I stopped at V13 and was forced to move to Premiere CC but I still love Vegas! I noticed there has been no new release and I am thinking its the end of the road for Vegas sadly... any one knows?

Vegas Pro 13 is barely a year old, why would you assume it is done?

Vegas Pro 13 was announced at NAB 2014. Vegas Pro 13 is still being sold and supported so I would not say it is "dead". Everyone thought Vegas was dead at Vegas Pro 4 as well - when Sony purchased it. Typically it's been about 1.5 years between versions and we are now approaching the 2 year mark. That's all the facts I know.

Sony hasn't asked to monopolize any user group meeting at NAB have they?

I'm still using Vegas 12 and don't see myself shifting away from it anytime soon. It's a bad ass program once you know how to use it properly.

I love the creative freedom it gives me. And more importantly, it runs super smooth on my system.

It will be a sad day if Sony decide to ditch it altogether. I've spent too much time learning how to use it.

Hi James

When I added Vegas 13 I left my 64 bit version of 10 on my computer and for most projects I still use 10 and it works very well as a editor! If they did introduce a Version 15 it would have to have absolutely unique advantages for me to get it. Obviously the sales of Version 13 are still good enough not to prompt a new version yet. Seriously what could be added that would make it a "must have at any costs" ?

I work with vegas pro 13 for about 2 years now. Love the program but the interface is so outdated. Before that I always worked with pinnacle studio and the interface (from version 16 and above) is so much pro looking. (but the bugs killed it for me)

I like the flashy interface colors from the moviestudio 13 version. If I can get those in pro 13 that would be nice for me. Now my son (almost 14 years old ) is working with vegas pro 13. He records videos from his playstation 4 and edits them with effects. So not a difficult program.

Threads about Vegas' demise pop up like this occasionally over the years and always bother me a bit. They typically seem to contain an alarming headline using a phrase such as "IS VEGAS DEAD?" or something similar.

It's just weird to me. Yes, it's true that nothing lasts forever, but the "Is Vegas dead" approach just bugs me a and seems a bit negative. I hope the next release is coming soon. It's always exciting, though often disappointing. I'm on 12 and and would like to see what 14 would look like.

unfortunately this time around there's more to wonder about scs future course....

with the advent of the catalyst suite it's clear that scs is looking to the newer generation of both cameras and producers. vegas is still based on the obsolete vfw code base - which is now proving limited in handling modern codecs, and new producers want a cleaner, more 'professional' gui.

then there's the competition, all gearing up very substantially for handling complex codecs, colour correction, grading, etc., etc.,

whilst i love vegas, especially it's seeming simplicity and speed, not to mention its ability to utilize scripts, etc., etc., it is looking and feeling REALLY DATED.

i've moved on to resolve as my main nle - i still use vegas 13 for fast rough cuts and audio sweetening, but even then it's losing it's edge as other software advances....

Well informed and helpful post, as usual, Leslie. Thank you.

I've seen this many times before where the software company use the existing code base for as long as they can without doing a rewrite only adding small features.

Anyone old enough will remember this happened with Adobe Premiere and more recently Final Cut Pro. In Adobe case they rewrote the code base but maintained continuity while in Apple's case they complete abandoned FCPS.

The fact Sony owns Vegas could be seen as good or bad. The cons are: they didn't develop it, they aren't a software company and don't have a vested interest in Vegas. On the pro they have deep pockets.

Like others have said their interface outdated. I've used other editors that are more user friendly. There are many areas they could improve on but I don't see it happening, it probably doesn't make financial sense for them to put money into an aging product or to expend the large amount of time and money to do a rewrite.

It might be "dead" but it still serves purpose as low cost alternative to subscription base Premiere. That might qualify it as zombie or "undead".

I'd say the future lies with Catalyst, it seems to address how you use bins etc in a much more sensible manner than Vegas Pro. However, I don't know how well it handles working with audio, which is real strength of Vegas.

Brian, I respectfully disagree. But maybe, I don't? .....

Until I note something to the contrary, the Catalyst suite feels like a workmanlike set of post acquisition but pre post tools (NLEs) to be used in the field to get media ready for greater offline manipulation/s. Now, the more complexity provided by Catalyst suite, I can argue, is to allow the cameraman or field director/producer to determine just what shots and what feel is required, and then some. This in turn would provide a JIT ( Just In Time ) solution for hard pressed small/medium sized post houses and broadcast companies to have their template already stamped on the Media, turning this Media into "almost-there", ready to broadcast content. Sony developing and rolling-out and providing this would counter any camera division marketing argument that Sony did NOT have such a toolset. Well, with the CataSuite SONY now can say that they do!

Sony makes and supplies cameras. It's not beyond guessing that somebody, or a working group turned around one day and said, it would be real neat to have a ready-to-go suite for their in-the-field customers. Don't forget, there was other suites out there that do or did do quite a bit of this ( I've attended Red Giant's BulletProof demonstration but now gone :Red Giant Discontinued Bulletproof, Their App for On-Set Media Management (http://nofilmschool.com/2015/07/red-giant-just-discontinued-bulletproof-their-app-set-media-management)), and it could have happen that an SCS VP had indicated that there was in fact a subsidiary of SONY already having a wealth of experience in Wisconsin, in this same field! Who'd have thought?

So, maybe I don't see VEGAS PRO dying anytime soon. I'm now kinda clear just where I see the Catalyst suite can sit. Would I like some of the look and feel of Catalyst to find its way into VP? Yes. Is that going to happen anytime soon? From my 14 years experience, with the VEGAS NLE, not so much. But hey, what do I know? However, if the World is going to continue to spin on JIT content, maybe SONY would, in turn, release VegasPro from their portfolio. Could this have always been their long-term plan, since their purchase of VEGAS VIDEO back around VV5? Sony has had a history of long-reach, slow-burn development, coupled with deep pockets and much patience.i

In Chemistry : "A Catalyst will change the rate of a chemical reaction but will not be used up during the reaction."

In Biology : "Enzymes are soluble protein molecules that can speed up chemical reactions in cells. These reactions include respiration, photosynthesis and making new proteins. For this reason enzymes are sometimes called biological catalysts."

So, I don't see CataSuite usurping VP by virtue of it being a better alternative, but rather it becomes a better, more seductive business model alternative than VP for a camera supplier. Will VP sustain this Darwinian selection process? Who knows. But if I'm correct, then the reasons it withers and dies may NOT be for the exact same reasons that have previously been suggested.

Grazie

excellent summation grazie...

i especially concur regarding the target / use of cat suite. it's certainly no substitute for vegas, and will take considerable work to come close to vegas's usefulness / dexterity as an nle.

meanwhile though vegas is STILL an amazing nle, it's certainly looking and feeling rather dated. if nothing else a cosmetic make-over would see it revitalized in a market more attuned to slick, professional looking gui's.

Vegas Pro will continue for some time (even if Sony stop selling it eg FCP7), although, I suspect the updates that most people need are for the never ending stream of new codecs. Catalyst seems to be a work in progress, so it may be a while before a possible full NLE version comes out. Certainly there is a wide range of NLEs out in the market these days (each with different strengths and weaknesses), so manufacturers do need to decide where a new one fits in the spectrum

Latest comment from SCS as of 8 April '16 :

--------------------------------

Hi Chris;

Vegas Pro is not dead but at this point I can’t make any official announcements.

Best

Michael Bryant; Director of Marketing

--------------------------------

Make of it what you will. If I hear anything over NAB I shall post.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

please do chris and put us out of our misery ;-)

Chris can't do it. The "tantalising" reply was from Mike Bryant.

G

he said if he hears anything at nab ;-)

here in the outback all i ever hear is my wife listing the things i've forgotten to do ;-)

Could be they're doing a major rebuild.

Yup, I read that Leslie.

Chris, your comment goes along with what I read elsewhere, which I'll quote here verbatim.
All we can do is wait and see.


I questioned to Sony Creative Software support about some online stores selling Vegas Pro 14 Suite, if this was true or lie. The answer was:
- Kim N.: We do not have a Vegas Pro 14 available at this time so those are most likely inaccurate listings.

Then I asked if there will be a Vegas Pro 14 or not:
- Kim N.: There is a version 14 being worked on, but there have been some unanticipated delays so it's not available at the moment. We don't know when it will be released but it is being worked on.

Okay, so Alister (who I heard this from) didn't know a new version of Vegas was actually being worked on. He assumed Catalyst Edit would replace Vegas.

please do chris and put us out of our misery ;-)

Will do folks if I hear anything that is positive or negative. I do know they have been pretty involved with the Catalyst suite development path.

I have Catalyst suite here but am frustrated in so many ways with it due to the fact it only sees half the Vegas plugins. It sees Levels for example but not Curves. Some third party OFX plugs it sees just crash Catalyst. It still has a l-o-o-n-g way to go before it catches up with Vegas Pro as an all round NLE.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

agree totally chris... has an awful long road to travel IF it's meant as an alternative to vegas....

After seeing all the "Catalyst" branded stuff I wondered that myself...

If I had to judge Vegas' longevity by it's support, I'd say it'll probably die next week. All quips aside, I don't see a lot of development with Vegas. Even after acquiring it from Sonic Foundry some ten years ago, Vegas has mainly just updated it's lipstick, maybe a few pieces of jewelry. But as for cutting edge development, I just haven't seen the effort. Of course we hope for better every time we pay for updates.

As mentioned above, Sony is a hardware company and probably bought Vegas just to have an accessory, software. I was using Vegas when Sonic Foundry had it, I just don't feel the love of Sony for it's software.

If I had to guess, Sony will keep the software around until the market makes it too expensive to actually redevelop or another NLE comes along and knocks it out of the market.

Steven, I'm not seeing the same Vegas as you, then. Vegas was the first pro NLE to go 64-bit, was the first to support 3D, the first to support Closed Captioning, the first to have "loudness" meters, the first to support many new camera formats... So I'm not seeing out it's not had any cutting edge developments...

Are there some things that would have been nice to have changed? Sure. But you can't truthfully say it hasn't had any cutting edge developments.

Steven, I'm not seeing the same Vegas as you, then. Vegas was the first pro NLE to go 64-bit, was the first to support 3D, the first to support Closed Captioning, the first to have "loudness" meters, the first to support many new camera formats... So I'm not seeing out it's not had any cutting edge developments...

Are there some things that would have been nice to have changed? Sure. But you can't truthfully say it hasn't had any cutting edge developments.

Over the some 10 years I've used Vegas, development includes tech support, fixing issues that have remained from version to version. and it's been my experience that Sony has probably the worst tech support of any software I use. Vegas has poor error reporting when it crashes. It crashed the other night, no idea why. I know if I contact tech support, they'll just tell me to wipe my machine and reinstall at least three times over a month before I get any type of second level support. When I built this machine last year, I had to go over to the Creative Cow and figure out the best GPU, I read the Sony documentation ended up finding my answer in the forum. I know it sounds whiny, but if Vegas is going to use the GPU, then having the right information to purchase the correct one is very helpful since I'm building the entire machine around the NLE.

The other negative of Vegas for me is the titling, it's pretty laborious. The pro-titler is just not intuitive. I know I'm simple, and have a slow mind, but if I sit down at FCPX, that titler makes much more sense. Like I said, I may just be slow in the head. I'm slowly moving to FCPX as it grows up and use it projects where I need heavy titles, credit rolls, it's just much easier.

I still use your Excalibur because it makes much more sense and is more relevant to me than the way Vegas wants us to do stuff. The multicam you designed is invaluable, I don't use the multicam on Vegas because your script allows me to tweak the details more. I can see little stuff that may be wrong. When you made Excalibur, you designed it I'm sure based on practical use, time saving stuff. You probably looked around your office, asked professionals in the field, what would work for them. That's why Excalibur is such a great tool. That's what I've been waiting for from Sony.

Most everything I like about Vegas has been there since Sonic Foundry, which is why I usually upgrade every couple of versions. I love the software. It's my main editor. I just wish Sony made it more intuitive, like Excalibur and had some decent tech support.

Hi all, long time since Ive been here, and ive been out of video editing for some time. But I recently saw an announcement that Quicktime is no longer updated for windows. Doesnt Vegas still require it? If so, either Vegas is getting ditched or they need (a lot of) time to remove that dependancy.

There are known flaws in Quicktime and already its recommended you uninstall it on windows machines. Of course, if you edit on a box with no internet access you may be fine. But, my guess is most likely Sony will end it, as I doubt they will feel its worth it to do all the work. Im not even sure what part of quicktime it requires, as it has to be more than just for encoding quicktime files. Anybody know?

Quicktime only works with 32bit, so wouldn't work with 64bit software.

There are MOV to AVI convertors around,

Well, as I recall quicktime was a required install for Vegas to work, or did it change?

Well, as I recall quicktime was a required install for Vegas to work, or did it change?

From Vegas guru John Rofrano on another Vegas forum:
The vulnerabilities were found in the Windows QuickTime Player. You could always delete or rename the player executable and not have to worry. I don't think many Vegas Pro users actually use the player. They just need to codecs to process QuickTime MOV files. All you need to do is stop using the QuickTime Player which you probably don't use anyway. No need to panic.

Well, as I recall quicktime was a required install for Vegas to work, or did it change?

I've just fired up my old Vegas Pro 9, having uninstalled Quicktime yesterday.

I also dumped Quicktime yesterday, and today loaded up and used VP 13 in a complex edit with no problems.

though vegas is STILL an amazing nle, it's certainly looking and feeling rather dated. if nothing else a cosmetic make-over would see it revitalized in a market more attuned to slick, professional looking gui's.

I really hope they don't change it. I love the Vegas UI, find it clean and simple and intuitive to use.

All these modern "slick, professional" interfaces all seem to have non-Windows standard formats and adopt font sizes of, oh, about 4 point which my tired old eyes just can't read. And icons that are about 5x5 pixels so I can't see what they are either. Usually in dark grey on black!

Cheers
David

I also dumped Quicktime yesterday, and today loaded up and used VP 13 in a complex edit with no problems.
It's needed to edit video that uses Quicktime. My camera has the ability to record in quicktime. This article has a screen cap halfway down the listing it as a requirement

https://www.moviestudiozen.com/free-tutorials/sony-movie-studio-platinum/75-install-apple-quicktime-when-using-sony-vegas-movie-studio-hd-platinum-11

It's needed to edit video that uses Quicktime. My camera has the ability to record in quicktime. This article has a screen cap halfway down the listing it as a requirement

https://www.moviestudiozen.com/free-tutorials/sony-movie-studio-platinum/75-install-apple-quicktime-when-using-sony-vegas-movie-studio-hd-platinum-11

As I said above in the post from John Rofrano, delete or rename the player executable. The codecs still remain and can be used with no problems. Use a free app like VLC to play your MOV files.

Sorry I missed your post. That's a better approach. If I was going to remove anything it would be the quicktime web browser plugin. Where else are you going to get a virus but from a malicious web site with embedded quicktime movie. That being said sounds like risk is over blown there's probably better way to deploy a virus and most movies use Flash for internet streaming.

I'm pretty sure VP isn't dead. VP14 marketing and pricing info was released to dealers who were then asked to hold off due to a delay in the release schedule. Exactly what this means I cannot guess at this point in time other than to say fingers crossed it shouldn't be too far away... hopefully :))

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

It's needed to edit video that uses Quicktime. My camera has the ability to record in quicktime. This article has a screen cap halfway down the listing it as a requirement

https://www.moviestudiozen.com/free-tutorials/sony-movie-studio-platinum/75-install-apple-quicktime-when-using-sony-vegas-movie-studio-hd-platinum-11

Obviously it is a "requirement" if you are shooting and producing Quicktime files. It is not required for anything else. Quicktime would be required for any editor if you are editing Quicktime files - this is not special to Vegas.

And, according to Adobe, the executable decoding Quicktime video files contains the vulnerability. So all Quicktime program files have to go.

I really hope they don't change it. I love the Vegas UI, find it clean and simple and intuitive to use.

All these modern "slick, professional" interfaces all seem to have non-Windows standard formats and adopt font sizes of, oh, about 4 point which my tired old eyes just can't read. And icons that are about 5x5 pixels so I can't see what they are either. Usually in dark grey on black!

Cheers
David

Couldn't agree more. Vegas is an intuitive, powerful, pro editor. Works for me!

Mark

I'm leery of removing things I don't think I need. I've found later down the road when you least expect it a client sends you something and then you spend all this time trouble shooting why it's not working. Software often doesn't tell you the why.

I really hope they don't change it. I love the Vegas UI, find it clean and simple and intuitive to use.

All these modern "slick, professional" interfaces all seem to have non-Windows standard formats and adopt font sizes of, oh, about 4 point which my tired old eyes just can't read. And icons that are about 5x5 pixels so I can't see what they are either. Usually in dark grey on black!

Cheers
David

You obviously have not used Sony Vegas Pro with a 4K monitor. And this for an editor that has prided itself as designed for 4K. It does not scale properly, and so you get exactly what you hate in other interfaces - tiny icons and more importantly, tiny clip thumbnails. I don't want a cosmetic change in UI either, just update it so it scales correctly.

Importing AVI into FCP can be a bit of a performance... It's Just Chinatown... Sorry Apple

Thanks, Steven. Appreciate the comments. Yes, I designed Excalibur to work in a way that made sense to me and certainly sought the opinion of several other editors in the process.

unfortunately, judging from the reports already in from nab, yes... vegas passed away peacefully in its sleep after a year long battle with public perceptions..

unfortunately, judging from the reports already in from nab, yes... vegas passed away peacefully in its sleep after a year long battle with public perceptions..



What did you hear?

Yes Mr. Wand? Please cough up the info.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

just presuming, as it's all we've got to go on ;-(

that said, have read there was no one from scs at nab to answer any questions, which doesn't bode well.

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/showmessage.asp?messageid=943213

i'll be more than happy if it's a case of premature burial.