VEGAS Movie Studio 16 Platinum from MAGIX, is probably the only video editing program of a kind. Most other software in this segment usually targets a wide audience of amateur video creators. But what if you are not doing video editing just for fun? You might be in the middle of starting up a career as a professional video editing specialist and require flexible enough, yet budget software.
Well, here comes one of the best choices you can get. It is also available in 3 different editions.
One edition that drags the most attention, and offers the best balance between price and available features – is the Platinum one. Hence, in this in-depth review, you are going to find out why this software is one of the best mid-tier video processing tools for users with all levels of experience.
What is VEGAS Movie Studio Platinum?
MAGIX (owner and a developer), offers quite a few various multimedia products available for varying prices. Every product they offer is targeted to a different group of video artists. The most popular (and the most expensive) video editing suite they’ve made is called the “VEGAS Pro”. This product is definitely a good choice for skilled professionals who know what they want and have enough budget already.
With that said, me personally not ready to spend that whopping amount of money they ask for the VEGAS Pro. It can easily reach $700 for the most feature-packed edition. I am not really doing advanced video editing that often. That’s why I don’t need a top-notch video editing solution.
But, what if you’re planning on working with videos very frequently? What if you need to be adding great looking video effects, transitions, and other improvements to your footage? You may also want to be editing your screen captures for your new video tutorial.
Here is the Great News! MAGIX offers a light-weight version of its prominent VEGAS Pro.
VEGAS Movie Studio Platinum 16 is the most recent update of a consumer video creation tool that comes with a very affordable price, yet it brings a huge chunk of features from VEGAS Pro, so it’s virtually impossible to distinguish one program from another. Unless you are already a professional video maker, you won’t even notice any drawbacks of this consumer-targeted program compared to VEGAS Pro.
To be honest, I genuinely support your interest in this specific program. Most likely you’ve been thinking of becoming a professional videographer and artist. It makes a lot of sense to get yourself started with the most affordable, yet the most powerful video editing tool.
Good News is, MAGIX has granted a very affordable way to kick-start your video maker career.
MAGIX has just recently released the new version of their Movie Studio – Check my video about the version 17 to find out what are the new features.
With this application, you can create amazing video edits that do look professional. Later on, you can easily get yourself transferred to a more expensive and more advanced video editing tool like VEGAS Pro or Adobe Premiere, in case you start missing some of the more advanced features.
Check Latest Deals for the Movie Studio
Having that said, this is hardly going to happen any time soon. The editor we are going to review allows doing anything you would think and wouldn’t even think of. Let’s find out in more detail, what this software has to offer.
What are the most outstanding features offered by Movie Studio?
First and foremost, you are getting a beginner-friendly semi-professional video editing app that supports up to 200 tracks within a single project. Keep in mind, however, this is only available starting from the Platinum version. The standard version only allows up to 10 tracks per project.
Besides that, this editor offers an immense set of diverse features to satisfy a novice to a more professional user. Some of the tools are hard to find at first, but it gets easier over time as you are getting familiar with the controls. In case you are struggling with some options, there is a built-in “Show me how” helper feature that makes a learning curve shorter.
While it is virtually impossible to mention every single smallest module of this program, let’s take a closer look at some of the most valuable features.
VEGAS Video Stabilization
This comes extremely in handy if you plan on editing video clips captured with a digital camera. World-class video stabilization does wonder when it comes to removing excessively shaky moments without introducing any destructive changes to the original footage.
Motion Tracking
Let’s say you have a dynamic video, and you wish to apply a special effect to a moving object. Previously, you’d have to perform manual masking, which is extremely tedious and boring. With the VEGAS Motion Tracking feature, it’s all done automatically using the Bézier Mask. No matter which effect you want to add to a dynamic object in your scene, doing that is now a breeze.
Improved transitions
Choose from 400 presents and 37 plugins for professionally looking transitions. There should be no limit in your creativity when it comes to nicely aligning separate parts of a scene together. Now there are so many options on how to create an elegant transition effect.
Screen Capture
You can easily start capturing video and audio from multiple monitors, digital cameras, and microphones. This makes it a perfect tool for video instructors, gamers, and video course creators. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get my laptop’s built-in camera working. But, if you are using digital cameras (not web cameras) – this is going to work perfectly fine.
Multicam Production
This feature is the best assistant for your digital camera records matching. In case you have multiple digital video cameras, you may want to create a complete movie with different angles precisely aligned together.
Multicam Production is going to match several video streams from different cameras together, as long as they’ve been recorded simultaneously in the same place and time but from different angles. This makes it possible of creating even more bad-ass effects when combined with a picture-in-picture feature.
360° Video Editing
MAGIX does its best to be up to the trend. It’s becoming more and more common for video editing professionals to stitch together dual-fisheye lens videos to create a stunning realistic result. Making immersive, interactive video is now easier than ever.
AutoLooks OFX plug-in
It allows you to create different color moods and changing the video look and style to whatever you have in mind. It’s so easy to create the desired atmosphere with this effect. You are free to choose the color style to make your video look like a 90-s movie or an old music video.
Professional Picture-in-Picture
This feature allows you to create professional picture-in-picture scenes in real-time. Choose to either combine separate parts of your video or put an entire track into a separate smaller viewport. Position, and resize a picture-in-picture clip inside a preview window. Enjoy the final result, or perform more fine-tuning if needed.
Bézier masking
Draw a mask around the object of your choice. Change the way the object looks by adding more light to it or make it look darker. Play around, and feel free to express your creativity.
Other features
It’s hard to list all the possibilities offered by this amazing software. I encourage you to visit their site and check the interactive examples, to get a clearer perspective of what they look like.
I am specifically talking about the Platinum edition here, as it is the most balanced edition among the 3 available. It includes a huge set of features that would most likely suffice for your needs.
Which formats are supported?
Among the supported formats are the following:
- H.265 HEVC
- DSLR (.mov) files
- DV / HDV / AVCHD / NXCAM
- H.264 AVC / AAC MP4
- FLAC
- MPEG-1, -2, and -4 import and encoding
- 4K XAVC S
- Windows Media® 11
- MVC and MPO 3D
- BMP, JPG, PNG, TIFF, and WDP image sequences
- MP3
Which visual effects are included?
It would take ages to list all the effects available in this software. Among the most important and frequently used are the following:
- Brightness and Contrast
- Add Noise
- TV Simulator
- Mirror
- Black and White
- Invert
- Vignette
- White Balance
- Sharpen
- Crop
- Blur (radial, Gaussian, quick, linear)
- Lens Flare
- Sepia
Here is a screenshot of which effects are available in the Platinum version.
There is also an ability to add additional effects. Unfortunately, those are sold separately.
Which editions are available?
This software is available in 3 different editions:
- Standard edition
- Platinum
- Suite
I do not recommend getting the cheapest edition. Unless all you want to do is just occasionally open and quickly edit short video clips. In this case, it doesn’t really make sense of buying video editing software. Most free software would allow you to do the same that this program does.
VEGAS Movie Studio 16 Suite
The most feature-rich edition, and the most expensive one. However, it doesn’t add that many extra features. Basically, with Suite edition, you will only get the following additional NewBlue effects:
- Cartoonr Plus
- Cinema Collection Template
- Chroma Key Pro
- Essentials 5 V3
- Fluid Template Pack
- Titler Pro Express
That’s it. Only 6 advanced effects in addition to what is already available in the Platinum edition. In case you may want to have a look at those effects, kindly check the examples on the MAGIX official web-site.
Platinum edition
It is the most balanced in terms of cost/features. You are getting lots of supported formats, and all the essential features, while not being limited in the number of tracks, and not losing access to pro features that are cut from the standard edition. With that in mind, I recommend choosing the Platinum edition specifically. It’s going to cover 99% of your needs.
Is it really the editor of your choice?
The app is built with a very strong foundation laid by VEGAS Pro. This makes it an affordable but powerful alternative to this expensive professional video editing tool. It’s going to be your best bet in case you are a beginner video maker, and don’t have much extra money to spend on a full-fledged professional solution.
At the same time, this tool does indeed take some time to learn if you never worked with such programs before. I’d say you’re going to need about a week to learn the basic controls and become comfortable with basic editing features. This could take up to a month for you to become completely aware of all the power this editor keeps inside.
Get VEGAS Movie Studio Platinum 16 with $20 discount
This program is going to be the best choice if you are aiming at becoming a professional video maker soon, but if you are mostly looking for a video editor that is very easy to get started with, and not interested in much control over the classy-looking effects and transitions, you may want to have a look to something else. A good example of a simple and easy to use editor would be Movavi, or a Filmora 9.
What are the pros and cons of Movie Studio Platinum?
Even though the 16th version is a huge improvement over the previous versions, and it is done by a new owner of this software – MAGIX, who bought it from Sony a couple of years ago, this amazing video editor has its advantages, as well as some drawbacks. Let’s have a look at a quick summary of those:
Pros
- powerful and flexible, with lots of controls
- wide range of supported formats, including H.265 HEVC, 4K XAVC S, FLAC, and H.264 AVC
- very affordable
- several steps closer to a professional suite
- lightweight and not demanding for expensive hardware
- most of the advanced effects and transitions from all 3 editions
- up to 200 video tracks
- 3D editing included
- motion detection to add effects into moving objects
- Picture-in-Picture
- Multicamera workflow
- Controls are the same as in VEGAS Pro and are customizable
Cons
- long learning curve (gets shorter if using built-in “Show me how” feature)
- the user interface looks a bit dated
- rendering is not the fastest among the competitors
- some limitations compared to a “Suite” edition
- motion detection and multi-camera workflow sometimes bring undesired results
- no built-in effects store
- trails behind other consumer-targeted video editing applications in terms of usability
Where can you get this video editor?
MAGIX brought all their multimedia software together on one simple web-site. In case you want to give it a try, they currently offer a nice discount of $20, making this program even more affordable.
Get VEGAS Movie Studio Platinum 16 with a $20 discount
Are there any good alternatives?
While we are speaking about an outstanding piece of video editing software, those of you, who are looking for a more beginner-friendly tool, may also find it useful to have a look at some of the alternatives. The most affordable and easy to use tools are Filmora9, and Movavi. Besides that – I suggest you check a review of MAGIX Movie Edit Pro which is a much more simplified version of Movie Studio by the same developer.
Bottom Line
There is a whole lot to learn about this video creation tool. It’s truly one of the best and most affordable video editing suits that shine with its set of professional features. Advanced visual effects, a huge set of transitions. Text overlays, multi-cam editing, and video stabilization are those tools you are going to enjoy using. That’s for sure.
In case you are a professional video editing artist already, this app may not satisfy your highest demands. It may also be a bit challenging to start with if you are a complete novice. Having that said, there is a lot of helpful tutorials built into this software. A lot more is also available on YouTube. So, you don’t have to worry. You are not going to become lost with this editor.
