Hi everyone,
I'm fairly new to Vegas Pro 8 and am interested in getting a tutorial book or DVD for the program, but I'm not quite sure on which one to get. (The Seminar Series DVD, Vegas Pro 8 Workshop, VASST...)

If anyone has any suggestions it would be a great help.

Thanks!

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StudioSeventyTwo

the two best resources i found that are free and kill any book is:

1. Forums... ask a question... get a answer.
2. Mess around! Do this and see the result... now you know what that does... keep doing it.
3.Vegas's help is very helpful I think. It even has pictures to show you effects etc.

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-Sean
http://www.Nelproductions.com
Intel Core 2 Duo E6850
4GB DDR2 800
Radeon X850XT (overclocked)
150GB SATA Hard drive
Audigy 2 Soundcard
22 Inch wide screen LCD Monitor

Thanks for your quick response. I think I might take your advice and save some money! I found Vegas' help good aswell.

Thanks again!

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StudioSeventyTwo

I've gone and bought pretty much all of 'em, being new to video editing and Sony Vegas Pro 8 so here's my thoughts:

User Guide/Help - dull to sit and read. Not really suitable for training.

VASST - Expensive for whole set of DVDs but excellent. A bit annoying that the first few volumes are based on Vegas 6 and some dialogues that they go into have changed and have different options, but if you order all 9 volumes (10 if you also take their more generic "Video for the web" which has additional useful info) you've pretty much got the most comprehensive course there is. Whenever I get stuck with Vegas I tend to go to the VASST DVD set and load up the appropriate chapter first. Beware of import costs (duty + VAT + handling charges). I was lucky I was in Las Vegas for a week and had them delivered to my hotel so I could bring them back myself and avoid all those surcharges. The Video Guys sell them cheaper than VASST do if you order the entire set but when I contacted them they didn't have all the volumes in stock so I had to pay the higher price to get them from VASST in time.

Sony Seminar Series DVD. Complete waste of time. More an overview of the new Pro 8 features that assumes your main interest is the new multi-camera support and that you're already familiar tiwh Sony Vegas. The resolution is terrible so that it's almost impossible to make out what they're trying to show you on screen.

Sony Training Guide "Digital Video and Audio Production" (A4 spiral bound book with DVD). Nice gentle intro to Vegas. I found it a bit slow and basic, but good if you want more hand-holding than the interactive tutorials give you and very good at getting you to use shortcuts very quickly. It includes video files for you to follow along with so it's very hands-on, whereas the trouble with the VASST stuff is all you can really do is watch the trainer doing stuff.

I agree completely with irascian. The VASST DVD's are excellent and you need not buy the whole set if you don't need guidance in certain areas. The Vegas 6 references continue to apply to Vegas 8 but I've seen in another thread somewhere that VASST are in the course of updating the DVD's although whether this is true or not I don't know.

Douglas Spotted Eagle's book is also excellent. Although it is aimed at the intermediate and advanced worker, it has a huge amount of information for the beginner and the Version 6 edition quickly became my "bible." From what I've seen, the Version 8 edition which I've just bought looks even better.

Finally, I too would agree the the various forums provide excellent support. I've never failed to receive an authorative and clear response to the questions I've asked.

Good Luck and Enjoy Yourself,

Richard Jones

I can thoroughly recomment the DVDs by Gary Kleiner. He is a superb teacher and takes you through from the basics. The best £65 I have ever spent on training.

Training Videos for Sony Vegas Pro 8 and Sony DVD Architect by Gary Kleiner

Colin

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Colin Steed
"I want to learn something every day"
www.whitedovevideos.co.uk

Thanks for your help everyone!

I'm thinking maybe Douglas Spotted Eagle's book or the Gary Kleiner DVDs.
I'm leaning towards the Gary Kleiner DVDs, they will end up costing me $150.50, but they seem to be very comprehensive.
The Douglas Spotted Eagle's Book is cheaper but I'm not quite sure about it.

If you were in my situation what would you buy?

Thanks again!

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StudioSeventyTwo

I agree with sithxace - but I am too tight to buy expensive dvds.

Fiddle - forums - feedback, that works for me.

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I have one prejudice - I am anti HDV for consumer camcorders.

www.zaskarfilms.com You tube channel 'zaskarfilms'
JVC DV5001e (big cam), Sony PC6E (tiny cam), Vinten pro5, PAG light, SM58, Sony ECM50, Sony C-76, 0.5x convertors for sony, Rode video mic, Vegas 7.

Before you give any money to Kleiner you might want to read the following and follow some of the links Douglas Spotted Eagle has posted. The claims D.E.S. makes have been confirmed by several other parties on different forums: A personal statement related to Gary Kleiner's illicit use of my name.

Personally I won't do business with someone who has such low business ethics.

Look around and you'll find that Douglas Spotted Eagle is regularly on a lot of the forums giving advice and information for free. I don't believe the same is true of Mr Kleiner.

Thanks for the heads-up.

I'll second what you've said here. Even as a relative newcomer to Vegas (as I am), you can find recent posts from "Spot/DSE" all over a number of Vegas forums.