Previously leaked mentioned Sony Vegas 7 is now available.

Official information is on the Sony site, they say $149.95 for upgrade, $499.95 new. It’s showing up on Amazon for $450ish. Tasty.

Something I hadn’t previously heard about is the Envelope Brush tool.

Envelope brush “paint” tool New!
The new envelope brush tool in Vegas 7 software makes it possible to “paint” an envelope curve over time by holding down the shift key. This is a quick way to outline the general shape of an envelope without placing and modifying many distinct points. Once you rough in your envelope, the auto thinning feature approximates the drawn curve with as few points as possible. These points can then be further adjusted.

Vegas greatest strength is its lightweight, realtime editing abilities, so this tool will put it even further ahead if you want to edit and publish fast. Podcasters, Citizen Journalists, VJs, this one’s for you.

It seems that Sony didn’t really want us to know about the new stuff coming in the next version of their editing suite Vegas. Apparently the information was posted on the Sony site long enough for Videoguys to scribble down some points on a napkin.

Vegas 7

• XDCAM SD/HD support
• Improved HDV playback performance
• Enhanced hardware support for Blackmagic Design DeckLinkâ„¢ and AJA
• Improved workflow tools
• Cinescore software plug-in support
• Enhanced video monitoring

DVD Architect 4

• Scripting support
• Random playlist playback
• Keyframeable transformations, crop, and effects
• Buttons on video
• 4:3 and 16:9 preview settings

Vegas is a great NLE. I spend most of my time in Premiere but I still love Vegas for its incredible speed and small footprint, which make it perfect for mobile editing on my ageing Thinkpad. Being able to make edits, drop in new clips and tweak transitions while the project is still playing rocks me every time.

I can’t really say the new feature list looks revolutionary, but Premiere Pro 1.5 - 2 didn’t look that amazing on paper and it melted my face off It will be interesting to see what “Improved workflow tools” means. Ditto for “scripting support” in DVD Architect. Perhaps they’re getting ready for Blu-Ray?

via FresHDV