I am in the process of editing old footage taken from an analogue camcorder. The recorded sound isn't the best quality. I am using Sony Vegas 5, which I recently acquired. I don't have much experience of using the audio effects in Vegas and I must admit I'm finding it a bit of a mindfield.

I know it depends on what you are aiming to achieve but could anyone give some general advise on what audio effects and there settings to use in Vegas to give the audio quality of dialogue a bit of a lift. Just general settings one might consistently apply to improve the tone. I've tried playing around with EQ and compressors etc but I'm stuggling to do it in a methodical fashion. In my case the dialogue is sounding flat and lifeless and at times there is a noticeable amount of background hiss/noise.

As audio requirements in live situations are getting more advanced, and since Vegas has IMHO some of the best PC based audio/ video editing ability, I wonder if anyone else sees a need for the following


Currently Vegas will support any of the multi channel audio cards for instance using adat etc, you can arm the tracks and then start record and capture all the tracks etc.

Problem is Vegas does not let you do this for video at the same time, We have batch capture which get the video and the audio via the firewire, but the two aps are pretty independant

I tend to do more live work, captureing as we go, currently either going to DV rack or Vegas capture. What would be a big help is to be able to not only arm audio tracks but also add video and the tracks via the firewire, and be able to bring in the audio and the video all at the same time, locked together

Granted in the past pc's probably were not up to the task, but todays machines should be able to do this pretty comfortably. There are a few standalone hd video recorders that can record the video and at the same time bring in the 8 tracks of audio via an adat lightpipe connection.

I know DSE is pretty wired into the VEGAS group so wondered if he saw any interest in this

Sharyn


.

You'll have to apply the effect to both events or to a track. Remember you can have as many tracks as you want so it's not impossible to go ahead and use another track for those events. Otherwise you'll need to apply the same effect to all the events. If they're all getting the exact same settings, you can set up the first one, copy it, select the rest, and then "Paste Event Attributes".

I have a similar set of tools and sometimes have call for multitrack recording of music. I've been working mostly on post-capture, post-sync of multitrack and video. It's been pretty good.

What makes it work for me is the Alesis HD24 recorder with its (accessory) firewire interface. 24 analog input channels at 24/48, hard-drive transfers... it has been a very acceptable workflow. Then sync on the timeline with video.

I guess I've been pretty conservative about depending on a computer as a recording device, though I have HDVRack I tend to use it more for monitoring. If I could ingest multitrack and video on the fly that would be pretty interesting, although there is still more capture to do if it is an unswitched multicamera shoot.

the only problem is after doing lots of things to a track then I decide I want to change one section I have to pull all the parts out to their own track and change it because they might all have small different things on them... in hindsight it could be clean but sometimes once you are deep in it's not always so pretty ;)

Not ideal but maybe a work around for now... what if you ran two instances of Vegas one for audio and one for the capture app (really you don't need Vegas to be running for the cap app I don't think).

I would advice capturing audio to a seperate Hd than your video though just for fragmentation sake.

I am very new to Vegas. I spent a bit of time doing a graphic for an opening at 720x480. Several elements involved, but all static from static graphics. My setup is 720x480 NTSC DV in Vegas 6.0d. The imported bitmaps were produced at 720x480 in a graphics editor. It all looks great in Vegas preview window or if I use my second computer LCD monitor for external preview.

However, if I view the same image using a Canopus 110 connected to a 21" 4:3 JVC CRT monitor, a good bit of the top, bottom, and left & right edges are gone. Is the edge clipping normal or is there a setting I am overlooking?

BTW - I tried the external preview on one of the kinetic avi backgrounds that came with Vegas and it seemed to clip off a good portion of the edges there also.

If this is normal, is there a standard allowance in order to avoid clipping printed words, etc? If not normal, what's happening?

thanks,
--rick

Yes it's normal it's called "Overscan"... that is why they have the safe zones you can turn on in your preview window... they will tell you were the "safe" edges are. Look in the tool bar of your preview pane and I think it's a grid... the inner box is considered "safe title" so you should place your titles in there... some tv's are that bad ;)

Please I need some help and can't find a solution anywhere. The other day when I went to capture video a video window came on the screen and said my Smrt capture was turned off or something was using it. I clicked onto a button that said use a Microsoft dv or vcr and it captured my video. But I never had to do that before.

I just shot more video today and now the durration time moves but the capture time stays at 0 and no video shows up in the preview window.
I have no idea what may of caused this? I have never had a problem before and all of a sudden everything seems to going south. The computer controls the camera so the connections are fine.

Any suggestion? I need to put something together by Friday!

Matthew

Oooh - my head hurts now!!!!

Firstly - I'm in PAL land.

If I just render this as AVI PAL DV Widescreen - will Vegas just scale the 1080i footage to 720x576?

But I notice that when I put a 1080i file on the timeline the preview window shown a small black border left and right. Is this because 1440x1080 doesn't evenly scale to 720x576 - or is this to do with the 704 number (the relevance of which eludes me right now).

If I use PAN/CROP and change the width to 720 Vegas sets the height to 540 - whcih is less than the 576 for DV. It also maintains the side borders - surely if the vertical resolution is lower than the project size there should be horizontal borders.

Is it also true that SD 16:9 isn;t actually 16:9? Take 720 multiply by the PAR of 1.4568 gives 1048 which = 16:8.8 - whereas HD - 1440x1.333 = 1920 - does give 16:9.

Now you know why my head hurts!

Ian

I was given a file from a TV show, captured in Divx. It didn't work in Medial Player or in Vegas. A friend sent me a DivX Installer program and it is working correctly. Previously I had no video.

So I took the files home to put it on my home PC and work with it. Here it does not work. I ran the same installer program that I ran at work on my laptop but I still only get audio, no video. I need to be able to edit this footage and I don't know where to turn.

I suppose I just need the Codec installed in Windows for it to work in Vegas and Media Player? Can anyone help with this?

thanks

Peter,

I have been trying to run my standard p4 with dual monitors to run my adobe pp and have a third crt to use as a color correction device.
My understanding is that invida cards you have all three ports but you can only run two at a time. I have been trying to find a work around on this but so far have failed.
At this point I am thinking of putting a 6600 in my second computer and using networking to do the color correction on the other computer.

I sure would like to hear possibilities on this one.

I usually record audio from the PA system at a location to my laptop using small app called Total Recorder making a wav file.

The camcorder just collects the video and its (usually poor quality) audio onto miniDV.

Then I capture the camcorder output later, then meld the captured v/a and the wav file into Vegas. By using the audio from cam and PA, you can get the sync of wav audio correct with the camcorder take. If necessary, you mute out the camcorder audio in Vegas for the final output.

I have been wanting to attempt vid cap and wav record in real-time to the laptop, but have not yet done so. Usually disk space limitations!

Thanks Edward. Turning on snapping seems to cure the problem.

Vegas doesn't seem to handle some of the more bizarre/obscure formats properly. You can use something like RAD Video Tools to convert from divX to something else that is editable... i.e. sonyYUV, or sony vegas DV codec.

2- There may be better ways of doing things, but that should at least work.

Matthew,

I've never had your problem. But I often just plug in my camera and capture using the Windows capture program without starting Vegas, then edit in Vegas.

I believe that Vegas uses the Windows capture program as the default. You can choose a different capture program inside of Vegas, in the "Preferences", "Video" tab.

Hope this at least provides you with a work-a-round until you solve your problem.

I was wondering if they had a list with explanations of what all the "hidden" options are.

We have and hd24 also, and have the fireport that allows you to transfer the files over firewire, and it does work. BUT I still think it is a bit of a kluge. You are right the video capture is not full vegas just the capture program so it woud seem that this could make it easier. I guess where I am coming from is that we are moving to a situation where recording in 5.1 is becoming more likely, SONY on their low end units actually has this 5.1 mic system which is totally useless, BUT the concept still makes sense. It of course would be great ot see a camcorder with the option for an multi channel external audio in, but that is not all that likely.

I agree there are work arounds, but it still think the ability to better link the audio and the video capture side would be a step forward, especially since Vegas has sort of positioned itself as the more audio friendly of the video nle's
Sharyn

Thanks for your reply. I turned off my computer for about an hour and then it worked fine. Who knows?

Matt

I believe the general rule of thumb is "Don't Touch These". There have been a few documented but changing some incorrectly could make Vegas not work.

Thanks for the information, Kevin. Very helpful.

--rick

But some look so tasty ;)

You don't do enough for the community, you should flip them all and document what the do :p

J/K of course (about how much you do, not about flipping them all :) )

...I guess where I am coming from is that we are moving to a situation where recording in 5.1 is becoming more likely...

As little as a month ago I would have disagreed with this - but a recent project changed my mind. Another DVInfo forum member and I edited some environmental sound effects for 4.1 playback at an event. We did a bunch of stuff with Vegas and stock stereo effects, using echo/verb, moving things around the sound field, stock film sound mix techniques that sounded good and were a lot of fun.

Then I bought some sfx that were recorded in 5.1 :0 ...what a difference, those sfx really surpassed all we'd done with post techniques. It's really made me rethink the possible benefits of collecting 5.1 in the field.

I agree there are work arounds, but it still think the ability to better link the audio and the video capture side would be a step forward, especially since Vegas has sort of positioned itself as the more audio friendly of the video nle's

I'm very impressed that we can personally afford to own tools that rival the functions that used to take remote mobile recorder trucks... and that even with at best flakey timecode or none at all we have affordable post tools that are easier to use than the multimillion dollar edit suites that ruled the video world as few as 20 years ago. So, I wouldn't have used the term "work around" but instead said "wow, it works!"

However, it would be great if Sony took your advice!

(begin rant)
I'm pessimistic, though... the fact that Sony and apparently all the other NLE manufacturers have not seen fit to fix the timecode mess that Sony and the other HDV camcorder manufactures have created **(see below) makes me assume that they think that we who would use Vegas, HDV, double-system sound and multitrack all together are such a small minority that they're not going to bother fixing broken timecode functionality. Never mind that DV-standard def. was much friendlier to timecode through the edit process...
(end rant)

**(from above)
SMPTE-like timecode was apparently part of the DV25 spec. This enabled use of time-of-day timecode to rough-sync double system sound, multiple cameras, to get all these video sources and audio tracks close enough on the Vegas timeline that you could fine-sync with V's excellent slip & slide tools. All the NLEs and DVRack see DV25 camera timecode through firewire.

Enter HDV - hidef is more pro, no? Apparently camcorder manufacturers are at liberty to put timecode wherever they like in the HDV-firewire datastream, there is no standard. Vegas doesn't see it, HDVRack doesn't capture it, every captured HDV clip starts at 0:00, and our rough-sync method is gone, and the workflow becomes more lengthy and painful. Post/capture vendors challenged on forums plead that there is no timecode, or it's hard to find, when IMO what they really mean is they couldn't be bothered to bring HDV editing up to DV functionality, they think too small a minority of users work with double system sound and multicamera. Too many software engineers and not enough film/video people making decisions for us.

Oops, I guess that's more ranting. I really love Vegas, have been using it since it was an audio-only product, and use it all the time. HDV timecode has really pissed me off... they've really let us down on this one.

i'm pretty sure you can't edit divx in Vegas. The only NLE i know of that offers divx editing is Avid Liquid.

Gary

i'm pretty sure you can't edit divx in Vegas. The only NLE i know of that offers divx editing is Avid Liquid.

It *can* be done because there are many people doing it. However, you do have to get the right codecs installed. If you do a search in this forum for DivX and/or XVid, you should get many hits related to this topic.

I finally got my XLH1 today, so I capture some footage and when I tried to capture it onto Vegas 6.0a I received this message:

The device 'Microsoft AV/C Tape Subunit Device' could not be opened.
please make sure that it is turned on and is not being used by another
application or user.

I have the XL1s and I have no problem capturing to Vegas.
I did change the internal capture for HDV but still have the problem. My computer is recognizing the H1 but not Vegas. Any Idea what am I missing ?

Thanks

Actually searches mostly turn up more post saying "do searches" ...I have never really found a good answer... I've tried some of the suggestions but never got it working 100%

Not sure if this has ANYTHING to do with your problem but why not get 6.0d?

I hope I have more luck with this question than I did with my previous one (still no replies)

I am new to Sony Vegas 5. If I have a project with multiple tracks and I trim or lengthen a video event within the project, the related audio portion trims or lengthens with it, thereby remaining in synch. However, the other tracks do not move with this re-edit. This means that any music/sound effects/titles on other tracks will no longer be in their intended positions.

How do you ensure that the other tracks remain in synch following a simple edit. I would have thought that this was standard but it's not obvious to me how to go about it other than continually adjusting the tracks. This would become unfeasible with a large number of tracks.

RIPPLE EDIT
there is an icon on the toolbar that will allow you to determine how you want this feature to work.
Just be careful with ripple as it will ripple or move everything over every time and there might be time you don't want to move it so make sure to turn it off.

Don

One approach is to leave ripple edit off.

Use the following keys to ripple:
f ripple the affected track
shift f ripple more stuff
crtl+shift+f ripple everything, including other tracks and markers

Crtl Shift F will probably be used the most. Unfortunately, it's a fingerful.

Thanks guys. I'll try that this weekend.

umm.. i dont think your understanding what im saying..

teh Nvidia card is single or dual head only.. this wont change no matter what u plug into the 3 outputs... what im sayng is to purchase ANOTHER gfx card (single head) and plug it into ur PCI slot of the pc, as opposed to PCIe or AGP...
this additional card should give u access to run the 3rd monitor (even 4th if the new card is also dual head)

I wouldnt waste resourses on running the one projects across the 2 machines.. to be honest, the most accurate means of checking colour is to use 1394 live output into a CRT monitor with Svideo, or by using a decklink interface card

and if it's just seperating the track (single) and ripple isn't cooperating (fudging stuff around a lot) then just right click the next event and "select till end" or something like that will select them all then when you grag they all drag... of course you can use CTRL to do that to multiple tracks if you need.

Peter,

I see where you are going with that, I would like to hear how it turns out once accomplished.

I recently upgraded to version 6 from 5. Version 5 used to allow me the option of selecting Windows Media format (.wmv) and render at 1Mbps. Which used to be good (quality vs size) for web upload to my site. Version 6 only gives me the option of 512Kbps or 3Mbps but not the 1Mbps option. I dont like 512 and find 3Mbps renders to large a file size. Is there a way to force 6.0 to give the 1Mbps option ?

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers

SC

Click on the "custom" button and change to the settings you want.

if you get sound forge from sony it kind of integrates with vegas just to make it a little easier. it has a ton of options for cleaning audio and such.
there is a trial too to see if it is what u need.

so is the dvfilm thing better than the magic bullet suite?

try a generaated media color white. then overrlay the video on both sides.
not sure whether that is what ur looking for though

Yes it's normal it's called "Overscan"... that is why they have the safe zones you can turn on in your preview window... they will tell you were the "safe" edges are. Look in the tool bar of your preview pane and I think it's a grid... the inner box is considered "safe title" so you should place your titles in there... some tv's are that bad ;)

I have noticed this a few times and had to re-render after moving my titles. Pain in the butt, but that is what happens with older TVs that are not adjusted properly. I kind of have an "eye" for where those boundaries are now so I don't usually edit with them turned on. DVD Architect will complain if some of your titles, buttons, menus, etc fall outside of those boundaries. That is a good warning that you might want to remember.

jason

Actually, as I stated originally, I can edit on my work laptop. I took Glen's advice and converted it to a more standard .avi from within Vegas then used two of those files, one in After Effects and the other in Vegas.

My question really was how to get it to work on the pc that I use at home to do all the ediging on...the one will more muscle. I did not want to edit on the laptop nor do I want to convert, reconvert back and forth.

So my take on the situation is that I most likely already had a DivX codec on the machine that would not work with the file I was given. I installed the DivX codec my friend sent me but it didn't work. I haven't acted on this yet but I am hoping if I uninstall the existing codecs and reinstall the one I was given, it might work.

thanks for everyone's help

You can use the Vegas overlays in the video preview window to show you action and title safe.

Action safe: Everything outside might be cropped by the monitor.
Title safe: On old CRTs, the outer edges will have lots of geometric distortion, so titles will appear curvy here.

i woul try to just redner it out to avi just to test the look annd feel before you decide if that is what you want to do.

I am still learning Vegas. Today for some reason the Video Event FX controls don't seem to work. I selected the clip, opened the Video Event FX Window and selected the initial keyframe. Then I moved the slider controls for brightness and contrast, but no effect. (It doesn't seem to work on other clips or other controls either). Any ideas what could cause this?

Dale

Hmm effects bypassed? sure there is a check at the top in the plug-in... did you maybe bypass the effects in the preview window... forget what the icon looks like but it has a little triangle next to it.

My guess would be that you turned on "split screen". It's the button just above the preview screen that's a circle that's half light and half dark.

Is there a file that these settings are stored in so I can change some and have a back up if something goes wrong... don't really want to start from scratch from one setting.

is your video preview on draft or good. sometimes its hard to tell if it is on draft.

Is there a file that these settings are stored in so I can change some and have a back up if something goes wrong... don't really want to start from scratch from one setting.

It's called "The Registry" - i.e. Windows Registry!