July is coming up, and it will mark Vegas Pro's 24th birthday. That's right, in July of 1999, Vegas (which was only an audio tool used for resampling and re-scaling music and other audio files) was introduced at the National Association of Music Merchants convention. In light of it's 24 years in existence, I would like to share my experience using it and pay tribute to the software that I had been using for over 5 years.
Looking back, Vegas Pro really was a shit program. But it got the job done for the most part. I remember stumbling across this software back in high school, when I used to film my buddies skateboarding. I was looking for a program that was more complex than Windows Movie Maker (which came stock on most Windows PCs), but also something that wouldn't break the bank. I eventually found a way to pirate a full version of Sony Vegas Pro 15, via a sketchy Media Fire download link. And this became the tool that I used for a while. I have to give a lot of credit to Vegas Pro because it helped me understand the fundamentals of video editing (working on a timeline, cutting, balancing, cropping, etc).
As a teenager I would use Vegas Pro to edit my skate videos, slideshows, family vacations, and even school projects. I managed to create a lot with this program. I would make an argument that this is a great tool for beginners to learn on, given its simple user interface and general ease of use. The project timeline is basically a drag and drop canvas and all of the cutting, pasting, and trimming can be done with mouse actions alone (as opposed to using the keys on a keyboard).
After about 6 or 7 years, it was time to pull the plug. Vegas Pro had a good run, but there was just too many issues I was having with it. And it's not like any of these issues were new, they were there the entire time I was using Vegas. I was just good at ignoring them and staying in my comfort zone. But it became super frustrating and eventually I lost my patience. It's processing power was just too slow, even with a good computer with a good graphics card. It couldn't handle 4k footage at all (the standard for half-decent looking projects nowadays). And it would crash randomly sometimes (It also did not have an AutoSave feature), meaning that if you didn't manually save your project before it crashed, it would be lost forever.
This being said, I was lucky enough to start using Adobe Premiere, thanks to Onetakemedia.com and Dan Capital. I was very hesitant to use it at first, only because I wasn't used to the interface. But eventually, head coach Dan O'Connor, was able to pull me out of the trenches and help me step out of original comfort zone - credit to him. Adobe Premiere is way better than Sony Vegas, in pretty much all aspects of using it. It's rendering speeds are fast, it can handle 4k, and most of all you don't have to worry about it crashing - ever.
I got to hand it to the guys at Adobe, it's no wonder why Premiere has become the industry standard, even for Hollywood (I think). However, I will say, without learning Vegas Pro, I would have spent a lot more time trying to learn Premiere. Vegas Pro, you will be missed. Happy editing to everyone, God Bless...
-Producer Reese
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Funny @producer Reese... nice work my friend