Vegas Pro

Pros

• Large library of tools and third-party plug-ins that you can add to the software.
• Interactive tutorials so that you can master every aspect of this program.
• Rapid processing and the ability to work with most resolutions.

Cons

• Newcomers might find Vegas Pro difficult to use at first since it's made for professionals.
• Takes time to master, but it's intuitive nature ensures you won't have difficulty navigating the tools.

Vegas Pro is a video editing program with professional power and features. While this is an intuitive program, the software was designed with advanced users in mind who are accustomed to editing videos and multimedia files. From online videos to TV shows and movies, this program has a wide variety of tools and effects that will make your videos look perfect.

Main Features

Vegas Pro was designed for professionals who are editing raw footage for movie studios, TV shows, popular online videos and other larger productions. The major difference between Vegas Pro and other video editing programs is that this software has more power and features. This allows it to handle larger videos and more advanced effects with ease.

At the same time, the interface is simple to use and editing is intuitive. You are expected to have some knowledge and experience with editing programs before using this one, but some novice users have been able to learn this program as well.

You are given a full range of tools and features to make the video perfect. From editing raw footage to clipping and moving scenes, you have complete control over the video.

Interactive Tutorials

Some programs don't help their users and expect them to somehow grasp the software on their own. While this might be fine with entry-level programs, it is a significant problem with advanced programs like Vegas Pro. The good news is that this program wants its users to be successful. They have included a full library of interactive tutorials that you can watch, read and engage in as many times as you need until you master the program.

Often tutorials are just articles or videos that you passively watch without engaging in. Not only does this reduce your learning, but it makes it easy to drift and to forget what you just learned. Vegas Pro improves learning by being engaging.

Instead of just passively watching and reading, these tutorials ask you to answer questions, use tools and engage with the program in a realistic way. This helps guide you and ensures that you're really learning. You can choose to go through all the tutorials, or you can cherry pick them and choose only those that are interesting or relevant to you.

Intuitive and Customizable Interface

Sometimes advanced programs get a bad reputation for being cluttered or difficult to use. Vegas Pro might be advanced, but the interface was designed to be intuitive and simple to use. There are various tabs and icons that help you navigate the footage and tools. You'll also find a timeline that you can view and edit.

Most people find that there is a logical flow to the tools here. This makes it much easier to edit footage rather than grappling with the software and making it work for you. Professionals need this as they are busy and require a program that saves them time.

Another hallmark of truly professional programs is that they are customizable. Vegas Pro allows you to completely change the layout to suit your specific needs. This includes what tools you see, which features are front and center, where the windows and tabs are located and much more. One person might have certain tools prioritized while another person has different tools in front of them. It depends on your preferences and your specific role in the project.

Not only is the layout simple to customize, but you can quickly change things around if you don't like the layout even after customizing it.

Large Range of Tools

As expected from a professional video editing program, Vegas Pro is packed with dozens of tools. Some of these are common and necessary for all videos while others are situational but powerful. You'll find that you can add subtitles, optimize images or raw footage, add effects and filters and much more.

You also have full control over color and white balance. This includes using a chroma key to achieve the right balance of colors. Professionals know how powerful this is, and that it's essential to creating the best video projects.

You'll find that there are hundreds of tools in the background that you can use to improve the video. Some users might get worried about being overwhelmed by all the tools. This is especially true if your position or project only requires the use of a few specific tools.

The customizable interface allows you to choose which tools are immediately available and which are kept in the background. The background tools are easily accessible, but they don't clutter up the timeline or menu.

Special Effects

You can't have a movie or even an online video without special effects. This can include scene transitions, split screen, light leaks, scrolling text and more. You'll find that Vegas Pro comes with all the special effects you could hope for, and you can also add other special effects to improve the library of tools.

Not only are there many special effects to choose from, but adding them to your video is simple. This is primarily done right from the timeline. Some programs utilize a separate editing window, but this can get annoying if you have to go back and forth until the effect is perfect. Vegas Pro's approach makes it easy to place an effect on your video exactly where you want it while also viewing it to see if it looks good.

You'll also find that many of the special effects aren't static. Instead of simply clicking an effect and adding it to your footage, you can customize the effect to make it perfect for your specific project. This extra touch of flexibility is what separates Vegas Pro from entry-level programs.

Different Resolutions

Professionals know that it's important to have access to different resolutions based on the project. For example, videos produced by studios often requires the highest resolution while smaller studios and productions might be better at 1080p or 4K. Online videos might require different resolutions as well. It's all based on the project and how it will be published.

The good news is that Vegas Pro is capable of working with all the major resolutions. You can easily select 720p, 1080p, 4K, 8K and various other resolution options. Sharper resolutions will be larger and might require more time to implement special effects, but there is otherwise very little difference on the editing side.

Another major feature of Vegas Pro is that it can enhance footage to match the resolution. For example, maybe the footage was filmed at 720p or 1080p resolution, but you need it to be 4K. Vegas Pro is able to enhance the footage without looking grainy or distorted.

Extra Tools and Macros

Vegas Pro is often being updated and plug-ins are being added to give you more tools. Not only that, but the developers understand that there is a thriving third-party market of creators who make plug-ins for users. These plug-ins are often specialized or target specific features that might be lacking in the program. Whether from the developers themselves or a third party, you can easily and quickly add these plug-ins to your program.

Not only that, but you can also design your own macros. These are chains that use tools one after the other in a predetermined order. For example, you might find that you need to keep using a handful of tools in the exact same way when editing the footage. Instead of manually doing this each time, you can create a macro that does all this work with one button push.

The macros aren't unlimited, but they are very powerful. You can choose up to 32 different plug-ins or tools that activate one after the other. This will vastly increase your productivity.

Rapid Processing

Despite being made for large productions, you'll find that Vegas Pro is fast at processing. This includes implementing effects, changing the timeline and exporting the final project once everything is complete.

Most video editing tools can quickly process changes for an online video that's only a few minutes long and in HD quality, but they slow down when it comes to feature length films at 8K resolution. Vegas Pro is able to rapidly process changes so that you don't experience much downtime.

Export to Blu-Ray and DVD

Those who are used to producing online videos or personal projects might not be thinking about exporting videos to physical media. These users often upload the video directly to a website, email it to others or keep it on their hard drive.

Those who create videos for studios and professional productions need to export them to Blu-Ray and DVD media. The good news is that Vegas Pro is ready to take your project, burn it on this media and making it viewable from common disc players. Not only that, but the process is often quick so that you aren't sitting around and waiting for it to finish.

Pros

• Large library of tools and third-party plug-ins that you can add to the software.
• Interactive tutorials so that you can master every aspect of this program.
• Rapid processing and the ability to work with most resolutions.

Cons

• Newcomers might find Vegas Pro difficult to use at first since it's made for professionals.
• Takes time to master, but it's intuitive nature ensures you won't have difficulty navigating the tools.