Sound Forge from VASST finally made it into Walmart. I know that sounds weird, but it's the first Sony tech book to make it into this chain that's harder to sell to than selling heaters to Arizonans in August.

http://www.vasst.com/images/InstantWalMart.JPG
At 15.00, the books are flyin' off the warehouse floor. Thanks for the support, y'all.
Watch for VASST books on Boris FX, Instant Vegas, and Surround Sound in the coming months.

Actually, Walmart is carrying all 4 VASST books...
Sound Forge
DVD Workshop
Encore 1.5
Boris FX

Was a huge happy face around here...let's hope we do well. At $15.00 a book....it's a great deal. Barely more than we pay for them ourselves.

I will try that test. I am always amenable to obtainng the best image possible. After all, my clients actually pay me to do what I love.

"Show me a man who loves his job and I will show you a man who never worked a day in his life."

How widely distributed are they- I mean will I find them in "my" neighborhood Walmart in S. Jersey...or is it an item better found shopping on Walmart online?

Awesome. Thanks. In DVDA2 it appears to be called an "Empty Button". That seems to be working.

So I guess if I have something shaped a bit odd then I need to make several buttons sized as various boxes to cover the object? In other words, there's no way to size a button to an odd shape?

Thanks!

Kevin

I tried it last night. Guess what... Edward was right about higher resolution using crop/pan instead of track motion (isn't it amazing how often the phrase "Edward was right" is said on this site). Thanks again!

Ok, I have shot in 4:3, then leterboxed in Vegas 4 using the pan crop 16:9 preset. Look good on 4:3 TV. But what can I do to render it for the web or an anamorphic DVD in true 16:9 ?

I've found Vegas+DVD for a fairly good price. The person selling it says that it has already been registered, but that the "license is transferrable upon completion of sale." If I buy it, will there be any drawbacks to this as opposed to one that has never been registered?
If I buy this, I'm going to sell my Vegas 5. Could I also do this "license transferring" when I sell it?

This is my experience only. I'm not a Sony representative.

I've had no drawbacks with a license transfer.

I purchased Vegas 4 and DVD Architect 1 from a seller on this board. The license transfer was as simple as making a couple of phone calls to Sony support. (You can also do it by email.) I used that software to upgrade to Vegas 5 and DVD Architect 2, even though the seller had also used the software to upgrade. (I got conflicting information from Sony as to whether I could upgrade with a license that had already been used to upgrade, but I guess they were happy to get my $200.)

I have since sold my copies of Vegas 4 and DVD Architect 1 (to someone else on these boards) and the license transfer went smoothly from me to him as well.

Sony is very good about transferring licenses as long as all the information is correctly provided to them. Basically, they will kill that serial number and then issue you a new one.

Hi Again.

I am not too sure if you answer my question, as I am concerned about the setting of the parameter "Dialog Normalization" in the AC3-settings not normalization of vocals in general.

I'll do a reformulation of my question and repost. But thanks anyway as I found the normalize option and the stereo to mono switch. Seems that you can find wonders of good options just by using the right mouse button.

But 5.1 mixing is quite fun, and it is amazing what you can do with the sub-busses.

The parameter "Dialog Normalization" in the AC3-setup for Vegas 5.0 . How do you determine if the value (-27 dB) is correct?

And what about the profiles? I use "Film - Normal". It is music that I am mixing. Is there any guideline to which profiles should be used in a given case?

I have a dedicated LFE-track, that I am feeding from the drums and bass-tracks. Lots of activity on the meters and nice sound on the pc, but no sound in the sub when I play the video on the living room surround set up. Has this someting to do with the setting af the "Dialog Normalization" parameter

Thanks for any reply

Smartsound is doing a free introduction and live demo of SonicFire Pro for creating your own music soundtracks.

You'll need to pick the time and register for the session. Here's the link:

https://smartsound.webex.com/smartsound/mywebex/default.php?Rnd7006=0.4969325507821435

I don't have SonicFire Pro but I'm on their email mailing list.

Hi,

At Instant Films we have been working with SonicFire Pro for about a year for rescoring the 48-hour films in our library for distribution. The software is easy to use and works well. Can be a real timesaver vs traditional music editing of existing tracks.

...that will insert a marker at each cutpoint or transition on a video track? I couldn't get DVDA2 to transition it's slideshow so I put all of the pictures on a video track and put music to it. I then inserted transitions.

I guess I am satisfied enough to leave it without chapter marks but if there's a script that will drop them then it would be a nice touch.

I'd do it manually, but after manually transitioning 90+ pictures I'm a bit tired :)

Thanks,
Kevin

Yep. Excalibur! Does that and SO much more. You can download and try out the 15 use trial version from http://www.vegastrainingandtools.com

Excalibur's Marker Wizard.

Gary

Spooky - you both posted at exactly the same time.

About Excalibur - it's a great tool. I highly recommend it.

Wow, I think I'll buy it used then.
Thank you Edward and Philip, you both were very helpful.

What can I say? Great minds think alike!

Hi guys, very simple question here :
I'm new to Vegas, very excited about the possiblities this program can do to my video, and the help this fourm can offer.

I tried every obvious solution to me and nothing has worked yet...My question is how do i fade the music under in the middle of the piece?

I want the music to start loud for about 10 sec, then fade the music down, to background music so you can hear the person talk without being blown away by the music.

So far i can only either make it loud or soft, but not move at designated places


thanks guys

Highlight the audio track and hit "V"

This inserts a volume envelope.

Double click on this to add a "node" or pivot point, then drag up or down as required,

thats exactlly what i wanted; i've never heard the term "envelope" wouldn't have found that on my own

thanks so much

Can anybody tell me if it is possible to capture and save a frame grab in uncompressed format (eg .tif) using Vegas? I have only been able to get .jpg files and was hoping to get higher resolution stills.

Many thanks
Duncan

thers another thread on this below discussing normalisation.

on thing to note is that Vegas doesn't encode 5.1 in realtime, so it really depends on how you are connecting your PC to the surround processor as to whether or not you are gonna hear all channels
..

Do a search for envelope in the help file. You'll find there are a lot of them in Vegas. For example, Volume envelope, Velocity envelope, Composite envelope, Transition envelope (just to name a few)

You have two options when saving a snapshot: JPG and PNG. I believe you want PNG based on your description. PNG is a lossless format that supports alpha channel.

Your image will be (NTSC values) 655x480 @ 72dpi.

I can't recommend strongly enough that you purchase and repeatedly view a good training video about Vegas.

I started with MovieFactory and moved up to Vegas3.0 then 4.0 and now 5.0, gradually increasing my capability with the editor on each upgrade. I thought I was getting most of my money's worth out of the product until I bought Gary Kleiner's training video (http://www.vegastoolsandtraining.com/videos.html) and watched it about five times.

I didn't even know what I didn't know.

I now realize that while I thought I was using most of Vegas, I was only getting about 25% of my money's worth out of the thing. Not that I feel compelled to use every gadget and gizmo (and its got a bunch of them), but now I at least know how to use most of them and know where to 'rewatch' on the DVD if I can't remember. I'm going to buy Gary's update and Douglas Spotted Eagle's training video also, when they are both updated for VV5.0.

You've bought a powerful video editor in Vegas Video, you owe it to yourself and the hapless victims you will foist your films upon to buy a good training video and really get the most out of it. Unless you are one of the rare 'cinema savants' and then I take it all back. ; )

Speaking of Normalization how do you use it in Vegas, in other words can you tweak it. I know in Forge you can Normalize to a specific DB level. Vegas already lists a DB level (RMS?) but does have a "recalculate" button which seems to do nothing. What is that for...if you boost the audio using envelopes or a track fader?

Edward
Thanks - I will try saving in PNG format.
Duncan

How did you know? My natural skills rivial those to picasso's ability to paint. Uncanny how the program and i "know" each other.

Ok, sarcasim aside it took me 10 mins to solve why i couldn't get a simple transition to work - maybe it was the 2am factor, but more likely it was me. I went to Boarders book store to read up on Vegas but it was pretty crappy; after reading for an hour I didn't learn anything significant. Had i invested the same time playing around with the program i might have learned more.

Well i got up early today soley to edit --- i'm making a sutio family documentary and want it ready before my grandparents pass on. I'm very exicited about editing and vegas is just fun. Thanks guys so far, i'm sure i'll borrow more expertice later, but for now i'm off to learn about "envelopes"

Andy

I want to do a menu based DVD on DVDA. I want to put on it my last short film, which is in widescreen, the making of, in 4:3, and a slide show of productions stills, also in 4:3.

From what I see, the aspect ratio in DVDA is at the project level, I can't find a way to have items of differents formats in the same project.

Can I do that? Is there a workaround?

Thanks

What version of DVDA? I just check and in DVDA 2a you can go to File - Optimize and pick the format for any individual file independent of the project settings.

Thank you Edward! I am using DVDA 1 but this feature is also supported! thank you very much!

So i've read the help section about freezing a frame of video but its not working for my Vegas 5.

After over an hour trying to figure it out i feel i've exahusted my natural abilites;

THis is what i've done:
I'm in the first row ; i right click my video i want frozen right click it and select "Insert/Remove envelopes". When "velocity" is checked, i lose a little triangle pointing down (located on the bottom, in the middle). I try getting nodes but its impossible. The only time i get nodes is if i go into the insert menu and select composite.

Why am i not getting the option to select the nodes?


So far i've followed this advice, but i can't seem to get past step #1
<I>
Add a velocity envelope, and a node at the point you want the freeze to happen.

Add another node (point) to the right and move it directly undeneath the other one. Right click on the bottom node and Set To.. 0%.

Now you can dag out the event however long you want it ,and it will stay on that frame.
</I>

Try these steps:

1) Start a new project.
2) Add a video clip
3) Right-click that video clip and choose "Insert/Remove Envelope" and then pick "Velocity"
4) Double-click the new BLUE line in a couple of places and change the velocity at those points as desired.

Once you feel comfortable with the process, return to the original project and finish the task.

Hmm, what happenes when that "blue line" doesn't appear?
It looks like i might have to reinstall my software. Would this blue line be obvious?

I actually think the line is green butbesides that, to answer if it will be obvious, yes, it drops right in the middle of the clip, runs from the beginning to the end of the clip. Should be right there no matter what color it is.
Don B

Is there an easy way to reduce the intensity of a filter, like the opacity of an adjustment layer in Photoshop?

Unless for some reason you have it hidden. To check that, you can go to the View menu, choose Video Envelopes, and make sure Event Velocity is checked.

<<<-- Originally posted by Don Bloom : I actually think the line is green butbesides that, to answer if it will be obvious, yes, it drops right in the middle of the clip, runs from the beginning to the end of the clip. Should be right there no matter what color it is.
Don B -->>>

Yep - It's green (must be the "volume envelope" that's blue)

Most filters have various adjustments that allow you to control the amount of filtering/blending that's occuring.
If for some reason it's not allowing it depending on the filter, you can always duplicate a track, remove the filter from the lower track, and use the opacity control of the track or event above to reduce the effect's opacity. I do this with specific sorts of light rays all the time.

Just when you thought it was safe to return to your NLE! . . The Fun has started ...

http://www.vegasusers.com/vidshare/textdisp?chienworks-where_are_you

Nice one Kelly . ..

Grazie

Hi Sorry for this dumb question...I have a still image in the preview window and I click on "save snapshot in clipboard" where is the clipboard ?

Thanks

Vince

Good question, Vince. The other day I looked all over the place, did a search too, but never found the clipboard. Turns out that what I wanted was to save it to a file anyway, but it'll be good to know the answer to this.

That would be Window's clipboard. This will allow you to PASTE the image into any application. For example, after choosing to copy to clipboard, open your paint program, choose File - New and the press CTRL-V. The image will now appear in your paint program.

Now, here's an interesting side effect. THIS image will be 720x480 instead of 655x480 (NTSC sizes).

Thanks Doug, I thought so... wouldn't it be nice if 5.0b included an opacity setting? It seems like a no-brainer to me.

Hello

I'm having a problem rendering to mpeg2, the first time I rendered everything worked fine. I have had this problem before I seem to think it is a bug that has something to do with windows media player.

The error states "An error has occured while creating the media file ***************.mpg. "The reason for the error could not be determined".

I'm using Vegas 5, I cannot think how I fixed the problem last time. Any suggestions greatly appreciated

Check to make sure the drive containing your temporary files is not full. Then change where Vegas places the temporary files to a larger drive.

When I capture video through my USB port into Vegas 5.0 the maximum resolution is 640 x 480. This seems ok, but I would like to know if there is any way for me to capture at a higher res. If its not possible how would the quality of the outputed DVD be??

Thanks for your help
Dave

Please do not capture via USB (especially if you want to be happy with the results). The preferred method of capture is via Firewire. Firewire will give you full DV resolution. If your camera does not support firewire, get a convertor and run analog to the convertor and then firewire between the convertor and computer.