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Jimco Software Reviews - Ultimate S 2.1 (continued)
Film Looks
One thing that digital video producers have always tried to do is capture the look of film. There are many subtle differences between DV and film, and reproducing the look of film is quite difficult ... until now.
Ultimate S allows you to apply a film look (see figure 4) to your video through the use of Reel Packs. Reel Packs are plug-ins to Ultimate S. The application comes with one Reel Pack (Reel Pack 0) and additional ones (currently Reel Packs 1-5) are for sale at the VASST Web site. When you apply a film look to your video, Ultimate S will (by default) convert your video to 24p and place it anew on the timeline. It will also apply a combination of effects, the result of which is widely considered to be a close approximation to the look of film, or at least as close as you can get using DV as your original source. Results are actually quite astounding, and the fact that Ultimate S doesn't destroy the original footage is a plus.
Figure 4 - The Film Looks Tab
The preview image that is supplied sometimes doesn't give you a very good idea of what the end result will be, simply because it's a still image and not video. My suggestion is that you convert some of your video to test results. The original media are left intact, so there is no worry about destroying your footage.
 [VASST] charged Ultimate S with some first rate audio effects [from iZotope] that alone are more than worth the price you pay for it. 
Audio Tools
Vegas has always been considered a great editor for those interested in audio. After all, Vegas sprung from the roots of Sonic Foundry, the company that brought us such audio powerhouses as Sound Forge. However, there's always been room for third-party offerings, and one of the finest around is Ozone from iZotope. The folks at VASST obviously realize this and brought iZotope on board for Ultimate S. They charged Ultimate S with some first rate audio effects (see figure 5) that alone are more than worth the price you pay for it.
Figure 5 - Audio Tools
iZotope performs miracles on audio and you have to hear these effects in their full glory to appreciate them. I thought about including some of the audio effects in this review, but I'm afraid that you would not fully appreciate them hearing them after severe compression for the Web. No, you just need to grab the demo of Ultimate S and see for yourself. You won't be disappointed.
Visual Effects
The Visual Effects tab (see figure 6) allows you to apply combined effects to your video and/or images. You can choose whether to apply the effect to all events or just those on the timeline. You can also apply to events in a particular media bin.
Figure 6 - Visual Effects
You can also use Visual Effects to save a preset of your own effects in Vegas. Not only does Ultimate S make it easy to add combinations of effects in one step, but it also allows you to have precise control over where those effects are applied.
You may be asking yourself why you would want to set up these effect chains in Ultimate S instead of in Vegas itself. After all, Vegas has provided effect chains for a number of years. Ultimate S once again does what it does in many of its other features. It fixes a feature already in Vegas by making it what it should have been in the first place.
When you create an FX preset in Ultimate S, that preset can be removed entirely in one click. Vegas requires you to delete each effect individually. Another huge advantage to Ultimate S is that you can save your chain as a preset. Vegas doesn't let you save a chain. You can only save presets on individual effects.
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