Sony Vegas 13 sucks

I’m a long time Sony Vegas fan. My history with Sony goodies dates back to Acid Pro 3, when was still developed by Sonic Foundry, which had created a very intuitive interface and workflow. Sony bought Sonic Foundry and started migrating all the programs to .Net Framework crap, and quality began to suffer.

Sony Vegas was still usable up to version 12. Not exactly fast, but pretty usable. Testing out this version 13 – build 373 is the lastest at the moment I write this post –, I’m deeply disgusted to what they have done. Without any noticeable improvement, the interface has got a bit uglier, and everything, absolutely everything is slower. I dislike laptops, I have a desktop computer with quite powerful hardware components, and even though, the timeline elements became sluggish when reacting to the mouse, the video preview rendering is blurred and skipping frames, and any cross-fading is simply not viewable due to slowness. Among other oddities.

After some hours of headache, I simply removed this version and reinstalled the version 12 back. What a relief. No more Vegas 13 over here. I hope Vegas 14 can have more luck – although I doubt it.

Music Man JP comparison chart

After his solid Ibanez JPM, it seems that John Petrucci doesn’t know what he wants, so he changes the specs of his signature guitar each year. There are way too many versions so far, and no single place where you can find all the specs together, so I compiled a comprehensive chart of all John Petrucci models with Ernie Ball Music Man.

Note: this chart doesn’t include the dozens of limited series that have been released, just the standard specs.

Year	Model	Body	Neck	Fingerboard	Bridge PU	Neck PU	F radius	Frets
2000	JP6	Basswood	Birdseye maple	Rosewood	Custom, based on Evolution (ref)	Custom, based on Air Norton	15" 381mm	High wide h .047", w .104" h 1.19, w 2.64mm
2005					D-Sonic
2007	JP6 BFR	Alder, maple top, mahogany block	Mahogany	Rosewood or ebony
2008	JP6	Basswood	Birdseye maple	Rosewood	Crunch Lab	LiquiFire
	JP6 BFR	Alder, maple top, mahogany block	Mahogany	Rosewood or ebony
	JP6 BFR Baritone
2010	JPX	Chambered alder, maple top, mahogany block		Ebony				Jumbo h .057", w .110" h 1.45, w 2.79mm
2011	JPXI	Alder, maple top, mahogany block					20" 508mm	Medium jumbo h .051", w .108" h 1.30, w 2.74mm
2012	JP12	Basswood, maple top, mahogany block
2013	JP13			Rosewood	Illuminator	Illuminator	17" 432mm
2014	Majesty	Basswood, maple top	Mahogany, neck-thru	Ebony
2015	JP15	African mahogany, maple top	Roasted maple
	Majesty Artisan		Honduran mahogany, neck-thru	Ebony
2016	JP16	Basswood	Roasted maple	Smokey ebony	Sonic Ecstasy	Sonic Ecstasy
2017	Majesty Monarchy	African mahogany, maple top	Honduran mahogany, neck-thru	Ebony
2019					Dreamcatcher	Rainmaker
2021	JP 20th	Honduran mahogany, maple top	Honduran mahogany		Crunch Lab	LiquiFire	15" 381mm	High wide h .047", w .104" h 1.19, w 2.64mm
	Majesty 20th		Honduran mahogany, neck-thru		Dream Catcher	Rainmaker	17" 432mm	Medium jumbo h .051", w .108" h 1.30, w 2.74mm
	Majesty 8	Basswood	Mahogany, neck-thru

Other changes:

• On the first model, the following are optional: piezo, matching headstock, shield fretboard inlays. A “full loaded” specimen has all three.
• Compensated nut was introduced in early 2006.
• The BFR Baritone has a 27.5" scale length.
• Stainless steel frets debuted with the JPXI in January 2011, and later became standard on all JP models ordered since January 2012.
• The rectangular tremolo base plate was introduced in August 2011.
• In 2011 the piezo saddles changed for ones with lower output; because of this, the preamp was changed for one with a higher output to compensate.
• The BFR logos (on the 12th fret) were retired from all models with the release of the JP13, in early 2013.
• The JP12 was the last model to feature a passive circuit for the magnetic pickups, which can work without a battery. The JP13 and all later models feature an active circuit for everything, including the magnetic pickups: without batteries guitar has no sound.
• Around October 2016 the logo at the back of the headstock changed, from “Made in San Luis Obispo California, USA” to “Californa heritage, since 1974” with a bear picture.
• The JP16 has a Korean-made Floyd Rose bridge, and no piezo system.
• In 2019, the Majesty eletronics layout was redesigned, with less wiring in the back cavity. The layout of the back controls is different.
• The Majesty 8 has a fixed bridge and it’s 25 to 27" multi-scale.

This chart was last updated in 2024-04-02.