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Editing programs

Premiere Pro is a very good choice, especially if you use other Adobe programs, allowing easy workflow, transfer clips between programs without having to render. It can also take in whatever video format you decide to import. It takes some practice to know your way around in Premiere, though. But once you do, it's highly effective.

Sony Vegas is a good choice if you just want to edit a video and apply some basic effects. Very easy in use, yet powerful.

From what I have read from reviews, Final Cut Pro X is crap.
 
We have reoccurring threads on this topic all over this board.

A better question is what is in your budget to afford?

That's what's best for you.

I am leaning towards AVID Media Composer because my goal is to get into TV and that is what the studios use.

From what I am reading in reviews, Media Composer comes with a very good special effects package and title creator included in its price. Only Protools needs to be added to make the package complete.
 
I use Vegas. When I was starting out, I tried all the "mini" versions I could, and I found I spent hours messing around and learning in the others, but with Vegas I was editing almost immediately.
The audio support in Vegas is supposedly one of it's stronger points (it was originally an audio only program) although I can't speak for audio in the others.
The Movie Studio version is available for cheap, and supports 20 tracks, as well as support for the OpenFX plug-in architecture.

As others have pointed out, PP or Avid are by far the more mainstream ones, but I'm not looking for experience to become an editor, rather looking for an editor that just let me get on with editing. It has a whole host of built-in things for much of the things one needs to do.

CraigL
 
That is true about Vegas. It is from the software developers who brought us Sound Forge. The very first version was called, Video Explosion by Nova Development. It came with a very big library of stock footage, sound effects, music, and animatic effects.

I have a copy at home I bought a long time ago for my Pentium III Computer.
 
From an audio stand-point, however, Vegas does not play well with other programs. I have had little success importing OMF and/or AAF files that were originally generated by Vegas. Many of my peers make the same complaint.
 
I exported the audio from Vegas to Aiffs and setup a beep tone marker in the beginning of clip, separating the audio into four files, voice, music, and two sound effects for a post audio house and they made it work on their Macs with Protools. I struck out the original audio and replaced it with their Aiff final cut.
 
Vegas is a very powerful video editor although a lot of people frequently point wrong limitations about it. But an important aspect: Vegas demands a good hardware to work properly. It is not the kind of software which will keep your work safe if your machine do not provides this safety. Get a good computer and Vegas will be your best friend.
 
The weakest part of Vegas is its title and credits creator utilities. That needs to be revamped from the ground up.

Maybe they can work out a deal with another company to subcontract to make a professional level title creator like Adobe did with Pinnacle.
 
I've narrowed it down to Premiere Pro CS6, and Avid Media Composer.
I'm still not sure about Adobe CC. I'm thinking about it. The trial version was nice, but I don't like the monthly thing. I'd rather be able to buy it and keep it without continuing to pay for it.
 
From an audio stand-point, however, Vegas does not play well with other programs. I have had little success importing OMF and/or AAF files that were originally generated by Vegas. Many of my peers make the same complaint.

Thats interesting, considering it's audio roots. Vegas originated from Sonic Foundry which was aiming to make a NLE that was super audio friendly and had a layout familiear to audio pros.

Adobe has never let me down! It's the take in anything, do anything you want to it and export anything solution for sure.
 
In your original question you left out what would be my first and second choices. Edius is the fastest editing program going- fastest here meaning the one that never needs to render. It is insanely stable. I've had one crash in 2 solid years of use. The colour correction tools are brilliant and massively more comprehensive than in any of the competitors. The titling is admittedly a little ropey but very capable.

Then you have the free option Lightworks. Very unusual interface but ideal for narrative work. Very keyboard centric. While it's free it has been used on a lot of your favourite movies, having edited a lot of major movies like Goodfellas and Pulp Ficiton.
 
Just to add my opinion. Premiere is my choice. I learnt on Movie maker, moved to Pinnacle for a year or two then got Premiere and it was the best choice for me and have now been editing on it since late 2008

I also find that if you know one of the big 3 (Avid, Final Cut or Premiere) then you are likely to know them all, or at least have a fairly streamlined process in changing over. I haven't used Avid but have heard that is the case, and when I've had to use Final Cut it barely took any time to adapt.
 
I exported the audio from Vegas to Aiffs and setup a beep tone marker in the beginning of clip, separating the audio into four files, voice, music, and two sound effects for a post audio house and they made it work on their Macs with Protools. I struck out the original audio and replaced it with their Aiff final cut.

I made this animatic to help sell a film idea for potential investors with the help of a major audio house with all of the local TV networks and radio stations as their customers.

I followed their instructions on how to prepare the audio from Sony Vegas as separate Aiffs for voice, music, and two sound effects, and their final cut with Protools was cut as an Aiff I imported with Sony Vegas, MOS the other audio,, lined up the beep to a marker, and had perfect Dolby Surround 5.1 audio.

It can be done.

I am the first client with my DP where we used WD Passport external drives where the data was recorded and transfers from camera to computer to hard drive to another computer. He has at least three others where the data never transferred. He was amazed everything worked for me with my film. He got over his Western Digital Hard Drive Phobia.

The real problem is not everyone is savvy with computers.
 
I followed their instructions on how to prepare the audio from Sony Vegas as separate Aiffs for voice, music, and two sound effects, and their final cut with Protools was cut as an Aiff I imported with Sony Vegas, MOS the other audio,, lined up the beep to a marker, and had perfect Dolby Surround 5.1 audio.

Of all the various audio post workflows, printing out Aiffs (or Wavs) is by far the worst for a whole host of reasons. The reason this workflow was suggested to you is because it is the only reliable way of getting audio out of Vegas and into Pro Tools. This is not such a serious problem if all you are doing is a short which is a few minutes long but with a longer project where something approaching professional audio standards are required, it will become a massive problem, potentially a project killing problem! I think it's likely that your idea of "perfect" Dolby 5.1 audio is quite a long way away from the film/TV industry's concept of perfect.

Thats interesting, considering it's audio roots. Vegas originated from Sonic Foundry which was aiming to make a NLE that was super audio friendly and had a layout familiear to audio pros.

Even as Sonic Foundry, it was never an audio tool used by audio post pros. Today, Vegas is certainly one of the worst NLEs when it comes to professional workflows.

To the OP: As ever, it depends what you want the NLE for. If you are always going to do the audio yourself and never aim towards professional/commercial standards then Vegas could well be the best NLE for you. If you are looking eventually to create commercial quality films/TV content then you will need something which will allow for professional audio workflows and for that Avid MC is best.

G
 
Of all the various audio post workflows, printing out Aiffs (or Wavs) is by far the worst for a whole host of reasons. The reason this workflow was suggested to you is because it is the only reliable way of getting audio out of Vegas and into Pro Tools. This is not such a serious problem if all you are doing is a short which is a few minutes long but with a longer project where something approaching professional audio standards are required, it will become a massive problem, potentially a project killing problem! I think it's likely that your idea of "perfect" Dolby 5.1 audio is quite a long way away from the film/TV industry's concept of perfect.
They wouldn't have TV and radio studios coming back to them if they did substandard work.

They threw out several of my sound effects and replaced them because of sound reproduction problems and replaced the music with their own. They were going to replace the music anyway because it was in my agreement with them.

The audio for the dialogue was recorded in a recording studio and the results were good quality.

They when over everything with me and told me why they replaced sections of the audio.
Even as Sonic Foundry, it was never an audio tool used by audio post pros. Today, Vegas is certainly one of the worst NLEs when it comes to professional workflows.

To the OP: As ever, it depends what you want the NLE for. If you are always going to do the audio yourself and never aim towards professional/commercial standards then Vegas could well be the best NLE for you. If you are looking eventually to create commercial quality films/TV content then you will need something which will allow for professional audio workflows and for that Avid MC is best.

G
 
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