Customer Reviews

Vegas 4 Editing Workshop

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I wouldn't have bought this book if I hadn't been to a few of the author's seminars and seen him as an exceptional teacher. He gave as much in those seminars as it was possible for anybody to do in a seminar format, and it was all based on working experience.

Even after using Vegas for more than a year, I found a lot to learn in this book. The author is very thorough, and he gives a thorough knowledge and real understanding of each area. This saves a lot of time in the end for both the novice and the professional.

As has been noted by many, people will rate a video or film with "bad picture quality but good sound" far higher than one with "great picture but bad audio". The people in a movie theatre are called an "audience" for a reason, and Douglas covers the sound aspects of video post production really well from a long background also in professional audio (in 64 pages out of 404).

The author's superior teaching skills combined with his long term experience as both a video and audio producer make this book a must-have for anybody using Vegas regardless of skill level.

I would even recommend this book to those who use other NLEs, as many of the explanations and tips in this book apply also to them and aren't available in easily understandable form anywhere else.

Each area in the book is illustrated with many photographs and sample files, so you can really understand what is going on.

Importantly, the author also offers a good editing workflow to get the best quality from your source materials with minimal effort.

I consider this to be a must-have resource for anybody using Vegas.

Even the seasoned user can learn a lot, and any reader new to video editing gets a solid base for working with this very powerful and very "addictive" software.

Almost useless for someone just starting out, a real disappointment, skip it and find help somewhere else. A waste of money. Believe me. Features detailed descriptions of what each tool does, too heavy on the audio. Sample projects would have been much more useful. Common mistakes, common glitches, common blunders, traps, that kind of thing. This is not the book to buy. Actually the slim booklet that came with the Vegas 4.0 is better, and there are many useful on-line reviews that have helped me much more.

This is a poorly written book. The exercises supposedly on the CD are not there. The book gives a flavour of the app. but concentrates too much on the audio aspects of Vegas. There is better information avaialble online.

I bought this book because I knew of Douglas' knowledge from visiting the forums he hosts. Not only is he very knowledgeable about video editing in general, and Vegas 4 in particular, but he has a gift for sharing his knowledge in a way that is clear and concise. His writing is easy to follow and the book holds true to its "workshop" spirit. Even though I was experienced with Vegas and understood a lot of the topics in this book already, I was not let down because I gained a lot of insight into why things work the way they do, and learned new tricks and ways of doing things from someone who has been at this many more years than I have. It was refreshing to have a chapter dedicated to audio because other books on video often overlook this. Douglas understands that audio is a big part of the video experience and Vegas has audio tools that are second to none.

One of the great things about this book is the accompanying CD with all the examples. I followed through each chapter by playing with the accompanying examples and spent several hours experimenting with what I had just learned before moving on to the next chapter. This is the ultimate way to get the most of this book. Read it at your PC and try things as Douglas explains them. Just like you would be doing hands-on exercises in a real workshop/classroom setting. This book is packed with information from setting up your system, through multi-track compositing. If you'd rather watch Douglas teach some of what's in the book, you can always buy his 4 DVD set. (I have it and it's outstanding too)

As you might expect, a book rated beginner-intermediate has a lot of ground to cover. This book shows you some of the basics of how to capture and edit on a timeline, add titles and effects, through topics like chroma key (green screen), multi-track compositing, bump mapping, etc. It's a lot to cover but Douglas does a great job of it. If you're an absolute beginner and feel a bit lost, I would suggest also getting a book like "The Little Digital Video Book by Michael Rubin" to get you started understanding the basics of digital video in general. Then use Douglas' book to apply that to Vegas. He will take you step-by-step along the way.

You should also understand that this book only scratches the surface of what Vegas can do so I hope Douglas gets the opportunity to make a follow-on book that covers more advanced topics. The best part is that Douglas is very approachable and you can always ask him questions on the DMN forums (he goes by the nickname SPOT). If you don't understand something in the book, just ask him on the forum. How many books offer that kind of support? I highly recommend this book to anyone who is using Vegas as their NLE and want to get the most out of it.

A very well written text that covers all the basics of Vegas4.

The text covers the basics of hardware requirements and recommendations to get the new user off to a good start.

It's an easy read, written by someone devoted to teaching Vegas4 as well as using Vegas4. If you are using Vegas4, you most likely already know what insight Douglas Spotted Eagle brings to the table. Now you can have that knowledge and insight right at your fingertips.

Simply copy the files from the enclosed CD to your hard drive and begin the journey of developing a strong foundation of Vegas4 essentials.

This text is a must have. Just as the title suggests. It's a workshop. Perfect for a beginner that might be on a slower pace and lots of instruction for the more advanced user. The extended coverage of audio and 5.1 sound is major benefit as it is often a stumbling block for many, be they beginner or seasoned pro.

You can't go wrong with this one.

I first came across Vegas because of the frustration I had with other (we won't mention names) NLE's. After getting to know Vegas 3 a little, I knew I needed more than the manual. In my search for enlightenment, I found Douglas Spotted Eagle. Everywhere I could find a tutorial, comment, review, whatever, Poof! There he was like a genie out of the lamp offering his help (and sometimes on a personal basis with strangers). On top of that, he takes the time to host (in my opinion) the best Vegas forum on the web. Even when he's out of the country. Of course when Vegas 4 +DVD came out I hopped on it.

Anyway, it was inevitable that he should write this book. This book does what it promises and more. Once you use Vegas, you never want to use anything else. It's quick, deep, and good for short and long form projects. The book covers everything you need to get started and then some. I criticize the critic who doesn't see the value of great audio in editing video. Great audio can make a bad video good and a good video great. Bad audio can kill a awesome video with one fell swoop.

Vegas itself started out as an audio program and is still capable of multi-tracking. It has DirectX plugin capabilities and some of the best built in plugins you can get.

By the time you finish the book, you have a complete grasp of not only how the program works, but concepts and ideas of why things should be the way they should be. Like color correction using vector scopes, histograms and more. How to use shortcut keys to help move you along faster. The list is almost endless, but after you've finished reading it, you still go back and use it as a reference.

If you're knew to NLEs or new to Vegas, this book is the must have, keep it within hands reach, absolutely necessary book to have.

Period.

Spotted Eagle has probably trained more Vegas editors than anyone, and this book brings his in-depth experience to anyone who wants to learn Vegas. Vegas is NOT a product that conforms to the "I want to be an Avid, too..." interface style and conventions, instead offering new paradigms for timeline-based editing, so even experienced editors may need some help getting acquainted and developing an effective workflow.

This book starts off with the basics of setting up a pc for non-linear editing of DV content, but by the time you hit Chapter 4 Spotted Eagle is taking you through the many capabilities of Vegas, a stunningly effective editing environment for the pc.

Another reviewer has complained of the attention paid to audio in the book; Vegas has multi-track audio capabilities rivaling ProTools, unique for an NLE in its price range, and well justifies the depth of explanation the author gives audio.

If you're looking for a book on using Vegas, this is the one!

Spot hits the mark with this book! From start to finish this book is a MUST HAVE/MUST READ if you use Sony's Vegas Video. He starts with simply crawling with Vegas and moves to a full on sprint as the book progresses. As far as the previous post regarding this book ignores the more novice editors or assumes that the reader has previous NLE experience??? How can this even be said? Spot spends the first three chapters on setting up Vegas properly before even getting started using the e program! How much more basic than this can you get? As far as the sound aspects of the book go, have you ever `listened' to a Hollywood film? The sound in a video can be as important (and sometimes more important) than the video signal. Take the sound out of an Alfred Hitchcock film and you'd have a film that was quite boring! Sound is ESSENTIAL to a video. The author UNDERSTANDS this fact and imparts his pearls of sound wisdom in the book. By the way, he's a Grammy Award winner so he KNOWS SOUND!

Spot, the undisputed guru of Vegas (this guy as I understand it, works and or has worked directly with the programmers at what was Sonic Foundry - now Sony Vegas). With this kind of access to the core programming, Spot almost literally has his fingers on the pulse of Vegas. He knows his stuff when it comes to Vegas (and other things) and this book downright proves it.

I'm SO GLAD that I purchased this book (I waited for what seemed like forever for it); it has definitely helped me move up the editing ladder. This book is a bonified bargain at twice the $34.97 price when you consider that you get a CD with a ton of examples to help you learn Vegas more quickly! This book WILL help you squeeze more creativity from your brain and improve your overall workflow so you will be editing projects more quickly.

I knew that Vegas had a deeper set of editing tools; but until I bought this book I never knew that it was as deep as it is.

TRW

Let me start by saying I have only given this 4 stars to date as I have not quite finished but felt the need to give some immediate feedback from my newbie perspective. After finishing an increase to 5* will perhaps be needed.For those who want to cut straight to the chase my closing line in this review is "If you are a newbie, buy it and you won't be a newbie for long."

If you are a little more interested I purchased this book with a degree of apprehension. I understand DSE to be a 'guru' of Vegas and was a tad concerned that when imparting his knowledge in this book it may go straight over my head. However as the only book dealing with Vegas I bought it anyway and ploughed straight in.

My concerns were unfounded when in the opening chapters he deals with setting up your system and gave details of some invaluable tweaks that have improved performance no end. Also there is great info on simple stuff to many but to a first timer trickier topics such as DV basics, capturing Video, basic transitions etc before he touches on other more involved stuff.

Some phrases and techniques often talked about include cookie cutters, compositing,slow motion ripple editing etc. I kind of knew what these were but the book explains then very well in simple easy to understand language. What surprises me most is that whilst as a newbie I am able to follow quite easily the topics , I note several 'experts' also rate the book very highly. Seems to me that DSE has pitched it just right, easy enough to understand for the beginner and enough for the advanced user. That is quite a talent.

In summary a great informative read so far, very useful to me and explains things far better than the manual. If you are a newbie, buy it and you won't be a newbie for long.

What a treat to have such a resource available now. Although it's hard to meet the needs of both beginner and seasoned veteran I think Mr. Spotted Eagle has struck a happy median.What's unique about this particular book is the extra attention paid to the importance of audio in the video world which I think get's shorted changed in many other books on NLE's. I'm anxiously awaiting the next volume.