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I tried Pinnacle, Ulead7, and last year's Magix. They all work. They all have their + and -. I finally settled on the Sony/SF product because as an audio guy for years I was familiar with the GUI aspect. For those interested this is essentially a "Vegas Lite". I personally don't mind the lack of a Story Board, nor the more utilitrian look of the GUI. The eye candy from the other products mentioned is gone. There are no cutesy TV or remote mock-ups, just what you need to work and produce A/V off-line. I have found it to be rock solid, reasonably fast and the real-time audi envelopes are a real plus. On the others you set project fades, etc. or use a graphic with a SMPTE time set for the effect, I suppose in deference to the eye-candy. Screenblast will let professionals work the way they're used to and give consumers a more flexible production environment. Having said that, the wizard and eye candy set or the quickie home movie compositors will find that there is a learning curve as this program will not "do it for you". My only knock is that this version will not locate or load other DirectX effects in the audio chain.
I gave it an 8 for ease to qualify "ease". For anyone familiar with Sonic Foundry products or pro-level audio products (Sound Forge, Wave Lab, Logic, Cubase, Pro Tools, Sonar, Nuendo) it's a snap. In fact it's frightenly easy with a great 3 track stereo audio presentation and 3 track video timeline.
The help files and tutorials are well designed and direct.
It's also anywhere from 10 to 30 bucks cheaper than the less functional eye candy products. |
