Thanks for the advice. I'll follow up on that.

Good luck to you.

I too was in your shoes. I've edited with VEGAS since Vegas Video/Audio. I was working/editing corporate vids for a company for over 2 years using Vegas v5 & v6. When I was let go late last year (what a great Christmas bonus that was) I started my search in Southern CA (OC) for an editing position using Vegas. Talk about NOT being taken seriously. Even with a good DVD & Online demo real plus many other skills - DVD Authoring, Graphic Design, Audio, etc... NO ONE would give me a chance after I told them I edited with Vegas.

Everyone asked about FCP & Avid. I do own a Mac and can also edit with FCP... I just prefer not to. I hadn't really touched Avid since school and from what I had heard it was still the archaic beast it always was... so I really wasn't trying to go there either. -But like I said... No One was taking me serious when I mentioned Vegas. They considered my a 'Hobbyist' and not a professional. Even with all my experience and demo to prove it. I would get remarks like, "That's exactly what we're looking for but we don't use Vegas."

I passed up a few really good opportunities hoping to find a Studio that uses Vegas. Just when it was starting to look like my only alternative was to do Freelance work (if I wanted to use Vegas) I got a call from an associate at Irvine Studios in Irvine, CA. (Vision2Media) He made me an offer I couldn't refuse and stated that if I came to work for him using Avid that he would still pay me industry rate +help me get Avid training and Production training.

I signed up with VTC.com and looked at every other Tutorial I could find on Avid and brushed up on my skills. Now I'm editing on a $50K Avid Adrenaline we have 2 system and still paying my bills and eating everyday. --by the way... $50K? They've got to be crazy!

Long story Short... I too had to learn Avid to get a job.
Do the tutorials bro. Avid is not a hard application to learn. It's just really weird doing tasks in Avid once you're accustomed to doing it the Vegas way. Prepare to get frustrated and throw all Logic out the door. Avid is not very intuitive like Vegas. And hopefully you won't have to do any Audio work. Avid is definitely years behind but I guess you've sometimes got to take a few steps back to get ahead.

My preference is:
1 - Vegas
2- FCP
3- Premiere Pro
4- Edius
5- Avid

I would still like to find a position using Vegas.

LOL, my list would be identical, except I'd swap Premiere Pro and put Canopus above it, and probably put Avid above PP too. I figure if I'm gonna suffer, I might as well suffer with the more painful of the two.

I know a few editors who use Vegas religiously with both Avid and FCP on a networked machine. Although there are industry "standards", one can't complain when you can accomplish a task faster on a particular program. One of our local affilates runs solely FCP now and their editors have been surprised to see how quickly I can accomplish tasks in Vegas that take them longer in FCP.

I like what Spot used to say.. "run Vegas, use an Avid mousepad" - learning the more approved apps is great for an editing career, but it's also a great platform in which to introduce the little gem we are here to support.

How many times have I heard this from my son!! He uses my Vegas sometimes but professionally ----

How do we break the Avid strangle hold?

Vegas is a fantastic program. But I don't think it has any chance of breaking the Avid strangle hold until;

1. Simple things such as broadcast black on fadeouts are handled without a workaround.
2. Simple things such as small gaps between clips can be sorted easily.
3. Being able to work in 10-bit colour.
4. Having the ability to use up to date drivers for Black Magic cards, as well as being able to use any other video hardware we like (perhaps using graphics card processing as well like the new version of Magic Bullet).
5. Much, much improved clip organisation is needed.

I don't think Vegas was ever designed to compete with the high end packages. It sort of grew to a point where it could just about hold its own, but not in all areas. I think Vegas will need a complete overhaul in order to truly compete.

I too had heard Avid was quite archaic. I tried the interface and hated it. However after a bit of practise I actually found myself liking it. There was zero chance of having black frames between clips because things aren't moved around on the timeline in the same was as Vegas. Also I found the trimming of clips to be slightly faster and accurate than Vegas. This is because clips in Avid can be trimmed using 'frame at a time' buttons in the source/record windows. Whereas in Vegas if you have a mouse or trackball with a bit of dirt in it, it can sometimes be a pain to adjust things frame accurately.

Another case in point is the splitting of clips. I put a clip on the Vegas timeline that a colleague had edited. It was going to have the pan/crop applied for a fake 2.35:1 effect. Each of the shots in the clip needed adjusting with the pan/crop tool to get the framing right. So I had to go through the clip splitting up all the different shots and using the pan/crop tool to adjust them all.

What I found was that no matter how often I thought I had split the clip on the exact frame that I needed, I had in fact split the clip a frame or two too late or too early. This meant that on playback shots would suddenly flip to a different framing. It isn't clear whether the split tool splits the clip on the frame after the cursor or before it. In fact it seems to vary sometimes! Also even when finding the split point with the arrow keyes on the keyboard it still isn't accurate. I find myself having to zoom all the way in to make sure that I am going through it frame by frame rather than a few frames at a time without knowing it.

The Vegas interface is a great idea. But it still needs some tweaking and addtitions to give it the edge that it needs to take on the big boys.

It also needs something after the name ;-) I dunno, Vegas Broadcast or something. I still really do feel that the name 'Vegas' has connotations of 'basic' and only serves to harm its reputation by ignorant people. I know people say 'who cares what people thing?'. But the fact is that Vegas needs something to win over people who are less knowledgable. If you said you used Vegas Broadcast or something it has a bit more weight to it as a program wouldn't have 'broadcast' in its title unless it was serious, and was being marketed to a serious market (as opposed to the word 'professional' which makes people laugh).

Amen.
And can I add better (well actually any) handling of time code in an industry standard way.
Bob.

Its always smart to know a couple a different apps, Vegas is my prefered , but there are times for one reason or another we have to edit on AVID , I rent a machine run it myself and save 125.00 an hr, same with FCP my son knows it and we simply rent a machine and edit ourselves. Avid offers classes for around a thousand dollars, for 2 or 3 days ,a few years ago i attented a couple of them , pretty decent , you get a certificate(big deal) ,but if you can get with a user who has a machine , one on one training will beat the school any day.
Good luck!!

Hello,

i can relate to this post very much..I am a Vegas guy all the way.. But i am getting ready to learn FCP, to make myself more "marketable"..
i just hope it ill not be to painful of a transition..

mike m.

That raises an interesting question. Will learning FCP make you more marketable, or will learning Avid? I guess both would be best... depending on what your goal is.

Found a lot of great Avid tutorials on their website... must not have seen them at first.

I've used the free version of avid a little. I'm curious as to how close the GUI, in the free version, is to the full version?