In Vegas Pro 12, Soundforge Pro 10 and the newly launched  Soundforge Pro Mac and  Spectral Layers – Sony Creative have a great reputation for delivering high quality audio and video editing software with the much acclaimed Sony Acid Pro 7 also available as a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) in the music production market too.
Vegas Pro: “An integrated, forward-thinking production environment for professional video editing, audio mixing, and DVD/Blu-ray Disc™ authoring” -  is evolving at such a pace having received its third major update in as many years as Sony Creative Software continue the quest to develop excellence in their flagship products.

New Features:  Sony Creative are keen to be progressive and, for the first time in its evolution, Vegas Pro 12 is developed exclusively as a 64-bit application. Keeping the focus solely on a 64-bit platform offers improved performance and stability courtesy of the program’s single code base.  Vegas Pro 12 now comprises 2 product versions: Vegas Pro 12 and Vegas Pro 12 Edit.  Both products share an identical award winning video and audio feature set including Titler Pro 1.0 from NewBlueFX with the DVD Architect software removed from the ‘Edit version being the only difference.  As you would anticipate, there are a host of new features in Vegas Pro 12 which take full advantage of the latest developments and demands in video and audio processing.

Here is a list of the Key Features in Vegas Pro 12:

•64-bit Exclusively
•Expanded Edit mode
•Smart Proxy
•Color Match
•Project Interchange
•Import  Panasonic P2 clips
•S-log Workflow
•HDCAM SR Mastering
•Shape Masking Tools
•FX Masking
•GPU acceleration for Titles & Text

•Project Media updates

•File tagging in Project Media view
•Import .txt into Credit Roll generator
•Match project to first media added
•Vertical docking windows
•Audio monitoring via SDI
•Vegas Pro Explorer updates
•Improved L-cut, J-cut editing
•OpenFX enhancements
•Orientation metadata for still images
•User Interface enhancements
•AVCHD 2.0 support
•OpenGL® texture extension for OpenFX
•Plays  Audio Indicator upon render completion
•Layer Dimensionality plug-in
•Simultaneous audio/video fades
•Auto pairing of PMW-TD300 3D clips
•Auto pairing of PMW-F3 3D Link clips
•Manipulate colors in L*a*b* color space with LAB Adjust
•L*a*b* Color Space Histogram
•Share Project Media Lists between multiple projects
•64-bit Audio Plug-ins
•Blu-ray rendering support for MainConcept AVC plug-in
•Edit Properties for multiple video files
•Auto Re-Name Titles & Text Clips based on content
•Timeline Editing and Trimming enhancements
•And MORE!

Expanded Edit Mode: One of the more striking of the new feature set in Vegas Pro 12 is the Expanded Edit Mode which temporarily splits the track at the edit point, enabling you to clearly view the adjacent frames of the two clips at the edit point.  Editing the last frame of the “outgoing” clip while referencing the first frame of the “incoming” clip is tremendously beneficial for creating continuity between shots and attaining the optimal timing and pacing for your edits.  The edit point can be dragged left or right while still viewing the unused frames.  Additionally, setting a Loop Region around the edit point enables you to dynamically add or remove frames from either side of the edit point while the media is playing, creating a highly precise, interactive editing experience:

•Double-click on edit point opens up a large ‘2-up’ view.
•‘Rolling Edit’ mode lets you trim frame by frame via the keypad while playing.
 
Smart Proxy Workflow: Create high-performance, edit-friendly Smart Proxy clips in the Project Media view, to achieve faster playback on a wider variety of hardware.  This is especially useful for DPX image sequences and CPU-intensive codecs like .mvc and high bit-rate formats like HDCAM SR 444.  Media will automatically and dynamically switch from original to proxy based on the Preview playback settings.  To ensure optimum quality, original media files will be used for the final render. Using Smart Proxies in place of the original material during the edit enables you to maintain a high frame rate on the timeline.  Smart Proxy in performance facilitates multi-stream compositing and multicam editing even when the source material is difficult to decode in realtime.
Color Match:
Vegas Pro 12 now provides you with the ability to automatically match the color characteristics of images shot with different cameras, or shot at different times of the day with different lighting conditions.  The Color Match plug-in can also be used to match shots to a reference image, to achieve a specific look.  The requirement to keep the color characteristics consistent throughout a scene or a full production comes up very frequently and manual color matching can be a difficult and time consuming task.  In Vegas Pro 12 this process has been greatly simplified and automated via the Color Match plug-in.
Project Interchange:  Export/convert a Vegas Pro 12 project to a variety of common post-production platforms, including Avid® Pro Tools® 10, Adobe® Premiere® Pro CS6 and After Effects® CS6, DaVinci Resolve 8, Apple® Final Cut Pro® 7 and Final Cut Pro X.  Additionally, projects from those platforms can be imported into Vegas Pro 12 for further video editing and audio sweetening (FCP X is export only).  Post-production is often a collaborative experience and exporting a Vegas Pro project to other editing platforms is a huge benefit for Vegas Pro editors who can now work on projects started on other platforms, facilitating more creative opportunities. Nice!
Import Panasonic P2 Clips: Vegas Pro 12 now reads DVCPRO 25, 50 , and 100 files, as well as AVC-Intra 50 and 100 files.  P2 has become a very popular acquisition format worldwide and supporting P2 files gives you more flexibility for your projects and for accepting post-production work for customers who shoot with P2 gear.

ACES/S-log Workflow:  Vegas Pro 12 is an end-to-end S-log solution, with the ability to apply the appropriate LUT (Look-up Table) during the editing process, based on the display device and the creative goals of the production team.  Using OpenColorIO technology developed by Sony Pictures Imageworks, Vegas Pro 12 supports S-log via the Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) color space standard.  The Sony PMW-F3 camera, along with the F23,  F35 and F65 cameras, can record video with a response curve intended to capture the full dynamic range that the camera is capable of. Working with original high dynamic range S-log material, Vegas Pro 12 maintains the maximum quality throughout the editing process and offers the most flexibility for monitoring and final output. The edited project can be encoded to a wide range of formats, using ACES-defined color space standards as well as other popular non-ACES standards:

•Supports the expanded dynamic range of the Sony PMW-F3 and other cameras using S-Log encoding
•Uses OpenColorIO technology developed by Sony Pictures Imageworks
•Supports the Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) color space
HDCAM SR Mastering:  Render your finished project to HDCAM SR, an extremely high-quality mastering format that is widely accepted by post houses and duplication facilities worldwide.  Vegas Pro 12 supports all of the frame sizes and frame rates in the HDCAM SR standard, at bit rates from 220 Mbps through 880 Mbps.  Encoding to all flavors of the HDCAM SR mastering format, including the 220 Mb/s SR Lite and the 880 Mb/s SR 444, provides Vegas Pro 12 customers with an extremely versatile output option.  HDCAM SR is a high-quality recording and mastering format based on MPEG-4 SStP (Simple Studio Profile).  A full range of format templates are included, and the rendered .mxf files are compatible with HDCAM SR camcorders, VTRs, and SR Memory solid state recording devices. With the addition of HDCAM SR encoding, Vegas Pro 12 is now an end-to-end cost-effective HDCAM SR editing solution.
•Renders to the HDCAM SR MXF format
•Supports all flavors, including SR Lite and SR 444
Shape Masking Tools:  Adds a rectangle/square masking tool along with a circle/oval masking tool within the Pan/Crop  view. While the Vegas Pro Bezier Masking Tool is powerful and accurate, it can be overly complex for masking simple shapes.  The new rectangle/square and oval/circle Masking Tools make it easy to mask portions of the media by drawing the desired shape over the appropriate areas.  Holding down keyboard modifiers can create rounded corners and move the center point of the mask.
•Circle/Oval & Square/Rectangle
•Keyboard modifiers for round edges
FX Masking Tool: Enables the masking tools within the Pan/Crop view to apply an effect directly to the defined area. The FX Masking Tool streamlines the process of defining an area of  a clip an applying an effect to the masked area, or optionally to the unmasked area.  This is extremely useful for obscuring a person’s face, a logo, or a license plate with a Gaussian Blur or Pixelate effect.
General UI Improvements:  Vegas Pro 12 contains many small, thoughtful User Interface enhancements to make the editing experience more  intuitive and enjoyable.  For example, (1) a new Toolbar Icon for Splitting is available, (2) A yellow border outlines the most recently added clip on the timeline, (3) Large blue handles on timeline events make it easier to grab the various interactive event modifiers, and (4) more comprehensive tool tips, describing not just the name of the tool but also what the tool does.  The improved functionality and visual feedback provided by these UI enhancements enables experienced users to edit more efficiently than ever in Vegas Pro 12, while at the same time making it easier for new users to ‘jump in’ to the world of Vegas Pro  and begin enjoying the many benefits that Vegas Pro provides.

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Vegas Pro 12 is a serious piece of kit that reaches deep into the field of Video and Audio post-production squaring up to the daily challenges of the professional producer. The focus that Vegas Pro 12 has received in terms of new workflow features and cross-platform exchange capability has raised the bar by a mile. It is more of a professional users non-linear editing suite than in any of its previous versions. Combined with the audio tracking, the new 64-bit audio FX and the impressive mixing strengths inside Vegas Pro – you have it all!