VegasVideoHelp.com

With a program as powerful and diverse as Sony Vegas, it helps to have an expert who will not only introduce you to the very basics, but also cover intermediate tools and let you in on the Big Secrets that make editing in Vegas fast and efficient. You could wing it and learn as you go, or you could let someone with years of Vegas experience share his wealth of knowledge. No, I don’t mean me. Flatterer. I mean Gary Kleiner in his set of instructional DVDs, The Vegas Pro 8 Companion.

Kleiner has been producing Vegas training DVDs since version 4.0, and each set grows with the program. This latest collection runs over eighteen hours across twelve discs, so don’t even think of attempting it all in one sitting. Each session is well organized and dedicated to related tasks, so you can take a break after each one and have no trouble picking up on the next disc sometime later.

Before he even touches the Vegas interface, Kleiner goes over some of the input device options editors have available. He mostly sticks with his Cintiq combination drawing tablet / monitor from Wacom (drool) throughout the tutorials, but he also shows us a standard drawing tablet and the Contour Shuttle Pro. Fear not: none of these are required to follow along. All onscreen movements are easily accomplished with a standard mouse, and Kleiner almost always lets us know the Vegas’ keyboard shortcut for his current action if there is one. I don’t know about you, but I love keyboard shortcuts, so I really appreciate this.

Something else to appreciate about Kleiner’s approach is that he tries, in his own words, “not to make any assumptions” about our editing, let alone Vegas ability. He takes moments here and there to explain general concepts like non-destructive editing, for example, but without spending so much time on them that intermediate users are reaching for the fast-forward button.

As for what features and tools the Vegas Pro 8 Companion covers, it’s nearly identical to the Vegas feature list itself. Looking through Vegas, the only significant omission I can think of is Vegas scripting. I don’t expect an in-depth lesson in writing scripts, but acknowledging them would make sense given what a tremendous timesaver they are. Other than that, few stones are left unturned. There are even two discs dedicated to working with audio, something often ignored by Vegas tutorial authors.

On a more technical note, I’d like to see have seen a bit more time spent on the menu themselves. I don’t mind their simplicity, but they do appear to be thrown together rather quickly. On some menus, especially the bonus disc, the highlight can be hard to see. Also, some of the default button navigation created by DVD Architect, which I assume was used here, can be a bit frustrating. Using the program’s button navigation tool can relieve that, but that doesn’t appear to have been done when creating these DVDs.

Oh well, this may just be a good reason to access the Flash versions of the tutorials which Kleiner includes on every disc. These computer-based files are a higher resolution than the DVD counterparts and play inside a handy web application complete with a clickable list of chapters. And having the disc in your computer for watching these files will also give you easier access to the media files that have been included on some discs – the same files used by Kleiner as he takes you through real-world examples of Vegas editing.

Overall, The Vegas Pro 8 Companion will do a fine job of getting you up to speed on importing, organizing, and working with media in Sony Vegas Pro as well as getting quality output to deliver in the form you need. Kleiner is thorough in his teaching but also takes his time so you fully understand the steps you’ve just learned.

The Vegas Pro 8 Companion is published by Mobile Pro Video and priced at $169. It can be purchased directly at VegasTrainingAndTools.com. Alternatively, it is available bundled with the three-disc DVD Authoring with DVD Architect 5.0 and Kleiner’s Vegas Pro 9 Primer, which covers new features of Vegas Pro 9. The bundle costs $265.