Potential FCP convert has audio questions
 

Hello all! Due to budgetary constraints, I am planning on building a new PC based editing suite in the new year. I have had a brief look at a friend's computer with Vegas 4.0. It has made me change my mind about PC based editing. It appears that I will be able to acheive the finished product that I desire for about half the price of Mac or less.

One of the things I prefer about Vegas is the potential for really good audio. On my old FCP system, I output stereo audio through my camcorder. It was either my sound card or my camcorder - not both. To acheive discrete Dolby 5.1 output while editing, I assume one would have to use the soundcard. My first question is; In vegas 5.0 can I output video through my camcorder and audio through my soundcard at the same time while editing? Are there alternatives that I haven't thought of?

My second question is what kind of sound systems are you guys using for monitoring your audio?

Question three; Is "voice over" available?

Change is good!

>In vegas 5.0 can I output video through my camcorder and audio through my soundcard at the same time while editing? >

Yes.

Vegas has audio capabilities far beyond FCP. Actually, it started as an audio application.

Gary

1) Normal preview has the video going to the screen preview OR external preview via firewire (hence your camera) and the audio going through the sound card. When doing a print to tape, the sound then gets routed to the firewire card.

2) You can go as cheap or as expensive as you like. If you want, you can set up a full 5.1 system and play it back over that system direct from the timeline.

3) Yes, you can do voice overs. Just hook up a mic to the sound card and you can record direct to the timeline.

I wonder if voice over can be done through the mic inputs on my camcorder and firewire. that would allow for a better class of microphone.

You can capture with Vegas' video capture utility for that, although other programs are more elegant as you don't have to capture video too.

2- Does your camera have XLR inputs? If not, it only costs ~$80USD for a basic Behrigner UB-series mixer with 1 mic preamp (XLR).

Yes, I have balanced inputs on my XL1s with an MA-200

<<<-- Originally posted by Phil French : I wonder if voice over can be done through the mic inputs on my camcorder and firewire. that would allow for a better class of microphone. -->>>

Not as easy as through a soundcard I think. What you ofcourse
can do is hook up a mic to your camera (or use the onboard)
and then just capture DV as you would always (you don't need
to record it to tape first). If you import that into Vegas you can
throw away the video bit and just use the audio track.

However, with an audio card you can record directly into the
timeline (with just an audio track) and your footage will play
while recording (so you can see to what video is going with
the audio recording you are doing).

If you really want to capture through the camera, you should be able to capture directly but not straight to the timeline. If you use the Vegas Capture program to do it you will also get video. If you use Scenalyzer Live to capture then you will have an option to capture only audio via firewire.

With FCP I have been capturing audio through my camera directly to my hard drive then dragging each phrase at a time onto the timeline. It sounds like I would be able to at least do that with Vegas.

I thought it might be nice for the narrator to do voice over while viewing the video to help with pacing and mood, but maybe that would be more of a curse than a blessing - never tried it.

I thought of another question re: audio - Would there be a problem mixing 16-bit audio from my DV footage with 24-bit ACID background music, for instance?

I thought it might be nice for the narrator to do voice over while viewing the video to help with pacing and mood, but maybe that would be more of a curse than a blessing - never tried it.

That's exactly what you can do if you capture through the soundcard direct to the timeline.

I thought of another question re: audio - Would there be a problem mixing 16-bit audio from my DV footage with 24-bit ACID background music, for instance?

That should be no problem.

Thanks for all the answers, guys! I can't wait to get started on my new system.