Sony Vegas Pro 10 review

The consumer-oriented Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10 easily outclassed its competitors in our recent lab test (see Labs, Shopper 271) https://www.expertreviews.com/uk/software/278989/sony-vegas-movie-studio-hd-platinum-10-0. Vegas Pro is the flagship version, and comes with unlimited tracks, more effects, advanced text animation, surround-sound mixing and support for professional camera formats such as XDCAM and Red One. Platinum 10 was a major update, though, and Vegas Pro 10 has its work cut out to justify its tenfold-higher price.

The big new feature is 3D editing. Footage shot with 3D cameras can be imported, plus any clip can be placed and rotated in 3D space. 2D clips, text and images can be moved in and out of the screen by means of a simple Horizontal Offset control. This control displaces the left- and right-eye images to simulate depth. Doing so is pretty cumbersome but the effect is impressive. There’s comprehensive support for all sorts of 3D display techniques, although the notable exception is Blu-ray 3D export. We welcome Sony’s eagerness to embrace the format, even if it’s premature for the vast majority of users.

The video stabilisation effect introduced in Platinum 10 is included here too. The results are remarkably smooth, and we’re pleased to see more user control this time around. There’s still no way to control how much clips are cropped by, though, which sometimes lead to problems. Import, editing and export of captions is much improved, and there are some useful interface tweaks such as the ability to apply effects to individual audio clips.

Sadly, Vegas Pro’s effects automation and animation tools remain clunky compared to those in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5. The 3D effects showcase a new plug-in architecture with multiple keyframe lanes and curve-based editing, but all the other effects use the older, clumsier controls. Proxy editing to make HD footage easier to manipulate remains on our wish list, too. Vegas Pro is generally responsive, especially when running on 64-bit Windows.

It’s hard to recommend Vegas Pro when Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10 offers so much for a tenth the price. For those who are prepared to splash out, Premiere Pro CS5 is a more rounded and capable choice. Vegas Pro is far from disappointing but it struggles to stand out on features or value.