Thanks for all the input guys.

I'm just a hobbyist so looking at just plugging a mic into the pc. Was hoping I could use my current soundcard input to record the VO. I have a high end ASUS motherboard which has a built in soundcard - Nforce4

How do i record voice in vegas and where can I buy something like a USB mic??


Thanks again guys, your all very help and I appreciate your help. Merry Christmas to all !!

I frameserve to Procoder Express and very occasionally to TMPGenc, both excellent encoders and both of which give me better looking results than encoding in Vegas, no matter the MainConcept settings. MainConcept also has a problem encoding fast motion during a fade-in from black.

With TMPGenc you have to remember to use the correct 601 black level setting, with Procoder and MainConcept you don't. I find MainConcept fine for quick draft encodes, though.

Tony

i made a pop stopper out of an old metal wire clothes hanger hoop with some panty hose strung across it, lol... i've been telling myself that i "graduated" when i got a studio projects c1 mic, recording thru an old mackie 1202 into a dv deck, then massaged gently with waves software.

i have a lot to learn about audio :-/ the problem with recording into computers is cheap noisy sound cards and noisy fans, so look to have the computer behind a closed door while recording into it.

i happen to have a pretty good voice, but it's totally untrained, which makes it unuseable for serious work... voice-over people are worth every penny, because they are actors as well.

Here's one USB mic that's on the market and inexpensive ...
http://www.samsontech.com/products/p...1810&brandID=2
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...ughType=search

HELP- Problem Rendering!!!! - computer freezes
 

Hello everyone,

I am having a problem rendering on my computer.

Everytime I try to render, the computer freezes.
This happens everytime around 14 to 16 percent into the render process. No matter what the render specifications are, this happens.

I am using Vegas 4.0 and windows XP.

Here are the specifications on my computer-
my computer was made by my dad, so it is not a name brand. the motherboard is a Soyo dragon, and i am using windows XP and Vegas 4.0.

on my c drive, I have 31.2 gigs open and 83.2 gigs used (total-114.48gb)

My memory is 512 MB

VIA Technologies, Inc.
System Model: P4X400-8235
BIOS Version: Phoenix Technologies, LTD 6.00 PG

Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz
Version: x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 7
Speed: 2393 MHz

Could be a heat issue. How hot is the CPU getting?

Could be a bad piece of media on the timeline.

Are you rendering a bunch of high resolution images?

You might also try pre-rendering over the area where it's dying to rule out the bad media option.

Bang for the Processor Buck
 

Vegas 6 and Connect HD should be in the mail tomorrow. I am very much looking forward to learning and editing with it in HD. Having had no experience with Vegas, and knowing that for HDV editing a 2.8ghz processor is the minimum required, I am curious as to whether bumping up to a 3.4ghz processor for $270 would give an appreciable improvement in editing speed/performance. If not, I'll just save up for a major upgrade when prices drop on the dual setups. Currently for editing my system is an Asus P4C800 2.8ghz 2g DDR 400 RAM and NVIDIA 5700 ultra video card, Seagate Cheetahs 3 x 74 g and one 300gb 10,000 rpm drives.
Curt

Curt, a quick rule of thumb is this:

Divide the processor speeds and multiply the increase by 90%.

This works decently for applications that are highly dependent on the CPU, such as video editing. In the case of Vegas, benchmarks show that you don't need to multiply by 90%.

3.4/2.8 = 21.4% speed increase.

If the processor versions are different, you may see an additional 6% increase from the "C" version of a Pentium to "E" AKA Prescott (the Prescott tends to be slower at non-video editing tasks though).

Check that the socket type is the same.

2- In my opinion, hold off for dual core. 21.4% speed increase is not worth it.

Thanks for the input. I suppose there really isn't a function within Vegas that will be significantly enhanced by such a small increase in performance. Looks like delayed gratification wins again.
Curt

I am rendering video and audio together. Not still pictures.

is there a program out there where I can check to see if the computer is getting overheated?

check cPU temperature
 

When your computer goes to boot up, hit DEl to enter into your Setup screen. If you scroll through your options, (I'm not sure of which one it is...I have since moved to a MAC) you will get an operating temp on your CPU

BRyon <><

Don't forget that "minimum specifications" is a little misleading as a term.

They'd upset and offend too many folks if they said "the fail-safe, if you try anything less than this you're on your own, because if you have any problems we told you not to use anything slower than this and we can't be held responsible for your wanting to go ahead anyway"...

It's like "default" settings in software etc. What they really mean is "outrageously conservative approach that should work for every circumstance with average just barely acceptable results that only the discerning would want to improve upon"

Fortunately, Vegas has not only Defaults that should give pleasant results from HDV, but also easy to find "Custom" options on nearly everything in the interface!! A few other NLE's make their "Custom" options a treasure hunt devised by some fiendish and perverted sadist.

Bottom line: your machine as it stands will work fine with HDV, as long as you remember that using the m2t as captured from the camera, will be devilishly slow on any system... but that's what ConnectHD is for.

You can capture straight to Vegas if you desire, but I prefer to capture using ConnectHD's HD Link utility. Hit the "Prefs" button to set the capture directory on a nice fast drive or RAID array, set the capture to m2t... and after it's captured, go to the "Convert" tab and select the m2ts just captured, and convert to CFHD AVI. (You could select the option to capture both m2t and CFHD AVI, but I've just found doing the conversion after the m2t capture works 'smoother')

I guess you could also capture using Vegas - which'll give you the m2t clips, and then use HD Link to convert to CFHD AVI. Reason being that ConnectHD has the latest CFHD enhacements, while the Vegas CFHD intermediate template makes use of the earlier CFHD iteration. It'll work, but there's a few extra tricks up ConnectHD's sleeve (just check the frame rate conversion list in the HD Link capture prefs for instance), and Cineform is constantly improving their codec and applications.

Good luck; and ENJOY!!!

Thanks. I'm going to see if the 2.8 ghz works out and if it is for some reason too sluggish, I'll look at changes. Time will tell. Your encouragement, helpful suggestions and reassurance are greatly appreciated.
Curt

As Edward said a bad clip on the timeline may cause this.Take a look at the timeline at what clip it is failing on.Then as a test create a duplicate veg file and change that clip to a different clip.Then try rerendering to see if it gets by.If heat was an issue it would likely fail in different locations.

A little update... the batch render in Vegas has some issues. The main thing is I can't set clip names or anything. They don't respond to the region names. Just a 0 through infinity numbering scheme.

Any further ideas on using the batch render tool?

Thanks,

DJ