the errors occurred when the media was being replaced.

Did you move the files into new directories after you ran GearShift to create them? This would cause the swap to fail. Also if you change the settings in GearShift from what you used when you created the files that would cause a failure as well. e.g., if you change the Render Directory options, GearShift would look in the wrong place for the files. Make sure you don’t change any of the options in GearShift from when you created the files because ShiftGears uses that information to find them.

On your second problem, since you loaded the files from the filesystem I can’t explain why the Proxy and AVI files were off from the original M2T file. What GearShift does is load the M2T file onto the timeline and render it using Vegas. I can’t imagine why the three files would not be identical. They are for the M2T files I captured directly from my Z1 that I used for this test.

Let me know how you make out after you re-do the troublesome file.

~jr