Sony Vegas Audio, Vegas User Guide

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To register online with Sonic Foundry, please follow the steps outlined in the registration wizard upon first execution of this application.

Registering your product will provide you with technical support, notification of product updates, and special promotions exclusive only to Vegas registered users.

Sonic Foundry product registration helps protect against software copyright infringement and allows us to provide support exclusively to registered users.

To register online with Sonic Foundry, please follow the steps outlined in the registration wizard upon installation of this product.

Registering your product will provide you with notification of product updates and special promotions exclusive only to Vegas 2.0 registered users.



Sonic Foundry product registration helps protect against software copyright infringement and allows us to provide support exclusively to registered users.

If you do not have access to the Internet, registration assistance (in English) is available. Please contact our Customer Service Department at:

• Telephone*: 1-800-577-6642 (toll-free) in the US, Canada, and Virgin Islands. +800-000-76642 (toll-free) in Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy,

Sweden, UK, Netherlands, and Japan.

+608-256-3133, extension 2300 in all other countries.

• E-mail: customerservice@sonicfoundry.com

• Fax: 1-608-250-1745

* Registration assistance is available by telephone 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Sales/Customer Service Only (in North America): 1-800-57-SONIC

Sonic Foundry, Inc. Sonic Foundry Europe

1617 Sherman Ave. Madison, WI 53704

PO Box 2903 2601 CX Delft Netherlands

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The information contained in this manual is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Sonic Foundry. The software described in this manual is provided under the terms of a license agreement or non-disclosure agreement. The software license agreement specifies the terms and conditions for its lawful use. No part of this manual may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means for any purpose other than the purchaser’s personal use, without written permission from Sonic Foundry, Inc.

Sonic Foundry and Vegas are trademarks of Sonic Foundry, Inc. Ligos, Ligos GoMotion, and LSX-MPEG are trademarks of Ligos Corporation in the US and/or other countries. All other products mentioned in this manual are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

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Chapter Overview

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

2. Tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45

3. Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81

4. Basic Editing Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

5. Advanced Editing Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

6. Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

7. Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

8. Audio FX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

9. Using the Audio Mixer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

10. Recording Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

11. Advanced Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

12. Video FX and Masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

13. Video Transitions and Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

14. Saving and Rendering Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

15. Customizing Vegas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

Troubleshooting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i

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Page 5

1. Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

Welcome to Sonic Foundry Vegas™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

System requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Technical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

About this version of Vegas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Installing Vegas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Starting Vegas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Registration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Registering online. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

Registering by telephone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Registering online from another computer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Using the online Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Accessing the Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Main window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Marker bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Ruler. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Track Header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Track View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Transport bar controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Status bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Scrub control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Window Docking Area. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Keyboard command reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Cursor indications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42

Audio Signal Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

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Video Signal Flow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

2. Tutorial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45

Getting the tutorial folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Getting Started. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

1. Voiceover narration (01_voiceover.veg) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Using the Explorer window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Placing the video. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Displaying a Video Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Playing back the video. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Placing the new voiceover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Aligning the new voiceover with video. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Editing the voiceover. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Aligning the remaining voiceover events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Unlocking the events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Grouping the new voiceover and video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Saving a Vegas project (*.veg) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

2. Music bed (02_musicbed.veg) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Placing the music bed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Repositioning the voiceover. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Adding a volume envelope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Setting the volume envelope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Adding equalization (EQ) to the voiceover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

3. Background video (03_background.veg). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Creating a new video track. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Crossfading to a new video event. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Inserting a transition effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

4. Overlay titles (04_overlay.veg) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Repositioning the project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

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Inserting the introduction splash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

5. Pan/Crop motion (05_panning.veg) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

6. Fades (06_fades.veg) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

7. Track Motion (07_trackmotion.veg). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

8. Velocity (08_velocity.veg) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

9. Rendering the project as an *.avi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Setting the format. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Applying compression. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

3. Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81

Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Determining the proper video settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Saving the project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Renaming a project (using Save As...) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Capturing video media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Files and events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

What type of media can you use?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Finding media files to use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Previewing a media file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Using the Media Pool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Audio Peak files (*.sfk) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Event Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Inserting media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Moving events along the timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Removing the video’s audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Track Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Page 8

Scrolling and zooming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Track number and color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

View buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Track FX button. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Bus assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Arm for Record button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Mute button. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Solo button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Scribble Strip. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Volume fader. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Multipurpose slider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Playback and preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Playback from within Vegas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Scrubbing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Previewing to media player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Rendered video previews. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Rendering a Vegas project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Creating a movie (basic) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

4. Basic Editing Techniques. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .109

Getting around. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Making selections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Selecting multiple events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Modifying events in selections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Selecting a time range. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Looping playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Selecting events and a time range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Basic event editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Copying events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Cutting events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Pasting events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Duplicating events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Page 9

Trimming events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Splitting events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Shifting the contents of an event. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Deleting events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .126

Crossfading events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Automatic crossfades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Manually setting a crossfade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Changing crossfade curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Undo and Redo commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Undo command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Redo command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Clearing the edit history. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Project markers and regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Working with markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Working with regions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Working with command markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Using an external sound editing program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Setting up the sound editing program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Opening a sound editor from Vegas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

5. Advanced Editing Techniques. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Importing media from other projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Snapping events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Using the event snap offset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Snapping to grid lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Snapping to grids and rulers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Snapping to markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Disable snapping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Ripple editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Ripple editing from the Trimmer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Cutting and deleting in ripple mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Ripple editing across all tracks (Paste Insert) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Page 10

Pitch shifting audio events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Time compressing/stretching. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Time compressing/stretching video. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Takes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Adding takes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Selecting takes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Deleting takes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Take names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Using the Trimmer window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Working with the Trimmer window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Opening a file in an external sound editor from the Trimmer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Using the Edit Details window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Viewing the Edit Details window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Customizing the Edit Details window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

6. Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163

Accessing event properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Event switches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Muting an event. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Locking an event. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Looping an event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Normalize (audio only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Maintain aspect ratio (video only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Resample (video only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Event switches in the Event Properties dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Event switches in the Edit Details window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Audio event envelopes (ASR). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Setting an audio event’s volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Setting an event’s fade in and out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Video event envelopes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Opacity envelopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Page 11

Velocity envelope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Envelope Edit Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Grouping events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Creating a new group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Removing events from a group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Clearing a group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .175

Selecting all members of a group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Temporarily disabling grouping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

7. Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Working with Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Adding an empty track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Duplicating a track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Deleting a track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Naming or renaming a track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Organizing tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Reordering tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Changing track color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Changing track height . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Track Headers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Using the audio track fader. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Muting a track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Muting all audio or video tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Soloing a track. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Audio track envelopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Adding a volume or pan envelope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Hiding the audio track envelopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Removing audio track volume envelopes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Video track envelopes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Composite Level envelopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Fade to Color envelopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Envelope Edit tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Page 12

Locking envelopes to events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Rendering to a new track. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

8. Audio FX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .189

Assigning an audio track to a bus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Assigning an audio track to an auxiliary bus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Assigning audio tracks to an Assignable FX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Setting up to record into audio tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Using Audio FX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Bus FX. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Assignable FX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Adding plug-ins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Saving customized FX. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Plug-in chains. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Removing plug-ins from a chain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Saving plug-in chains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Editing saved plug-in chains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Organizing your plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Non Real-Time Event FX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Audio plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Equalization (EQ). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Compression. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Using the Noise Gate plug-in. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Using the Dither plug-in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Additional plug-ins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

9. Using the Audio Mixer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .213

Using the Mixer window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Viewing the Mixer window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Using the Mixer tool bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Using the Mixer Preview fader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Page 13

Using busses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Adding busses to the project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Deleting busses from the project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Routing busses to hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Working with busses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

10. Recording Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Setting up your equipment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Basic setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Setup with mixer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Setup with digital multitrack. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Arming the track for recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Using the metronome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Using the Sound Mapper for stereo or mono recording. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Assigning tracks to input devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Starting and stopping recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Chasing MIDI Time Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Recording into an empty audio track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Recording into a time selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Recording into an event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Recording into an event with a time selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Working with multiple recorded takes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Previewing takes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Choosing an active take after loop recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Renaming an event take . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Deleting an event take . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Specifying where recordings are stored . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

11. Advanced Video. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Pan/Crop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Page 14

Cropping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Zooming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Rotating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Panning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Scrolling titles - Pan/Crop technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Working with images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Titles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Creating titles from images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Fading titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

Customizing the Video Preview window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

Optimizing previews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Video properties and preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Project properties - Video tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Event properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Resampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Media file properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Output properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Edit Decision Lists (EDL) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

12. Video FX and Masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .263

Video plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

Using a video filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

Modifying filters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Ordering filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Keyframe animation and filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Transitioning into an effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Video filter dictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Correction filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Creative filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Mask filters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Page 15

Add noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Black and White. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .270

Brightness and Contrast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Broadcast Colors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Chroma Keyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .272

Gaussian Blur. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

HSL Adjust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Invert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Levels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

Mask. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

Median . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Min and Max . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .275

Pixelate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Quick Blur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Sepia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Sharpen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Threshold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Generators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Color Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Test Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Compositing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Parent/Child track relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Masks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Image masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .286

Masks and tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Video masks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Fine tuning masks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

Chromakeying. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

Compositing Modes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

Transitions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Page 16

13. Video Transitions and Motion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .297

Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Cuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Fading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Crossfades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Using Transition effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Adding a transition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Adding transitions to the ends of an event. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Understanding the A/B roll. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Converting cuts to transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Previewing a transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Modifying a transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Keyframe animation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Keyframe Controller. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Adding a keyframe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Modifying keyframes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Keyframes and transition effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Video transition dictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

Additive Dissolve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

Barndoor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Clock Wipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Cross Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Iris. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Linear Wipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Page Peel and Page Roll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Push. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Slide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Spiral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Split . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Squeeze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Swap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Zoom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Page 17

Track Motion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Track Motion context menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Controlling the Track Motion workspace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Keyframing and Track Motion attributes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Shadows and Glow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Picture-in-Picture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .319

Animating the overlay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

Scrolling titles - Video Motion technique. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

14. Saving and Rendering Projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Saving your project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Creating a copy of a project (using Save As...) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Rendering projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

Rendering to an audio format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

Rendering to a video format. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Partial rendering and timeline playback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Rendering to a streaming media format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Using rendering format controls and templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

Customizing a render . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

Custom rendering settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

Audio tab - Custom Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Video tab - Custom settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Project tab - Custom settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Selecting a video format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Miscellaneous formats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

Creating *.mp3 files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

Creating *.wma or *.wmv files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Creating MPEG files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

15. Customizing Vegas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

Page 18

Dockable Vegas windows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

Floating (undocking) a window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Docking a window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Using the Explorer window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Managing your media files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

Using the Explorer window Transport bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Changing the Explorer window views. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348

Changing the Ruler format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

Grid spacing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Working with the Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Moving the Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Resizing the Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

Hiding and displaying the Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

Reordering the Toolbar buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

Adding buttons to the Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

Removing buttons from the Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

Using the Time Display window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

Changing the Time Display window’s settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

Changing the Time Displays colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

Setting the Time Display to monitor MIDI time code. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Working with project properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358

Summary tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358

Audio tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

Video tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

Ruler tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

Using Vegas preferences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

General tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Video tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

Audio tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

Routing tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

Editing tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

Sync tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

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External Monitor tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

Troubleshooting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Why are some of my DirectX plug-ins not working correctly?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Why do I hear gaps in my audio playback? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

QuickTime Video Audio/Video Synchronization Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

Why do mono events increase 6 dB when panning a track hard?. . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

Trouble-free video: software solutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

Trouble-free video: hardware solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Video subsystem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Hard disk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

CPU and RAM (memory) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

The 2GB limitation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

Audio proxy files (*.sfap0). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

Interlacing and field order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379

Timecode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Timecode in Vegas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Troubleshooting DV hardware issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i

Page 20

Page 21

CHAPTER

Introduction

Welcome to Sonic Foundry Vegas™

Sonic Foundry Vegas is an innovative and advanced multitrack media-editing system. Vegas was designed to create an efficient audio/video production environment without sacrificing the quality and processing power that you expect from Sonic Foundry. Whether it’s the standard and familiar Windows navigation commands or the clean and uncluttered interface, you’ll find Vegas to be a tool that will be mastered in minutes. Beneath the unique and customizable interface, you’ll find a product that is both powerful and flexible. This table lists some of the features available in Vegas, the perfect multitrack media-editing system for your studio or production environment:

Nondestructive editing Unlimited tracks Unlimited undo/redo Multiple file formats (.wav/.aif) on a single track Automatic crossfade functionality EQ and compressor inserts available on every track Quick-edit media trimmer with direct link to *.wav editor Loop recording Plug-In manager Real time event resampling 32 assignable DirectX FX sends Audio/video scrub control DirectX Plug-In support Edit detail list management Dual processor support

Sonic Foundry Perfect Clarity™ audio (*.pca) 24-bit/96 kHz MIDI Time Code generate & chase 26 Auxiliary outputs Dual monitor support Internet streaming file authoring (Windows Media Technologies 4.0 and RealNetworks G2) Imports: .wav, .w64, .pca, .aif, .avi, .mp3, .mov (using Microsoft DirectShow), .bmp, .gif, .jpg, .png, .tga, .tif

Simultaneous multitrack record & play

Multiple I/O support

Ability to incorporate timeline metadata (markers/ captions) for Internet content authoring Exports: .wav, .aif, .pca, .avi, .wma, .wmv, .rm, .mp3 (with optional plug-in), .mov (streaming), .w64

Includes Ligos GoMotion-powered MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 transcoding and decoding software.

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System requirements

Minimum requirements

• Microsoft® Windows™ 98SE, Me, 2000, or NT 4.0 SP4

• CD-ROM drive

• 40 MB hard-disk space for program installation

• Windows-compatible sound card

• Internet Explorer™ 4.0 (included on CD-ROM) or later to view online Help

• 400 MHz processor

• 128 MB RAM

• 16-bit color display

Technical Support

Visit our Web site at

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/support

. You will find technical information, reference information, program updates, tips and tricks, and a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) archive.

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About this version of Vegas

The Vegas family of products includes a number of different versions including Vegas Video and Vegas Audio, in both full and LE versions. All versions boast a suite of professional level multi-track audio tools. Vegas Audio and Vegas Video both include a number of more advanced audio features, while Vegas Video also includes advanced NLE video editing features, making it a true all-in-one multimedia editing solution.

Feature Vegas Video Vegas Video LE Vegas Audio Vegas Audio LE

Video Tracks Audio Tracks Compositing

Video Track Level Fader

Video Track Motion

Video Preview Window: Action Safe, Grid, Isolate Channels

Video Envelopes: Fade to Color, and Composite Level, Velocity

Real time effects and processes

Video Media Generators Transitions, FX, and DirectX

Video Plug-in Support DirectX Audio Support DirectX Audio PLug-ins

Included Rubber audio Bit Depth/Sample Rate Overall level of video control Ligos MPEG support

unlimited 2 1 1 unlimited 4 unlimited 8 X alpha only X X X X X

X X X X

Xtext only X X crossfades

XXXX X Xpress FX

1 & 2 XX 24/96Khz 16/48Khz 24/96Khz 16/48Khz high moderate moderate moderate

only

X Xpress FX

x x

1 & 2

Most versions can be immediately upgraded to a more advanced version over the Internet. From the

menu, select

Help

Instant Upgrade

to purchase a license and unlock these more

powerful features.

This manual covers all of the features available in all of the various versions of Sonic Foundry Vegas. Since different versions have different features, more advanced features available only in certain versions of Vegas are marked with a special icon.

CHP. 1 INTRODUCTION

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Installing Vegas

To install Vegas:

Insert the Vegas CD-ROM. The Vegas Installation screen appears (if CD-ROM AutoPlay

is enabled). If CD-ROM AutoPlay is disabled, click on the button and choose

window that appears, type the CD-ROM drive’s letter and add button to start the installation.

:\setup.exe

. In the Run

Run

. Click the OK

Click

Install Software

Follow the screen prompts and enter the necessary information when required. At the last screen prompt, click to conclude the installation.

Note:

Vegas uses a Windows 2000 installer

. The installation process begins.

for all versions of Windows (e.g. 98SE and NT4). Vegas will install the Windows 2000 installer and then ask you to restart your system.

Starting Vegas

After Vegas has been installed on your computer, there are two ways to start the program.

Using the shortcut Vegas

Double-click the Vegas icon on your desktop upon completion of the installation procedure. This icon is a shortcut to the Vegas program located on your hard drive.

Using the Start button

The second method also allows you to start Vegas right from the desktop.

Click the button on the Taskbar. The

From the

INTRODUCTION CHP. 1

menu, choose

Start

Programs

menu appears.

Start

Page 25

This graphic displays the default Start Menu location where Vegas was installed. If you specified a different location during installation, navigate to that menu location via this menu.

From the

From the submenu, choose

Programs

menu, choose

Sonic Foundry Vegas

to start the program. The registration

. A submenu appears.

dialog window appears the first time you run Vegas. Select whether you want to use a limited demonstration version of Vegas, purchase Vegas or if you have already purchased Vegas you can enter your serial number. Once you have registered, this will not appear again.

Registration

The registration dialog that appears when you start Vegas allows you to quickly and easily register:

• Register online - instantly registers the product over the Internet.

• Register by phone - call Sonic Foundry to register manually.

• Register online from another computer - if the computer Vegas is installed on does not have an Internet connection, but you have another computer that does.

• Not register at this time - allows you to continue using Vegas for a limited time without registering.

Registering online

When you register online, one click is all it takes to instantly register Vegas.

To register online:

Connect your computer to the Internet.

Start Vegas. In the dialog that opens, select

Another dialog opens that asks you if you want to

registration

•

Provide information

. Select one of these options and click Next.

- If you select this option, another dialog opens and allows you to

I would like to register online

Provide information

or simply

Finish my

enter some information about yourself. At your request, this information will be held in strictest confidence and will only be used by Sonic Foundry internally to improve our products and services. You may also elect to allow Sonic Foundry to occasionally send you information about the latest updates to Vegas and other exciting multimedia products.

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•

Finish my registration

- If you select this option, registration will be completed without

any further delay.

Vegas now automatically connects to Sonic Foundry’s registration utility and registers your product.

Registering by telephone

When you register by telephone, a Customer Service Representative will help you to obtain your activation code.

To register by telephone:

Select

Click the button. A new dialog appears with a box where you can enter the activation code. Your Computer ID number appears below this.

Please contact our Customer Service Department at:

Enter activation code Computer ID number

• Telephone*: 1-800-577-6642 (toll-free) in the US, Canada, and Virgin Islands.

• +800-000-76642 (toll-free) in Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden,

UK, Netherlands, and Japan.

• +608-256-3133, extension 2300 in all other countries.

• E-mail: customerservice@sonicfoundry.com

• Fax: 1-608-250-1745

* Registration assistance is available by telephone 24 hours a day, seven days per week.

When the Customer Service Representative gives you the activation code, type it in the

field. Click the button to activate Vegas and become a fully registered customer.

Registering online from another computer

In situations where Vegas is installed on a computer that does not have access to the Internet, you can use another computer that does have access to acquire and activation code. Since the Activation (registration) Code is base on your computer’s individual

INTRODUCTION CHP. 1

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identity, it is necessary to generate a registration number based on the computer that Vegas is installed on. Therefore, you need to begin the registration on that computer, save an HTML file with that computer’s identity on it to a floppy, and then use that floppy on a computer with an Internet connection to register. The Activation Code and an *.reg file will then be sent to you via e-mail, at which point you can write the number down to use it on the other computer, or transfer the *.reg file to the computer without the Internet connection and double-click the file to automatically register. The Acivation Code and *.reg file is based on your computer’s ID number and cannot be used on another machine.

Using the online Help

Vegas includes HTML online Help. To view the online Help, you need to have Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher loaded on your system (5.0 is included on the Vegas CD-ROM).

Accessing the Help

The online Help is available in two forms: in a Main Help window or What’s This? Help window. Both forms are available via the keyboard ( ) or by clicking the

Main Help window

The Main Help window is accessed either by choosing menu or by pressing the key. This window has three tabs that you can use to find the

information that you need.

Toolbar Contents

tab

Contents

Index

Help

from the

Index tab

menu.

Help

Search tab

Information pane

The

Contents

tab provides a list of available help topics. Click on a closed book ( ) to open

the pages, and then on a topic page ( ). The

tab provides a complete listing of the Help topics available. Scroll through the list

Index

of available topics or type a word in the text field to quickly locate topics related to that word. Select the topic and click the button.

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The

tab allows you to enter a keyword and display all of the topics in the online Help

that contain the keyword you have entered. Type a keyword in the text field and click on the button. Select the topic from the list and click the button.

What’s This? Help

What’s This? Help allows you to view pop-up descriptions of Vegas menus, buttons, and dialog boxes.

To use What’s This? Help:

Click on the question mark ( ) in the upper right-hand corner of the dialog box or

program workspace. Alternately, you can choose press the keys.

The cursor changes to a question mark icon: ( ).

Click on an item in the program’s interface.

Tip of the Day

Shift + F1

What's This?

from the

Help

menu or

The Tip of the Day displays functional tips to increase your productivity with Vegas. To view and scroll through the Tip of the Day messages, choose

PDF manual

Tip of the Day

from the

Help

menu.

There is a *.pdf version of the manual available on the Vegas CD-ROM. The PDF version of the manual contains some information that was written after this manual went to press. To

view this manual, you will need Adobe ROM). Please read the

vegas_readme.doc

Acrobat® Reader (also included on the Vegas CD-

for more information on the latest updates and

changes.

Help on the Web

Additional Vegas help and information is available on the Sonic Foundry Web site. From the

menu choose

Help

Sonic Foundry on the Web

to view a listing of Web pages pertaining to

Vegas and Sonic Foundry.

INTRODUCTION CHP. 1

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Overview

Vegas is designed to be an easy-to-use program with many tools that provide power and flexibility when creating and working with multimedia files. Many Vegas operations, menu items, and shortcut keys are consistent with other popular Windows software applications. The following sections are a graphical tour of the Vegas workspace.

Main window

This is the window that appears when you open Vegas. The work area is subdivided into three primary areas: the Track Header, the Track View (or timeline), and the Window Docking Area.

Menu Bar

Toolbar

Time Display

Marker Bar Ruler

Track Header

Scrub Control

Window Docking Area

Transport Bar

Track View (timeline)

Status Bar

The full version of Vegas Video has many advanced video editing features, as pictured above. Other versions of Vegas have more limited video capabilities (for example limited to only one video track). Please see the README file for more information.

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Toolbar

The Toolbar allows you to quickly access the most commonly used functions and features in Vegas. From the displayed.

Create new project Enable automatic crossfades

Open existing project Enable ripple edits

Save project Lock Envelopes

Open project properties Ignore Event Grouping

Cut selected events or time range Edit tool

Copy selected events or time range Envelope tool

Paste items from clipboard into project Selection tool

Undo command Zoom tool

Redo command Open Video Capture (Vegas

Enable snapping to grid lines Get Media from Web

Options

menu, choose

Customize Toolbar

Video only)

What’s This? Help

to specify which buttons are

Marker bar

The Marker bar is the area where informational tags may be placed, named, and positioned along the project’s timeline. These can serve as cues or reminders highlighting important events in your project.

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Ruler

The Ruler is the timeline for your project. You may specify how the Ruler measures time: seconds, measures and beats, frames, etc.

Right-click on Ruler

Track Header

This area identifies the track order in your project and contains controls used to determine track compositing and mixing.

Track mode

controls

Parent/Child Compositing controls

Track Number

Video Tracks

Audio Track

Multiple video tracks, compositing, and video effects are only available in the full version of Vegas Video.

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Track View

All arranging and editing is done in the Track View. This area contains all of a project’s events.

Transport bar controls

The Transport bar contains the playback and cursor positioning buttons frequently used while working on and previewing your project.

Track View

Record into track Stop playback

Loop playback Move cursor to start of project

Play from beginning of project Move cursor to end of project

Play project from cursor position Move cursor left at grid increments

Pause project playback Move cursor right at grid increments

Status bar

The Status bar is located at the bottom of the main program window and displays information about roughly how much space is left on your computer to record audio (Record Time). During the rendering processes, the left side of the Status bar also contains information about the progress of the render.

The Video Preview window also has its own status bar that displays project specific information.

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Scrub control

Click

The Scrub control is used to play your project forward or backward for editing purposes. You may adjust playback speed by setting the Speed Control Marker located beneath the Scrub control.

and drag either forwar

or backward for playback

Set playback speed

Window Docking Area

This area allows you to keep frequently used windows available, but out of the way while you are working with a project. To dock a window, simply drag it to the Docking Area. When windows are docked, they are stacked on top of one another. Each window has a tab at the bottom with its name on it. Click the window’s tab to bring it to the top. Drag the handle on the left side of a docked window to remove a window from the Docking Area and float it.

Drag handle to float window.

Explorer window - Alt+1

The media Explorer window is similar to the Windows Explorer. Use the Vegas Explorer window to select media files to place into your projects.

Select drive or folder

CHP. 1 INTRODUCTION

Preview selected media file before you place it in the project

Select media to place in the project by dragging and dropping or double-clicking

Page 34

Trimmer window - Alt+2

The Trimmer window is a good place to edit any media file. When a media file is placed in the Trimmer window, you may take portions of the event and place them on separate tracks by dragging and dropping. For more information, see Using the Trimmer window on page 154.

Trimmer window Transport bar

Mixer window - Alt+3

The Mixer window gives you access to your project’s audio properties, bus assignments, output levels, and plug-in chains.

Right-click on a meter to change its settings

Edit Details window - Alt+4

This window serves as a highly detailed and customizable database of all of the events in a project. The database can be organized and sorted according to a large number of attributes.

INTRODUCTION CHP. 1

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Plug-ins window - Alt+5

This window organizes all of the plug-ins, effects, and transitions available in Vegas. These are organized in a folder structure and include both audio and video plug-ins.

Video Preview window - Alt+6

This window displays a project’s video event during project editing and playback. For more information, see Customizing the Video Preview window on page 252.

Video will appear during project playback or as the cursor is moved during editing.

Right-click to change Video Preview settings

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Media Pool window - Alt+7

The Media Pool is used to organize the media files that are being used by a project. The information about these files is displayed in a highly flexible database that can be instantly sorted. The Media Pool can also be used to apply effects and plug-ins to media files and can be used to set the specific properties (e.g. Interlace) of these files. For more information, see

Using the Media Pool on page 88.

Transitions window - Alt+8

The Transitions window contains all of the transitions available in Vegas. The thumbnails display animated examples of each transition. Transitions can be dragged from this window to the Transition roll between two video events. For more information, see Transitions on page

297.

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Keyboard command reference

Project file commands

These commands refer to the overall project.

Description Keys

Create new project Ctrl+N Open existing project or media file Ctrl+O Save project Ctrl+S Open project’s properties Alt+Enter

Window view commands

These commands display the dockable windows included with Vegas.

Description Keys Description Keys

Track view Alt+0 Plug-ins Alt+5 Explorer Alt+1 Video Preview Alt+6 Trimmer Alt+2 Media Pool Alt+7 Mixer Alt+3 Transitions Alt+8 Edit Details Alt+4

Edit commands

These commands refer to the event editing that you can use while you are working on a project.

Description Keys Description Keys

Undo Ctrl+Z or

Redo Ctrl+Shift+Z or

Cut selection Ctrl+X or

Copy selection Ctrl+C or

Paste from clipboard Ctrl+V or

Paste repeat from clipboard

Paste Insert Ctrl+Shift+V Mix to Video Preview Shift+M Delete selection Delete Rebuild peaks F5

CHP. 1 INTRODUCTION

Alt+Backspace

Ctrl+Y

Shift+Delete

Ctrl+Insert

Shift+Insert

Ctrl+B Mix to Player Ctrl+Shift+M

Split event(s) S

Trim/Crop selected events Ctrl+T

Edge trim either audio or video of grouped events independently

Open in Sound Editor Ctrl+E

Mix to new Ctrl+M

Alt+drag edge

Page 38

Cursor placement commands

These commands refer to cursor navigation with in the Track View.

Description Keys Description Keys

Go to beginning of selection or view (if no selection)

Go to end of selection or view (if no selection)

Go to beginning of project Ctrl+Home or WMove left to marker(s) Ctrl+Left Arrow

Go to end of project Ctrl+End or E Move right to marker(s) Ctrl+Right Arrow Move left by grid marks Page Up Move left to event edit

Move right by grid marks Page Down Move right to event edit

Go to Ctrl+G Nudge cursor on timeline Left or Right Arrow Jump to Marker # 0-9 keys (not

Home or W Center in View \

End or E Jump to opposite side of

selection

points including fade edges

Move one frame Alt+Left or Right Arrow

number pad)

Number pad 5

Ctrl+Alt+Left Arrow

Ctrl+Alt+Right Arrow

Selection commands

These commands refer to creating time selections or preview ranges.

Note:

Many of the preceding Cursor placement commands, when combined with the Shift key, are also Selection commands.

Description Keys

Range selection (events) Shift+click range of objects Multiple selection (events) Ctrl+click individual objects Snap select to event edges Ctrl+Shift+Alt+ Left or Right Arrow Recover previous selection areas Backspace

Select all Ctrl+A

Unselect all Ctrl+Shift+A

Select left by grid marks Shift+Page Up

Select right by grid marks Shift+Page Down Make a selection during playback I (in) and O (out) Create time selection while dragging on an event Expand selection one frame Shift+Alt+Left or Right Arrow

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Ctrl+Shift+drag with mouse

Page 39

Playback commands

These commands refer to the playback controls, which are also found on the Transport bar.

Description Keys Description Keys

Start/stop playback Spacebar Pause Enter Stop playback Esc Record Ctrl+R Looped playback

mode Scrub playback Ctrl+drag on cursor

L Play back from any

window

on the timeline

Ctrl+Spacebar or F12

Event commands

These commands apply to selected events.

Description Keys Description Keys

Move selected event(s) right one pixel

Move selected event(s) left one pixel

Move selected event(s) up one track

Slip: move media within event without moving the event

Slip Trim: moves the media with the edge as it is trimmed Select next take T Slide Crossfade: moves

Select previous take Shift+T Stretch (compress) the

Right Arrow number pad 6

Left Arrow number pad 4

Up Arrow number pad 8

Alt+drag inside the event

Alt+drag edge of event

Move selected event(s) down one track

Move selected event(s) right on grid

Move selected event(s) left on grid

Trim Adjacent: trims selected event and adjacent event simultaneously

Slide: Trims both ends of event simultaneously

crossfade

media in the event while trimming

Down Arrow number pad 2

Ctrl+Right Arrow number pad 6

Ctrl+Left Arrow number pad 4

Ctrl+Alt+drag edge of event

Ctrl+Alt+drag middle of event

Ctrl+Alt+drag over a crossfade Ctrl+drag edge of event

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Track commands

These commands refer to editing functions related to the tracks in your project.

Description Keys Description Keys

New audio track Ctrl+Q Mark in point (when playing) I or [ New video track Ctrl+Shift+Q Mark out point (when playing) O or ] Enable/disable snapping F8 Insert/Show/Hide track-volume envelope V Snap to markers Shift+F8 Remove track-volume envelope Shift+V Snap to grid Ctrl+F8 Insert/Show/Hide track-panning envelope P Ripple edit mode Ctrl+L Remove track-panning envelope Shift+P Auto crossfade mode X Insert Region R

Edit tool selection D Insert Marker M Normal edit tool Ctrl+D Insert Command Marker C Group selected events G Minimize all tracks ‘ Ungroup selected events U Insert Transition Number Pad: / ,

*, -

View commands

These commands refer to magnification of tracks and the events contained on them.

Description Keys Description Keys

Increase track height Ctrl+Shift+Up

Arrow

Decrease track height Ctrl+Shift+Down

Arrow

Zoom in time (incremental) Up Arrow Zoom in (audio only) Shift+Up Arrow

Zoom out time (incremental) Down Arrow Zoom out (audio only) Shift+Down Arrow

Zoom out Ctrl+Down Arrow

Zoom in Ctrl+Up Arrow

Miscellaneous commands

These commands allow you to access help related items and refresh the screen.

Description Keys Description Keys

Online help F1 Shortcut menu Shift+F10 What’s This? Help Shift+F1 Refresh screen F5 Change relative keyframe spacing

INTRODUCTION CHP. 1

Alt+drag keyframes

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Trimmer commands

These commands apply to the Trimmer window.

Note:

Many of the shortcuts that apply to the timeline (e.g. Cursor placement, Selection commands, etc.) also work in the Trimmer.

Description Keys Description Keys

Add Media From Cursor A toggles selected stream:

audio/video/both Add Media to Cursor Shift+A Next media file in Trimmer Ctrl+Tab Select from Cursor to start of project Transfer time selection from timeline to Trimmer after cursor Transfer time selection from timeline to Trimmer before cursor

Ctrl+Shift+A Previous media file in

Trimmer

Shift+T

Mouse scroll-wheel shortcuts

Description Keys

zoom in on timeline default mouse wheel behavior vertical scroll Ctrl+wheel horizontal scroll Shift+wheel

moves the cursor in small increments Ctrl+Shift+wheel move cursor one frame at a time Ctrl+Shift+Alt+wheel auto-scrolling press mouse wheel and move mouse left or right

Tab

Ctrl+Shift+Tab

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Cursor indications

The cursor in Vegas changes depending on which functions are available. In Windows, for example, the cursor changes to an hourglass when the system is busy.

Cursor Indicates Modifier Description

Standard none This is the standard arrow cursor that means events can be

dragged.

Trim none Position the cursor over the edge of an event and drag to trim

Slip Trim Alt Position the cursor over the edge of an event, press Alt, and drag to

Stretch Ctrl Position the cursor over the edge of an event, press Ctrl, and

Slip Alt Press Alt and drag on the middle of a clip to move the media

Trim Adjacent

Slide Ctrl+Alt Position the cursor over the middle of an event, press Ctrl+Alt, and

Slide Crossfade

Ctrl+Alt Position the cursor over the boundary between two adjacent

Ctrl+Alt Position cursor over a crossfade, press Ctrl+Alt, and drag on a

the event, shorter or longer.

trim. The media within the event moves with the edge. This is useful to preserve the beginning or end of an event while trimming.

drag the edge to stretch or compress it. This make the media in the event play slower or faster.

within the event without moving the event itself.

events, press Ctrl+Alt, and drag. Both events are edge trimmed simultaneously.

drag to simultaneously trim both ends.

crossfade to move it.

INTRODUCTION CHP. 1

Page 43

Audio Signal Flow

Audio event

Auxiliary send

Pre/Post vol.

ormalize even

Track fader

Pan track

Mute track

Track FX

Event ASR

Pre/Post vol.

Assignable FX send

Assignable FX

Input

Output

Chain

Mute

Bus Assign.

Bus Control

Master Fader

CHP. 1 INTRODUCTION

Mute

Hardware output

Page 44

Video Signal Flow

Multiple video tracks and compositing are only available in Vegas Video. This diagram shows the master order of how Vegas processes video information. The first step, Media Interpretation, happens when media files are added to a project. Global effects are applied to the entire project and can be used by dragging an effect onto the Video Preview window.

1. Media Interpretation (interlacing, alpha channel, etc.)

2. Media FX

3. Opacity Envelope

4. Velocity Envelope

5. Event FX & Pan/Crop

6. Transitions

7. Track Envelopes

8. Track FX

9. Track Motion

10. Parent/Child Compositing

11. Track Motion for Parent/Child Groups

12. Track Compositing

13. Video Output FX

11. Track Motion for Parent/Child Group

10. Parent/Child Compositing

9. Track Motion

12. Track Compositing

13. Video Output FX

8. Track FX

7. Track Envelopes

3. Opacity Envelope

4. Velocity Envelope

5. Event FX &

Pan/Crop

6. Transitions

2. Media FX

INTRODUCTION CHP. 1

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CHAPTER

Tutorial

Welcome to the Vegas tutorial. This chapter is designed to familiarize you with the basic features and tools of Vegas while creating an actual project.

Note:

advanced video features (e.g. multiple video tracks and compositing) found only in Vegas Video.

This tutorial will teach you how to place media files in the project, edit them, and save them together into a video file. The files you need to create this sample project are included on the program’s CD-ROM in the seconds. As you work, you will see how easy it is to master the powerful features that Vegas has to offer. Some of the techniques are only briefly demonstrated here, however, and many complex operations are described in a sentence or two.

There are nine separate sections or steps in the tutorial. Each step has a completed project file included on the CD-ROM. When you have worked through section 1. Voiceover narration, your project should look something like the included project file These complete project files can also be used as references if you find any of the explanations in this chapter to be unclear. If you make a mistake during the tutorial, just undo it by

pressing .

Getting the tutorial folder

Copy the sample media files to your hard drive. The tutorial folder is located on the Vegas CD-ROM.

To install the tutorial:

This tutorial demonstrates many

\tutorials

Ctrl + Z

folder. The video length is approximately forty

01_voiceover.veg

Insert the CD-ROM into the disc drive.

Locate the Tutorial folder on the CD-ROM and copy it to your hard drive.

CHP. 2 TUTORIAL

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After the folder is copied, start Vegas.

Note:

After copying the files to your hard drive, you may need to re-establish the source media file links. When opening a project file (*.veg) for the first time, Vegas may prompt you to find the media and re-link it to the project. All of the files will be READ ONLY when copied to you hard drive and you will be unable to save changes to them unless you change their properties.

The finished project is called

08_velocity.veg

and looks like the illustration below. The project is designed to highlight a few of the features Vegas Video. Some aspects of the project are fairly complex. Use the map below to go to the tutorial section that explains a particular technique.

4. Overlay titles 5. Pan/Crop motion

6. Fades

7. Track Motion

1. Voiceover narration

2. Music bed

3. Background video

8. Velocity

TUTORIAL CHP. 2

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Getting Started

This tutorial is designed to walk the beginner through a complete project, while at the same time demonstrating a few more advanced techniques. This means that some sections are more difficult than others. By following the instructions explicitly, you should be able to complete the project even if some of the concepts are unfamiliar. There are also a number of terms that may be strange if you have never used Vegas or if you are new to NLE (NonLinear Editing). Here are some resources outside of this chapter that may be useful.

• Map of the user interface: (pg. 29).

• Glossary of terms: (pg. 385).

• Hold the mouse pointer over items in the user interface to see ToolTips that display the names of the various controls.

• Press F1 and click on an item for a What’s This? Help definition.

1. Voiceover narration (01_voiceover.veg)

The first section of this project is a talking-head video that contains the main message. The quality of the audio in the source video ( a new voiceover (

voiceover.wav

), recorded in a studio. While the audio quality of the new

talkinghead.avi

voiceover is good, there is some unwanted material that needs to be edited out and removed. Finally, the voiceover needs to be synchronized with the video. While the concepts in this section are fairly easy to understand, the actual process of aligning the voiceover with the talking-head can be difficult. This is a surprisingly common technique used throughout the television and movie industry. The finished project can be used as a reference:

) is poor and needs to be replaced with

01_tutorial.veg

Using the Explorer window

The Explorer window allows you to view and access your media files without leaving the work area. This window works just like Windows Explorer.

To open the project folder in the Media Explorer:

Locate the

Select the

CHP. 2 TUTORIAL

\tutorial

folder on your hard drive.

\tutorial

folder so that its contents appear in the media list.

Page 48

Vegas Explorer window.

Once a media file is placed into the project, it is contained in an event.

Placing the video

In the media files list in the Explorer window, the media files needed for this project are displayed. We are going to place the

talkinghead.avi

Media files

file ( ).

To insert the

Move the cursor over the timeline.

Press to place the cursor at the beginning of the project.

Double-click the media file (

talkinghead

Ctrl + Home

video:

talkinghead.avi

) in the Explorer window. The video portion (stream) is placed on a video track and the audio portion (stream) is placed on an audio track at the cursor’s position.

timelineTrack Header

Video track

Audio track

Scribble Strip

(with track name)

empty portion of timeline

videoaudio eventevent

A media file as it appears on the timeline in Vegas is displayed in an event. In fact, there

TUTORIAL CHP. 2

Page 49

are two events on the timeline for the

talkinghead.avi

: a video event that serves as a window into the video stream of the media file and an audio event that serves as a window into the audio stream. Edits that are made to either of these events do not affect the source media file,

talkinghead.avi

, in any way.

It is a good idea to label the tracks using the Scribble Strip on the Track Header on the left side of the track. Double-click on the Scribble Strip for the video track and enter “Talkinghead.” You can name the audio track “Talkinghead narration,” but this track will eventually be deleted.

Displaying a Video Preview

The Video Preview window shows a preview of your project. To view and dock the Video Preview, from the

selected. Initially, the Video Preview may be hidden beneath one of the other windows at the bottom of the program in the docking area. Click the Video Preview tab to bring the window to the top so it can be seen.

menu, make sure

View

Video Preview

Video Preview tab

The Video Preview window can also be freely floated anywhere in the workspace.

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Playing back the video

To playback or preview a project:

Click the Play button ( ) on the Transport bar to start playing. Playback begins at the

current cursor position. If playback starts in the middle of the project, click the Play From Start button ( ) to start playback from the beginning.

Transport bar

Click the Stop button ( ) to stop playback.

Click the audio track’s Mute button ( ) to mute the video’s audio track.

Track mute

We are preparing to place and work with the new voiceover. Eventually, we will delete the original audio, but for now it can be used as a reference.

Placing the new voiceover

A new voiceover was recorded in a studio to replace the original audio stream from

talkinghead.avi

Note:

The new audio track could have been recorded straight into Vegas. For more information, see Recording Audio on page

223.

To insert the voiceover:

In the media list, select the file titled

Drag the file into the timeline below the lowest track. Vegas creates a new track for it.

Click either the Play ( ) or the Play From Start ( ) button to play the voiceover.

Click the Stop button ( ) to stop playback.

voiceover.wav

During playback, the narrator pauses to review notes and cough. These are the type of problems that will be fixed in the next section. The following is a map of the voiceover.

TUTORIAL CHP. 2

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Welcome to Sonic Foundry...

AB C DE

AB-

Um...

C-

This tutorial will...

D-

[Cough]

E-

Found in the new...

These errors (B and D) will be removed later. Also, during playback you probably saw that the new voiceover and the video are out of sync. Next, we will align the voiceover with the video.

Aligning the new voiceover with video

We will now position the voiceover so that it will be synchronized with the video. We will use the poor-quality audio as a reference. Since we can see the audio waveform, sychronizing is made easier.

To make it easier to see the audio events, we can zoom in on the project. There are a several ways to manage the project’s view. For more information, see Changing track height on page 180.

To align the voiceover:

Alt + 0

Press or click on the timeline so the Track View (timeline) takes focus of keyboard

commands.

Press and hold the keys.

Press either the or keys. You will toggle through different Track heights.

On the timeline, click and drag the mouse to select a time region.

CHP. 2 TUTORIAL

Ctrl + Shift

Original audio

voiceover

Page 52

Click either the Play ( ) or the Play From Start ( ) button to play just the time

selection. Click the Loop button ( ), on the Transport bar, to have playback loop continuously within the selection.

Watch the Video Preview window to see if the new voiceover is roughly in the correct

position. This will be fine-tuned later. Click the Stop button ( ) to stop playback.

Now would be a good time to double-click the Scribble Strip and rename the new track “Voiceover”.

Editing the voiceover

Selection bar

When you played back the new voiceover, you noticed the interruption errors that it contained. We will remove those errors and synchronize the remaining voiceover to the video. Vegas allows you to edit both time and events. We will use both methods to edit the voiceover.

Locking the original events

Time selection edits affect all tracks in the project unless a specific track is selected. Before we start editing the voiceover, we will lock the original audio and video events, which are our references, to prevent them from accidently being edited.

To lock events:

Select both the original video and audio events. Hold down the key while clicking

Ctrl

on each of these events. From the

TUTORIAL CHP. 2

menu, choose

Edit

Switches

and then

Lock

Page 53

Editing a time selection

By looking at the waveform, you will see where the “um” and cough occur. You will also see where the narrator is speaking. We will delete the “um” using time selection.

To make a time selection:

On the timeline, click and drag to make a time selection where the “um” occurs.

Click the Play button ( ) to play back the error to ensure that your time selection does

not include part of the voiceover that we need.

Increase or decrease the time selection by clicking and dragging an edge of the selection.

Once the time selection is made, choose

Delete

from the

menu, or press the

Edit

Delete

key to remove the “um.”

Next, we will split the event that contains the narrator’s cough and then delete the error.

Splitting an event using time selection

Splitting creates multiple events from an existing one. We will make a time selection that contains the narrator’s cough and split it from the audio, then delete the cough.

To split the event:

On the timeline, click and drag to make a time selection where the cough occurs.

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Click the Play button ( ) to play back the error to ensure that your time selection does

not include part of the voiceover that we need. Increase or decrease the time selection by clicking and dragging an edge of the selection.

Once the time selection is made, choose

Split

from the

menu, or press the key to

Edit

split the event.

One event Three events before the split after the split

Editing an event

We have the cough as a new event that can now be deleted.

To delete the cough:

Click the event with the cough.

From the

menu, choose

Edit

or press the key to remove the cough event.

Delete

After the edits have been made, the voiceover should look something like this:

"Welcome to Sonic Foundry Vegas.

This tutorial will introduce you to the powerful editing and post-production features...

...found in this new production

environment.”

Aligning the remaining voiceover events

With the voiceover edited, we need to align the remaining audio to the video. When you move events, they snap to other event edges. You may extend or shorten an event’s length by clicking and dragging its edges, which is useful for fine-tuning the alignment. Moreover, you may turn off snapping by choosing

TUTORIAL CHP. 2

Enable Snapping

from the

Options

menu.

Page 55

To align the remaining audio:

Select the event that begins “This tutorial will introduce you....”

Drag the event to the approximate point where the narrator is saying this. Use the

original audio as a reference. On the timeline, drag the mouse to select a time region.

Click either the Play ( ) or the Play From Start ( ) button to play just the time

selection. Click the Loop button ( ), on the Transport bar, to have playback loop continuously within the selection.

Watch the Video Preview window to see if the new voiceover is close.

Click the Stop button ( ) to stop playback.

Repeat the above steps for the event that begins “found in this new....”

Next, we will group the synchronized events with the video and delete the original audio from the project.

Unlocking the events

Earlier, the original video and audio events were locked to prevent changes from being made to them. Since the synchronizing work is done at this point, both of these events can be unlocked, permitting further modification.

To unlock an event:

Right-click on a locked event.

From the shortcut menu, select

Switches

and choose

Unlock

Grouping the new voiceover and video

The voiceover and video are synchronized, and we want to make sure that they stay together. The Grouping feature will do that for us. First, we will delete the original audio.

To group events:

Select the original audio’s track by clicking it.

Right-click and choose

The entire track is removed from the project and the new voiceover becomes the first track.

Press the key and click the video event and the voiceover events to select them.

CHP. 2 TUTORIAL

Ctrl

from the shortcut menu.

Delete

Page 56

From the

menu, choose

Edit

Group

and then

Create New

or press the key to group the

events.

Saving a Vegas project (*.veg)

A Vegas project file contains all of the information about a single project. However, it does not contain any media, but maintains the references to media files used in the project.

To save a project:

Select one of the following to save the Vegas project:

menu, choose

•From the

File

• Click the Save button ( ).

• Press on the keyboard.

Ctrl + S

The first time you save a project, the Save As dialog appears.

Save

Select the drive and folder where you want to store the project.

Type the project name “MyTutorial” in the

Click the Save button.

File Name

field.

The subsequent times you save the project, the above Save As dialog is bypassed, your existing file name is retained, and your project is updated to include any implemented changes.

TUTORIAL CHP. 2

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Summary

In this section, we replaced the audio from the original video with a cleaner audio track recorded in a studio. Here is what the project should look like at this point:

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2. Music bed (02_musicbed.veg)

Adding background music to the

talkinghead

event is very easy. Using a Track envelope, the volume can be lowered while the narrator speaks and then increased for the remainder of the video.

Placing the music bed

To add the music bed to the timeline:

Press the key to move the cursor to the beginning of the project.

In the media list, drag the

voiceover track). A new track is created with the Click the Play button ( ) to play the project.

Ctrl + Home

musicbed.wav

file to the timeline below the lowest track (the

musicbed

event on it.

After creating the new track, double-click the Scribble Strip and rename the track “Musicbed.”

Repositioning the voiceover

The music bed is considerably longer than the voiceover portion of the project. Eventually, we are going to add additional video to fill out the project. If you were creating this project from scratch, you might not know exactly where to position the voiceover, but you could roughly position it and fine tune it later. In the case of this pre-planned tutorial, however, we have a pretty good idea where everything needs to be: drag the voiceover group (talkinghead video and voiceover audio) so that the seconds.

talkinghead

event begins at approximately 4.700

Adding a volume envelope

The music bed’s volume needs to be lowered (ducked) as the narrator speaks. A track volume envelope can be used to lower the volume, and then raise it again when the narrator finishes speaking. We will use the voiceover’s starting and ending points as a reference for the envelope.

To add a volume envelope:

Click the

From the

musicbed

Insert

appears across the track.

TUTORIAL CHP. 2

track or event.

menu, choose

Audio Envelopes

and then choose

Volume

. A blue line

Page 59

Envelope Line

On the

musicbed

event, place the mouse pointer slightly ahead of the voiceover’s starting

point. The mouse pointer appears as a hand ( ). Right-click and choose

Add Point

from the shortcut menu. A square point appears on the

envelope line.

Repeat step 4 to add three more points on the line, for a total of four. The initial positions

of the points is unimportant.

Setting the volume envelope

Now we will use the points on the envelope to lower and raise the volume so that the music bed does not interfere with the voiceover. When you click or hover over a point, information about it appears.

To control the volume over time:

Drag the points so that they are positioned with two near the start of the voiceover, and

two at the end.

Drag the two inner points so that their volume level is at approximately -7.0 dB.

You can only set one point at a time or use the Envelope tool to select and move

multiple points at a time.

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Page 60

Set the outer points so that their volume level is at 0.0 dB.

Click the Play ( ) or the Play From Start ( ) button to play the project and check the

timing of the volume envelope. Adjust the outer and inner points along the timeline as needed.

Adding equalization (EQ) to the voiceover

Now that the music is mixed in, you can hear the voiceover has a strong bass quality to it. We will adjust that quality slightly with EQ on the first band.

To adjust the equalization:

Click the FX button ( ) on the voiceover’s track. The Track FX dialog appears.

You can set the EQ settings by typing in the appropriate field, dragging the slider, or clicking the arrow buttons between the slider and the setting field. The easiest way to adjust the EQ is to drag the numbers on the EQ map, however.

Set the

Close the Track FX dialog by clicking anywhere outside it.

Click the Play ( ) or the Play From Start ( ) button to play the project with the new

Frequency

Gain

Rolloff

to 160 Hz.

to -inf.

to 12 (dB/oct).

EQ settings.

TUTORIAL CHP. 2

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Summary

In this section, we added a music bed to a new track below the narration. The video and audio events from the last section were grouped together so they could be moved further down the timeline. The volume of the music was faded out (ducked) during the narration and back in after it was over. In addition, equalization was used to improve the tone of the voiceover. Here is what the project looks like so far:

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3. Background video (03_background.veg)

In this section, we are going to add some video clips to the background. The techniques we are going to focus on are inserting video, crossfading events, and adding transitions. This

section of the tutorial can only be completed with Vegas Video.

Creating a new video track

To add a new video event to a new video track:

Browse for a video file (

Drag the media file just below the

powderskier.avi

) in the Media Explorer.

musicbed

audio track. Position the new

powderskier

event at the beginning of the project.

Since the new video event is being dropped at a location that does not already contain a video track, a new video track containing a new video event is created.

Before During drag operation. After, with new event

and new track.

Multimedia projects can get very complicated, so it may be useful to rename the track at this point. Double-click the Scribble strip on the Track header and enter “Background”.

Crossfading to a new video event

One way to transition from one video scene to another is with a crossfade. This is a common technique where one scene fades out while another fades in.

To crossfade between two video events:

Browse for a video file (

Drag this file to the “Background” track.

Position the new event to the right of the first event (

mountains.avi

) in the Media Explorer.

powderskier

) overlapping by about a

second.

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Page 63

The overlapping region between the two events has an “X” across it, indicating a crossfade.

Before During drag operation. After, with new event

and crossfade at the overlap.

If you preview the project, you can see the smooth transition between the two. Repeat this procedure to add and automatically crossfade the remaining background video files:

beach.avi, fireweed.avi, boat.avi

, and

sunset.avi

. The total length of these events when overlapped should be the same as the music bed. The events can be repositioned by dragging them and trimmed slightly by dragging their edges. The background video track should look something like the illustration below.

Compositing, or video mixing, in Vegas occurs from the top down. Video in higher tracks obscures video in lower tracks. Since there are no video events above the this video is visible on the output. The later part of the

talkinghead

the

event over it. The talking head completely obscures the lower video events at

powderskier

event has a portion of

powderskier

event,

this point in the project.

Note:

At this point, the

talkinghead

event obscures much of the underlying background video, especially the

mountain

and

fireweed

events. In Tutorial 7, the Track Motion tool will be used to change this behavior. For now, you can preview the crossfades by soloing the background video track. Click the Solo button ( ) on the Background video track to isolate the video from this track.

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Inserting a transition effect

While almost all transitions in the movies and on television are either straight cuts (e.g. no transition) or some type of fade, Vegas also has a number of more interesting transition effects available. One of the easiest ways of doing this is to replace an existing crossfade.

To replace a crossfade transition:

From the

menu, choose

View

Transitions

to open the Transitions window. This window

may already be open by default. Click the Transitions tab in the docking area at the bottom of the workspace.

Locate the Iris transition effect.

Drag the Iris transition to the crossfade between the

event and the

beach

fireweed

event.

A few things happen when you do this. First of all, the track appears to have doubled in size. Second, all events before the transition are on an upper sub-track (known as the A roll) and all events after the transition are on a lower sub-track (known as the B roll). Third, between these two sub-tracks is a very narrow Transition roll, where the Iris transition is containted.

Compact track button

Iris transition effect

This change, from a simple track to a track composed of a number of rolls, is useful in some situations, but is not really necessary here. You can click the Compact Track button ( ) on the Track Header to hide this detail and simplify the track’s appearance. In Compact mode, the two events are split by a diagonal line and the portion of the track to the left of the transition is shifted slightly upward and the portion of the track to the right of the transition is shifted slightly downward.

Compact track button Iris transition effect

Before we move on to the next step, select both the events in the background video track (hold the key while clicking on each of these

musicbed

Ctrl

events). Right-click one of the selected events and, from the

New Group

TUTORIAL CHP. 2

. This will allow us to move all of these events as a unit in the next step.

event and all of the video

submenu, choose

Group

Create

Page 65

Summary

In this section, a second video track with six new video events was added to the project. The events were arranged such that they overlapped each other by about one second. This created an automatic crossfade at each of the overlapping sections. The final duration of all of the events was made to equal the duration of the

musicbed

crossfades was replaced with an Iris transition effect. Here’s what the project should look like so far:

event. Finally, one of the

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4. Overlay titles (04_overlay.veg)

In this step, we’re going to insert some logos, or titles, into the beginning and ending of the project. This section of the tutorial can only be completed with Vegas Video.

Repositioning the project

The core of the project (the voiceover, music, and background video) is finished. At this point, we want to add a flashy introduction and nice closing. To do this, all of the events in the current project need to be repositioned. One way to do this is to group all of the events together and drag them.

Using the Selection tool

To insert an introduction, it is necessary to move the contents of the project further down the timeline to make room for the new media. Earlier, when there were only four events in the project, selecting and moving everything

was a matter of holding down the key, selecting all of the events, and then dragging them. This becomes more and more difficult as the project becomes more complex.

Ctrl

To use the Selection tool:

Click the Lock Envelopes to Events button ( ) on the Toolbar. This makes the track

Volume envelope on the music bed track move with the Click the Selection Edit Tool button ( ) on the Toolbar.

Drag a rectangle encompassing all of the events to be moved.

Group all of these events: right-click one of the selected events and, from the

menu, select Drag the group of events down the timeline so that the

Create New

musicbed

event as it is moved.

Group

and

powderskier

events

begin at the 13.000 second mark.

Inserting the introduction splash

In this section, we are going to insert an introductory sequence at the beginning of the project. Parts of the introduction will overlay, or appear on top of, other video events.

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To insert the introduction:

Locate

Drag

implosion.avi

in the Media Explorer.

onto a blank location on the timeline below the lowest track so that a new track is created. This new event should start at the very beginning of the project.

Drag

vegas_logo.bmp

so that it ends at 13.000, when the begins. This means that it overlaps the

onto the same track. Position it

powderskier

event

implosion

event by approximately two seconds and an automatic crossfade is created.

Click in the Track Header on the left side of the new introduction track and drag the

track to the top of the timeline, above the talking head track. This is necessary if the logos are to appear as overlays on top of other video events.

The first track in the project now contains the introductory splash and logo. Double-click the Scribble Strip to rename the track. Like the

talkinghead

event that appears on top of the

background video, the introduction also appears over all lower tracks.

Track Header

To insert the overlay logo:

Drag the

corporate_logo.png

to a new track at the bottom of the timeline. Double-click the

Scribble Strip and rename the track “Overlay.” Drag the Track Header of the new overlay track to the very top of the timeline so that the

overlay track is track one, the introduction track is track two, and the talking head track is track three.

Position the

The default duration for an image event is five seconds. Drag the right edge of the

corporate_logo

event back to the 6.000 second point in the timeline. The duration of the

event so that it also ends where the

powderskier

event begins.

event is now seven seconds.

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The

corporate_logo

event overlaps a large portion of the underlying

implosion

and

vegas_logo

events. Events in upper tracks normally completely obscure lower tracks. In this case, however, most of the logo is transparent, so the underlying video shows through, and the

corporate_logo

Note:

appears to float over the rest of the project.

corporate logo

implosion

corporate_logo.png

The

crossfade

Vegas logo

image file used

Video Preview window preview. Notice that the corporate logo appears over the implosion event.

here is a *.png image file which was created in an image-editing program. It has a transparent Alpha Channel that is a part of the file that allows the background video to show through. For more information, see Creating titles from

images on page 249.

Duplicating events

To create a sense of a beginning, a middle, and an end to the project. We are going to duplicate both of the logos (the

corporate_logo

and the

vegas_logo

) and place the copies at the

end of the project.

To duplicate an event:

Press and hold the key.

Drag the

corporate_logo

Ctrl

event horizontally on the

track. This instantly creates an

Overlay

identical copy of the event.

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Page 69

Position the newly duplicated event so that it ends at the same time as the end of the

music bed. Drag the left edge of the event back to the 30.000 second mark. The duration of the event

is now roughly ten seconds.

Duplicate the

vegas_logo

event in the

Introduction

track and position it so that it ends with

the end of the music bed.

Adding sound effects to the introduction

We are going to add some sound effects to three new tracks at the bottom of the project.

To add a sound effect:

Locate the

Drag

the new Repeat with the remaining two sound effects:

introwarp.wav

introwarp

event.

audio file in Vegas Media Explorer.

to the timeline below the lowest track. This creates a new track with

•

introtabla.wav introgong.wav

•

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: start - 0.000.

: start - 3.500 (timed to match the action of the

implosion

event).

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Summary

All of the media files that are going to be used have now been inserted into the project. The events and tracks have all been repositioned to their final locations. The first track contains the transparent overlay video (

implosion

event) that fades into the product’s logo (

corporate_logo

event. The second track has an introductory splash

vegas_logo

event). That logo, as well as the corporate logo, is repeated at the end of the project. The next four tracks contain the earlier work: the voiceover, the background video, and the music bed. Finally, three audio events were added to three new tracks at the bottom of the project as sound effects for the introduction. Here’s what the project should look like so far:

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5. Pan/Crop motion (05_panning.veg)

The Pan/Crop tool can add dynamic motion to video or still image events. We’re going to use it here to animate the

corporate_logo

tool with many advanced features, such as keyframe animation. In this tutorial, we’re going to highlight the tool and show you how it is used, without explaining the complexity of keyframe animation. For more information, see Keyframe animation on page 305.

event at the end of the project. This is a powerful

To animate the second

Right-click on the second

corporate_logo

event:

event and choose

Pan/Crop Event

. The Pan/Crop

Event dialog opens. Resize the Crop area at the middle to roughly 168 X 126. Enter the numbers manually in

boxes on the left side of the dialog. The small Crop area will zoom in on the

Size

the

corporate_logo

Reposition the Crop area off of the left edge of the event at roughly -73 X 63 (as

pictured). Use the

event.

boxes on the left side of the dialog to enter the coordinates.

Center

Crop Area

Keyframe Controller

Sync Cursor

On the main workspace, click on a blank space on the timeline at 00:00:32.000 seconds

Keyframe

to move the cursor to that position. Use the left and right arrow keys to position the cursor more precisely. Watch the Time Display to the upper left of the timeline to find this position. Then, back in the Pan/Crop Event dialog, click the Sync Cursor button ( ). This button is on the very bottom of the dialog. This will position the cursor on the Keyframe Controller at 32.000 seconds to match the cursor on the timeline.

Drag the Crop area to the right edge of the event to 564 X 59. Use the Center boxes to

enter the coordinates. The Crop area will now animate, scrolling right across the

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corporate_logo event, ending at 32 seconds. Notice that a new, gray keyframe diamond has been created on the keyframe controller.

Keyframes

Click on the main workspace timeline at 33.000 seconds to navigate to that point. Click

the Sync Cursor button ( ) in the Pan/Crop Event dialog. Resize the Crop area to its original size (640 X 480) and position (320 X 240). A new

keyframe is created. The result is that the logo appears to zoom out and away between the two final keyframes.

Third keyframe

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Preview the project to see the results of this procedure (click the Play button below the timeline or press the Spacebar on your keyboard). Again, there is a lot going on here that we have only touched on briefly. If you are not familiar with keyframe animation techniques, much of this might be confusing. Even if you are familiar with keyframe animation, the Pan/ Crop Event tool is a complex and powerful tool. For more information, see Pan/Crop on page

241.

Summary

In this section, motion was added to the last

corporate_logo

event using the Pan/Crop Event tool. The logo flies in from the right across the screen and finally zooms back to its final position. All of this was accomplished using keyframe animation techniques in the Pan/ Crop Event dialog.

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6. Fades (06_fades.veg)

Fading, whether fading the volume in and out on an audio event or fading to and from black on a video event, is a very easy process in Vegas.

To fade into a video event:

Position the cursor at the upper-left corner of the implosion

event. The cursor changes to a fade icon. Drag the corner towards the center (right) of the event to

about 0.500 seconds.

The blue diagonal line that appears represents a fade in from black that lasts half of a second.

To fade the volume (gain) of an audio event:

Position the cursor at the upper-right corner of

the introgong event. The cursor changes to a fade icon.

Drag the corner left towards the center of the

event to about 11.000 seconds.

This time, a curved white line appears. The audio will smoothly and gradually fade out. This effective technique is used repeatedly (seven times) throughout this project:

• Fade out of the introtabla

• Fade in and out of the first

• Fade in and out of the

• Fade out from the first

• Fade into the last

audio event.

talkinghead

vegas_logo

corporate_logo

event. event (very briefly). event for a duration of about one second.

event for a duration of about three seconds.

Summary

In this easy tutorial section, instant fades, both audio and video, were created to fine tune and polish the project.

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7. Track Motion (07_trackmotion.veg)

Another method of adding motion to video or still-image events in Vegas is to use the Track Motion tool. This feature adds motion to an entire track and can be used to create picturein-picture effects and scrolling motion. In this project, the Track Motion tool is going to be used to spin the talking head out of the way and into a picture-in-picture, revealing the previously covered background video, specifically the mountain event.

To create a picture-in-picture:

Click the Tra ck Mo t io n button ( ) on the

head

track.

On the timeline in the main workspace, click at

talking

Track Motion button

the 19.400 second mark to move the cursor to this position. Use the left and right arrow keys to position the cursor more precisely. 19.4000 corresponds to where the first part of the speaking ends. The exact time may be slightly different in your recreation of this project.

Click the Sync Cursor button ( ) at the bottom of the Track Motion dialog. This

moves the Keyframe controller cursor to the same position in time as the main cursor. Since this tool operates on the entire track (as opposed to the Pan/Crop Event tool, which only applies to one event), you probably need to zoom in on the Keyframe controller to reveal more detail. Click the Zoom In button to the lower right of the Keyframe controller until only about 22 seconds of time are showing.

Click the Add Keyframe button ( ). The keyframe that is created at this point has the

same attributes as the first keyframe at 0.000. Since there is no change between these two keyframes, no animation will occur between them.

keyframe

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Move the cursor one-half second down the Keyframe Controller.

Resize the Track Motion Area to 180 X 135. Enter these values into the

boxes on the

Size

left side of the Track Motion dialog. The numbers do not have to be precise. Reposition the Track Motion Area to 102 X 162 (lower-left corner). Use the

Center

to enter these values.

keyframe

Keyframe Controller

In the one-half second between the two keyframes, the

talkinghead

event will quickly shrink from full screen to a smaller window in the lower-left corner, revealing the underlying background video. In this project, two more details were added:

boxes

• Select the Shadow option on the Keyframe Controller

in the Track Motion dialog. This adds a drop shadow behind the track’s contents. The Track Motion Tool and dialog can also be used to create a shadow behind the corporate logo track.

• The talking head track is also spun around. Click the

last keyframe on the Position bar on the Keyframe controller and set the Angle to -360°. The track makes one complete rotation in the half-second between the two final keyframes.

Summary

In this section, the Track Motion tool was used to create an animated picture-in-picture effect of the talking head narration. Keyframe animation techniques were used, and a drop shadow was added behind the insert picture for emphasis. As a result of these changes, the previously hidden background video was revealed.

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8. Velocity (08_velocity.veg)

Speeding up and slowing down a video event in Vegas can be done a number of ways. One of the easiest is to use a Velocity envelope. This feature is used to speed up the powderskier and then dramatically slow her down again towards the end of the event.

To change the velocity:

Right-click the

Velocity

Drag the line up. A ToolTip appears telling you the

. A horizontal blue line appears on the event. This is the envelope.

powderskier

event and, from the

Insert/Remove Envelope

menu, choose

percent speed increase. Release the line to set the speed increase to approximately 160%.

Move the cursor to the 16.000 second mark in the

project above the

powderskier

event and double-click

the envelope. This adds a point (node) to the line that serves as a type of keyframe. Double-click further down the line to add another point. Reposition the new point below

the first point you added. The ToolTip displays the percentage again. Set this point to about 28%. The entire line after this point moves. The event now plays at 160% speed until it gets to the pair of points, where the video slows to 28% speed.

Drag the right edge of the powderskier event left to 19.000 seconds. Trim the left edge of

the

mountain

event to be flush with the end of the

powderskier

event. This needs to be done to keep the duration of the event consistent with the velocity changes. If this was not done, the event would run out of media to play back and would display a freeze frame after 19.000 seconds project time.

Summary

In this section, the

powerskier

envelope was animated so that the video started out playing very quickly and then dramatically slowed down near the end.

CHP. 2 TUTORIAL

event’s speed was changed using a Velocity envelope. The

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9. Rendering the project as an *.avi

Rendering refers to the process of converting the Vegas project into one file and formatting it for the desired playback method: media player, Internet streaming media, CD-ROM, etc. The Vegas project (*.veg) itself is not altered during the rendering process.

The following procedure is broken into two sections: setting the format and applying compression.

Setting the format

Multimedia video files can be saved in a number of formats, such as *.rm or *.mov.

To select a file format:

From the

Select the drive and folder where you want to save the rendered project.

Type a new name in the

In the

menu, choose

File

Save as type

Render As

File name

. The Render As dialog appears.

field, if necessary.

drop-down list, select

Video for Windows (*.avi)

Click the Save button.

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Applying compression

Compressing video files is an important part of creating a movie. In video, the program that compresses the video is called a codec. It is important in determining the quality and size of the final media file.

To configure the compression:

On the Render As dialog, click the

Custom button. The Custom Settings dialog appears.

Click the

by Radius

Format list Click the OK button to close the Custom

Video

(or

Indeo Video

tab, select

Cinepak Codec

) from the Video

Settings dialog. Click the Save button on the Save As

dialog.

A status bar appears in the lower-left portion of Vegas and a dialog pops up displaying the progress of the render. Upon completion of the render, your new media file is ready for distribution and playback.

Note:

You may cancel the rendering process by clicking the Cancel button ( ) on the status bar.

Status bar

Cancel button

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TUTORIAL CHP. 2

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CHAPTER

Getting Started

Vegas is a new way of creating multimedia productions. Whether you are an experienced multimedia author or a budding novice, the powerful features and capabilities of Vegas are organized to increase both your creativity and your productivity. The following chapter summarizes the basic functions and operations of Vegas.

Projects

The process of creating a multimedia production can be an extremely complicated undertaking, involving hundreds of shots, takes, voiceovers, music beds, and special effects. Organization quickly becomes a critical issue in this process. In Vegas, organization is handled by a small project file (*.veg) that saves the relevant information about source file locations, edits, cuts, insertion points, transitions, and special effects. This project file is not a multimedia file, but is instead used to create (render) the final file when editing is finished.

The greatest advantage of working with projects is not the organizational benefits, however, but the fact that you are working on, and editing, a project file, and not the original source files. When you copy, cut, paste, trim, and otherwise edit your movie, the process is nondestructive. You can edit without worrying about corrupting your source files. This not only gives you a strong sense of security, but it also gives you the freedom to experiment.

To create a new project:

From the

automatically be started for you. Enter your project settings on the various tabs:

CHP. 3 GETTING STARTED

menu, choose

File

. The first time you run Vegas, a new project will

New

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• Summary - Enter any relevant information

and reminders about your project.

• Audio - Set up the basic audio settings.

• Video - Select the format and other video

parameters. For more information, see Project

properties - Video tab on page 256.

• Ruler - Choose the way the Ruler is

delineated (beats, seconds, etc.).

Note:

The easiest way to set the often complex properties on the Video tab is to select a Template that matches your media (e.g. NTSC DV (720x480, 29.970fps)).

Click OK.

From the

menu, choose

File

Save

. Enter a

, browse for a location, and click the

name

button to save your project (*.veg file).

The project settings determined in step 3 can be changed at any time while you are working on a project. From the

menu, choose

File

Properties

to change any of these settings. These settings automatically determine the overall quality of the rendering (creation) of your final video. Carefully setting up the properties at the beginning of your project will save a significant amount of time later. You can override these settings when you are ready to render the final movie.

Determining the proper video settings

Since the only way to maintain 100% quality is to match the project’s properties to the final output properties, video files that have been captured to your hard disk from your camcorder already contain all of the necessary project information. This procedure is useful for projects that will eventually be sent back to a camcorder (e.g. DV In/DV out) at full frame size and rate. Very different settings would be used for different types of projects, such as highly compressed streaming video.

Save

To determine a project’s properties from a video file:

From the

In the Project Properties dialog, click the Match Media Settings button ( ).

Browse for a file that has been captured from your camcorder. This file should be

menu, choose

File

Properties

unaltered and unedited in any way. Click OK.

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Vegas will automatically detect the frame size, frame rate, pixel aspect ratio, and field order of this file and set the Project Properties to match. In the Project Properties dialog, enter a name for a Template and click the Save button ( ) to save this information for future use and select the

Start all new projects with these settings

if most of your projects will typically use

these settings.

Saving the project

When you save your work, it is saved in a project file (*.veg). Project files are not a rendered media files. The first time a project is saved you will have two options. The one you select will affect the project’s file size and its portability.

Format Extension Definition

Vegas Project *.veg Saves all of the information about a single project. This file format does not contain any

media. It saves the references to media files used in the project and project information, such as track FX, envelopes, bus assignments, and output properties.

Vegas Project with External Media

To save the project:

Select one of the following save methods:

*.veg

When the be copied into the same folder as the project file. This option makes transporting the project easy and convenient.

Copy all media with project

is selected, all of the media in the project will

• From the

menu, choose

File

Save

•Click the Save button ( ).

• Press on the keyboard.

Ctrl + S

The first time you save a project, the Save As dialog appears. In subsequent saves, the above dialog is bypassed, your existing file name is retained, and your project is updated to include any implemented changes.

Select the drive and folder where you want to store the project.

Type the project name in the

Click Save.

File Name

field.

Renaming a project (using Save As...)

After you have been working with your project, you may use the

menu to save a copy of a project with a new name. This is very useful for backing up

File

Save As

different versions of a project. For more information, see Creating a copy of a project (using Save

As...) on page 324.

CHP. 3 GETTING STARTED

command in the

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Capturing video media

Getting video media onto your computer can be more complex than simply recording an audio file. The Vegas Video software package therefore includes an independent Video Capture application that can be used to capture video from you camcorder or other video source to your computer. To run this application, click the Launch Video Capture button ( ) on the toolbar in Vegas. Video Capture is only included with Vegas Video.

Files and events

The objects you work with in Vegas are referred to as media files and events. Tr ac ks are timeline containers where events are placed and arranged.

• Files are objects that are stored on your hard disk. In Vegas, you will mostly be working

with media files, such as music and video files. Vegas does not operate on, nor change these files. Files can be accessed from Vegas Explorer.

• Events are periods of time on the timeline in Vegas that act as windows into media files,

either whole or in part. When dragging a media file onto the timeline, you are automatically creating an event that contains that file’s contents. An event can contain video, audio, still images, and some special generated media. The event window may contain only a small portion of a much larger media file. A single media file can be used repeatedly to create any number of different events, since each event can be trimmed independently.

The original media file.

An event trimmed from the original media file.

The event as it appears in Vegas.

Media files (e.g. *.wav or *.avi) are on your computer’s hard drive and can be accessed from Windows Explorer or from Vegas’ Explorer. Events contain media files, are the most basic unit of editing in Vegas, and can be found on the timeline or in the Media Pool.

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What type of media can you use?

Extension Definition

*.wav Standard audio format used on Windows-based computers *.avi Standard audio/video format used on Windows-based computers *.aif Standard audio format used on Macintosh computers *.mov, *.qt Quicktime standard audio/video format used on Macintosh computers *.bmp Standard graphic format used on Windows-based computers *.mp3 Highly compressed audio file *.gif 256 index color, lossless image and animation format widely used on the

Internet *.jpg True color, lossy Internet image format *.png True color or indexed color, lossy or lossless Internet image format *.tga True color, lossless image format that supports Alpha Channel transparency *.w64 Sonic Foundry proprietary Wave64 audio file that does not have a limited file

size (unlike Windows .wav files that are limited to ~2GB) *.psd Adobe Photoshop proprietary image format (flattened)

MPEG (*.MPG) files can also be used with the full version of Vegas Video.

Finding media files to use

Media files can be located and inserted into a Vegas project by using the Vegas Explorer window, clicking the Explorer.

menu and choosing

File

or by dragging directly from Windows

Open

Vegas Explorer window

The media Explorer window in Vegas is similar to the Windows file management Explorer. You can expand and collapse drives and folders in the tree view. The contents of selected drives and folders appears in the list view.

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Delete selected items Create new folder

Refresh view

Move up tree

Tree view

Note:

If you cannot see the Explorer window,

Add to favorites folder

List view

it may be under another window. Click the Explorer tab at the bottom of the workspace to display the window. If you do not see the

View

Explorer tab, from the

Explorer

to display it.

menu, choose

To find media using the Explorer window:

Play preview button

Stop preview button

Auto-preview button

Browse for Media on Web button

Change view button

Vegas windows are dockable. To access a hidden window, click its tab to bring it forward.

From the drop-down list or tree view, choose the drive or folder

where the media is located.

Note:

Vegas is preset to display all supported file types. However, you may change the list view to display all files within a selected drive or folder.

From the list view, you may place the file into your project by dragging it or double-

clicking it.

Using the Open command

You may also find media using the

menu and choosing

File

Open

To find media using the Open command:

From the

GETTING STARTED CHP. 3

menu, choose

File

or click the Open button ( ) on the Toolbar.

Open

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Browse for the media’s location in the Open dialog by doing one of the following:

• Selecting it from the

Look in

drop-down list.

• Double-clicking drives and folders in the list view.

• Typing the file’s path in the Select the media format from the

Click

to automatically place the file in the project.

Open

File name

field.

Files of type

drop-down list.

Previewing a media file

Once you have located media files, you may preview them before placing them in your project. The Explorer window has a mini-transport bar with Play, Stop, and Auto Preview buttons ( ). When you preview a file, its stream is sent to the Mixer window’s preview bus (for audio files) or to the Video Preview window (for video files).

To preview a media file:

Select an event in the list view.

Click the Play button ( ) to listen to the file.

Click the Stop button ( ), select a different file, or place the file in the project to stop

previewing to the file.

Note:

click the Auto Preview button ( ) on the Explorer window’s transport bar.

To automatically preview selected files,

When a media file is placed on a track, one or more events are created that contain, or reference, the entire media file. Each track can contain more that one event. Events can be trimmed to contain only part of a larger media file.There are two basic types of tracks: audio and video.You may place events on separate tracks, or place all events of a similar media type (audio or video) on the same track:

Multiple audio tracks with multiple events

CHP. 3 GETTING STARTED

Single audio track with multiple events

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Video tracks have different controls and features, but video events and tracks behave in a similar way to audio events and tracks. If a video file has associated audio, Vegas automatically creates a new track and places the video’s audio on it as an audio event.

Using the Media Pool

Media files, both video and audio, tend to be the largest files on your hard drive. It is therefore not always easy to move them around and it may not be practical to store multiple copies of these files. These files can be dragged into the Media Pool in Vegas to organize them before any editing actually begins. From

menu, choose

View

the not already visible. Adding a media file onto a track will also automatically add it to the Media Pool. Information about individual clips is visible in this window.

• You can control the information that is displayed by rightclicking on the Media Pool and choosing submenu menu containing a list of the available fields.

• Specific fields can be hidden by dragging them off of the Media Pool window.

• The data fields are listed along the top of the Media Pool window and can be reordered by dragging them. Click on the tabs along the top to instantly organize or sort the data according to that criterion.

• The Comments field can be used to add your own annotations to a file’s entry in the Media Pool. Double-click the field to enter text. This information is saved with the project and is not saved with the media file itself.

• Each entry acts as a pointer to the actual source file. Video, audio, image files and generated media can all be organized in the Media Pool. Files that are being used in the project (on the timeline) are automatically inserted into the Media Pool.

Media Pool

Two events that contain the video (top) and audio (bottom) streams from a single multimedia video file; each event is inserted on a separate track.

to open this window if it is

. This opens a

View

Right-click Media Pool menu.

Button Name Description

Remove All Unused Media From Project Removes all files in the Media Pool that are not actively being

Remove Selected Media From Project Removes the selected media file from the project, but does not

GETTING STARTED CHP. 3

used (not inserted on any tracks and the Use Count = 0).

delete the source file from your hard disk.

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Button Name Description

Remove All Unused Media From Project Removes all files in the Media Pool that are not actively being

Edit Media FX Used to add or modify effects at the media file level. All instances

Start Preview Plays a preview of the selected media file.

Stop Preview Stops the currently playing preview.

Auto Preview Automatically previews selected media files.

Views Toggles between the simplified List view and the Detailed views.

used (not inserted on any tracks and the Use Count = 0).

of this media file in a project (i.e. events) will have these effects applied to them.

The Media Pool can also be used to control some of the more advanced aspects of individual files and events. For more information, see Pan/Crop on page 241.

Replacing media in events in the Media Pool

The Media Pool contains and organizes events in your project. Since events are windows into, or containers for, media files, replacing the contents of an event is possible. When changing the media file that an event contains, every occurrence of the event on the timeline is updated with the same contents.

To replace media in an event in the Media Pool:

Right-click an event in the Media Pool.

Choose

In the

Replace

Replace Media File

from the shortcut menu.

dialog, browse for and select the file that you want to replace the

current file. Click the Open button.

Audio Peak files (*.sfk)

Audio Peak files (*.sfk) are special proprietary files that are used by Vegas (and other Sonic Foundry applications) to save information about an audio file’s waveform. When an audio file or a video file with an audio track is inserted into Vegas, the audio event is displayed graphically as a waveform (or two parallel waveforms for a stereo audio file). These waveforms take time to process and draw. Depending on the speed of your computer and the complexity of a project, this process can significantly delay the opening of a project or audio file. The solution to this potential problem is the Sonic Foundry Peak file (*.sfk), which saves this waveform information, dramatically cutting down on loading time. The name of the *.sfk file is derived from the name of the source media file. For example, when

thunder.wav is opened in Vegas, the companion peak file that is generated is named thunder.sfk. These files are safe to delete at any time, but Vegas will have to regenerate

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them the next time the media file is opened. Audio Peak files are saved to the same folder as the source media. If the source media folder is read-only (e.g. a CD-ROM), the files will be saved to a temporary directory.

Normally, Vegas automatically handles Peak files, but there may be times when you need to recreate the Peak files manually. To do this, from the

A related concept is the Sonic Foundry Audio Proxy File (*.sfap) that is used for the audio stream of some types of video files. For more information, see Audio proxy files (*.sfap0) on page 378.

Event Basics

Events are the most basic objects in a project in Vegas. An event is something that happens in time, has a specific duration, and can be video or audio. In Vegas, there are two primary types of events: audio events and video events.

Audio events are created from audio files on your computer (e.g. *.wav, *.au, or *.mp3) or can be a part of a video file (e.g. *.avi). An audio event can contain an entire audio file or only a portion of it. It can be modified with effects to change many of its characteristics, such as speed, volume and equalization. Audio events can be mixed with other audio events.

Video events are created from video files captured to your computer (typically *.avi, *.mov, *.qt) or images (*.bmp, *.jpg, *.png or *.tga). A video event can be the whole file or a small section of that file. It can be modified with filters to change many of its characteristics, such as speed, color, and size. Video events can overlay other video events and are visual elements that appear on top of a background video, image or color. Overlays can be video files, still images, titles or other graphics and logos. Vegas can also generate titles that are contained in an event on the timeline and in the Media Pool.

menu, choose

View

Rebuild Peaks

You can see from the timeline ruler above that the duration of the event is six seconds. Within the event, many things can happen. This is a rather complex event, with many envelopes (blue lines) and effects modifying it; typical events may not be quite this complex. The important concept to understand about this and other events is that it is not a set shot or scene, but is instead a period of time filled with some type of media. It could be the video

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clip of a boy jumping into the water, a six-second freeze frame, or a twenty-four-second source video sped up to fit into the six second event. The event is a window into the media and is distinct from the media file itself.

Video event envelopes are not available in all versions of Vegas. There are a number of ways to work with events once they have been placed in your project.

The following sections describe basic event-editing techniques.

Inserting media

Media files may be inserted into your project by double-clicking them or by dragging them. Either method places the media file in an event in its entirety in the Track View. After the file is placed, it becomes an event along the project’s timeline. At this point, the contents of the event and the media file are identical.

Drag-and-drop

You can create a new track by dragging a media file to a blank area on the timeline and dropping it in place. Vegas tracks can contain multiple events, so you can place different events next to each other on a track. Video and audio events cannot be mixed on the same track.

To place multiple events:

Select multiple events in the Media Explorer or the Media Pool. Select a range of

adjacent media files by holding down the key and clicking the first and last files in the range or select files that are not adjacent by holding down the key and clicking individual files.

Shift

Ctrl

Right-click and drag the files to the Track View (timeline).

Before you drop the files, select a placement option from the pop-up

menu.

• Add Across Tracks

• Add Across Time

• Add As Takes

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You will see one event on the track. The other events are listed at takes “beneath” the

the topmost event.

For more information, see Working with multiple recorded takes on page 234.

• Video Only and Audio Only allow you to isolate either the video or audio, and add that

stream from a multimedia file either across tracks, across time or as takes.

Note:

A left-click drag-and-drop automatically inserts the events across time. The various modes can also be cycled through by right-clicking (without releasing the left mouse button) while performing the drag-anddrop operation.

Double-clicking an event

This method creates a new track and places the event at the cursor’s position along the timeline. Once the events are placed, you can move them from one track to another or change their position on the timeline.

Drag-and-drop or double-clicking a video event

Video event placement is the same as placing an audio event; drag-and-drop controls timeline placement and double-clicking places the event at the cursor’s position. Media files with video frequently include associated audio. When you insert a media file into the timeline, the associated audio is automatically inserted into a separate audio track below the video track. The two associated events are grouped together and behave as a single unit when moved or otherwise edited.

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Crossfades

If two events are inserted on the same track and occupy the same space, the events (both video and audio) can be made to automatically crossfade. For more information, see Crossfades

on page 298.

When inserting multiple events across time, the events may be set to automatically crossfade one into the next.

To set the duration of an automatic crossfade:

From the

Click the Editing tab.

Select the

Set the duration of the automatic crossfade in the Cut to overlap conversion section of

Options

Automatically overlap multi-selected media when added

menu, choose

Preferences.

option.

the dialog by entering an Amount in milliseconds (1000ms = one second).

To enable the automatic crossfade feature, from the

Crossfades

is selected.

Options

menu, make sure

Automatic

Moving events along the timeline

Events may be moved along the timeline individually or as a group. The left edge of an event is its starting point. Therefore, where the left edge lines up on the ruler determines when the event starts.

Events may overlap each other or be placed on top of each other. You may crossfade overlapping events automatically or with envelopes.

Moving a single event

You can move an event along the timeline within a track or move it to a different track.

To move an event:

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Select the event by clicking on it. The event is highlighted in the track’s color.

Drag the event along the timeline.

If you move the event along the original track’s timeline, the event’s appearance (color) remains the same.

However, you may move the event to a different track. When you do, the event appears as a simple outline and you will see its original track and position on the timeline. Once you release the mouse, the event will assume the new timeline position and track color.

Original track position

New track and position

Release the mouse to place the event.

Moving multiple events

You can move multiple events along the timeline within a track or move them to a different track, similar to the previous procedure. Selected events do not need to be within the same track. You may select events on different tracks and move them as a group along the

timeline. Use the key, the key, or the Selection Edit tool ( ) to select multiple

Ctrl

Shift

events and drag them as previously outlined. For more information, see Selecting multiple events on page 111.

To more precisely move an event, your can nudge it by clicking on the event on the timeline and pressing “4” and “6” on the number pad on your keyboard to bump it one small unit at a time. The amount of movement caused by each nudge is determined by how far the timeline is zoomed in or out. If you zoom in far enough, each nudge can move the event one frame of video at a time or even less.

You can arrange your video events on a single video track or on as many separate tracks as you like. The audio portion of a video clip is inserted into the timeline as a separate audio event. The video and audio events are connected as a single unit (grouped) however, and may be moved together. Right-click either of the grouped events and choose

Ungroup

to split the video from the audio. Video events are placed on video tracks. If a media file has associated audio, Vegas creates an audio track below the video track.

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Video event with frame numbers

Video’s audio event

Video track

Once the event is in place, you may move the video event along the timeline, delete its audio, and preview the event in the Video Preview window. For more information, see Drag-

and-drop or double-clicking a video event on page 92.

Moving a video event

Moving a video event is identical to moving an audio event. However, a video event may be slightly different in that it may have audio grouped with it. If a video event has audio, Vegas is preset to group the video event with its audio when it is placed. As a result, the video event and its audio will always be moved together along the project’s timeline.

To move a video event:

Place the mouse pointer on the video event or its associated audio.

Drag the events to the desired starting point on the timeline.

Release the mouse when the events are in the desired location.

Note:

Ungroup a video and audio by rightclicking either event. From the shortcut menu, choose

Group,

and then

Clear

Removing the video’s audio

As mentioned earlier, video events with audio are placed together in your project. However, you may delete the original audio completely or replace it with new audio. This feature is nice for redubbing poor-quality audio.

To remove the audio:

Right-click either the video or its audio event to display a shortcut menu.

From the shortcut menu, choose

You can also access delete events by pressing the Delete key or, from the

Delete

CHP. 3 GETTING STARTED

Delete

menu, choose

Edit

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Track Basics

Multiple video tracks are only available in the video versions of Vegas. The height of individual tracks can also be resized by dragging their borders on the Track header. In the example below, the main video track is fairly large to show the details of the scene while the two tracks above it, which are overlay titles, have been resized to be smaller. For more

information, see Changing track height on page 180.

Once an event is placed on a track, Vegas automatically displays track controls that you can use to affect the event or events contained within the track. The following illustration shows the track controls for an audio track. Multiple busses are only available in Vegas Video

and Audio, and not in the LE versions.

Track number

View

Scribble Strip

Bus

Arm for Record

Track Effects

Mute

Solo

Scrolling and zooming

Scrolling and zooming in the workspace is simple.

• Click the scroll bar arrows in Vegas to move up and down the tracks or move forward and back along the timeline.

• Drag the scroll bars to move up and down the tracks or move forward and back along the timeline.

•Click the Zoom tools ( ) to reveal more or less of the timeline.

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• Drag the edge of the Scroll Thumb, found on the scroll bar, to zoom or press the up ( ) and down ( ) arrow keys.

•Click the Zoom Edit Tool ( ) button or, from the Edit menu, choose Editing Tool and then choose Zoom. In this mode, drag on the timeline to draw a rectangle that defines the zoom region.

Vegas also has mouse scroll wheel support:

• The default behavior of the Wheel is to zoom horizontally.

• Shift+Wheel scrolls horizontally (through time).

• Ctrl+Shift+Wheel moves the trackview cursor in small increments.

• Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Wheel moves the cursor in one-frame increments.

• Pressing the mouse wheel activates auto-panning.

Zooming directly controls the accuracy of your editing. Each video event has thumbnail representations of the frames within the event. Depending on how far you have zoomed in on a video event, this thumbnail can be one image representing the entire event, or every frame can be displayed as a thumbnail. At the bottom of the event is a small box with the frame offset, time or timecode in it that indicates the frame shown in the image thumbnail. The small black arrow marks the exact position of that frame in time. When the workspace is zoomed in far enough, each thumbnail is numbered and represents an actual frame in the source video file. At intermediate zoom levels, marks between the frame numbers show the location of intermediate frames. These frame marks are not visible at lower magnifications.

Some frames are marked by black triangles. Most frames are not represented.

Every black triangle represents a frame and the thumbnails represent the numbered frames.

Every thumbnail represents a single, numbered frame.

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Track number and color

This area identifies the track’s order number in a multitrack project. You may rearrange the track order by dragging selected tracks up or down within the Track Header.

Track color

Change the color by right-clicking and choosing

Track Color, and then selecting the color you prefer.

View buttons

These buttons control the track’s appearance (size) in the Track View.

Minimized

Normal

Maximized

Track height can also be controlled by simply dragging the lower edge.

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Track FX button

This button accesses Noise Gate, equalization (EQ), and compression FX controls for audio tracks. For more information, see Using Audio FX on page 193. On video tracks, it accesses the video filters, effects, and plug-ins. For more information, see Using a video filter on page 264.

Noise Gate FX

Equalization FX

Compression FX

Bus assignment

Multiple busses are only available in Vegas Video and Audio, and not in the LE versions. This button allows you to assign an audio track to a specific output bus. This option is available for projects being mixed for multiple stereo busses. (A bus is where various track signals are mixed together and output.) For more information, see Assigning an audio track to a bus on page

189.

Select a bus for playback

Arm for Record button

This button allows you to prepare an audio track for recording. You may record directly into tracks. A track is ready when you see the recording meter appear on it. For more information,

see Setting up to record into audio tracks on page 192.

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100

Mute button

Solo button

This button enables you to temporarily disable playback of the track, so you can focus on other tracks. When a track is muted, it appears grayed out on the Track View.

Before muting the track After muting the track

This button isolates a track’s events for playback, while muting the other tracks. If there is only one track of a certain type, for example only a single video track, the button is unnecessary and may not be displayed.

Before applying Solo to the track After applying Solo to the track

Scribble Strip

This area lets you label a track. Double-click in the strip and type the track’s name or rightclick anywhere in the Track Header and choose

Rename

type the track’s name. If you do not see the Scribble Strip, change the track’s height. For more information, see Changing track height on page 180.

Scribble Strip

Double-click and type name

GETTING STARTED CHP. 3

from the shortcut menu and then

Sony Vegas Audio, Vegas User Guide

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Chapter Overview

Table of Contents

Introduction

Welcome to Sonic Foundry Vegas™

System requirements

Minimum requirements

Technical Support

About this version of Vegas

Installing Vegas

Starting Vegas

Using the shortcut Vegas

Using the Start button

Registration

Registering online

Registering by telephone

Registering online from another computer

Using the online Help

Accessing the Help

Main Help window

What’s This? Help

Tip of the Day

PDF manual

Help on the Web

Overview

Main window

Toolbar

Marker bar

Ruler

Track Header

Track View

Transport bar controls

Status bar

Scrub control

Window Docking Area

Explorer window - Alt+1

Trimmer window - Alt+2

Mixer window - Alt+3

Edit Details window - Alt+4

Plug-ins window - Alt+5

Video Preview window - Alt+6

Media Pool window - Alt+7

Transitions window - Alt+8

Keyboard command reference

Project file commands

Window view commands

Edit commands

Cursor placement commands

Selection commands

Playback commands

Event commands

Track commands

View commands

Miscellaneous commands

Trimmer commands

Mouse scroll-wheel shortcuts

Cursor indications

Audio Signal Flow

Video Signal Flow

Tutorial

Getting the tutorial folder

Getting Started

1. Voiceover narration (01_voiceover.veg)

Using the Explorer window

Placing the video

Displaying a Video Preview

Playing back the video

Placing the new voiceover

Aligning the new voiceover with video

Editing the voiceover

Locking the original events

Editing a time selection

Splitting an event using time selection

Editing an event

Aligning the remaining voiceover events

Unlocking the events

Grouping the new voiceover and video