Best video editor alternative to Sony Vegas Pro

[Natastrophe]

Hiya folks,

I've only just got my macbook today, and M1 Air, and I am used to using Sony Vegas Pro Edit 14 on my windows laptop. I'd like something, free or cheap, that is roughly equivalent in functionality and ease of use.

Please could you post your suggestions and reasons below for what video editing software you use.

Thanks

 

[casperes1996]

Wow that arrived quick! Fairly recent you wrote about which to get

Anyhoot;
I personally use Final Cut Pro and love it, but that's quite a bit away from free, hehe.

I would say your best option is DaVinci Resolve. It does have a Studio version which costs money, but likewise it has a completely free version, which offers a tremendous selection of features, especially for a free product.
It's made by Black Magic, the people behind the Black Magic Cinema Camera. They have excellent working relations with Apple for optimising their software on macOS, and it is also available on Windows and Linux so if you want to use the same software everywhere, you can.
Further adding merit to the software it's used by colourists in Hollywood - DaVinci Resolve started life as just a colourist's tool, but is now a combined NLE, Colouring tool and DAW (Digital Audio Workstation).

However, do read the restrictions with using the free version over the paid version; Aside from some limitations in the software, there are also some licensing differences I believe, so that if you're making a Hollywood blockbuster you can't just use the free version even if you don't use any of the extra features from the paid version.

Aside from that, KDEnlive is quite beloved in the free open source software sphere, and is probably the highest quality open source NLE, but I've never really been a fan. It's also built for Linux so while you can get it running on macOS it's a bit of a faff.

I've heard good things about HitFilm, OpenShot and Lightworks but I've only used Lightworks minimally, and neither of the other two. My understanding is that HitFilm is more for vfx work though. They are however all free so you can try them out and see what you think.

In my humble opinion however, nothing beats working with Final Cut

 

[Natastrophe]

Wow that arrived quick! Fairly recent you wrote about which to get

Anyhoot;
I personally use Final Cut Pro and love it, but that's quite a bit away from free, hehe.

I would say your best option is DaVinci Resolve. It does have a Studio version which costs money, but likewise it has a completely free version, which offers a tremendous selection of features, especially for a free product.
It's made by Black Magic, the people behind the Black Magic Cinema Camera. They have excellent working relations with Apple for optimising their software on macOS, and it is also available on Windows and Linux so if you want to use the same software everywhere, you can.
Further adding merit to the software it's used by colourists in Hollywood - DaVinci Resolve started life as just a colourist's tool, but is now a combined NLE, Colouring tool and DAW (Digital Audio Workstation).

However, do read the restrictions with using the free version over the paid version; Aside from some limitations in the software, there are also some licensing differences I believe, so that if you're making a Hollywood blockbuster you can't just use the free version even if you don't use any of the extra features from the paid version.

Aside from that, KDEnlive is quite beloved in the free open source software sphere, and is probably the highest quality open source NLE, but I've never really been a fan. It's also built for Linux so while you can get it running on macOS it's a bit of a faff.

I've heard good things about HitFilm, OpenShot and Lightworks but I've only used Lightworks minimally, and neither of the other two. My understanding is that HitFilm is more for vfx work though. They are however all free so you can try them out and see what you think.

In my humble opinion however, nothing beats working with Final Cut

Thanks, I have dabbled in DaVincy, but it was very different to Vegas, which i've used for years and love. Final cut looks great, but is £300, and money I dont have right now after paying for this little MacBook Air (it literally just arrived in the last hour)

I'd also thought of going for Adobe Premier, as I have a subscription for Lightroom, and Photoshop. Think i'll give DaVincy another go first though.

Have to say, typing on this keyboard is fantastic, its one of the best i've typed on, very positive feedback. The mouse pad is odd too, my brain tells me I pressed it, yet its just haptic feedback!!!

So fast and the screen is to die for!

Thanks for your help so far.

 

[casperes1996]

Thanks, I have dabbled in DaVincy, but it was very different to Vegas, which i've used for years and love. Final cut looks great, but is £300, and money I dont have right now after paying for this little MacBook Air (it literally just arrived in the last hour)

I'd also thought of going for Adobe Premier, as I have a subscription for Lightroom, and Photoshop. Think i'll give DaVincy another go first though.

Have to say, typing on this keyboard is fantastic, its one of the best i've typed on, very positive feedback. The mouse pad is odd too, my brain tells me I pressed it, yet its just haptic feedback!!!

So fast and the screen is to die for!

Thanks for your help so far.

Happy to hear you're liking the MacBook. The haptic trackpads initially irritated me a little when they were first introduced, but I don't know if maybe they've gotten better since then or I've just grown more accustomed to it, because now it feels super natural to me and I can't really tell it's not mechanical. It is pretty neat

Anyway, I have very very very little experience with Vegas, having lived exclusively on macOS (barring some time on Linux and Windows for individual tasks here and there) for about a decade now.
But the working experience between DaVinci and Premiere is fairly similar I'd say, with my preference being with DaVinci.

Depending on your needs you could of course also try to just use iMovie, but that didn't even cross my mind in the initial post because when professional programs like DaVinci Resolve exist with a so capable free version, well, it feels weird to stick to iMove, unless one's needs are more in the "home video" category, where the simplicity of iMovie is more important than the capability of Resolve.

Personally I dislike Premiere with a burning passion, but in part that's because I hate the CC subscription model, though I do also think Premiere as a piece of software is inferior to Resolve and Final Cut. Though After Effects kicks the ever-living snot out of Motion, hehe. Not really direct competitors though since Motion doesn't aim as high. Anyway that's a tangent.

Another program I forgot to mention in my last post is Avid's Media Composer. The software is called Media Composer, but people usually just refers to it as Avid.
It used to cost a bajillion dollars and only really be available to big Hollywood productions (where Avid is king), but they made a "Media Composer First" which is free. The thought pattern was that if so many editors are capable of learning with and practising on Premiere, Final Cut, Resolve, etc. then that could eventually drive Avid out of the ultra high end since those editors would prefer just using tools they're familiar with, even if Avid is still the standard in Hollywood and huge TV productions (though TV uses Premiere and others a lot these days too, and Final Cut 7 used to have a big spot there too). So Media Composer First was a free tool so editors could be familiar with it and use it on their own time.
But I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. It's quality software, but it's sort of slow since it's aimed at big production workstations not home computers, it's kinda clunky to use because it's aimed at productions with several editors and not just one person, and in some ways has a semi-esoteric workflow that's a bit of a leftover from the days of working with physical film.

 

[m2m2k]

I have FCP but I'm doing more and more on DaVinci which I find for being free super-powerful. I used to use Premiere V6 I believe many years ago (on Windows) and it was great at its time albeit expensive.

Currently I have to say I am less and less happy with FCP (which lacks updates imho and certain features - like for ex frame rate per clip setting - which should then adjust the lenght i.e playback speed, currently it does some smart interpolation. Example: If I film something on a pro cam with 48 fps and drop it into the timeline set to 24fps the clip should obviously playback in slow motion. IF i want this to playback 'normal' I should adjust it myself. Currently FCP adjusts this automatically. Of course I can adjust the speed down to 50%. But I don't like to do that calculation if I haves something shot in 135fps and i have a timeline in 23.9995fps

 

[casperes1996]

I have FCP but I'm doing more and more on DaVinci which I find for being free super-powerful. I used to use Premiere V6 I believe many years ago (on Windows) and it was great at its time albeit expensive.

Currently I have to say I am less and less happy with FCP (which lacks updates imho and certain features - like for ex frame rate per clip setting - which should then adjust the lenght i.e playback speed, currently it does some smart interpolation. Example: If I film something on a pro cam with 48 fps and drop it into the timeline set to 24fps the clip should obviously playback in slow motion. IF i want this to playback 'normal' I should adjust it myself. Currently FCP adjusts this automatically. Of course I can adjust the speed down to 50%. But I don't like to do that calculation if I haves something shot in 135fps and i have a timeline in 23.9995fps

I forgot where you find it, but there's a setting to pick FCP's behaviour with clips of different frame rate and resolution to the timeline settings

 

[m2m2k]

I forgot where you find it, but there's a setting to pick FCP's behaviour with clips of different frame rate and resolution to the timeline settings

exactly my complaint - I couldn't find this setting and also with google nothing usefull ... meh

 

[casperes1996]

exactly my complaint - I couldn't find this setting and also with google nothing usefull ... meh

Upon further inspection I think I was thinking of the conform settings in the inspector, and it appears they only have a "none" option for Frame size, not Frame rate. However, the retime menu should have an option called Automatic that should at least do the retiming math for you

 

[m2m2k]

Wow thanks. I'll give it a try