Sony Vegas Pro 9 in Software

There are a couple of areas where Vegas Pro still needs some work to bring it in line with Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro. One is the lack of Bezier curves for keyframe automation. Vegas Pro's Event Pan/Crop tool only moves in straight lines and offers little control over velocity, so animations can look clunky. It's particularly frustrating because Bezier curves are available in the excellent ProType Titler editor, and even for masks - something its competitors lack.

The other missing feature is individual keyframe tracks for each parameter. Again, only the titles designer includes this feature. When animating an image or adjusting effects settings, adding keyframes to one parameter litters others with multiple static keyframe values, making further changes cumbersome. We also experienced a bug whereby manipulating the Mask and Position settings of a clip in HD projects produced unpredictable results.

Despite these reservations, Vegas Pro is seriously impressive. If complex animations aren't a priority and you don't have £1,600 to take advantage of the tight integration of applications in Adobe CS4 Production Premium, Vegas Pro's audio-editing prowess, excellent titles, powerful effects and, above all, its swiftness of operation may be enough to clinch the deal.

Author: Ben Pitt