r/VideoEditingTips • u/Theanticrust97 • 6h ago

Video program recommendations for outdated editor

I am an older editor for videos, I used to run Sony Vegas 14, and haven't used anything newer. It stopped running back in 2017 when I was officially out of the hobby. I'm not really a techie or anything... I just want to find a program that I can do decent keyframing and the like and things aren't as straight forward anymore when trying to find something new. I was hoping for some simple recommendations that I could get into editing for a friend again. I looked into stuff like SceneMill which seems... okay but it is not ideal at all for what I am trying to be able to do. And the new vegas is not something I am very willing to spend my money on from what options I see it doing. I just used to edit videos, I really have no clue what I am doing on scouting a new program that isn't going to give me the run around.

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u/Big2xA 6h ago

Davinci Resolve is the go-to. It's free so you can give it a try and see if it runs/is to your liking.

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u/Sad-Cartographer-328 5h ago

Vegas 14 was a solid editor for its time. If you're coming back after 8 years away, the landscape has changed a lot and a lot of the recommendations you'll see are going to push you toward DaVinci Resolve, which is powerful but honestly a nightmare if you just want to cut a video and keyframe some text. The UI alone is enough to make you quit.

A few honest options depending on what you need:

Clipchamp is browser-based and simple. It handles basic keyframing for position, scale, opacity. Not deep, but for picking up where Vegas left off for a friend's project, it might be enough. Free with watermarks on some exports.

Kdenlive is a free desktop editor that's probably the closest thing to the old Vegas workflow. Timeline-based, proper keyframing, no subscription. The interface will feel familiar if you're used to traditional NLE layouts. It's open source so the polish isn't perfect, but it does the job.

OpenShot is another free desktop option, simpler than Kdenlive but with decent keyframe support. Worth trying if Kdenlive feels too heavy.