Post-Production : Vegas Pro Vs Premiere Pro by Gourav Chakraborty

"Professional market" as in big Hollywood studio? Or are you thinking indie filmmakers, smaller studios, etc? Avid is actually still considered the standard in Hollywood, especially by the larger old school studios. And even there, Premiere Pro is making headway. Deadpool, Avatar, Gone Girl, lots more were all cut on Premiere Pro.

i don't know of any big movies that were done on Vegas.

Besides Avid, you'll find a hell of a lot more people use Premiere Pro (or Final Cut) than Vegas in general. But the difference isn't so much in the tools as you've already found out. You make a cut pretty much the same way in Avid as you do in PPro and Final Cut Pro. The basic tools are largely the same among all big NLEs. The difference is in collaboration tools, "shared storage" - Avid is still considered to be better at that than Premiere...for now. The latest PPro update makes collaborative workflow easier, although it's still not what Avid is doing. The same goes for multi-seat licenses, although there are ways around that too. THOSE are some main reasons many studios still use Avid. It's got nothing realy to do with the tools baked in.

And Vegas has their own weaknesses in that regard.

In short, if you plan on ONLY working on large editing teams for a large studio, learn Avid, simply because of the collaborative workflow. Otherwise, Premiere Pro is probably your best bet. I would forget about Vegas (unless its new owner, Magix, makes a huge push into the pro market for some reason).

So your answer is: Avid. Download a trial of Avid Media Composer and give it a whirl. Note that in addition to the software, there are a lot of hardware options you may need to learn about (again, IF you're working in a larger collaborative studio).

That was very concise and helpful. Thanks a lot!!

I'll definitely give it a shot!!

I've had plenty of Avid friends make the jump to Premiere and they haven't looked back. If you can, go with Premiere as the pendulum is clearly swinging that way. Magix bought Vegas (as well as Soundforge) and it too is also subscription based (article: https://www.redsharknews.com/post/item/5237-magix-introduces-new-vegas-p...

Thanks!

AVID for industry norm. I love cutting my projects with Adobe Premiere though.

Thanks for your comment! Since this post, I've let go of Vegas, familiarized myself with Premiere and am trying to get into Film School. :)

Does it matter whether or not one is using Mac when it comes to the ideal editing software?

Alessandro,

I used a Mac running Adobe Premiere CC to deliver a feature two years ago. I chose the Mac over a PC because I needed to deliver a ProRes file to the distributor and the ProRes codec is only available on the Mac. I had been cutting the film on a PC up to that point and it made me look very closely at the compression issues. I rendered clips using all the available codecs offered by Adobe on the PC and none came close to being as clean as ProRes on the Mac. After the experience, I will never use a PC for rendering again. The available codecs on Premiere for Windows are terrible. I asked Adobe support about it and never got a straight answer. I haven't tried DNxHR codec, but I understand it's also pretty clean.

I would recommend Premiere Pro simply because it is the most practical, version 2018 is great at team workflows, save for that after effects integration via dynamic link and the new essential graphics where you can integrate motion graphics templates created on after effects and control them completely inside premiere pro. the new advanced audio tools are also a great leap forward. thats plus lots of other features like multicam etc ... most features also exist in Final Cut and Avid which are really great NLEs as well, Avid still being considered a top ranking for Hollywood although Premiere headed there as well. Final Cut and Premiere resemble each other, learning either one will easily get you to learn the other. Did we forget Davinci Resolve 15? download Resolve's free version, try it out and see if it is worth buying the studio version which has 3 softwares bundled into 1 : Resolve Studio 15, Fusion and Fairlight audio. Fusiin is a vfx and 3D compositing like after effects and cinema 4D but node based. DaVinci Resolve first started as the top color grading software in cinema and it now became a perfect NLE with even more powerful grading tools there. Good Luck ! Carlos

What is the actual DV for Pro Res. I have been out of the loop for a while, I recall DV 25, DV 50, and DV 100, is Pro Res higher than DV 100?

David Trotti, do you know what the DV equivalent of the Mac ProRes Codec is?

DVCPRO HD is roughly equivalent to ProRes 422. ProRes 422 has an edge with color in that it's 10bit (as opposed to 8bit) and has higher Mbit rates especially in HQ. ProRes also supports up to 8K resolution. If I was doing serious color grading or multi-generational editing (like VFX renders) I'd opt for ProRes and transfer a first generation DVCPRO HD file over to ProRes. If you're just going to do a basic edit in Final Cut Pro, stick with DVCPRO HD as FCP runs it natively. The only advantage I can think of with staying in DV is if you need to dump your video back onto the camera you shot with for some reason.

I haven't worked with a DV file in a long time (like 15 years) and haven't done a side-by-side comparison with ProRes so I'm by no means an expert on it.

Side notes, the Arri Alexa has built in ProRes and the Atomos Shogun is a good option as an external recorder featuring ProRes up to 4K with 10bit.

Definitely give Resolve a whirl. Especially 15... it has workflow tools that exceed even Avid's in terms of flexibility and user friendliness.