That's probably normal since it is trying to calculate the realtime
effect. Whether or not it needs to slowdown depends on:

1) speed of your computer

2) resolution of your media

3) resolution settings in your project (make sure they are the same as the footage! Both in size and in things like framerate and progressive / interlaced)

4) size of your preview windows

5) whether or not your going out over firewire for the preview (always slower than just on your monitor)

I haven't played with the saturation filter too much yet, but I
don't think it should do too much work.

Sound Forge problem
 

This may be simple but when I export an audio clip to Sound Forge the meters go but there is no sound?

"4) size of your preview windows"
just change it to the least CPU consuming rendering option (I think it is called "draft auto")

thats bizarre..
the only time u may get a conflict lik this is if ur runnin asio drivers and using MIDI.. ASIO can only run 1 midi app (the rest must be virtual ports) but it shoudlnt affect audio..

what setting have u set ur preferences to?

I'm not there at the moment but I do think it is a settings issue.
What should the settings be? I am using a Terratec DMX/6 Fire

Composite Envelope
 

Video shot with two cameras is captured, how do you get that red line that Edward Troxel describes in his "mulit-cam editing" segment that allows you to swtich to another video track without any splits. I tried composite envelope but nothing happened?

It is the composite envelope. You have to add points where you want the upper track to disappear and then drag the composite envelope down to the bottom.

For the simplest method of Multi-cam editing, though, I'd serously look at Excalibur. Working now on some new features to make it even better!

But how do you add it? The opacity env is there automatically
is it not? How do you get the composite env up there? Well,
actually down there because it would start at the bottom of the
first video track correct?

How do you get Excalibur?

Thanks!

No it is not. You have to insert it. Also, it is a TRACK LEVEL envelope. Go to Insert - Video Envelopes - Track Composite Level. It works just like a velocity envelope or volume envelope. Add points and change opacity as needed.

Excalibur

Supersampling: Improves Slo-Mo?
 

I read elsewhere an opinion that this is so.
Does supersampling really improve the appearance of
slo-mo clips? If so, what settings should I use.
I ask because I've noticed some loss in resolution
with my slowed clips and was wondering what,
if anything, I could do to counter this.

Yes it can. When you do slo-mo, you WILL get some softening because the NLE has to create new frames between the existing frame.

Thanks, Edward. Does it help to make it smoother?
Or does it help to cut the loss in resolution?
And what would be a good setting? I have the
option of "2" to "8". Am I correct that the number chosen
will increase rendering time by the factor chosen
(e.g. a setting of "5" will mean that rendering will
take five times the usual)?

Ok, Edward, can you help me understand this? I upgraded to Vegas 5 but forgot all about the Neon and Excalibur that we use with version 4. Are you saying that by finding and changing that line on each of the plug-ins we should be able to use our current versions of Neon and Excalibur? Or do I need to buy the upgrades of both?

No. You need to get the Vegas 5 version of each. On most scripts it IS that simple. Excalibur and Neon are a bit more complicated and several changes were made to make them more compatible with Vegas 5. If you own Neon and Excalibur 2, it's a free update. If you own Excalibur 1 or 1.5, you'll need to upgrade to 2.

BTW, the same holds true for Tsunami as well.

It will help make it smoother. I wouldn't go above 2 or 3 unless your testing of a very small segment indicated you nee more.

In looking at your plug-ins Web page that's kind of what I figured, but had to see if there was a free temporary workaround. :) What you said makes good sense; it just stings a little that I recently bought the "old" Neon, hadn't used it yet, and now it's no good. Shoulda waited!!

Thank you for the explanation.

If you just purchased it, you should have already received both versions. I believe Gary is giving both right now for each purchase. I know the Vegas 5 versions have been included in each sale since the latter part of April. Otherwise, just contact Gary and he'll provide you with the information you need.

Okay, I'll check it out. Thanks!

What do you have your PROPERTY TEMPLATE set at? What about the PIXEL ASPECT RATIO?

Edward?!

Bringing Out A Colour
 

Perhaps somebody can help me achieve a desired effect in Vegas (4.0) or tell me that it can't be done!

I want to create footage where only a specific colour is visible and the rest of the image is greyscaled - for example, show red balloons at a wedding reception in colour and have the rest of the venue in greyscale (monochrome).

Another example could be a view of a sports stadium where only green of the grass is showing.

Is this achievable in Vegas 4.0 and if so how?

Hope somebody can help me out!

Thanks guys!

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.

i used the ctrl-drag method. but it didn't quite bring out the effect i was looking for. the video looked ok, but the audio sounded stuttered and cut up. the sound i'm looking for is similar to what you hear when you fast forward a tape while listening to it. a fast, high-pitched version of the original. isn't there a simple and short way to do that with vegas?

ok got it. i do appreciate the advantages of being able to delete each section seperately and i see where this could be useful. but was hoping that there was a way to lock the audio to the video in such a way that whatever i do to the video will have an identical effect on the audio, including deleting an event.

rob: i'm using vegas 4.0 (build 115). i haven't updated to 5.0 yet. people on this forum have suggested to wait a bit for debugged versions of 5.0 to come out.

thanks.

I can tell you that there is absolutely no reason to wait to upgrade to 5. It is working great on every machine I use. It also has many advantages and new features. Also, it HAS been announced that a 5.0b version will be released soon (no dates given).

cool. thanks. i'll update!!

In all honesty, Sound Forge would do a better job as it's a dedicated audio manipulation program. Can you try doing it in Sound Forge and see how that sounds?