Interestingly enough, this book started out as a small guide to what became Vegas 2.0. The moniker of Vegas Video was dropped in the middle of the project, and the same happened with the Vegas Audio name, thereby creating a product known simply as Vegas.
As an audio engineer, I have used Vegas as my tool of choice for a long time, thus inspiring my audio-based tutorials for Vegas. In becoming a videographer/editor to further my musical vision many years ago, Vegas Video 2.0 soon became my application of choice when I had the opportunity to see it in an alpha version in Madison, Wisconsin, back in 1999. It became the perfect meld of my two favorite passions in one application.
Therefore, I wrote this book really intending to please two different groups of users: one being the audio user, and the other being the video user. Audio users rarely think of the video user, and that’s fine. Video users, however, absolutely must become familiar with the tools of the audio user; hence, the fairly intense audio for video section in this book. Moreover, this book has many tips, tricks, and techniques that I’ve learned over the years as an audio engineer, compressionist, and videographer/editor, some of which I felt were critical to share. Others merely appear because I felt they were of interest.
The intent of this book is to teach and inform, yet also to provide reminders to professionals who have “done it all” and “heard it all” in the course of their years of experience. While I consider myself an experienced audio and video editor, nearly every engineer I’ve met has dropped some small golden nugget that I’ve been able to learn from. It is my hope that this book does the same for you.
The CD in this book contains video, VEG files, and test media I felt important for users to more completely grasp the concepts presented in this book. VEG files can also be found in-depth at http://www.vasst.com/login.htm. These files are for your educational use. If you use them as a significant part of what you create with your video project, please give credit where it’s due, if it’s due. That’s part of the honor system of Vegas users. Scripts can also be found in this book as well and on the VAAST website.
If this book seems too technical, I suggest that you go back and re-read a passage. I’ve done my best to keep descriptions and explanations as simple as possible in this book, for the purpose of getting information across, not to demonstrate my technical skills or lack thereof. Multimedia is an articulate beast; anything combining the eye and ear are bound to sorely display any errors, whether you or others see them. Hopefully this book will teach you to avoid some of the pitfalls that you otherwise might step into. One of my favorite sayings is “I’ve screwed up more times than most people attempt to try.” And I feel this is true. I’ve probably made every mistake that can be made in audio and video, multiple times. This book is a result of the knowledge that I’ve gleaned in the process of discovery.
Some of the information is necessarily technical and might be over the heads of some readers. If you sit with the book and read through a chapter once or twice, coupled with a little work in front of a computer, however, the information will make sense at some point. This book is absolutely not a white paper on any subject. It’s a teaching tool for the uninitiated and a reminder/reference for the professional. A basic understanding of your camera, a computer, and general education are all that is needed to complete the tutorials found in this book. If I’ve missed something or you feel I didn’t reach enough depth, I can be reached at [email protected]. My personal website, outlining some of my work, can be viewed at http://www.spottedeagle.com. Keeping my music career while expanding my video career has definitely been difficult, but pleasurable. One has benefited the other significantly. I hope this book does the same for you.
