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Multitrack media-editing software for the masses.

Highly regarded for its Sound Forge and Acid digital audio applications, Sonic Foundry has released Vegas Pro, a "multitrack mediaediting system" for Windows. Vegas Pro represents the company's foray into the realm of nonlinear multitrack recording/editing and media management. Targeted for professional musicians and broadcast and audio engineers as well as for multimedia and Internet-content developers, Vegas Pro combines a highly configurable work space with the ability to integrate into numerous production environments.

Vegas Pro supports 24-bit/96 kHz digital audio, and the number of tracks you can play back is limited only by your CPU and RAM. It can perform nondestructive edits during playback and run multiple plug-in effects, all in real time. It addition, it has the ability to import many file formats, including WAV, AIFF, MP3, AVI, and QuickTime. Similarly, it will export to WMA, MP3, WAV, and AIFF, and it also supports file authoring for Internet streaming applications, such as RealNetworks G2 and Windows Media Technologies. As part of this capability, Vegas Pro has facilities for adding timeline metadata, such as URL flips (an embedded link to a URL) and captions.

Not only can Vegas Pro process multi-track audio, but it also allows you to replace dialog in multimedia files. The ability to open an AVI or QuickTime movie, replace the dialog, and add music and sound effects means you can produce very high-quality media files with surprisingly little effort. Moreover, Vegas Pro will work with virtually any Windows sound card, including those with multiple inputs and outputs.

INSTALLATION ISSUES

Vegas Pro's minimum system requirements include a 200 MHz processor with 32 MB of RAM. The recommended configuration is a 400 MHz processor, 128 MB of RAM, and a 24-bit color display. My test system was a 266 MHz Pentium II, 128 MB of RAM, a 24-bit display, a Seagate Cheetah SCSI hard drive, and the Frontier Design WaveCenter digital audio card.

The application supports multiple processors (if available) when running under Windows NT, and employs asynchronous I/O whenever possible. Asynchronous I/O prevents the processor from stalling while reading from disk and can translate into significant performance gains over normal synchronous I/O.

The installation routine uses a combination of serial and activation numbers to ensure authorization. Entering my serial number authorized me to use the program for seven days, and then I was required to register online or via telephone to obtain a final authorization code so I could run the program beyond the initial period. I opted to register online and receive my code by e-mail. For whatever reason, I never received the e-mail with my authorization code, but a call to tech support immediately rectified the situation.

During my conversation with the technician, I was encouraged to visit the company's Web site and download the version 1.0a upgrade patch, as this would correct some minor bugs that had been discovered. Always wanting to have the latest and greatest, I downloaded and installed the patch and, upon launching the program, was again required to provide my authorization code. After entering the code a second time, I was up and running for good.

Some customers have experienced installation difficulties relating to the authorization code. A repair utility is now available for download from Vegas Pro's Web site that should remedy this.

AN INVITING INTERFACE

Upon launching Vegas Pro, you are greeted with a graphic interface that is remarkably open and uncomplicated. The lower left portion of the screen provides an Explorer view for accessing and auditioning files without leaving the work area (see Fig. 1). Double-clicking on a file places it in the first available track slot in the upper area of the screen. To the right is the Mixer view, where you can see and control the various output and effects buses: (Vegas Pro supports 26 output buses and 26 aux sends.) The mixer's leftmost linear fader is a dedicated control for the program's Preview function, which lets you adjust the level of individual audio files that you are auditioning while in the Explorer window. This is a very nice touch.

The lower left area can be toggled to display the Trimmer window. This is a separate work area where you view and manipulate Events, the term Vegas Pro uses to designate an audio segment. Dedicated transport keys control playback, and a hotkey launches your audio-editor software (the default is Sound Forge, if you've installed it). You can place data directly into the Trimmer from the Explorer or by right-clicking on an Event in a track and choosing the Show In Trimmer option. The value of this approach is that you are free to work on a track (or any segment thereof) without having to remember which tracks are muted or soloed. With its hot link to your audio editor, this work area functions as though you had a dedicated editor operating as a plug-in.

The upper area of the screen displays the Track List (upper left) and the Track View area (upper right). Each track sports a series of icons for toggling Mute, Solo, Arm, and other features. There's also a horizontal fader for track volume and a multipurpose fader for pan control, assignable effects, and aux-send levels. A ruler (timeline) with adjustable time increments (measures, measures and beats, frames, and so on) appears above the Track View. Both areas can be collapsed or expanded, providing a tremendous amount of flexibility in configuring the interface. The entire lower area of the workspace also can be resized to your liking (see Fig. 2).

The main transport controls are located just beneath the Track View. The transport bar has controls for Record, Loop, Playback from the beginning of a project, Playback from cursor position, Pause, Stop, Move cursor to project start, Move cursor to project end, Move cursor left at grid increments, and Move cursor right at grid increments.

To the left of the main transport area is the Scrub control. The normal playback rate is 1.0, but Vegas Pro can scrub audio forward or backward at a constantly variable rate from --2.0 (reverse) through 2.0 (forward). Scrubbing is accomplished by grabbing the Scrub control with the mouse and dragging right or left. It works very smoothly and produces excellent results.

One of the more useful interface features is called Window Docking. Window Docking allows you to keep frequently used windows--for example, a video preview or the Trimmer--available yet out of the way while you are working. This is an efficient way to manage your work space. The Docking Area, which is the lower segment of the screen, can display up to three windows at a time.

In addition to its myriad onscreen buttons and switches, Vegas Pro provides a comprehensive list of equivalent keyboard commands. Though the point-and-click approach to operation is quite comfortable during the initial learning phase, I was pleased that I could control many aspects of the program from the keyboard. Among the keyboard commands are basic transport functions; Cut, Copy, and Paste commands; toggling the Explorer and Trimmer windows; resizing track height; and zooming in and out of Event views.

IN SESSION

Vegas Pro can record multiple mono or stereo tracks while simultaneously playing back existing tracks, up to the performance capability of your computer and audio hardware. The factor that has the most direct effect on the simultaneous-record capability is your audio card. My Frontier Design WaveCenter supports ten simultaneous signals: eight via ADAT Lightpipe and another two via coaxial S/PDIF. Though I did not attempt a full 10-track transfer, I had no problem transferring data to and from a Tascam DA-88 through a TDIF-to-Lightpipe converter. For the multitude of ADAT or DA-88 owners, Vegas Pro makes a compelling editing station and enables you to extend the functionality of those tape-based systems.

But the real crux of the matter is in using Vegas Pro as a stand-alone recording/editing system. In this context it's important to understand the difference between a track and an Event. A track is nothing more than a container for any number of Events. In Fig. 2, the string music in the first track is continuous, while subsequent tracks consist of numerous smaller "chunks," or Events. A track, therefore, can hold many Events, which can even be of different file formats or sample rates. The fact that Vegas Pro can mix and resample multiple file formats and sample rates in real time is nothing short of astounding.