Is multiple instances of Vegas the best way?
 

I recently filmed a wedding, and captured 4 minidv tapes worth of footage on my A1U. I am doing a "wedding highlights" video of a mixture of scenes from all 4 tapes. I haven't begun yet, but was thinking that I would have 2 instances of Vegas open, 1 for C&Ping of the scenes I would like, and the other one to do the final editing in. Is this the best way to do what I want...can you even copy & past from one vegas screen to the other?

I haven't been able to try this yet as I am still away from home for the next few days, but thought I would ask here.

BTW I have Vegas 7E

I just tried this with Vegas 8.0.

Each instance of Vegas uses about 60MB of memory to start with, so that's not going to be an issue.

I put a different clip on each timeline and applied a lens flare to one of them. I then did a Copy (Ctrl-C) on the timeline. I switched to the other Vegas and the menu showed the option to Paste Event Attributes, so I did and, lo and behold, a lens flare appeared!

Then I selected a loop region on the first clip, copied it, switched to the other Vegas and did Paste Insert. Again, it worked!

G@d, I love Sony.

Can't speak to Vegas 7 but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

So, "Thank You!" for a great question - I'd never have even thought to do this.

John.

Copying and pasting is useful, but I think you'll find the SAVE AS ... command is much more elegant. No need for all that extra clicking and mousing around. Just save it under a different filename and delete the footage you don't want.

yes, it works.
 

Yes, I have been doing that for almost 2 years. It works. For simple edits, usually with 2 sources, maybe 3, and the edit is basically linear, one instance will do. But if you are doing what you intend to do, it's better having multiple instances. It keeps everything in its proper place and is not confusing. I even putting markers and comments so I can go back to the points I may need later on.

Another advantage of multiple instances is that I can easily get back to the instance that has the source segment without having to mess around and lose the point of cut at the master instance where the editing actually takes place. That is very important if your timing needs to be precise and you wonder if you have to stretch or cut the segment but don't want to touch the time line. There is always the undo, but with the instance, you just go there and scrub and see how it really went.


For those clips sync'd, maybe v8's multicam support is more useful. For other things, this seems to work for me. I've thought of capturing to file and other ways of doing it, but it just either adds more files and bloats the HD, or it is harder for me to track it, or I lose the position of the clip with respect to the original tape. I've tried it other ways, but multiple instance works for me. May not be other's cup of tea, but I like working this way.

Thanks for the info guys...anxious to try it when I get home

I've never tried multiple instances for this (I usually use them for background renders), but I certainly could see it as an approach towards having as many trimmers as you want.

One of the things I like about the trimmer is using keyboard shortcuts for real speed, the ability to make subclips, to embed markers in the clips, and, uh... keyboard shortcuts! Did I mention I like to use keyboard shortcuts? To me they are key to rapid editing.

The trimmer is worth learning, as are the various keyboard shortcuts that bring focus to various areas of the workspace (Alt-0 to the timeline, Alt-1 to explorer, alt-2 to trimmer, etc.) Depending on how you have prefs set, selecting a clip in the explorer and hitting Enter will either bring up the clip in the trimmer or the timeline. I started off with timeline, but lately using the trimmer a lot more.

Check out the keyboard shortcuts in the Vegas help file, second to last item (before Glossary) in V7.