What am I missing here?

Rob
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In regards to the Time/Timecode question... it doesn't sound like you're missing much.

In regards to Manners... sounds like you're missing a lot.
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Thanks for the info... I think.

Ah. I apologize. It's been a day of impatience. I should vent it where it's more deserved.

Sorry about that.

Rob

Apology accepted as you probably didn't mean it the way I read it.
The info you passed on to me was very helpful indeed.

I'm moving into another position at another studio and I would like to bring in Vegas Pro as the alternative/accent to their Premiere rig. Knowing and feeling confident about these little things helps me in my struggle to learn & teach at the same time. The more, 'but it doesn't have this' or 'but it can't do that', statements I can destroy... the better.

It seems that I was looking at these Timecode/Info boxes in the Trimmer, but if the selection is NOT highlighted... the In/Out Timecode dissapears so it leaves you with No Timecodes until you highlight the In/Out again. (I'll have to get used to this)

* Now I'm trying to determine how I can Select the Tracks on my Timeline where I'd like for the Audio & Video from the Trimmer to go. It looks like it consistently wants to make it's own Track for either the Audio or Video or Both. I have read the Help but maybe I'm searching for the wrong terms as I seem to read a lot of information but rarely find any answers there.

-- Is there a way to select which track you're Audio & Video will go onto?

I always drag from the trimmer to the track I want. Are you doubleclicking?

Dave T2

I usually select the track and time by mouse and then use the "A" key shortcut - Add media from cursor. And there is another shortcut "Shift+A" - Add media to cursor

That's one way to control it. As far as I know the keyboard shortcuts add footage from the trimmer to the currently selected timeline track where ever the insertion point is. Also, you can type numbers into those timecode fields to control the in, out, and duration of your selections.

Vegas and PPro can coexist on the same system so I'd say that the first step would be to get Vegas onto those systems. That way you can make apples to apples comparisons.

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A lot of my frustration yesterday was coming from interactions with PPro2.0. Worse yet, for this one job we have an editor filling in who is more familiar with FCP. It's kind of crazy. This guy is taking a simple green screen and applying all his FCP experience to make the job all that much harder and complex, even in PPro!

PPro is the house edit system. I don't have a choice in that, and I'm too busy with other projects to do the edits myself, even though the job is "VERY SIMPLE". However, looking over what needs to be done, a green screen should be easy. These are Axio systems. You can use the Axio keyer and see the results in real time. You get a bunch of sliders to adjust. Piece of cake except that he's bringing his FCP experience to the job and making it way too complicated.

I took a moment to bring the footage into Vegas and do a key. Looks good and actually solves some of the problems he was having, even though there's less to adjust and you need to build a chain of a few filters to equal what the Matrox keyer does. So in a way it requires a little more knowledge to do the key in Vegas. I'd love to see CineGobs as a filter in Vegas! (of course while I do this I'm not getting my own work done, but I'm also managing this particular job so I have good reason to stick my nose in.)

This is just griping. PPro or Vegas could do the job. The real key is the editor. If he/she can work quickly and with surety then the program can look like good software.

Vegas tends to look like it does less than PPro and I'd say that the PPro interface looks more like it "means business". I find it to be too busy and a little hard to read at a glance, but it looks like it does a lot. I find Vegas to be a little easier to cope with precisely because it's less busy and a bit more fluid. That fluidity, I think, is what impresses people when you demonstrate Vegas to them. The lack of real-time playback, on the other hand, turns people off. Vegas actually isn't designed to emphasize RT playback. You can do prerenders, just like ppro forces you to do, but Vegas doesn't require you to do it.

The big hurdle to getting anyone to try a new NLE is the learning curve, and you see it time and time again in this forum. People get very frustrated when they can't do a simple thing and they'll go right back to the program they know rather than take time to learn a new behavior. I think if you're trying to introduce a ppro user to Vegas you need to start out small.

Here's a good easy task in Vegas. Put some footage into Vegas and have someone transcribe it into a word document. Vegas is GOOD for this because it will keep playing while you type in Word, and you can set a loop region so that the audio repeats as they type. This exercise lets people play with a lot of basic functions like JKL control, Markers, Regions, Cursor placement, band basic navigation. And they can't do this job in Premiere.

Rob Mack

I also use PP CS3 (alongside Vegas & FCP)
On all 3 systems I use Boris RED to pull my Chroma Keys. This way, no matter what workstation I'm on... I can still use the same tool. I'm still yet to pull a Key that I like using the provided tools in any NLE.

I will also set up my NLE's to look the same... ie Source Monitor, Timeline, Mixer, FX, etc... are all in the same place No Matter which NLE I'm on. This organization helps me to go from one NLE to the other without any hesitation.
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As far as viewing my Timecode In/Out - I trying to get the hang of it. I absolutely HATE the fact that I need to have the Region Highlighted before it will show me the In/Out/Duration Timecode.

- If there is an In/Out/Duration IT SHOULD SHOW! Whether it's highlighted or not. It's still there so IT SHOULD SHOW!

This frustrates me because sometimes I park my Playhead at a certain point for whatever reason... I would still like to be able to see my In/Out/Duration... but in order to do this I must Highlight the Region... which moves my Playhead.

- Anyone know of any settings I should be looking at to correct this?
- How do you guys deal with this?

Also:
I still do NOT see how I am supposed to select the Timeline Track(s) that my Trimmer Media will go to.

- Suppose I have 6 Tracks of Video(1 - 6) & 3 Tracks of Audio(7 - 9) and I would like my Video to go to Track 2 & my Audio to go to Track 8... How do I Select the Tracks to make this edit?

Marking I and O really doesn't work all the time, or as you would expect. Sorry.

It sort of works in the trimmer, but not on the timeline.

Having said that, it's amazing I can work very fast with Vegas ... strange!

I use FCP and Avid for bread and butter at 'work' but love how I can work faster with Vegas in my home suite.

But that I and O thing I just can't figure out!

Some guys use I and O then "a" to add to the timeline but I can never patch in the correct destination track ... I usually end up right click drag and add across time or something. Lots more mousing than I like but like I said it works really well.