Reddit mentions of Sony Movie Studio 13 Platinum

I have to wonder how many people using Sony Vegas actually paid for it...

Anyway, if you want something affordable get Sony Movie Studio Platinum. I picked it up on sale for about $45 on Amazon but it's not much more than that regular price. It's like a Vegas light and does everything I need.

I've tried almost every iteration of Premiere Elements, and I honestly severely dislike the interface. Every single recent version has been plain sluggish on my system.

I can't speak for the PowerDirector, but Sony Movie Studio will do everything you'll need for a long, long time. And this is coming from somebody who uses Premiere Pro

This one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-Movie-Studio-13-Platinum/dp/B00HRQB216

To clairify - There is Movie Studio, Movie Studio Platinum, Movie Studio Platinum Suite.

Movie Studio is intended for very basic use, like family home videos, (II think it also has limited rendering options).

MS Platinum contains the basic version plus an advanced version more appropriate to making internet videos. It also lets you render in 1080p.

MS Platinum Suite contains the Platinum version plus tons of additional software. It has an audio recording program with plugins and tools. It has a software which lets you compose music. And I think it also has some kind of image editor. Furthermore it comes with a very large amount of royalty free resources like sound effects, music, images and fonts which you can use in monetized videos.

The suite version is the best value for money, but I recommend the platinum version. After trying suite 11, I found the extra content did not sustain any appeal.

For recording audio I recommend audacity. It's free and there are tons of tutorials you can find on Youtube and Google.

For editng images, I recommend Photoshop for the same reasons. I use photoshop 7, which is super old, and get by just fine.

For royalty free music, Youtube has a lot of good stuff and there are many websites you can see find as well.

And I don't have the talent/time to compose my own music.

There is nothing worde than buying new software and having noone to turn to to ask questions. Even the sales department for Sony Productions website failed to send me a response, let alone technical support.

I use Photoshop to make my thumbnails, Final Cut Pro to do 99% of my editing, and Motion (basically Apple's version of After Effects) to do any "fancy" edits. This is not a very wallet friendly option though.

As for free/cheap software, there's the most basic editing software out there, Movie Maker. Sony Movie Studio isn't bad (from what i've read). It's like the little brother of Sony Vegas. Less expensive, less features, but you can still get a lot done with it. I've only played around with it for a few minutes, but Hitfilm 4 Express is free. I think it's more for people looking for a lot of effect-type things, but you'll be able to do basic edits that any other video editor could do. Lightworks is another option.

For thumbnails and art, i'll just copy/paste what I wrote for someone else a few days ago. If you're looking for sites to make thumbnails, there's Backgrounder and Pixlr. Backgrounder has some templates for thumbnails, channel art, Twitter art, and a few other things. They aren't crazy good or anything, but they will be better than nothing. Pixlr is sort of like an online version of Photoshop or Gimp. It's got some filters, masking options, layers, and some layer style options (things like stroke, drop shadow, and bevel). Considering the fact that it's free and online, Pixlr is a pretty good tool. If you're looking for free programs, as /u/StandardToast mentioned, Gimp is really good. I took an art class recently, and my professor said Gimp is pretty much Photopshop, just a few versions behind. Some of the tools that came with the most recent version of Photoshop won't be in Gimp, but you can still get a lot done with it. I know very little about Gimp, but I know less about Paint.NET. It's free, and can do some imagine manipulation.

After exploring various options, I've settled on Dxtory for recording. I've been using it for the last year, and I love it. I use Lagarith Lossless codec with it. I use Audacity for cleaning up the audio. For editing, I use Sony Movie Studio Platinum 13. (Apparently $45 for the physical disc on Amazon right now!) I have been meaning to check out DaVinci Resolve, which I've heard good things about, though I think it's a bit more than I need for my purposes.

Everything that you listed is legit, and as you can see, you're getting many of the same recommendations here. I think it's a good idea to be cautious, but it's not necessary to be quite so nervous about downloading software that has been consistently recommended. Aside from ensuring your software is legitimate, the most important aspect of downloading software is to make quite sure that you're downloading it from the proper source (thus why I linked directly to the software I discussed.)

Btw, I use the Yeti as well. It's a good mic, and doesn't need to be right in front of you to work well. I recommend playing with the settings and positioning.