Sony Vegas Pro 8.0 is a professional NLE that is intuitive, easy-to-use, and powerful.
 | Comparison with Avid Liquid 7.2 (Added 4/15/08)
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| Advantages |
a) Very easy to use and intuitive. I still haven’t gone through any tutorials and I’m on my fourth project.
b) Much more stable than Liquid. So far Vegas has been rock solid.
c) Windows are resizable and dockable. This may seem minor but it really makes a difference; especially with 2 – 20.1” wide screen monitors. I can easily move the tools where I want them.
a) Plugging in camcorder brought up all the choices: Take no action, Capture with Studio and Capture with Vegas. Remarkably Liquid was not on that list.
b) There was no mystery here as every possible choice for capturing was clearly defined.
c) Captures from my Canon XL2. With Liquid this is not possible (a fact that still boggles the mind).
a) New project features allows for complete customization of every setting along with a checkbox to “Start all new projects with these settings.”
b) Quickly set a new length for graphics.
a) Preview special effects. This has been something that has been greatly lacking in Liquid. In order to see what they look like you have to apply the effect, sometimes wait for it to render, test it. Modify, wait to render, test again. The vast majority of the effects in Liquid just have numbers so it’s hard to know exactly what they will do. In Vegas everything is categorized and clearly labeled.
b) In addition the ability to play the clip WHILE making changes is amazing. This is what makes Vegas soar light years ahead of Liquid.
c) Pro Titler. Apparently some people don’t like this. However, compared to the pathetic titler in Liquid, TitleDeko Pro, it is a huge leap forward for me. Creating titles is much easier and again, the changes are reflected instantly on the timeline.
d) It’s easy to apply effects in Vegas to multiple clips.
e) Adjusting the length of a clip, and many other attributes, is a breeze. In Liquid there’s no way to type in the length of a clip. Each clip must be dragged to the correct length.
f) Clearly shows the title of the effects on the screen. In Liquid you have to right-click to see which effects have been applied.
g) Quick adjustment of fade in/out, dissolves – not only for length but type. This is very fast and brings up other windows for more refined adjustments.
h) Media Manager is superb. It allows one to easily preview all media, including Vegas projects.
i) Vegas handles the alpha channel of QuickTime movies; Liquid does not.
j) QuickTime movies play smoothly.
| Disadvantages |
