Anyone editing RED in Vegas these days?

[Mark Holmes]

Wow - no posts in this subforum for months - just curious - is anyone using Vegas to edit r3ds these days?
I have a feeling, though, that this forum will light up once the Scarlet Fixed is released....

[Brian Kaz]

Vegas hasn't really added anything new to their RED plugin lately so there's just probably nothing for people to talk about. I still use it as my primary editor of RED footage (especially on time sensitive commercials) as I cannot stand the UI in Premiere. Looks great, even without the latest Color Science. I've also been meaning to offer them use of a Rocket card so they can add support for it...

[Brad Holt]

I just got my Epic last month and I've been cutting in Vegas. It seems to work OK, but the R3D editor is a bit frustrating. Changes don't even show up in the preview window on my machine until I hit OK. I think they're supposed to live update as you change settings. :(

[Mark Nicholson]

Updates show up in realtime for me. Preview in Best Auto plays back full fps, and I can add effects (even Magic Bullet) and preview them at full fps. Needs RC3 support now.

[Paul Russell]

Needs RC3 andRed Rocket support. Still a better UI than Premiere IMHO

[Michael Gyori]

Yes, Vegas rocks for editing Red footage! Surely there must be others that prefer Vegas's interface.

[Mark Britton]

Nothing wrong with Sony Vegas Pro. If I need to do something fast and it's a pretty straight forward edit job and/or small project, then I use Vegas. Have been since 2009 for R1, and now R1 and Epic footage.

If a project gets larger, significant compositing is required or there's time/budget for detailed finish, then I end up in other tools. It's more a best tool for the job thing to me, I have different favorites depending on what I need to do.

[Subhadip Sen]

Yes, Vegas rocks for editing Red footage! Surely there must be others that prefer Vegas's interface.

The UI is indeed very intuitive and I can get things done much quicker than any other NLE out there. R3D decoding aside, Vegas Pro 11 is stunningly fast with GPU acceleration. I was experimenting with the in-built colour correction tools and was amazed when I failed to knock it out of real-time even after 20 nodes! (Note: This is for 1920 XDCAM-EX footage processed by Radeon HD 7970) Do the same with Premiere (w/ GTX 580) or Vegas 10 and they are unplayable. Yes, it lacks tracking or complex masks, but it can do most things a dedicated color corrector can and some more. For the first time an NLE can be considered a bonafide real-time color corrector. There's a lot more to Vegas, but I will stop here.

Premiere has the edge for RED footage though, now that audio is finally supported.

[Elizabeth Lowrey]

I just upgraded my Vegas 9 to 11 before the March discount promotion ends (just under $133 for the upgrade, plus you get two "free" downloads in the way of instructional courses and such). I absolutely think Vegas is one of the most intuitive, well-designed programs of ANY kind that I've ever used, let alone NLE. I MUCH prefer it to Premiere and couldn't believe how much faster I was able to get things done (usually without having to consult a manual) when I made the switch a number of years ago. Premiere's interface certainly looks much better than it used to, and I have CS4 sitting idle on my computer, but I have never had the incentive to try Premiere these days to see if I'd ever want to use it. I suppose now that I just took delivery of my Epic, I'll have to compare the two (likely after having to upgrade Premiere), but I seriously doubt it will compete for my affections with Vegas.

[Michael Gyori]

The UI is indeed very intuitive and I can get things done much quicker than any other NLE out there. R3D decoding aside, Vegas Pro 11 is stunningly fast with GPU acceleration. I was experimenting with the in-built colour correction tools and was amazed when I failed to knock it out of real-time even after 20 nodes! (Note: This is for 1920 XDCAM-EX footage processed by Radeon HD 7970) Do the same with Premiere (w/ GTX 580) or Vegas 10 and they are unplayable. Yes, it lacks tracking or complex masks, but it can do most things a dedicated color corrector can and some more. For the first time an NLE can be considered a bonafide real-time color corrector. There's a lot more to Vegas, but I will stop here.

Premiere has the edge for RED footage though, now that audio is finally supported.

When you talk about it lacking tracking, you're talking about motion tracking? We own the Boris BCC7 plugin for Vegas and it has plenty of motion tracking features. I'm curious which complex tasks you feel are out of Vegas's capability, especially with a few key plugins. Certainly many tasks are outside of Premiere's built-in reach and require After Effects. I've done many compositing jobs with masks easily in Vegas.

I know a few people that feel because Vegas has an intuitive interface, it must be a simple program without sophisticated ability... I beg to differ. :)

[Subhadip Sen]

When you talk about it lacking tracking, you're talking about motion tracking? We own the Boris BCC7 plugin for Vegas and it has plenty of motion tracking features. I'm curious which complex tasks you feel are out of Vegas's capability, especially with a few key plugins. Certainly many tasks are outside of Premiere's built-in reach and require After Effects. I've done many compositing jobs with masks easily in Vegas.

I know a few people that feel because Vegas has an intuitive interface, it must be a simple program without sophisticated ability... I beg to differ. :)

Thanks Michael. I haven't tried BCC7, but I will definitely give it a shot. This seems like a good time to mention the audio features as well, which are totally unparalleled for an NLE.

[Roy Gregorio]

Are you Vegas users strictly using Vegas for your entire workflow? From SSD to finish? Or are you using redcine-x first for trimming, cc etc, then vegas? I'm trying to establish a solid workflow and am unsure on what to use and settings to export, etc., with Vegas, Redcine-X, and possibly davinci resolve. Can you guys share your workflow process?

[Michael Gyori]

I've only edited one Red project in Vegas so far but had no problems. No transcoding of r3d files and I could preview my edit in realtime (albeit not at full quality). The only deficiency I see in Vegas is in color grading.... it's possible in Vegas but Redcine X is better. Now that we have a Scarlet, I'll be doing a lot more full projects in Vegas with Red footage. I've experimented with outputting an EDL in Vegas and importing it in Redcine X for grading, but was only successful with very simple 1 track projects.... not sure if that's a practical workflow.

[Trevor Mack]

I've only edited one Red project in Vegas so far but had no problems. No transcoding of r3d files and I could preview my edit in realtime (albeit not at full quality). The only deficiency I see in Vegas is in color grading.... it's possible in Vegas but Redcine X is better. Now that we have a Scarlet, I'll be doing a lot more full projects in Vegas with Red footage. I've experimented with outputting an EDL in Vegas and importing it in Redcine X for grading, but was only successful with very simple 1 track projects.... not sure if that's a practical workflow.

I am shooting a short film in the summer with a Scarlet, and I have been editing on Sony Vegas for 8 years now. It would be great if you could update us on your RED workflow in Vegas. :)

[Subhadip Sen]

After editing is complete, switch to the 32-bit version and export an AAF. 64-bit has everything except that, such a blatant miss! Anyway, a lot of major finishing software will accept the AAF, which is Avid MC compatible. If not or you need XML, you can go through a software like Premiere Pro, which will accept the AAF and then export to XML or Send to Speedgrade (though the latter is not really an option for R3D).

[Michael Gyori]

I met with a few people from Sony Creative Software at NAB. One of their engineers assured me that it would be easy to implement RDM importing in Vegas. Currently, changes to meta data saved in Redcine X cannot be imported into Vegas. It would seem that is about to change (and Vegas will be keeping up with Premiere in this regard). I'll keep you posted.

[Werner Jauch]

I met with a few people from Sony Creative Software at NAB. One of their engineers assured me that it would be easy to implement RDM importing in Vegas. Currently, changes to meta data saved in Redcine X cannot be imported into Vegas. It would seem that is about to change (and Vegas will be keeping up with Premiere in this regard). I'll keep you posted.

I tested this back in February. Imported a RD3 into Vegas, save project. Closed Vegas. Opened the same clip in Red-Cine-X, changed ISO, curve colospace etc, save. Open the project in Vegas, the clip looks different. I don't know how it works, but changes made in RedCine-X do show up in Veags

[Marcos Montenegro]

I tested this back in February. Imported a RD3 into Vegas, save project. Closed Vegas. Opened the same clip in Red-Cine-X, changed ISO, curve colospace etc, save. Open the project in Vegas, the clip looks different. I don't know how it works, but changes made in RedCine-X do show up in Veags

Yes it does, but it doesn't look lie the image in REDCINE-X. In other words, you change in RCX and Vegas sees it, but it doesn't "translate" it as is. Probably because RCX features like alchemy, etc, are not in any other NLE. I do have to say that although I love editing in Sony Vegas, Premier CS6 is starting to resonate more with pros and I'm seriously considering jumping ship.

[Roy Gregorio]

Anyone know what settings are best for rendering in 4k projection? This is not for internet upload. I have the opportunity to screen something on a 4k projector so I'd like to know what settings I should use. Thanks.

[Michael Gyori]

I would render to Cineform 422 or Cineform 444 to get the best quality for 4k playback on a PC. But you need to purchase Cineform to do that (www.cineform.com).