@CubeAce like you, I spent time in user forums to read about potential problems I might encounter. But I also look at the activity along with how many users are there, in addition to seeing if bugs that are being reported are global (everyone) or local to the individual. Also, what videos are they editing. More high end or more "generic". Bugs are alive everywhere for sure. It's whether they can be avoided or are they catastrophic. Especially if the cost of entry for the software is high. Then it's time to download a trial version to test.

And yes, no subscription for me. But minimum specs listed by Magix for 8K editing are a bit low in my opinion. Just like all the other editors in the consumer world. Not much higher than minimum required specs. Timeline playback was terrible, until proxies are created.

@Marc-Goder, have you tried proxy files instead of converting the original files?

@Reyfox

have you tried proxy files instead of converting the original files?

Yes, the result was worse.
The proxy files all run on CPU.

I find the preview rendering more useful.
But with converted material I can work better there.

I only have to convert files that I didn't record myself. For example when friends or other people give me smartphone videos or recordings with other cameras like the Panasonic GH5 or GH6.

This is often the case with Apple I-Phone recordings.

My own camera recordings up to 3840X2160 /25P or 1920X1080 /50P all run without restrictions.
(Panasonic TZ71, FZ1000, FZ300, Samsung A52S)

Even DJI recordings 3840 X 2160 30P/60P or GO Pro with 2.7K 120 FPS are no problem.
 
All without preview rendering and without proxies.

It just amazes me that certain resolutions such as 5.3K or 5.7K jerky even with converted files, but an 8K file that has been converted can still be played perfectly even with Magix's own effects.

@Reyfox

Hi.

That is @Marc-Goder 's problem it is not creating all the needed proxy files.

I missed one of his earlier posts which I have translated by Google. Odd he say's his computer can't cope with that amount of text. That doesn't bode well.

Hello, I did a lot of tests with different camera material. To know for me when I convert material directly with XMedia Recode or Handbrake and not even import the original material into a project. We were a total of 5 users who made the material available to us via Google Drive. We all had the same problems encountered. We also had demo material from some technology YouTubers who also made the original material available via online storage. As well as material from portals such as Dcamera.de and users of the dpreview.com forum. The result is this: Magix in version 2022/2023, whether De Luxe or PRO X, has fundamental problems with many video materials in the MOV container. Resolutions of 4096 X 2160 and above are also far too often a problem. Performance degradation, even on the latest hardware, occurs at resolutions in all available codecs and containers with footage captured with material at 5.3K, 5.7K, and 5.9K resolutions. Converting with XMEDIA Recode or Handbrake in one of these 5K/6K resolutions does not help either, only converting to UHD with 3840 X 2160. Then it runs smooth as butter. Without jerking and without memory legs. GoPro 11 recordings in the new 8:7 format are strongly discouraged. We don't even need to talk about recordings with a variable frame rate. This is often a total failure. Almost always has to be converted in a constant frame rate. For Magix Video Software it is best to mainly use the MP4 container with H264 / H265 (AVCHD/HEVC) codex with 4:2:0 in 8 bits or 10 bits. With resolutions like 720X576 960X540 1280X720 1440X1080 1920X1080 2704X1520 3840X2160 MPEG2/M2TS in AVCHD is of course not a problem either. And all this with a constant frame rate. It is imperative that the software become more compatible with MOV container formats and variable frame rate recordings. 5K / 6k HEVC as well as Intra Codex need to be optimized.

Hi Mark.

Magix (and Microsoft) may not agree with you as mov is not a native Windows video file format not supported on the platform by Apple and deliberately not supported so to encourage more users to switch to Macs. Even H265 may go the way of the dodo because of licensing issues. Editing some mov files in Windows would be like trying to edit wmv files on a Mac. Thankfully Google's av01 may well be the free cross platform codec that will sort things out over the next year or so. However you do need to get to the reason why your machine or MMS 2023 is not rendering proxy files on request. Magix are your only hope of getting that sorted or at least if not sorted, given a reasonable reason for the exclusion. You may not get a reply as I have now had three bug inquiries not answered by Magix. Even in VPX the pickings have got thinner as it is no longer possible to control the compression of a proxy file.

Ray.

@Marc-Goder I don't have any 5.3 or 5.7 files to work with, so can't comment on the proxies made by them. Sorry.

As for VFR videos, it's been "hit or miss" for me. I don't shoot VFR, so never have that problem. But testing other files, some success, some require converting with Handbrake or Shutter Encoder.

@Marc-Goder

Hi

. . . . It just amazes me that certain resolutions such as 5.3K or 5.7K jerky even with converted files, but an 8K file that has been converted can still be played perfectly even with Magix's own effects. . . .

I am not surprised at all that 5.3/5.7/8K is jerky when you consider that the amount of data to be processed is a combination of the number of pixels and the data bitrate that must be processed.

For the same encoding format, framerate, bit depth and bitrate, comparing to 4K UHD, the ratios of amount of data to be processed are 5.3 K  ~ 1.9x, 5.7K 2x  and 8K 4x.

If you look through many of the other video editor forums and Youtube, you will find that most of the major video editors struggle with 8K video editing. The solution is to use proxy files and/or reduce the resolution of the preview playback - ie what MMS (VDL) and VPX users have to do.

Some quick maths shows that the 'converted' 8K files will play smoothly due to the bitrate being reduced to approx 30% of the original video clip and the bit depth reduced to 8 bits from 10 bits. Combining the 2 equates to the amount of data being processed is approximately 25% of the original data per frame, which is well within the capabilities of MMS (VDL) and VPX, though at the expense of quality.

John EB

@johnebaker

Yes, I can play a converted video file in 8K HEVC with 8 Bit 4:2:0 "average bitrate 72 MBit" "maximum bitrate 96 MBit".

Even with standard effects. And then working with Magix still works.

But I take a Panasonic GH5 Il File with 5.7K 400MBit 96KHZ 24 Bit Sound, Pro Res and convert it with Handbrake or XMedia Recode to HEVC 5.7K with "average bitrate 56 MBit" "maximum bitrate 72 MBit" 8 bit 4:2:0 , 48KHZ 16Bit Sound then the converted file in Magix can not be played smoothly. The whole project then becomes unusable.

Each action takes several seconds until Magix reacts.

If I remove the clip from the timeline again, Magix runs smoothly again without these delays in any actions.

If I convert the same video file to 3840 X 2160 HEVC or AVCHD, everything works fine.

@Marc-Goder

Hi Marc

. . . . convert it with Handbrake or XMedia Recode to HEVC 5.7K with "average bitrate 56 MBit" "maximum bitrate 72 MBit" 8 bit 4:2:0 , 48KHZ 16Bit Sound then the converted file in Magix can not be played smoothly . . . .

That is odd - can you provide a sample 10 - 20 secs long of an original GH5 5.7K file and the converted file for us to test - upload to Google drive/OneDrive or other file sharing site and post a link to them.

Is the Nvidia chip id number for the RTX 3060 in your computer GA 106 or GA107?

John EB

@Marc-Goder

Hi Marc.

I think it as likely that the problem with the GH5 files is also the audio portion at 96kHz 24 bit Any audio in a video editing program is divided up into sample 'chunks' to keep in sync with the frames. Those chunks have to be loaded to system memory and then dumped while the next 'chunk; of audio is loaded. Because the end file from the editor will never have a sampling rate higher than 48kHz it may be worth using a lower sample rate (if possible) to see if that helps. The same is true for the bit depth of the file. 24 bits will help in the initial recording as it will help with the prevention of clipping but the audio will get compressed when the final render of the editing takes place as the 192kb limit at 48kHz on the audio encoding within the program on exporting probably wouldn't exceed more than 16 bits.

Most of this oversampling and bit depth phenomena comes from people wanting to not have to pay attention to record levels and have the camera handle it. Any compression that the camera then may have to handle will be gently and not noticeable (lack of volume 'pumping'.)

A true 24 bit sound level (144db) would put the loudest sounds within the human threshold of pain (133db) and although the 96kHz sampling frequency does give a very slight improvement on the accuracy of the sound being recorded it would not be as much benefit as a good microphone would have over a mediocre one.

The one thing I think @Reyfox and I would agree on is the underselling of the programs ability to cope with higher resolution files.

The two bits of advertising I particularly like on their website are

Some advanced program features demand more of your computer's processing power. To get the most from these features, your system should at least meet the recommended requirements.

For advanced program features read 'anything involving additional processing or files with at an HD resolution'.

And then read their example system of : Intel Graphics HD 630, NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1050, AMD Radeon RX470

Against their test system of using an ASUS Vivobook. Those laptops designed for video editing have an Intel®Core™ i7-12650H Processor 2.3 GHz (24M Cache, up to 4.7 GHz, 10 cores) with Intel Iris Xe Graphics. NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX™ 3050 Ti Laptop GPU. 16GB LPDDR5 motherboard memory and M.2 NVMe™ PCIe® 4.0 Performance SSD designed to run Windows 11. That means the system has full use of Intel® Hyper Encode and the use of both GPUs.

You may notice some disparity there.

Ray.

@johnebaker

Is the Nvidia chip id number for the RTX 3060 in your computer GA 106 or GA107?

That is odd - can you provide a sample 10 - 20 secs long of an original GH5 5.7K file and the converted file for us to test - upload to Google drive/OneDrive or other file sharing site and post a link to them.

I deleted the files myself a few days ago.

The files that were accessible to me for test purposes have already been deleted by the users.

That was just synonymous 8-15 GB for a few minutes of footage.

But as soon as I have video material again, I'll open a new post here.

@CubeAce

Magix also doesn't tell you that, for example, the hardware that can use Hyper-Encode is very limited.

I think it as likely that the problem with the GH5 files is also the audio portion at 96kHz 24 bit

Panasonic records 2*2 channel left/right.
You can use the internal microphone and the external microphone at the same time for recording.

@Marc-Goder @Reyfox @Former user @Former user @johnebaker

Hi Mark.

Try this link.

Ray.

@Marc-Goder Is this your GPU, if so your driver is out of date?

@Former user

Yes, that's the GPU in my laptop.

And this driver is the most stable on this laptop.

All drivers from version 5XX.XX cause problems with the power management on my laptop.  For some reason, after installing these drivers, the CPU has a sustained load of at least 15%. And the fans spin to the limit.  this issue was no longer fixed by MSI for my laptop.

The problem has probably been fixed in the successor model with Intel I7-11800H.

The last driver that MSI offers for my laptop is version 465.xx.

Magix itself specifies the following requirements: GeForce Game Ready-Treiber Version 496.76 for all versions from MEP 2022 / VPX13

And my Version ist 497.29.

If they increase the requirement in a next version, I'm out of luck.

Hi there,

Thanks for the informational comments on this topic, I've learned a thing or two.

I have one question regarding my new setup, so I have AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU (with amd graphics), 32Gt RAM, and RTX 3050 Ti 4GB.

When palying back projects in Video ProX14, when I have the "processing" option in the system settings set to the AMD GPU (GPU 1), I see my RTX GPU (GPU 0) 4Gb memory being used 3,3-3,7GB of 4Gb, so that's a clear bottleneck there. (looking from the graphics in the control panel).

But when I select RTX for processing, the GPU memory is only used about 1,8-2,4GB of 4GB, same thing for when I select the CPU for processing. BUT, when I select the CPU (Ryzen 9) for processing, it plays back really smoothly, but the image in the preview window disappears or just gets completely black after a while of prewiev.

So in short, my question is, how well Magix uses the hardware acceleration when editing with this type of setup? I understood that it works better with Intel- processors. (not 100% sure that hardware acceleration is when both GPU and CPU is used on processing?).

Thanks,

-Sami

I don't have an AMD processor with integrated GPU, so can't really comment on it. From a desktop point of view (specs in signature), I rarely see a huge amount of GPU RAM being used.

I'm guessing here about the "blackout" with the iGPU. I'd check to see what graphics drivers are being used. There are only two that are WHQL certified, 22.5.1 and 22.11.2. I personally am using 22.5.1 because of Ignite Pro compatibility on the Win11 side. On the Win10 side, 22.11.2. I have separate Win10 and Win11 NVME's in my computer. F12 at startup, I select which one I want to boot to. Otherwise, the default bootup is to Win11.

Also, how much RAM have you allocated to the iGPU? And have you timed how long it takes to export a video?

Forward looking, the Ryzen 7000 series come with iGPU's, so I will be following this thread with interest.

But do a timed test to see how things go. When I upgraded my graphics card to the 6700XT over the much used and abused for 6 years, RX480 8GB, I had a 3x increase in performance overall. Some effects are GPU accelerated, others aren't, but overall, my setup is much faster.

@Former user

Hi.

There is no precise information about this and no help from Magix on the topic, and there are variations between what we see on the forums when we get inquiries from other users and their individual systems so there may be other factors involved we don't know about but in general the more power an individual component has the better performance you get, up to a point. So. The faster all the drives in use are, the better. Generally speaking it is better to have the program reside on the operating system drive. It is better to have the project video files on a separate fast drive with a large cache and very fast access times. Preferably internal but if not, a very fast external drive. A modern CPU preferably with an inboard GPU and preferably Intel but a high specified Ryzen CPU will also work if coupled with a very capable graphics card. Preferably an AMD CPU with as many cores as you can afford. Any CPU should be muti-thread capable. Intel with inboard GPU is very useful as the graphics chip is very good at video decoding encoding, even when not selected in the Import, Processing, Export options within the program settings it is used to best effect.

As far as as the few of us that look into this type of thing can make out, the wider the PCIe bus and the more rops a graphics card has as well in the case of nvidia cards, amount of CUDA cores a graphics card has the better, 4GB of vram for 4K work or more for 8K is sufficient but the more vram the better but not as important as the other specs. Always use the latest drivers available for both GPUs as they become available as well as keeping the operating system up to date. 32GBs of motherboard memory should be enough for 4K to 8K video but again more ram never hurts.

It's not that an AMD system won't work or work well, it is just as far as I can tell AMD components on average seem to have to be more powerful than their Intel equivalents need to be to get a similar performance level. I have no idea why.

The higher level of Direct X components are able to use the better. Although the base program seems to only need Direct X 11.1 at present, some third party effects may need higher levels of Direct X. I always look at the specs of offered third part effects before deciding.

There may also be other deciding factors such as how the Windows power management is set up, memory cache settings, performance options, good housekeeping of drives, whether both GPUs are in use via the bios etc. Even choices within the program settings make a difference to smoothness and responsiveness of the program. Increasing some buffers helps audio performance and smoothness of playback but may result in a more sluggish response depending on the strength and speed of various components.

When dealing with laptops, few allow the use of both GPUs in the bios which can lead to performance issues. If you can't see both listed in the programs Import, Processing,Export options, then the CPU's graphics chip is not active within the program. Using an Intel CPU with inboard GPU that is active alongside of an additional graphics card within a given system has benefits beyond their combined performances and will give better performance than just having a more powerful third party GPU. Even when the Intel GPU is not selected in program settings as Windows will take advantage of both GPUs and share various processing tasks across both.

These are my personal observations and conclusions and others may / will disagree with some of my findings.

So in general. Newer

CPUs and GPUs do better than older ones.

The more cores a CPU has the better up to a point. An i7 should be sufficient for higher resolution video editing.

AMD processors seem to need more cores for a similar performance and in the AMD case, the more cores the better.

The more ram and vram a system has the better.

Two usable GPUs are better than having just one.

Don't have everything in use in a project reside on one drive if possible.

Make sure the C: drive or any drive in use has a lot of free space for the program to create and use temp files while in use.

Make sure your virtual memory is set up correctly in Windows. Do not overdo it.

Allow Windows to create indexing of files on drives.

In Windows, you can set the following setup for the program.

Settings / Display / Graphics setting / Choose an app to set preference / Desktop app / (program selected) Let Windows decide.

I personally think that the wider PCIe bus a graphics card has for video editing the better given the choice between two similar specked out GPUs. At least for nvidia cards. I have no idea if the same holds true for AMD.

Operating system and graphics drivers should be up to date at all times.

Even with all that there are times when pre-rendering or the use of proxy files may be needed or effects turned off or similar remedies employed to achieve a smooth playback. The more you add to a project in the way of additional track and effects will eventually take its toll.

Ray.

As with any graphics card, it depends when it was made and what PCIe it was designed for. If it's a PCIe 4.0 card, it will work in a PCIe 3.0. And the differences in theoretical to actual, isn't has much as some would think, using the first PCIe slot.

Most "modern" cards are PCIe 4.0 anyway.

I'm still waiting on a "benchmark" to test to see if AMD CPU's need more cores to achieve the same performance as Intel's with comparable graphics cards. In the Vegas forum there are two different benchmarks so users can see what hardware works the best. It's a combination of both CPU and GPU. It's unbiased since everyone can test it on their computer, and add the results to the database.

I personally test graphics drivers and compare before deciding on which one to use. The latest doesn't always work in all situations. You also have to consider other software that you have on your computer. NBFX TP7 doesn't work with the latest certified WHQL drivers from AMD, but works with the previous version (sending a report on this). I have a game that doesn't work well with the previous version, but works well with the latest version. Go figure...

Virtual Memory? I thought Windows handles that automatically if you don't have enough RAM. I haven't seen VM warnings in ages. But on lower RAM computers (4GB), I guess it's possible. Nothing will kill performance more than a page file writing to your hard drive. Windows has my set to 5120MB.

"Even with all that there are times when pre-rendering or the use of proxy files may be needed or effects turned off or similar remedies employed to achieve a smooth playback. The more you add to a project in the way of additional track and effects will eventually take its toll."

So true!! And that's with any editor unless you have timeline rendering. Then all bets are off.

@Reyfox

Hi.

Virtual Memory? I thought Windows handles that automatically if you don't have enough RAM.

Windows does automatically allocate a cache size based on the amount of physical ram present on a system (does not include graphics dedicated vram). I'm not sure Windows automatically allocates additional virtual memory if you run out of physical memory though. I haven't seen anything on that one way or the other. VM can still be set manually though and some people still do. Old habits die hard I guess. I have seen it before on the forum. Particularly with those people with not much system ram who have probably seen videos entitled 'How to increase your ram for free'. It seems to be a myth that persists. I am just trying to cover all bases even though Al (AAProds) often berates me for this practice.

I personally have never had a driver update problem but then again I haven't had any AMD gear since 1984 as I had a lot of problems back then with video playback corruption. I know things have improved since then but AMD still seem to have more driver update problems than nvidia. Not that nvidia hasn't, just they have not affected me personally. Windows updates yes. Plenty of them have. The last one was with graphical text. Thankfully that was put right within weeks.

I personally test graphics drivers and compare before deciding on which one to use.

I tend to just look at the release notes and possible bug reports instead. Some of these releases can be surprisingly large and I hate rollbacks plus I can be lazy at times.😉

I do like to see others comments and viewpoints based on their experiences in these topics. It shows the diversity of the communities experience with the programs and equipment choices. It can often also lead to answers not even considered before another viewpoint is presented. It can also show there is often more than one way to get things working well or if not, a possible pathway to improve things.

Ray.

My driver issues (and Nvidia has them too as you noted) is dependent on the software you are using. Stop by the Vegas forum and you will find just as many Nvidia issues or more, than AMD. Maybe because there are more Nvidia card users. I use the older WHQL driver because I also have Ignite Pro 5 on my computer. With Vegas, it works fine with the older driver. Update to the newest one, no-go. And since Ignite Pro is no longer going to be updated and is EOL (end of life), this is where I am. There is a lot of overlap between BorisFX Continuum Complete 2023 and Ignite, but Boris can get overly complex. I only have the old driver on the Win11 drive where I edit. All my editing software work fine. The games I play work great with the new driver, but Ignite doesn't. So, I game on Win10 and edit on Win11. Two different NVME's inside my computer.

Also as I wrote, NBFX Titler Pro 7 only works with the old driver and not the new one. This is on NBFX. All the other plugins work from NBFX.

We were conversing about how we have the have almost current hardware to run today's editing software, which I think is sad considering all the horsepower even in modest computer builds, compared to computers years ago. Yet, look at how large the downloads are. And then, to get the "best performance" we need separate drives. Preferably very fast mechanical or solid state. More RAM, and multi-threaded fast CPU's. And I think of what I was doing with my Amiga/Toaster setup with only 12MB of RAM. Or using Avid Liquid Pro, DPS Editbay...

@Reyfox

Hi.

For some reason NB Tiler Pro 7 is only showing as a standalone application on my machine and all my video editing packages are using NB Titler Pro 6. Both work. I only got Vegas Pro via HumbleBundle so it's Pro 18 and I only have it for a few specific jobs I feel it does better than VPX. Boris Titler works much better there on my machine as does subject tracking. I have no bump map facility in MMS or VPX. Some different codecs seem to be supported and there are a few effects not in the Magix programs. I hate the program layout though I'm slowly getting more used to it. (Yet another case of getting to grips with a different system) I haven't as yet had cause to visit the Vegas forums as I find it easier to plow through the manual than forum topics.

I will probably skip Win 11 unless the new version turns out to be worse. My wife has Win 11 on her laptop and it takes me longer than I'd like when something plays up with it to sort out. To me it just seems they try to hide their own form of surveillance in the guise of 'connectivity' even more than in Win 10.

I have been looking out for an old PC to put my old copy of Cubase on that uses a serial port security dongle. Then I could load Win 98 again and use my wonderful Yamaha sound card with inbuilt DX synth chips in it again. How I miss it's digital effects section. But I can't even find a compatible monitor yet. Should never have thrown away my old 28" CRT Sony. 😓 I do have a couple of old TV converter boxes and may have to go that route. I will just have to dig through the attic again. Nostalgia ain't wot it used to be.😂

Ray.

@CubeAce

Hey,

TP7 works as a standalone and integrated into Vegas and Resolve and work just fine. I have TotalFX 7, which also shows up in both Vegas, Hitfilm Pro 2021.3 and Resolve Studio. If you have TFX7, reinstall it. I only have VPX12, and TP7 is not great in it. It works slightly better in MEP2022, but that "preloading" can be painfully long with it. I prefer working with the standalone, then import the file. In other software that work with OFX, it works better.

Boris works because a lot of times, their Title Studio and other fx are bundled with Vegas. Vegas handles OFX plugins really great. It took me 2 weeks to get the hang of it the software, and then it's finding out where everything is. Like any other software, it has it's areas that need improvement. It was fairly straight forward for me. Resolve on the other hand..... just setting it up is painful. I had to google to find out how to render something out. Who would have thought "Deliver" rocket ship on the bottom was the key. But it handles anything I throw at it. I don't like nodes, and really don't need Fairlight. I am a "meat and potatoes" editor. Nothing too fancy.

As for Win11. Not a fan of it's telemetry gathering of information. I have everything turned off including OneDrive. They will stop support for Win10, but as long as antivirus/malware software work on it, that should be no problem, unless the put something in an update to purposely bring Win10 to it's knees. I wouldn't put it past M$.

I remember Win98. I started with 3.1 Workgroups. Life was "simpler" back then. I the largest CRT I had was I think 20". Big and heavy. I was glad when I went to flat panels.

I don't do much music editing. I have the software (Spectral, Soundforge Pro, Samplitude, Soundsoap, etc), but just don't have the time. Most of the music is from the Smartsound library. Love using Sonicfire Pro. A friend of mine in Belgium has a recording studio and he uses Cubase. I tried one of his, and with all the installation hoops, I wound up using Reaper. Much easier (at least for me) to use and incorporate in the sound booth at church.

@Reyfox

Hi.

Yes I got Total FX with VPX 14 but although it downloaded Titler Pro 7 it stayed with the Titler Pro 6 within VPX. MEP 2022 doesn't use it either but just checked Vegas Pro 18 and it is installed in that. What?

No idea why that happened as it was part of my VP!4 upgrade and the only discernible difference I can make out is extra templates. I do not notice any difference in performance or capability between either version. I haven't read any upgrade blurb to actually know.

I too do not use Edge or One Drive. I think 2025 is the projected finish of support for Win10 but who really knows? It could be Win 7 all over again. The only thing I know (or as far as I've been told) about Win 12 is it will not get constant updates but they are going back to the older system of updating with packs. I'm not sure if that process will apply to security patches. The Sony I specked out at Mesh in London with a custom build . It was our first higher end computer and had an Athlon processor, nvidia graphics card and a Pro SoundBlaster card a CD and separate DVD player, 3.5" floppy drive and was beige. It was like going to a car dealers 😅. Cost way more than my current system but then it was the households only computer at that time. Dial up modem! I do not miss that.

The only problem program I ever had was the early version of Photoshop. That was a pain and I still have the officially recognised 400 + paged handbook. Adobe Photoshop for Photographers.

I like the flexibility of Cubase. It has very flexible mixing capabilities and easy automation. Infinitely configurable and easy to keep an eye on the load it puts onto a system. It also has an audio version of pre-rendering individual effects or tracks. Good compensation delay and works well without having to use ASIO for low latency. Thankfully USB based MIDI has made connecting peripherals much easier than it once was. I don't use loops but do have a lot of sequencers and samplers. I think it was using Cubase that made using MEP more intuitive for me although I'm not a fan of the Magix mixer or it's meters. Reaper is a good program. Reliable. If I hadn't got Cubase I think I would have wound up with Reaper. I do have a whole library of sounds and samples, synths etc from when I used to get The Computer Music magazine. I think I have around 100 commercially pressed CM DVDs if I ever need anything extra.

I think that's enough diverting from the topic for now 😂😂.

Ray.

@CubeAce, TotalFX7 is an OFX plugin, so it would be in Vegas, and if you had Resolve, it would be there also. You don't have to do anything unless it wasn't installed in Vegas, so a reinstall will put it there. This is an area where Magix needs to improve, OFX support. For me to get (I bought last year) TP7 to work, I had to uninstall everything related to Titler Pro "x". I had TP5, so that had to go. Once I did that, I was good to go with TP7. NBFX still has some teething pains. On a 4K monitor, that little circle around the play button is hard to see when the buffering is going on, and I wish it were faster, but Boris Title Studio behaves similarly in performance.

As for Win10, I'll continue to dual boot when needed. Why M$ spends resources in moving things around in a context menu escapes me. But if I decide in the future to do hardware upgrades, Win11 will make the best use of it.

My first computer was a C64. I eventually ran a BBS (one of the largest in NY), and then went Amiga. When Commodore closed, I built my first PC with a 386SX and some other stuff. Windows 3.1 for workgroup was clunky compared to Amiga OS. But I didn't want to go Mac. I had a Quadra 700. Hated it. I've built every Windows computer I've had. In NY, you could go to the computer shows, where there were dozens and dozens of vendors selling parts or complete systems. You could walk around and see who had the best prices for what you were looking for. Then because I was building a lot of computers for businesses and individuals, I was able to get things at a great discount. Building them hasn't changed at all over the years. So I do it, knowing if I want to upgrade something, or something goes bad, I can fix it myself.

But video has always been at the heart of my computing. I remember when AVCHD files came out. Everyone was transcoding them. It didn't matter what editor you had, they had to be transcoded if you were going to have a good editing experience. It took a while for the hardware to catch up, but it has. Now, it's HEVC, 10bit, 8K and a host of codecs from B-RAW and Red and more. While proxies are an additional process, an intermediate codec just makes life easier. People talk about the huge size of ProRes files, but they are easy to edit.