I'm a long-time Vegas Pro user (v6, v7, v8, v12). I have not bothered updating since then, as any new features were not worth the upgrade price, IMHO.
However Humble Bundle, a legit charity source of bundled older software (
Humble Bundle - Wikipedia), which previously had a wonderful bundle which offered the complete O'Rielly & Associates Programming and Technology Library in PDF format for $20 USD, has a bundle where you can get Vegas Pro 14 Edit (as well as other Magix stuff) for $20 USD. I purchased it today and registered it. It works well.
The extras & 3rd-Party plugins missing in the Vegas Pro 14 Edit version, which are included in the Vegas Pro 14 full version, are:
- DVD Architect 7
- NewBlue VegasPro Complete
- ProDAD Mercalli 4
While I would have liked to have gotten Mercalli (a stabilisation plugin), Vegas itself is all there. So it's a extremely cheap legit way of either upgrading from an older version of Sony Vegas/Vegas Pro or Sony Movie Studio, or starting out with Vegas as your first full-fledged NLE. Vegas has a good reputation for both ease of learning and for power.
DaVinci Resolve, another NLE, is free now, but from my brief look at it, not quite as user-friendly as Vegas.
Note: you get the Vegas Pro key. You then d/l the trial version of Vegas Pro 14, which you then register using the supplied key. Also inside the install are the other items mentioned above. But without individual keys for each item you won't be able to register them. You can still use them fully-functionally for a trial period before they'll stop working. So it's up to you whether you install them in the first place or don't. If you're new to Vegas, I'd suggest installing just it first, learn it, and only then, when you're confident with it, install the extras to see if you like them.
I'm not interested in the other Magix stuff in the bundle. (If you're not aware of it, Sony sold the Vegas & Movie Studio line of products to Magix.)
This bundle offer ends in 7 days time:
Humble Software REBundle: VEGAS Pro: Discover Creative Freedom (pay what you want and help charity)
Dan.