My first foray into the world of digital editing came in the early 1990's with a little audio application called “Sound Forge”. Call it nostalgia, loyalty, or just plain curiosity, but, since then, I've kept my eye on the fledgling company that created it, Sonic Foundry. Back in 2003, Sony purchased their entire media suite of tools and continued to develop them with largely the same group of people working on the software. Sony Vegas 7 + DVD Architect 4 is the latest release of their editing and DVD authoring programs.

The first thing that strikes most people about Vegas is its unique user interface. Starting out as a multi-track audio program, then adding video in latter versions, the interface is still set up very much like an audio editing app. Working in this environment takes some getting used to if you've worked with other systems, but, it's still very intuitive.

I found a number of little things while working in Vegas that contribute to a streamlined, accelerated workflow. For instance, if you want to zoom in on the timeline, just turn your mouse scroll wheel. Crossfading your audio or crossdissolving video is as easy as overlapping your clips on the timeline and it's created automatically. Importing video in Vegas is about as easy as it gets. You can take a QuickTime file and place it next to a piece of HD footage, then drag in a Flash file and it will play through all three, without additional hardware acceleration or having to re-render the footage.

With their latest release, Sony has added full support for their new XDCAM format and for DV/HDV/HD users, the upgrades come in the form of: an improved video display (including simultaneous preview within Vegas and through a firewire device), enhancements in handling .m2t files, and support for a variety of AJA video interfaces along with enhanced support for Black Magic DeckLink cards. Panasonic HVX users will be able to easily capture and edit video with Vegas' support of the Cineform codec.

You'd be hard pressed to find a video editing program that can do as much with audio right off the timeline as Vegas – even mixing 5.1-surround sound. Sony has included a full compliment of audio tools and effects right out of the box, as well as supporting third party DirectX and VST effect plug-ins. And if you're not a fan of mixing with a mouse, you can use a Mackie Control Universal MIDI control surface to get hardware-powered faders and transport controls. When you're done you can export a Dolby Digital .ac3 file of your mix and use it on your DVD.

As for higher end features, Vegas fully supports custom scripting, network rendering, and full multi-core and multi-processor rendering. It offers a wide range of file types available for import and export including the handy capability of exporting directly to video iPod and Playstation Portable. It will also import files from DVD camcorders.

DVD Architect 4 brings the “+DVD” part to the Vegas suite. It's a separate program, but the two integrate together seamlessly. It features the customary full menu creation with motion backgrounds and custom buttons, a variety of templates for quick and easy DVD creation and like Vegas, the ability to drag a wide variety of video formats into your DVD and have them handled efficiently.

In the end, Vegas can be as simple or as complex as you need it to be. If you're a beginner, its cost and ease of use make Vegas worthy of consideration over the “Big 3”. Iif you're a seasoned pro and you've used earlier versions of Vegas, the upgrade is well worth the money. But, having said that, satisfied users of other applications are not likely to find enough in Vegas to warrant a closer look.

Glenn Cragwall's background

Glenn Cragwall is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at
Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, TN. He has taught audio and video production at the undergraduate level for the past 22 years in Texas and Tennessee. Additionally, he has served as director of media ministries at churches in New Mexico, Tennessee and Texas as well as producer/director of broadcast and cable programming. He received his B.S. in Radio/TV/Film & Recording Industry Management from Middle Tennessee State University and an M.A. in Communication from Southwestern Seminary. Glenn has been a member of DVPA since its inception in 1998 and has been a speaker/staffer at DVPA events.