New arrival.....

G

Geddy

New member
Hi there all,

I'm new here and just a starter in the world of video production. My background is music production (actually kids music to be specific!). Looking to create videos to accompany my music (i.e. a DVD).

Now, back to the mother of all questions.......purchase Sony Vegas, Avid Media Composer or APP?? Any advice VERY welcome. I'm PC based and I'm aware that Avid is kinda fussy about hardware - is that correct??

Thanks
Bob
 
It's hard to recomend something without knowing what you want for features (only you can decide that)

Vegas does have it's roots in music, so you might like that (but it's not considered industry standard so you could potentially lose out on gigs if clients expect something else). I hear Avid takes a lot of money to get all the features you might want so it doesn't have the best bang-for-buck for the average person. It's the industry standard and still the leading editing program out there in the "industry." Premiere Pro can be pretty powerful, but can also be a resource hog.

I would suggest downloading trials of the various software to see what you like best. I know Adobe and Sony have trials of their software. Avid used to have Avid FreeDV, but I don't know if they offer a free trial anymore.
 
Vegas sounds perfect for you. It is very music oriented, with some really advanced audio editing features. Don't even worry about industry standard, whatever that even means. All that really matters is the quality of your work. That's the real bottom line. I bet that guy, Jonathan Caouette, who's film was a hit at sundance wasn't thinking that imovie wasn't the industry standard... Avid I've heard has an extremely high learning curve, and I have no idea about the audio editing features on such a program. I would imagine however, that you would need a separate program to do advanced audio editing, since it is so specialized, and geared towards video. In contrast, Vegas, which I have used, is easy to use, with some really advanced features, with advanced and integrated audio editing features.

Personally, I have to state the obvious: Final Cut Pro is really great, but if your on a PC, then you still have options.
 
I would have to agree with Lazlo on the Vegas nod. I'm using a trial of it right now (coming from a background in Avid FreeDV and Premiere Pro) and have to say that I find it very powerful. I was trying to be as impartial as possible with my original post, but I find that harder the more I use Vegas. :-P

I haven't delved too deeply into the audio tools of Vegas, but also note that Sony gives a free version of ACID on their website and freeware programs like Audacity are great tools to suppliement your audio needs.

Another thought is to look at several of the lesser known editors out there like Edius, Speededit, etc. I'm not sure what you want/need in an editor, but download trials of as many different programs as you can to find something you like.

P.S. If you do like Vegas, B&H sells a CD-only version for $130 plus shipping. This is exactly the same as the retail version (approx $400-500) without DVD Architect ($40 purchase on Sony's website). That's a great deal and I think I might buy that when my trial runs out.

Edit: BTW Lazlo, I've used FCP and find Vegas so much nicer. Too bad Sony doesn't have a mac version.
 
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