Can we get back to the important things? What do we want from Vegas?

stakeoutstudios wrote on 2/13/2002, 9:34 AM
This forum's getting difficult to get anything useful out of.. seems a large number of users are too preoccupied with knocking other people's opinions!

Let's try not to make reponses sneering, rude or presumptuous. If you disagree with someone, please voice it in a polite manner, or don't comment.

Anyhow... What are the features - Audio OR Video that people would most like to see either added or fixed? Be it in an update or a new program version!

Oh, and don't get me wrong, I love Vegas - there are just always ways to improve on a great product!

Here are some of the features I think would be neat:

-----------------
1.) Reverse audio switch. Be great for effects! Reverse cymbals, guitars... could open up for experimentation!

2.) On a buss channel, the ability to submix again by sending to different buss would be useful! For example, a drum submix. I could have overhead L + R Mikes to Buss A, Kick to Buss B, Oversnare and Undersnare to buss C, Toms to Buss D, and send all these to Buss E to be globally compressed and EQ'd together! nice :oP

3.) Variable phase control. On track events, you must know we have gain envelopes at the top of these? How about a variable phase envelope (maybe without envelope points (that'd be very complex!). Instruments are rarely 180 degrees out of phase. This allow us to visually exactly compare two tracks to match up phase exactly! It would be great for Over and under snare drum microphones, and Bass DI and Bass Cab matching.

4.) Now's where this'll start to sound old. I'd like a simple sequencer. Within the program I know and love. It'll open up a lot of avenues for soft samplers etc, and give Vegas a better shot and dance and pop production! Also, it would open up Vegas to a more mainstream audio mass-market. Right now, I'm convinced that Vegas is the best audio - only software based recording system there is. Can't speak for the video side, but I've heard nothing but good things! There must be other users who want this? I'm sure others are happy to set up other ways round it.. and hell I do it! but wouldn't it be easier and more creatively conductive to contain the sequencer within the same program?

5) Vegas 3.0 is a great step up from Vegas 2.0, name changes or not. And yes we should pay for upgrades... (how are sonic foundry supposed to make a living...?)
There are a couple of stability issues... But I still believe ultimately Sonic Foundry listens to their customers, and is beavering away to sort them out!

If you have any more features you think should be added... put them after this post!

Regards,
Jason Wilcock
Stakeout Studios
(releasing a single to be recorded in Vegas on a major label early next year :o)

Comments

PipelineAudio wrote on 2/13/2002, 10:04 AM
Variable phase control! cool idea!

VST support: come on already, lets not play format wars

punch in on the fly

hardware control

the ability to have more than one audio editor available on the right click menu

mono sends to busses so we can mix on a console AND still use fx
tserface wrote on 2/13/2002, 11:29 AM
- Continue to improve the text media stuff (3D, better font control, etc.)
- Built in 3D transitions (so GG doesn't have to show us all how)
- Ability to use track motion to trim DV noise off the bottom of a track without having it mung the video after rendering. This works OK if you trim each individual track using Pan/Crop, but not so great from Track Motion. Perhaps we need a track wide Pan/Crop.

Tom


CAPNDigital wrote on 2/13/2002, 6:11 PM
So far the feature list sounds good:

Let's add:

1. 5.1 panning/mixing support - film style panning and auto buss assignments

2. Peak meters on individual tracks - but only if it doesn't slow down overall performance. (not sure how much cpu/memory intensive those quick responding peak meters really are - I'm no software programmer)

3. Ability to set Busses as Mono - I believe someone else asked for this.

I'm sure there are many more...and don't forget the Customer Service feeback page to submit all of these request...

CAPNDigital
PipelineAudio wrote on 2/13/2002, 6:16 PM
TRUE fader grouping, VCA style

master and buss tracks ( so we can draw volume pan and fx sends for a group of tracks )
PixelStuff wrote on 2/13/2002, 9:12 PM
What do you mean a customer feed back page? There used to be a page dedicated to nothing but new feature suggestions.

But anyway, I would like to see a plug-in for removing camera shake. Avid Xpress has something similar which seems to work really good as a plug-in. I think it would be really useful at times. Especially for some of the footage that I end up having to work with. Even if they hired a third part and charged extra (but reasonable like $50), it would be worth it to me. Right now I have to use a third party option which is about $50, so more than that wouldn't be worth the convenience.

It would also be nice to have a live mixing option to be able to play a track and raise or lower volume with a slider and have the track automaticly adjust the volume envelope. Avid Xpress does this also and I have found it a little quicker when tryin to mix multiple tracks of music.

And there is something else that I wrote SF about before, but I can't remember what it is right now.

JBJones
Karma2001 wrote on 2/13/2002, 9:51 PM
MIDI sequencing...
VST Plugs...
VSTI plugs...

Karma
nlamartina wrote on 2/13/2002, 11:44 PM
JB,

The customer feedback section (AKA product suggestion) is at this address:

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/support/productsuggestion.asp

Things I'd like to see some time:

- Support for DX8 automation. From the first time I used video key-framing system, I fell in love with it. To have a similar system for audio events/tracks would be spectacular. This way, if a user were mastering a CD, they could key-frame different master buss settings for different songs. It’d be great for multi-genre projects.
- The ability to add FX to audio events, not just tracks.
- Control surface support, or even a proprietary controller. It looks as if the SoFo folks are at least CONSIDERING this possibility (as there are "hooks" in Vegas and Acid for a control surface). SoFo is also listed as a developer for SAK-2K compliance (which is a gorgeous board BTW). Perhaps when this option is more economically viable and less of a risk, we could see it implemented. Or maybe it's already in the works. Who knows?
- Support to open Acid Projects. Again, it looks as if SoFo's considered this before, as there are "hooks" for this feature too. Acid's got video scoring capabilities, but I think it'd be a real asset to be able to directly import projects into Vegas, since there are times when the video track must be made to fit over a finished score, instead of vice versa. This would save a lot of time when creating full-blown multimedia projects, versus running back and forth between the programs whenever a small change is needed. Certainly, Vegas wouldn't replace Acid. I wouldn't want that at all, but it'd be nice to be able to have a more flexible relationship between the two.
- The ability to lock and move markers and indices with events.

That’s about it. Just a few thoughts. Really though, I think Vegas is a SUPERB program, and I wouldn’t ever trade it for something else. As it stands, it’s a well-rounded, dynamic piece of software. It’s by far the easiest, most powerful, and versatile program I own. I think I speak for a lot of people on that. You ever finish a really big or really important project, and then feel like you need to thank someone when it’s all done? That’s the kind of software Vegas is, to me. It makes me always want to say “thanks” to Sonic Foundry.

So thanks,
Nick LaMartina
stakeoutstudios wrote on 2/14/2002, 4:15 AM
I'd like to be able to hold down control, and select multiple busses for simultaneous volume control... like you can with tracks! There are some really good ideas here - keep em coming!

I think I'd rather have DX and DXi support with a midi sequencer than VSTi's - most VSTi's have been converted to that format already, and FXxpansion's VST adapter is excellent for anything you really can't find!

Jason
VU-1 wrote on 2/14/2002, 1:46 PM
- More default or even user-defineable/recallable fade shapes instead of the 3 generic fast, slow, linear.

- Mute grouping, automated muting/unmuting, the ability to select an alternate mute (like you do with the Cntrl key while clicking on Solo).

- Ability to turn off the automatic plug-in chainer insertion after recording to a new track.

- (At least) a Unity marking on the Master & Buss faders.

Jeff Lowes
On-Track Recording
bstaley wrote on 2/14/2002, 2:03 PM
I'd really like to have the ability to edit Audio CD projects like in CD Architect. Now I have to open CDA to create the project and then burn it from Vegas. CDA was just sooo easy. It would be nice to be able to print all the track times/indexes like in CDA.
CDM wrote on 2/14/2002, 2:49 PM
You can print the PQ list. Go to the Edit Details>>Audio CD and select all and then paste in excel or notepad like in CDA
StevieDv wrote on 2/14/2002, 3:17 PM

I think,if Sonic Foundry would include all these features, we would get someting like word.
VideoArizona wrote on 2/14/2002, 3:18 PM
Jason, I have been quietly following this forum and couldn't agree more. I'm a new user to Vegas 3 but not new to audio/video production...over 30 years in fact. I chose Vegas due to its feature set, and the positive image Sound Forge has among audio communities. I feel that with the great job Sonic Foundry did with SF, Vegas should turn out just as well. So far, I've edited two video productions in Vegas, with minimal growing pains in the past two weeks. One of the most important parts of owning software is service and support. So far, SF hasn't exactly thrilled me with their response time (almost 2 weeks for an email reply), so I was glad to see a user forum available for me to read about FAQ's and post issues that arise. I've belonged to another edit platform user group for almost 10 years now and have been a major contributer and user of ideas and tips from a worldwide user base. I can hope this will be the case here. This isn't the time or place for personal attacks, opinions yes, but that's it. Especially since editing for clients can be time critical, and since I can't wait two weeks for an answer from tech support, I must rely on the user group to help with any issues that come up. I hope I can rely on the people in this group as I have for the past 10 years, the people of the FAST Web Board. Looking forward to a profitable dialog with you all. David
JoeD wrote on 2/14/2002, 3:33 PM
Hi,

Hey, I want to reiterate that my post was only directed to a certain aspect to the issue I have with this particular upgrade (cda burning addition to VV3 but not Va2 users - a feature which has been paid for more times over).
That is it. Master buss being an "upgrade"...eh...ok. Most users here know this and so does SF.

But my point here is to tell you that I too choose to use SF vegas as my tracker of choice - VA2 and VV3 are great. I see there's a tendency to view my post as "JoeD hates SF and VV3"...NO! I don't agree with a small audio related matter (CDA burning provision). This is a marketing decision and my rant falls on their ears mainly (hopefully).

Do NOT listen to the insipid remarks of "I want all of VV3 for free" remarks. It's a complete load. What I spoke of dealt with products we already bought, were dropped, and subsequently should have been accounted for for it's past owners.
It was not.

And yes, Vegas does rock. I wouldn't use it if it didn't.
Certain members here, which i leave nameless, DO NOT ROCK however.

JoeD
sonicboom wrote on 2/15/2002, 2:01 AM
i'm hoping sf goes public and we get in at the subscription price
sb
StormMarc wrote on 2/15/2002, 4:25 AM
Waveform monitor/Vectorscope display with Vixen type controls (knee, pedestool, etc.)for level correction including an automatic whitebalance option.

Either that or add plug-in support so I can use some of the fine color correction tools available for Premiere.

Marc
MixNut wrote on 2/15/2002, 8:44 AM
I'm still on v1.0b [not for long though] so forgive me if some of these have been implemented in v3:

1) TIME STAMPING OF FILES RECORDED IN VEGAS to allow a "resync to original timecode" of cues.
2) Make the "LOCK" function lock slipping in TIME *only*...NOT locking cuts, fade durations and in-and-out points. Then add a "FREEZE" switch the disables any editing as "LOCK" does now.
3) HOTKEY ACTUATED USER-DEFINED ZOOM LEVELS
4) TURN OFF AUTO DX PLUGIN ADDITIONS TO NEW TRACKS!!!
5) USER-DEFINED ASSIGNABLE HOTKEYS FOR VARIOUS FUNCTIONS

I echo the request for mono subgroups, ganged sub bus and track faders [without having to select each one you want to move simultaneously], etc.

Thanks for listening SF.


CDM wrote on 2/15/2002, 9:27 AM
um, you do realize they already are public, right?
Riktar wrote on 2/15/2002, 10:24 AM
I want a familar interface! This is by know means a rip on Vegas but if they are going to try and grab customers away from Ulead and Premiere they would be well served to mirror the interface.

I have been using MSPro fro a few years now and trying to break into Vegas Video can be like trying something with your left hand that yourright hand has been doing for years!

Specifically the motion paths. MSPro is VERY easy to figure out once you dive into it. I can't say the same for Vegas.

The output from Vegas is so good it just kills me that I have to go into MSPro to make a motion path, render the footage out uncompressed, and then import it into Vegas Video for the final render.

Maybe time and trying will show that I come to prefer the interface of Vegas Video 3 but my initial reaction is,,,, "Hey I have been speaking english for my whole life, why should I learn how to speak another language just to get my point across?"

And from a marketing standpoint that is someting to consider!
PipelineAudio wrote on 2/15/2002, 10:55 AM
"1) TIME STAMPING OF FILES RECORDED IN VEGAS to allow a "resync to original timecode" of cues.
2) Make the "LOCK" function lock slipping in TIME *only*...NOT locking cuts, fade durations and in-and-out points. Then add a "FREEZE" switch the disables any editing as "LOCK" does now.
3) HOTKEY ACTUATED USER-DEFINED ZOOM LEVELS
"
!!
Hear hear !!!!
A man after my own heart. this has LONG been an issue

sonicboom wrote on 2/15/2002, 11:19 AM
Oops...
i didn't know they were public
what is there stock symbol?
thanks
sb
nlamartina wrote on 2/15/2002, 11:21 AM
Sonic,

Their stock symbol is "SOFO".

- Nick
bjtap wrote on 2/15/2002, 11:23 AM
Great thread people! Very constructive. Would be nice to see some sign that SF is reading this.
What do I want? Faster render speed and faster render speed. A little image stabilization wouldn't be bad either.
Thanks,
Barry
stakeoutstudios wrote on 2/25/2002, 12:42 PM
When working with audio, the apply non-realtime even FX right click menu option is great, but how about having a 'listen in context checkbox'? I'm getting frustrated with applying an effect and then when adding it to the mix finding it needs a little more of this or a little less of that.

The main reasion I use this semi-destructive (you can easily select the old version) edit method is to save CPU cycles.

Also, it would be great if you could select multiple events on the screen, an apply non-realtime event effects to them. (alternatively, apply them to a whole track option)

l8rs,
Jason