This page is not about me.  I'm little wiery about floating around anything about me...Even my name.  I've just seen too much about what people can do with simple information about someone.  So, to be in the safe side, you can call me by either my online name KEakaCK or TJ, my initials.  If your really wanting to know, I reside in the great state of Texas, where everything is bigger...LOL  Had to throw that in there.  But, anyways, thats about all the personal information that I'm giving out so hope you respect that.

I created this page so that anyone who's wanting to know what softwares I might be using and where to get them can just look it up here.  This way, I won't have to browsing through tons of emails basically asking the same questions over and over again.

The most frequently asked questions that I get are what I use to make my videos, and what I use to make some of the effects that are seen in my videos, and how to use certain software.

Softwares:

Video Editing:

*Sony Vegas Pro 9

*Adobe After Effects CS4

*Adobe Photoshop CS4

*Adobe Illustrator CS4

*Adobe Premiere Pro CS4

Sound Editing:

*DVD Audio Extractor

*Sony Sound Forge

*Adobe Soundbooth CS4

I mainly use Sony Vegas Pro 9 as my editor but combine Adobe After Effects CS4, Photoshop CS4, and Illustrator CS4 along the way and import the video files uncompressed into Vegas for final rendering.

From time to time, I do use Premiere Pro CS4.  I just find Vegas to be more user friendly.  There are those who says Premiere Pro is better and able to do a lot more things that you can't do on Vegas and that is true.  However, by incorporating AE, Photoshop, and Illustrator, I find that I'm able to do everything that Premiere Pro is able to do and more.  It's all about you and your preferences.  If your just into video editing as a hobby to make fan vids, and spending over $800 for Premiere Pro CS4 might seem too expensive, then Sony Vegas Pro 9 is the second best option, not to mention cheaper.  For the Vegas Pro 9, your looking at around $600, which in my opinion, is a great buy.  However, if your still looking for something cheaper, Vegas do have a scaled back version, Vegas Movie Studio HD, Vegas Movie Studio Platinum, and Vegas Movie Studio Platinum Pro Pack.  Studio HD is the cheapest at around $40, then Studio Platinum at around $90, and finally Platinum Pro Pack at around $120.  The very first editing software that I ever bought way back when was Vegas Movie Studio Platinum and it's just like using the Vegas Pro 9 version...There's just alot of things that your not about to access or use.  Too many to sit here list them all but here's few main features that's worth mentioning.  In Vegas Pro 9, your able to add as many audio and video tracks as you want, whereas, the movie studio version limits them to 4 each if my memory is correct.  Also, when you click on the pan/zoom button on the uppler right corner of the video clip, you have the option of mask in Vegas Pro 9, whereas, you don't have that option in the Movie Studio version.  The plugins are compatible for all versions as far as I know.  I know, for me, that when I upgraded from Studio Platinum to Vegas Pro, the plugins that I had purchased for the Studio version worked just fine on the Vegas Pro.  Since that time, I've upgraded to Vegas Pro 8 and Vegas Pro 9 and still uses all the plugins that I've purchased back when I was using the Studio Platinum version.  If your wanting a suggestion, I have three:

1. Depending on what your wanting to do and your financial limitations.  If financial limitations isn't a problem and your wanting to go all out, then I would recommend on getting Both Vegas Pro 9 and Premiere Pro CS4.  I know most, if not all would say that's wasting money, but I disagree.  I find that it takes most people, who are just into video editing as a hobby,  pretty long time to get a handle on Premiere Pro CS 4.  I've talked with video editors that said it took them over a year to get enough understanding of Premiere Pro to start making music videos and still learning new things as they went along.  Whereas, with Vegas Pro, you can pretty much understand how to use it and it's feature in no time.  Took me 4 days to get a firm understanding of Movie Studio and few more days for Vegas Pro.  By purchasing both, you can use Vegas Pro to make your videos, meanwhile, taking your time to get a better understanding of Premiere Pro.  However, like I stated previously, this option is for those without financial limitations.
2. If you are constrained by financial limitations, then I would recommend getting one or the other.  I can't recommend one over the other because I love them both equally.  Just note that Premiere Pro will take far more time then Vegas Pro to get an understanding on how to use it sufficiently.
3. If your really constrained and wanting to go the route of best value for the buck, then I would recommend Vegas Pro 9 or Vegas Movie Studio Platinum or Patinum Pro Pack.

Adobe After Effects CS 4 is a great supplementary software to have if you can afford to get one...However, it isn't cheap.  To purchase After Effects CS 4, it'll cost you over $1000 but it's well worth the money in my opinion.  There's just so much you can do with it.  I've been using it for over 2 years now and as much as I know about it, I'm still learning something new everytime I use it.  All of these softwares has a free 30 days trial for you to try before buying so I strongly recommend you to take advantage of the trial before buying anything.

For sound editing, I mainly use Sound Forge at the moment but I'm in the process of messing around with Adobe Soundbooth CS4 to get familiar with and see what all it can do.  I use DVD Audio Extractor to extract the audio from the vob. files as a wave file, then import the track with the voices into Sound Forge and save it...You can either save it as a wave file or mp3.

The reason why I save it in Sound Forge after extracting the audio file is because I set the DVD Audio Extract to separate the audio files in 6 separate channels and if you try to modify the background music and noises, you almost always end up completely eliminating the voices as well because it's in a single channel.  By saving it in Sound Forge first, you get two separate channels, a left and a right.  Now, if you modify it after saving it, you can almost completely eliminate the background music and noises.  Sometimes, it's lowered enough where once you add the audio along with a song, it's hardly noticeable.  For the latest dvds, DVD Audio Extractor separates the audio tracks into 6 separate channels so the background music, for the most part, is on it's own separate channel from the audio.  However, there might be some residual background music left over on the audio tracks.  In those situations, you can purchase a plugin for Sound Forge called Vocal Erase.  With this plugin, you can eliminate the remaining background music.  You can also incorporate the noise reduction plugin that comes along with Sound Forge.  Vocal Eraser also can eliminate the vocals from a song so that only the instrumental parts are noticeable.

I use a dvd ripper to rip the dvd into a vob. file.  Then, I use the following softwares:

*Mpeg Streamclip

*DVD2AVI186

I use various types of plugins for AE and Photoshop to create some of the effects for my videos and arts.  Just google for AE and Photoshop plugins.  Most of them offer trial periods for you to try them out but some of them leaves watermarks.

To get all the softwares that I have mentioned, just click on the links below:

*Adobe Softwares

*Sony Softwares

*DVD Audio Extractor

*Mpeg Streamclip

Request:

*I do not take requests simply because I have to be inspired by the song to make a video and someone suggesting a song usually don't inspire me to make that video.

Tutorials:

*I do not make tutorials, however, if you have any specific questions, by all means ask and I will do my best to answer them.  The best way to get familiar with these softwares is to just spend some time and mess around with them.  That's what I did.

Hope this answers all your questions...Good luck and happy editing.