> "I'm a bit confused of what big benefits there is for the everyday user."

"Big" is such a relative term... and who is "the everyday user"?

If you have an iPad, it looks like the free Vegas Pro Connect companion app gives you a control surface that allows similar control to something like a ShuttlePro costing $99. It also has the collaboration aspect but I assume by "everyday user" you mean the home hobbyist. It may be "big" to be able to scrub/play the timeline by swiping your iPad screen. I use Apple Logic Pro X and it has a companion iPad app and it's awesome to work with. If Sony expands on this the way Apple did it could be "huge".

The new Shuffle Tool makes it easy to rearrange events on the timeline. This should be a real time saver for moving things around after they are placed. More of a "convenience" than a big benefit though but nice.

The Project Archiving feature now works as it should have all along (archiving nested projects). Not sure if the "everyday user" archives projects or just deletes the files and moves on to the next project as I did in my early days (and regret now) but this could be "big".

If you have a camera that shoots XAVC Intra then XAVC Intra Smart Render will be of interest to you. Probably not an "everyday user" format. I'm still shooting HDV (lol)

iZotope® Nectar® Elements is an outstanding plug-in for voice over. I use Nectar all the time on my Boris TV episodes. It gives my VO nice punch. Not sure if the "everyday user" needs this but if you narrate family videos it could make you sound a lot better.

NewBlueFX Video Essentials VI is great if don't you already have it. The "big" thing is that this is the package that has the Chroma Keyer so if you've ever done any keying with the 12 year old Vegas keyer, you're gonna think this is "big" and worth the upgrade price because it almost makes the upgrade free since it costs $129 normally.

Seven dynamic video effects from FXHOME is nice. I thought the "eventday user" loves more FX so this might be "big". The video said you get 7 more when you register but if you already have HitFilm Ultimate then you pretty much have more FX then you'll ever need.

The New EBU R-128/CALM Loudness Meters are worth the price of upgrade alone if you do any broadcast work. (Waves WLM Plus Loudness Meter is $400, iZotope Insight Loudness Meter is $500!) The sad part is that this was needed several versions ago and those of us who needed it for our broadcast work have already bought 3rd party loudness meters but it's nice to see it integrated because the 3rd party meters were almost impossible to use because Vegas Pro is incapable of having two FX windows open at the same time. (now THAT is a feature I would pay money for!)

Proxy-first workflow is really aimed at the broadcast industry but it's a really nice workflow for run-n'-gun. You could have a piece edited back at the station before the camera operator arrives with the video. Very cool.

Here is the first problem... it's Vegas Pro 13.0 not Vegas Pro 3.0. It's a mature product. It's really hard to come up with new features when the product is mostly "feature complete". NLE's like Avid, Final Cut Pro, and Premiere Pro are still announcing new features to their product that have been in Vegas Pro for 12 years already! (they are all so happy to finally edit native video without transcoding first lol) You're not going to see huge new features unless there is a huge change in the industry like 3D or 4K but unless you are on the bleeding edge and need those features, it's kind of tough to come up with cool new things. I think the Vegas Pro development team should work more on improving existing features but...

Here's the second problem... no marketing team in the world is going to release a product with a feature set that says "We fixed what should have already worked!"... but THAT is the feature set we are all waiting for! Get Kepler GPU's to work! Multi-thread Preview so that playback is smooth because all 12 cores are screaming at 100% instead of playing 2 fps with only 17% of CPU being used! (Ugh!). etc. There's lots to be done to improve Vegas Pro but none of it looks good on a product feature list.

But this is no different than any other mature product. You upgrade not so much for whole package but for the one or two features (shuffle tool, loudness meter, etc.) that will make your editing experience a little bit easier. Some people will see no value but "value" is relative. When I was a hobbyist, it was hard to justify spending $150 on a software upgrade. Now that my videos make me money, $150 is part of the cost of doing business and I don't give it a second thought. Your mileage may vary. ;-)

~jr

Sonic Foundry/SCS has never forced you to upgrade to the next version and it's never penalized you for not doing so.

If I went to V13 from 10, I get a nice list of benefits. Someone who is stayed with 8 & would upgrade now gets an even nicer list of benefits.

I say this every year (I think): if you don't feel it's worth it, DON'T upgrade. It's not Adobe where they force you to upgrade or you loose a discount, get left out in the cold, etc. They still don't require being online to use the software, they still don't have a locked-in upgrade cycle, they still don't have a non-transfer policy.

However, lots of forum users will upgrade and complain it doesn't work like the expected or that it wasn't worth it. All with a 30 day pre/post release discount (assuming they are still doing that), and a nearly unrestricted demo to try it out before you buy in that post-30 day release window.

It's like the forum is filled with a bunch of Congress: "We need to buy it before we know what's in it". :D

I am a bit confused by the "shuffle Tool" what is the difference with that and just grabbing an event an moving it around the timeline like I do now. Isn't it the same thing. Or did I miss something ( knowing me I missed something)

Paul B

and also why can't there be a spell checker built in for titles and such.

regarding shuffle...
If you move an event it will just overlap others. It will not push events apart to make room for the new spot for your event and remove the old space.

Setting auto ripple also does not give the same effect as shuffle.

However, if you right click and drag and event and drop it, then in the current Vegas you can choose shuffle events and get the same effect.

Most, or all, of the new tools are just an obvious modal tool for existing operations in Vegas that are not obvious.

shuffle - same as right click drag feature.
slip - same as holding the Alt key while clicking on an event
stretch/compress time - same as holding the Ctrl key while clicking on an event
slide - that is new I think
split+trim - that is new I think

Paul

as far as I see the "shuffle" feature already exists in Vegas. Right click a clip and move it to a new place on the timeline. In the popup box select -shuffle events-.

Now we have an icon to do the same thing. Unless moving a lot of clips around I would say selecting the icon and then deselecting it will take longer.

I do have a question on the New Blue Effects 6 for those that own it. How would you evaluate the quality of the keying from the Chromakey in comparison to Vegas native keying and AfterEffects. It would be nice to have better keying than Vegas natively offers.

For me the Vegas 13 upgrade offers not much else other than the hoped for improvements under the hood with bug fixes.

I do agree with JohnyRoy and would say that being able to have a couple of audiofx open at the same time would be huge for me. Trying to fine tune audio one effect at a time can be a frustrating experience especially if one of those effects is a frequency spectrum analyzer.

The

How do you know it works at all? We only have Sony's word for it and a very quick demo that included just a handful of clips. Nobody will know for certain until VP13 hits the streets.

If you're working with nested .vegs, when you archive, do all the clips associated with the nest vegs get archived too, or just the veg files?

I wish v13 had a more customizable interface where buried settings had easier access. Dynamic ram preview needs faster access!

Lovelight>>Dynamic ram preview needs faster access!

What are you doing that requires you to change this value frequently?

The Project Archiving feature now works as it should have all along

Perhaps JR was a beta tester! He writes knowledgably about the new features.

@sging1
probably like most people I already have NewBlue VI which comes with it now.

When Vegas 12 was released, they included a free NewBlueFx that I had purchased years ago, sorry I just forget which one but anyhow, Sony was kind enough to offer me a NewBlueFx plugin of my choice. The plugin I choose was priced the same as the free one but you could also get a higher priced plugin and pay for the difference. It was a fast and easy process.


Rob

RoS Sony was kind enough to offer me a NewBlueFx plugin of my choice.

Who/how did you contact Sony to get that offer. I might try that process and see if I can get something else. I bought Essential VI a few months ago.