Keymapping the Master Fader in 10.4.0

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jmgordon
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Keymapping the Master Fader in 10.4.0

Post by jmgordon » Sat Mar 28, 2009 9:34 am

I have just discussed an interesting effect of changing the keymapping of the Master Fader, which is usually + and - on the keypad.
On my laptop, because the keypad is not readily accessible, I have remapped it to the left and right cursor arrows, which are not usually doing anything else. Normally this works fine. However, in rehearsal this evening I wanted to move on in a particular track, which I did by moving the progress slider in the cue panel. Thereafter I found that attempting to adjust the master fader with the left and right keys instead moved the track position forward and backward. Investigating later I found that this occurred whilst the progress bar had focus (coloured blue). Clicking away to lose the blue restored normal service.
There is probably a simple explanation, or the law of unintended consequences.

Malcolm

jkowtko
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Re: Keymapping the Master Fader in 10.4.0

Post by jkowtko » Sat Mar 28, 2009 3:44 pm

Malcolm,

I believe this is normal behavior. When Mike first implemented this feature for us he clarified it for us. The left and right arrow keys were set up to provide (among other things) keystroke manipulation of the "currently selected" fader control -- so when you select a fader control (and it turns blue) the arrow keys will move that fader.

My preference is to set up Master Up/Down to the ',' and '.' keys (which have '<' and '>' as their shift characters), mute to 'm' and master volum reset to '/'. This gives me a nice master control area on the bottom-right corner of my keyboard, and leaves the arrow keys alone to retain their standard multi-use behavior throughout the program.

John
John Kowtko
Sound Designer/Engineer
Local schools and community theater
Redwood City, CA USA

jmgordon
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Re: Keymapping the Master Fader in 10.4.0

Post by jmgordon » Sat Mar 28, 2009 10:58 pm

John

You're right, of course, but it was a long time ago (memory failing etc).
I like your mapping, which I'll apply immediately. (I see you explained it to someone else a year ago).

Malcolm

Theatre III Sound
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Re: Keymapping the Master Fader in 10.4.0

Post by Theatre III Sound » Sun Mar 29, 2009 4:52 am

jkowtko wrote:Malcolm,

I believe this is normal behavior. When Mike first implemented this feature for us he clarified it for us. The left and right arrow keys were set up to provide (among other things) keystroke manipulation of the "currently selected" fader control -- so when you select a fader control (and it turns blue) the arrow keys will move that fader.

My preference is to set up Master Up/Down to the ',' and '.' keys (which have '<' and '>' as their shift characters), mute to 'm' and master volum reset to '/'. This gives me a nice master control area on the bottom-right corner of my keyboard, and leaves the arrow keys alone to retain their standard multi-use behavior throughout the program.

John
I like this mapping also with one difference... I have defined the keys as "Shift <key>" to lessen their accidental activation. If you also define "Stop All" as "Shift <ESC>", have no hot keys, and define audio file cues as exclusive, you can pretty much bang on the keyboard at random while the cue is running with no effect. This is a good thing if SCS is supplying the music for a dance recital or ballet, etc. as it greatly reduces the chance of operator error.

jkowtko
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Re: Keymapping the Master Fader in 10.4.0

Post by jkowtko » Sun Mar 29, 2009 5:32 am

Theatre III Sound wrote:
I like this mapping also with one difference... I have defined the keys as "Shift <key>" to lessen their accidental activation. If you also define "Stop All" as "Shift <ESC>", have no hot keys, and define audio file cues as exclusive, you can pretty much bang on the keyboard at random while the cue is running with no effect. This is a good thing if SCS is supplying the music for a dance recital or ballet, etc. as it greatly reduces the chance of operator error.
That's a great idea also. In our case, however, the Music Director was running the tracks and continuously adjusting volume, so for MD usage we just used the base keys so they could act more like a board fader. But your suggestion sounds find when you don't need to constantly attend to volume.
John Kowtko
Sound Designer/Engineer
Local schools and community theater
Redwood City, CA USA

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