Sony Vegas vs Premiere Elements

[beekalmer]

A while back I purchased Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 1o just for the sake of having SoundForge which I use for editing sound clips in almost every video I produce. I love having access to the 400 royalty free music and sound effects clips. it was worth it to me to have those tools at my fingertips. However I do all my editing in Premiere Elements 9. I see that version 11 is out for $70 on Amazon.

Is there any compelling reason for me to move my editing over to Song Vegas? I am very invested in all the time I have put into Premiere Elements but I am open to learning something new if it is worth my while. All of my videos are posted to YouTube so I don't make DVDs, but I am heavy on the editing. I also know from experience that once you learn one tool it is that much easier to learn the next but I must admit that the interface for Sonny Vegas puts me off probably because I am so use to Premiere Elements.

I know one feature I am always wishing for is being able to have two preview windows. One for a portion of a clip I might be editing within my project and an additional window for the overall project. Does that make sense?

Okay bring it on!

Thanks,

MaryAnne

[RJ Johnston]

If you haven't used Vegas Movie Studio 10, then you probably won't use Vegas Movie Studio 11, unless you want to work with 3D video. Don't forget that Premiere Elements 10 will be coming out within a month or two.

Instead of throwing money at more consumer level video editors, save up and get Adobe Premiere Pro or Sony Vegas Pro. You'll really be learning something then. When Sony Vegas Pro was offered for $299, I picked it up. I don't have the right computer for Premiere CS5 which requires 64-bit Windows.

[Bob]

I know one feature I am always wishing for is being able to have two preview windows. One for a portion of a clip I might be editing within my project and an additional window for the overall project. Does that make sense?

I'm not sure what precisely you're asking for, but if I'm interpreting this correctly you already have that capability in Premiere elements. The monitor window will play the entire project. That's the preview window you're probably familiar with. There is also a clip preview window that you can display by either double clicking on the clip in the media panel, or, if the clip is already on the timeline, double click on the clip there. The clip preview window will only play the clip.

You can set in and out points in the preview window and drag the clip from the preview window and drop it on the timeline. You can repeat this with different in and out points as often as you want.

Is there any compelling reason for me to move my editing over to Song Vegas?

In my opinion, no. While all video editing programs do different things to some degree, the basic editing capabilities are found in all editors to some degree or other. It largely comes down to user preferences in the way the interface is presented and they way you do things and program limitations in the number of video tracks you can work with and the transitions and effects provided. Some feel Vegas is easier and more intuitive while others feel Elements is better. If you are comfortable with Premiere Elements and what the program provides, I see no real reason to switch.

[cdeemer]

I've used both. I prefer PE but Vegas, in my experience, is more stable. I usually start out in PE and if it gets touchy along the way, as it has, then I switch. Also, to me Vegas is more intuitive, visual, than PE -- PE more logical, rigorous. It's one of the reasons I prefer PE. I think Vegas is much easier to learn.

[Ron Hunter]

Instead of throwing money at more consumer level video editors, save up and get Adobe Premiere Pro or Sony Vegas Pro. You'll really be learning something then.

I'm curious about that comment. I started my video editing "career" with Premiere 5.1 12 years ago. The learning curve was steep but I finally got somewhat proficient at driving the software. I stopped using the "pro" package after Premiere 6, and I started using Elements after that. I've used Elements for about 5 years now.

Sorry for hijacking the thread, but why do you say an Elements user should go "Pro"? Just to learn new stuff? I'm not a pro videographer but I may want to do some for-profit work someday. Should I go "Pro"?

[Peru]

Instead of throwing money at more consumer level video editors, save up and get Adobe Premiere Pro or Sony Vegas Pro. You'll really be learning something then.

Sorry for hijacking the thread, but why do you say an Elements user should go "Pro"? Just to learn new stuff? I'm not a pro videographer but I may want to do some for-profit work someday. Should I go "Pro"?

Sequences, especially nesting them, if nothing else.
Time Remapping.
Hardware rendering, if you have a supported graphics card.
The ability to copy clips or timelines from one project to another.
Encore, if you don't use DVDAS.
More audio options.

[RJ Johnston]

My thinking is that you really don't gain that much knowledge when you upgrade to the next version of Premiere Elements or Vegas Movie Studio. When you get involved with the Pro versions, you move up to higher grade levels (as in school). And there are a lot more ways to be creative, and tasks are easier to accomplish.

As for Sony Vegas Pro, you can composite tracks with a good selection of blending modes, you can nest projects, there are scopes and more advanced color correction techniques, you can work in 3D space (opposed to 3D stereoscopic which it also has), have multiple instances of Vegas running. There are numerous scripts for automating tasks (really big feature). You can apply effects at various levels: to media in the bin, events on the timeline, to tracks, and to output. There's split screen preview so you can see the before and after. And much, much more.

[beekalmer]

Thanks! This was just the kind of discussionI was hoping for.

MaryAnne

[windsong]

If you haven't used Vegas Movie Studio 10, then you probably won't use Vegas Movie Studio 11, unless you want to work with 3D video. Don't forget that Premiere Elements 10 will be coming out within a month or two.

Instead of throwing money at more consumer level video editors, save up and get Adobe Premiere Pro or Sony Vegas Pro. You'll really be learning something then. When Sony Vegas Pro was offered for $299, I picked it up. I don't have the right computer for Premiere CS5 which requires 64-bit Windows.

I just purchased PE9 last week. Will there be a free upgrade? I certainly hope so.

[Bob]

Adobe has a post announcement upgrade policy. If you buy the previous version after the new version is announced, you can get a free upgrade. The announcement of the new version is expected very soon, but hasn't happened yet. They may give you a free upgrade if you buy it just prior to the announcement, but that's not guaranteed. This much in advance of the new release, I would expect that they would not.