Thanks Kyle! I have another question regarding harddisk usage. I have a computer with five harddisks in the following setup:

(DISK 1 - OS DISK) Seagate Barracuda 320GB 7.200RPM
(DISK 2) Seagate Barracuda 320GB 7.200RPM
(DISK 3) Seagate Barracuda 320GB 7.200RPM
(DISK 4) 2x Western Digital Raptor 150GB 10.000RPM in RAID 0

Which are the optimal settings to maximize performance? To which disk(s) do I render, where do I store my files, where do I store audio, temporary files... or in other words what are the smartest directory settings?

I think I should render to the RAID 0 array. But do I also capture to it? And where do I store the temporary files? On the OS disk (default) or on 2 or 3?

"After all the trouble with Premiere... this really feels like a fresh start."

I came from Ulead to Premiere to Vegas. And I truly love Vegas. After using for about 4 years, there's still so much that I don't know (because of the depth of the program) but having said that, it's so intuitive that I don't worry about it.

But one thing that makes me so mad I can hardly stand it. I opened the Feb 6th issue of PC magazine, and discover that the issue is entirely devoted to video. Their software of choice???? No question - Adobe Premiere!!! I'm freakin' The second choice - Final Cut Pro. Now I'm pukin'. No mention of Vegas, and they are supposedly talking to rank amateurs - people who could really benefit from a very intuitive program that's fast, flexible, and doesn't crash.

It just makes me crazy.
Milt Lee
(Shameless self - promotion - check out a couple of new pieces I just did with vegas: http://oyate.com/rezup.html)

Hi Floris,
Sorry I didn't see your post earlier.
I'd probably capture to the raid array - not so much because it'll help capture (any of your drives should capture fine), but so that you are using it to edit and it may help you get better playback/easier realtime, etc.
Then I'd render to either 'DISK2' or 'DISK3'. You'll get faster renders to DV, uncompressed, etc by rendering to a different drive than the one the media is on.

Hope that helps,
Kyle

vegas smartly limits files to 4gb automatically when you've got a fat32 file system (at least i don't remember setting any option for this). so if you capture >4gb of data you'll automatically get more than one file.

Thanks. Somehow that is the opposite of what was recommended for Premiere. Because rendering is the most intensive task, Adobe recommends using your fastest harddisks for rendering/scratch. I just want to maximize my performance in Vegas... so I hope someone can clear this up.

Floris, I'm not sure which post you're replying to, but the recommendations for Premiere and Vegas (and any NLE) is the same. Render/scratch to a disc other than a system drive.

Ok, then I already have the correct settings. Another question I have is regarding audio. Is it possible to mute the audio track for a selection of that track? Like I have a 60 minute video with audio. On the second video track, I place a 2 minute clip. During this clip, I want to mute the audio of the master video track. I cannot find instructions on how to do this.

Insert a volume envelope. Add points and adjust the volume as needed using that envelope.

Thanks Edward! Sorry for all the questions but Vegas is a little bit harder to find information on then most other programs. I have all 7 VASST Absolute Vegas Training DVDs as well as Douglas Spotted Eagle's book on Vegas 6 (haven't completed them yet). I am currently doing a project and this is something I really needed to know. I normally like to learn a program the normal way and then start with a project but I was forced to this time because my other program (Premiere) kept crashing continously.

What I want to do is the following: I am shooting a theater play right now. I only have one camera and it is very low-budget so I am shooting multiple nights so I have some different camera angles. But that creates a problem with the sound as actors do not talk in exactly the same pace neither to they speak the same words each night. Then there is a small orchestra that also starts and stops at slightly different times. So yes, this is a nightmare.

I have one show that I have shot from one place and which is basically a master-scene. In this master scene, I want to place close-up shots from two different angles. What I have done now is insert regions into these clips (the master scene is two files, the other two nights are like 6 files -- from 2 to 8GB in length). I insert these regions on a secondary videotrack.

Basically I am trying to find out if I am working in the smartest way or that you would recommend a different approach. I do not ask for a detailed explanation I only need to know where and for which terms to look in the manual/DSE book/or on the training DVDs. So basically:

1st Night
- Two tapes, each file measures 8GB
2nd Night
- Different perspective, 8 files with different sizes
3rd Night
- Different perspective, 6 files with different sizes
(this is the way Vegas captures them with scene-detection disabled)

Is it recommend to work with regions or subclips? And what is the best way to handle the audio? If i use the audio of night 1 then I have dubbing problems as there are slight, but very noticable variances in dialoque.

On a side-note: I really like the program and I have been working with it for about two-weeks now and it really works like a tank. My system was not responding once and when I was about to ctrl + alt + del the program it started working again (I found out it was building peaks at the moment when I hit save or another similair button somewhere).

Thanks everyone for helping me out learning this program.