A few days ago I received notice that the long time PR company for MAGIX, owners of Vegas Pro, Sound Forge and Acid Loops among others, had had his contract terminated as of July 1st.
For those that are in the know, Vegas Pro has a chequered history, starting life under Sonic Foundry, moving to Sony and then to MAGIX. Last year, MAGIX themselves got into apparent difficulty and were bailed out by a management / investment company.
To try and see how the land lay, I last night got in touch with a contact inside MAGIX – well sort of – the development team for Vegas Pro remains somewhat independent in its operations, being based in the US, with MAGIX, a German based company, overseeing everything from afar.
My concern was that in the past, these sorts of shenanigans have led to so-called investment companies, after bailing out one that is in strife, waiting a while and then, well, there’s no kind way of saying this, doing an asset strip.
Thankfully, good news this morning prevailed and I was assured that Vegas Pro 23 is alive an well, under complete development, about to go into full beta, and hopefully fully released in a few months.
Make no mistake, this is a complete re-write of everything from the ground up.
I was on the original beta team in the late 1990’s, off memory (version 0.9) and at that time, Vegas was a breakthrough in video editing applications compared to current products on the market. I even assisted in Vegas supremo Douglas Spotted Eagle, author a few books on the subject.
It is not unkind to say that over the ensuing period, Vegas Pro has fallen behind the competition in a large way, so hopefully this will address that problem and bring Vegas Pro back to the fore.
I have requested to go back on to the beta program, but of course those are under a non-disclosure agreement, but I will keep current users informed as much as I can and am allowed.
One Comment
VEGAS isn’t undergoing a full rewrite- that would be impossible to do in the months between 22 and 23.
What’s been happening for a few years is Magix finally focusing on a few of its products, VEGAS being the flagship, and we’re seeing long deferred work on the video engine finally making progress. That became visible at the end of 21, continues during 22 and will likely continue during 23 (not sure software development ever ends, just pauses!)