Vegas Audio

[Foreverain4]

I am just curious if anyone else out there is using Vegas Audio 2.0. How does this compare with the "big time" DAWs such as Pro Tools? Is there really any difference besides stability? I am asking only because i have never run a dedicated DAW other than my converted pc (which, by the way, i have had very few problems with stability). In my mind it seems like the "big" DAWs are way too complicated to run. To do the simplest operations involves several steps. Vegas Audio is clean, simple, and extremely efficient. I guess what it comes down to really is making music, which i know all of us like to do otherwise we wouldnt be in this forum. I would like to hear from someone who is running protools or something of that sort and has also had experience with Vegas. I am just trying to learn somethin, if you know what i mean.

[jivebrown]

i work in both programs. i basically use vegas for clipping up samples to use in acid pro. i find that this is the only use i have for the program, but love to use it for just that! i just drop a file in and cut it up into whatever segments i want from it. i then import it into acid pro and sequence from there. i dont think that protools is complicated. once you get in the swing of using the program, it becomes second nature. i use protools for recorded music ( live musicians and such), and use acid pro and the other sonic foundry programs for my loop based music. each has its own use for me. try out protools free, its limited to 8 tracks, but you can get a taste of the editing and mixing features this way. hope this helps you out in some way, im new here, so i hope my posts help others as much as theirs help me.:D

[shroud]

Foreverain,
ProTools is actually really easy - there are just various levels of it, primarily based on which hardware you choose. Like jivbrown said - its great for recording live musicians into (and VERY easy). Vegas is OK - I just wonder how long Sonic Foundry will be around...

[TeeCee]

shroud:
Do you know something we don't know about Sonic Foundry or are you just being a spreader of FUD? I ask this seriously because statements such as this from THE Pro Audio mail order warehouse can be very damaging for sales. As a Sonic Foundry user (Acid, Vegas, and Sound Forge), I want to know if they are in trouble and I also do not want them to lose market share due to baseless statements by influential people.

Following the subject, what don't you like about Vegas? What additionally should it have or do?

[TeeCee]

Shroud:
Any response on the Sonic Foundry comment?

[shroud]

Tee Cee,
Sorry for missing that last statement. I do not know of anything going wrong with Sonic Foundry off hand... I just feel that they have somewhat abandoned the Pro market to focus on the consumer market and therefore damaged the "perceived value" of their product. Kind of sad in my opinion...

I do still use Acid, but the thing about Vegas is the lack of pro features and a "mix window"...I am an old analog guy thats converted and I just don't care for that kind of interface... hey its all a matter of preference, right?

[TeeCee]

shroud:
Thanks for responding. It is all in the interface, and how you prefer to work. Many people say that SF seems to have abandoned the Pro market, and they usually base it on the existence of Acid. People sometimes think Acid is a toy made for kids to make music out of pre-existing loops. But you used Acid, so why do you feel that they are aiming at the consumer market?

You could do all the Vegas users a service by requesting the features you feel are missing from Vegas. I believe that there is an on-line Sonic Foundry feature request form. BTW, what's a "mix window"?

[jivebrown]

hey tee cee,
a mix window is a window that is layed out to look like a mixer. instead of having to do your mixing looking at the edit window, which is the window with all of the waveforms drawn on it. i would also like to see that feature brought into the sonic foundry software.:)

[TeeCee]

You have a"mix" window along the left. It's a sideways mixer, but it's a mixer. You have to select which slider you want to see. I guess it has a "mix" window, but perhaps a weak one.

[jivebrown]

i guess you are right, but i like to have a mixer sitting in front of me. vertical faders make me smile:) but, again, you are right.

[shroud]

Weak indeed, Tee Cee:p

[TeeCee]

shroud:
If you get time, please request a better mix window for Vegas along with anything else it's missing or weak in. Sonic Foundry may come back with questions regarding it that I couldn't answer seeing as it's not something I need.

[m00nchild]

i've been using vegas for about a year now.

i stumbled across it while searching for a software app that would let me creating continuous dj mixes of house music i dj without needing endless retakes if i flubbed any transitions 60 minutes into the live mix (freaking annoying!).

so in that regard i use the "wavefile mixing board" in order to synch up beats on separate tracks that i can see marching across the screen between various audio files i add to my project. and then i add whatever effects i want to juice up a transition between tracks.

if any beats are out of synch i just re-record the tracks at a lower pitch or using cut and paste i strech or minimize copied sections of the larger file through the beatmatched transitions. i've tried using pitch shifting fx but have found they are not precise enough to match beats across track transitions that are longer than 30 seconds -- i usually overlay tracks for 1-2 minutes in the mix.

i like vegas because it was the first app i found that allowed me to mixdown pre-recorded files professionally so that i could render output tracks for use on cd-r burns, or .mp3 renderings for online broadcasting.

but i'm not sure if vegas was intended for what i'm using it for or not. or for that matter, if there is a better app for what i want vegas to do (mixdown and produce mixes for distribution to an audience).

[TeeCee]

When I screw a mix up, I usually back track and redo the mix splicing afterwards in SoundForge. Similar to what you're doing, I suppose. I drop a mix once, the song ended too soon (should know my music better than that). The next song was beat matched fine so I just dropped it and overlaid the too in Vegas afterwards. Who cares what Sonic Foundry expects you to do. They intend for you to buy it and use it as you wish ;).

[Matthias Powerbomb]

I use Vegas as well as Sound Forge and ACID. I have used all the "big" DAWs and I prefer Vegas. It doesn't support MIDI, but aside from that, it's just as good as the rest. I use it for all my multitracking. Contrary to most of the people in this thread, I like the mixer window. If you would prefer the Sonar type, go ahead and have it. I hate that. It's messy and cluttered. I don't need a vertical slider type mixer to be happy personally. It's interface is fast and intuitive and the features are great. Vegas has some kind of taboo floating around it on these forums, but I wouldn't switch to something else ever. Unless Mac aquired Sonic Foundry like they did EMagic. I'd say try the demo, but demos usually suck and they don't do the programs any justice, but you would be able to get a look at the smooth, clean interface. Most people misjudge Vegas by the interface, thinking it has no features, but there hasn't been anything I wasn't able to do in Vegas. Vegas coupled with Sound Forge and ACID is a powerful team. Vegas gets my thumbs up.
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