About auto-syncing tracks in Vegas that have SMPTE time code embedded with them. Though you can do that in other NLE's such as an AVID system, I don't think Vegas is provisioned for that right now. I asked a similar question to Sony Tech Support and this is what I received in response:

----BEGIN QUOTE---------------------------------------

Due to the way our software is set up, you will not be able to automatically have it *lock* your clips once captured and in the timeline. You are able to view the timecode for each clip in multiple locations and even sync something of a flash that has been recorded by each camera once on the timeline. The initial capture process would only be between on camera and the software at a time. Once you have captured all your clips, you are able to manually add them to the timeline and adjust them in the manner that would work best when editing for you.

Future versions of the software may offer more support for this feature, but we have just updated and release a newer version of Vegas 5.0 recently, so that would be some time off.

Sincerely,

Matt B.
Technical Support
Sony Pictures Digital
Software Division
1617 Sherman Ave.
Madison, WI 53704

----END QUOTE---------------------------------------

It would be a nice feature for multiple camera/audio tracking productions that use SMPTE time code to lock tracks together, but I guess we'll have to wait and hope they build it into future versions.

Sorry to not have a solution to your question, but I thought the info above may be useful.

Go to Edward Troxel's Tips Newsletters archive Issue #11 has instructions for doing this with the secondary color corrector.

Another way is to download Carl Adahl's 6 Vector Color Corrector Plugin. This can do it very easily by holding the color you want unchanged and then reducing the saturation of all the others.

Vegas 5's Secondary Color corrector has made this even easier. Simply click the "select range" dropper and drag a selection over the object of color you want to keep. Check the "reverse mask" box, then go up and reduce the opacity. You'll see the color drain out of everything but the first thing you made a selection of. Use the smooth sliders to smooth the edges of the masked color.

Thanks for that, I'll give it a go!

In Vegas 5, you may need to add a mask effect and/or change the parent track to Multiply(Mask). See the latest newsletter issue which shows both of these being done.

Peter,

I think that this could be done with a script, if you can use the SMTPE time code of the media to do the alignment. The original timecode of the media is available in the script API via the Media object. This along with the Take timecode info should allow the script to line things up with a master video track.

I am working on finishing up three other scripts at the moment that I am planning to make available in the next few weeks. After I finish with these, I will take a look to see if the auto alignment script can be done.

Hey Randall,

That would be great if it can be done!! Looking forward to seeing your scripts!

Thanks!

question on working with grouped tracks
 

i'm editing a project with a video track and it's sinc audio track. i want to run through the timeline, split the tracks in places i choose and delete the "out" portions.

when i press "s" to split the tracks, vegas splits both tracks, as they are automatically grouped. this is good. but for some reason, when i select the "out" portion of the video track and press "delete", vegas at times deletes only the seleced portion on the video track and at times deletes both the portion on the video track and it's relative sinc portion on the audio track. why when deleting, only sometimes both tracks act as grouped and other times act as single seperated tracks (which then causes the video and audio to come out of sinc)? how do i make vegas do to the audio track exactly whatever i do to the video track?

thanks.

What version of Vegas are you using? Including revision number?

discount on class?
 

Hell,

I thought i saw somewhere on the web, where you could get like $70 bucks off the Douglas Spotted Eagle Vegas 5 class that is traveling around right now..Can anyone direct me to this discount?

Thanks,
Mike m

When we had the Orlando meeting last month, I mentioned a special discount for the Orlando VASST stop. Just enter a code of "Tsunami" to get the discount.

When deleting, Vegas will only delete the "Selected" event. If you want to delete both the audio and video at one time, you have to select them both (i.e. click the first one and CTRL-click (or shift-click) the second one)

I like the way it behaves. To give you a couple of examples, I'll take a clip, add it to the timeline, delete the audio, create a montage from sections of that video, and add new audio. In another case (a weekly edit), we split out a small section, delete only the video, add new video over the small section of continued audio.


You can also change the splitting behaviour by clicking on the "Ignore Event Grouping" button but I only do that in very rare circumstances.

Hello,

Thanks Edward. i had forgot that!!

Mike

how do i make fast-motion?
 

how do i apply fast motion to a video event and it's relevent audio event, so that the audio too is fast. i tried inserting a VELOCITY ENVELOPE and setting it to 300% (it's max), but it only changed the speed of the video event. i also tried pulling on the event and making it shorter while holding down the "ctrl" key, but that just seemed to remove frames without actually making the audio event faster and high-pitched.
it seems like this would be an easy task, but i can't find how to do it. can anyone please help?

thanks.

Use the CTRL-Drag method to change the speed of both the audio and the video. As for the audio, you have several options there including whether or not to change the pitch. Try right-clicking the audio and choosing properties.