Davinci Resolve Guy Tries Vegas 21 (This is a GAME CHANGER!)

Vegas 21 has been out for a little less than a month now and after playing around with it for a bit I gotta say I'm a fan let's talk about it [Music] before we dive in just a quick bit of disclosure this video is not sponsored by Vegas creative software they didn't pay me any money they didn't give me any talking points that being said they did give me a license so I could test out Vegas and make this review and I'm fully aware that some of you are going to shout from the rooftops of my comment section that because of that this video is sponsored so while you're shouting I'm gonna go ahead and do my review cool let's get started taking it from the top I noticed something really cool when I opened up Vegas 21 for the first time in the dialog box that pops up where you can set your resolution and frame rate there is an extra option that I don't remember seeing before now when you set up your first project in Vegas you can choose to have your Source viewer on or off now I know from the comments in my previous Vegas reviews that the majority of you just drop your footage on the timeline and trim it from there but I personally prefer having that Source viewer available especially for narrative short films and dialogue scenes so I thought that was pretty awesome once my project was open I got a chance to check out Vegas Hub where I could get access to a list of new features my account information Vegas content which has a whole bunch of stock footage and even some example projects that can help you get started with Vegas if you're new to the software by the way Vegas content has a whole new look now and it's so much easier to find what you're looking for good job Vegas from there I use the Explorer to quickly and easily import my footage and audio into my project so I could start cutting together my timeline all in all the whole setup process is really easy and there are a ton of options for UI layout settings keyboard shortcuts basically you can set up Vegas however you want it's really flexible that being said if you're new to editing I wouldn't dive too deep into the settings and layout options flexibility has its perks but it can easily become a confusing mess if you don't know exactly what you're looking for in an editing workflow also if you're new to editing or even just new to Vegas I highly suggest those example projects they're a big help as far as cutting footage is concerned I gotta be honest it took me a bit to not feel like a bumbling idiot when using Vegas which was by no means anyone's fault other than my own Vegas is just a lot different than DaVinci Resolve it's actually a lot different than most other nles that I've tried there's different keyboard shortcuts tools are called different things and they're in different locations some of the default settings like automatic cross dissolves and crossfades are things that I wouldn't normally use and on top of that I tend to try and stick with the default settings as much as possible when I make these reviews so at first it was a little difficult doing one of the most technically simple parts of making a video there is one thing that drives me nuts though and I'm sure there will be a bunch of comments about this but I have to say it in resolve if I click up at the top of the timeline where the time code is my playhead will move but if I click in the actual timeline like on a clip or an empty space the playhead stays where it is in Vegas no matter where I click the playhead jumps to where I clicked which kind of makes it really hard to place my playhead somewhere and just have it stay there if there's a way to change that or turn it off please let me know in the comments because I haven't found it and it's maddening also frame by frame audio scrubbing is a must by default audio scrubbing only happens when you drag the playhead I can't hear audio when I'm using the arrow keys to move frame by frame and that's a pretty big part of my workflow and result other than those two things though I was able to get my timeline together and it did get easier as I got used to the differences in controls and settings let's move on to color grading which has for the most part stayed the same there's still that awesome color grading panel which really gives you all of the tools you need to create a decent color grade but there are a couple of changes to Vegas 21 that are going to make color grading even more effective than it was when I did my review on Vegas 20. first we now have hsl sliders and curves which is absolutely amazing second we now have adjustment events which are essentially adjustment Clips or adjustment layers and other software and win events which meanful instant instant effect on a single video clip giving you the ability to use a more professional color grading workflow right within Vegas it's a total Game Changer moving on to audio there's nothing new really which is kind of a shame because like I said in my last couple of Vegas reviews the existing tools could use a bit of an overhaul don't get me wrong the existing tools work and you have everything you need but they look a little outdated and now with so many possibilities for AI powered plug-ins I really think that Vegas team is missing out on some really cool opportunities on the audio front what I would love to see is an audio version of the color grading panel maybe something with normalization and EQ compressor limiter maybe even a loudness meter that way you can do most of your dialogue work using that instead of adding a bunch of Standalone effects I don't know it's just an idea what do you think let me know in the comments all of that being said Vegas does now support vst3 which means you can use things like waves or isotope plug-in so that's pretty awesome okay now the fun stuff let's talk about visual effects titles Transitions and all that fancy stuff now for the most part everything is the same you've got a ton of transitions effects masks trackers and the for the more complicated stuff you can send Clips over to Vegas effects which is basically the Vegas version of After Effects now on top of all that we've got some new stuff like a special version of the mocha tracker that's made specifically for Vegas a couple new GL Transitions and my personal favorite z-depth now if you're familiar with DaVinci resolve's death mask then you're familiar with Z depth essentially it analyzes your footage and determines what elements are in the foreground background and everywhere in between you can then create masks based on those depths and use them for color grading or compositing it's not quite perfect yet but it is super fun to play around with there are some other new updates too like quick uploads which makes it easier to upload files to to Vegas cloud from any device and the text to speech feature is now moved to the cloud allowing for quicker updates and a lot more language options all in all the Vegas team has been able to add a bunch of new features and improvements without getting rid of that classic Vegas feel now one more new thing before we get into my final thoughts let's talk about pricing because yes that's new too and bear with me because this is a lot to take in let's start out with the different packages available as usual you have Vegas Pro edit which comes with Vegas Pro 21. if you're looking for a little bit more you've got Vegas Pro Suite which comes with Vegas Pro 21 soundforge acid music studio MoCA Vegas and Boris FX pre-mat studio and finally we have Vegas Pro post which comes with everything in Suite plus Vegas effects Vegas image and the pro versions of soundforge and acid now all of these packages have both Perpetual licenses monthly subscriptions and annual subscriptions and now there's a third option where you can pay an annual subscription for two years and then when that's all done with you get to keep the software with a Perpetual license by the way if you want specific numbers you can find them at the link in the description so here's the big pricing question why would you want a subscription when you can get a Perpetual license with a one-time payment answer well you get more stuff subscriptions not only come with the software they also come with cloud storage the text-to-speech and speech to text features and Vegas content but obviously if you don't want any of that then the Perpetual is a great option that'll save you money so what are my final thoughts is Vegas the best nle on the market should you ditch your current editing software and start using Vegas instead well it's kind of complicated let me explain while the new features that have been added to Vegas Pro over the past few years are awesome it is starting to feel like the existing tools are getting a bit neglected so it sometimes feels like Vegas is in this weird Middle Ground between Cutting Edge and a little bit outdated and considering Vegas started off as audio software it's a little weird to me that there haven't been any audio updates recently I'm hoping that changes soon but like I said Vegas Pro 21 is a great nle with more package and pricing options than almost every other nle on the market the flexibility to customize the UI to fit your workflow is great and the new features that are being added are nothing short of awesome plus I still kind of love the fact that Vegas operates like a doll so no Vegas is not the best nle on the market but that's not because it's a bad nle it's simply because there is no such thing as the best nle only the the best nle for you here's the deal Vegas isn't trying to be Premiere Pro or Da Vinci resolver any of the other Hollywood level nles instead Vegas is targeting the professional internet Creator the wedding filmmaker even people who make casual short films and for people who make that kind of content Vegas is a great nle it's easy to use and has all of the tools that you need but if you're looking for an nle that has all the tools you need to make a Hollywood level film you're likely going to be a little disappointed with Vegas basically it all comes down to choosing the right tool for the right job so Vegas will be linked below if you want to check them out and while you're down there make sure to subscribe to the channel if you're not already then go check out this video right here to learn about some awesome plugins that I use in both resolve and Vegas and until next time don't forget to go out and make stuff thanks for watching [Music]

Channel: Jay Lippman

Views: 13,589

Keywords: vegas 21, vegas pro 21, vegas 21 review, vegas pro 21 review, vegas pro edit, vegas pro suite 21, vegas pro post 21, vegas 21 magix, vegas pro 21 suite, magix vegas pro 21, sony vegas pro 21, davinci resolve guy tries vegas 21, jay lippman video editing, jay lippman, sony vegas review

Id: 7BHX6amXDOo

Length: 10min 50sec (650 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 11 2023