Switch-Hitting in VegasWhat Happens in Vegas....Will Blow Your Mind!
By Douglas Spotted Eagle
Vegas 5 and the Mackie ControlSwitch Hitting in Vegas (5)?Now control this, uhh Control That's right Control Career moves Control I do what's right for me Control And me wants to groove Is that okay Yeah! Ooh, control
Hop to it I'm in control, and I love it, hahaha, that's right
Control Now I've got a lot Control Now I'm all grown up, ahh! I'm in control Uhh I'm in control Ahh I'm in controlŠJanet Jackson Janet Jackson is a Control freak. So am I. So will you be. Honest. And with Sony Vegas 5, we?re finally back in Control of our mixes with passion and style. It?s about time to cut the mouse cord and get back to making great audio with mixing devices the way our minds, fingers, and passions were intended for.
Mackie Control with 3 Expanders in the Sundance Media Group "A" room
Pushing the Envelope(s) Too long, video editors have been without quality audio tools. Vegas 2 changed all that four years ago, forcing the other NLE tools to step up to the pump and get real with audio. Too long, Vegas editors have not had access to real mix tools, and mixing with a mouse is a painful experience. Thankfully, the engineers at Sony realized this serious shortcoming and while Vegas still leads the NLE pack, it now joins the DAW pack with the inclusion of access to all functions of the Mackie Control software control surface.
Now it?s possible to reach inside of Vegas and have Control of up to 128 channels of audio (or video) simultaneously, and with the Control?s touch sensitive Penny and Giles faders, it?s sheer heaven when it?s time to mix. Fingers were meant to be on sliders, not mouse buttons during mixes. That?s why we have so many, isn?t it? When Automation Read is enabled in Vegas, envelopes are read from the Vegas timeline and controlled by the Mackie. When any of the Automation Write modes are enabled in Vegas 5, Vegas will read all movements, button pushes, or knobs twisted and memorize all movements. If you?ve got four hands running the mix, Vegas and the Mackie Control will remember what all 20 digits did, probably better and with more accuracy than your ears or eyes did. Never again will that powerful mix be lost, as it can be saved separate from any other mixes you may wish to do.
Notice the automated envelopes inserted by the Mackie Control. These automated moves may be created in both audio AND video tracks
Cruise Control More than just volume and pan control like so many other software control/HUI?s offer, Vegas 5?s driverset for the Mackie Control is well thought out, well implemented, and stable as a stone fortress. Using the Mackie, Vegas users can basically start the application and then do everything from the Mackie Control. All plugins, plugin parameters, presets, mutes, solos, fader automation, scrubbing, zoom in/out, insert media, delete media, trim media, jump from marker to marker, region to region, surround mix master control, metering, and a host of other options are accessible from the Control. Users can literally fly around the Vegas timeline, cruising at unbelievable speeds. Set Accelerator: Getting Vegas to recognize the Mackie Control is easier than I?ve ever experienced in a number of software tools. Connect the Mackie to the MIDI ports of your audio card. By turning on MIDI ports in the Vegas application and selecting the External Control tab in Vegas preferences, Vegas scanned the MIDI ports for connected hardware and immediately located the Control. At this point, I was up and running in literally less than 30 seconds on both my laptop and desktop systems. (We?re fortunate enough to have more than one Mackie Control in our studios) Of course, users can always customize the Control parameters to drive specific functions in Vegas 5, but these parameter accesses are already very well done, and to date, I?ve not found myself modifying any of the parameters as I?m very pleased with the Control/Vegas relationship. During recent VASST tours, it was sheer entertainment watching the crowds in the rooms see how fast and easy this is accomplished. Add the sweet ?cool factor? of moving faders and moving lights on the Control during an automated mix, and you?ve got instant inspiration.
Setting Preferences and key maps for the Mackie Control is already done for users, but each parameter may be manually modified in Sony Vegas 5
AC/DC Switch-hitting?. OK, so it?s really A, B, C, D, E, F, G switch hitting in Vegas. What is he talking about you ask? Say ?HELLO? to your new video switcher. Indeed, Vegas can switch up to 128 video tracks on the fly. While I can?t say I?ve had a timeline containing 128 tracks of video, I have successfully mixed/composited 8 tracks of video simultaneously. Using the Mute or Solo options on the Mackie, Vegas memorizes what cameras it should be seeing in the Preview window. If you are really daring, you can run the timeline with all 8 tracks in Automation Write mode, and create fades or composites in real-time. Vegas will recall them all. If you find you need to tweak a setting or tweak a fader movement, this can be accomplished via mouse or by putting Vegas into Write mode and tweaking/touching up a mix section by section, or envelope point by envelope point. This feature warrants more than just one paragraph, but there just isn?t more to say. This option alone makes the Vegas/Mackie Control combination very powerful and useful to video editors. This took a little imagination, using Penny and Giles optical faders to control video as well as audio. Who?da thunk it?
Composites become very creative using the Mackie Control's ability to act as an A/B switcher in Vegas (Background image courtesy ARTBEATS
Scrub Hard, Scrub Fast, Keep it Clean The Mackie Control provides a scrub feature that is defined by Vegas 5?s parameters and preferences. Sample accurate locations or frame accurate locations may be spied easily and quickly, depending on the zoom level that the Mackie Control and Vegas are set to. Frame accuracy is for sissies; Vegas is sample accurate, and the Mackie doesn?t let it down.The Control scrub wheel is large, solid, and given the stable 15 lb weight of the Mackie Control, the scrub wheel isn?t going anywhere when it?s jogged quickly in those moments of creative passion. Heads Up! When the Mackie Control sees incoming audio or video signals, depending on the mode it?s in, a signal indicator shows which channels are receiving audio or video signal. Switching the Control from an audio mixer to a video compositor is a quick single button push, and the Control may be used for both simultaneously, although both audio and video settings may not be viewed in the same surface view. Sony also provides a pdf template that may be printed and overlaid on the Mackie Control, indicating what buttons correlate with various functions in Vegas. Mackie says they?ll have a Lexan overlay available shortly, removing the need for users to print their own overlay sheet. Vegas 5 currently doesn?t support the Mackie Extender, but support is anticipated soon. There are some underground registry tweaks floating around that makes the Extender function within Vegas. With up to 8 Extenders, it?s theoretically possible to control more than 15,000 channels of audio or video simultaneously. Now that?s a project I?d like to see.
Top view of the Mackie Control
More Power? Like the guys at ?Tool Time? scream for, the Mackie Control and Vegas provide a great deal of power to the video and audio editor. Vegas can be trained to recognize any MIDI device as a controller, but the sheer amount of control available via the Mackie is unmatched. From the compositing possibilities to the speed and intimacy of a real surface that allows the guts of Vegas to be touched, this is a workflow to be experienced.
Mackie Control Universal - Mackie, MSRP: $1299.00 Street Price: Around $1000.00.
Add $10.00 for a bidirectional MIDI cable, you?re set to go if you?ve got a SoundBlaster that?s MIDIenabled.
The biggest barrier to creating great media in the digital world is the lack of organic workflow that many of us grew up with, or that some newcomers to the craft need to experience to understand why software, mixing tools, and nomenclature of the tools exist the way they do.The Mackie Control, coupled with Vegas 5, allows for experiences beyond imagination.
Take Control. Be in Control. And what happens in Vegas?..will blow your mind.
More tutorials and reviews by Douglas Spotted Eagle may be found here on the DMN Forums or on the VASSTwebsite, home
of the shared veg files and other training media. "Spot" is the author of more than a dozen books on the
subject of DV, audio for video, DVD authoring, and Sony Vegas. He is the
co-author of "HDV-What You NEED
to Know."
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