Making MuLab More Obvious & Easy

[Satch1]

Regarding mousewheel behaviour, is it possible to reverse scrolling so that up scrolls right and down left? If not, consider this a feature request please.

[EvilDragon]

Yeah, reversing the direction is a necessity as well.

[dakkra]

I happen to like the prompt popping up. Mainly because I do many different things all the time.

I do however, agree about reverse scrolling. I also agree that the shortcuts should also appear on first start up because for those of us who know what we are doing, we already know what we want to have bound to a shortcut.

Just my opinion though

[robenestobenz]

I happen to like the prompt popping up. Mainly because I do many different things all the time.

That's interesting. I'm genuinely curious: what is it about this way that you prefer compared to being able to do all those same things directly in the composer without an additional window, except using modifier keys?

[dakkra]

1. I can see my options
2. I simply memorize where they are so I can click what I need in less than a second
3. I'm running out of good shortcut keys

[sl23]

+1 for the pref window

[Crackbaby]

it's tu, not thumbsup (made that error several times myself ..)

[sl23]

damn! thought I changed it quick enough before anyone noticed!

[mutools]

I believe the best way to deal with this is to have a mouse modifier section - it's a lot of work (as it was in Reaper's case, too), but it provides the best possible flexibility.

There is something i don't understand: Say there is some action like moving the sequence loop end marker that pops up a question alert with several options. Then you can press the first character to choose that option so it only takes 1 key press. For example if you want "Increase Only" press . Now if things would be done via modifiers, then you also have to move your hand to press one or maybe a combi of modifier keys. So why would pressing (a) key(s) beforehand be more ergonomic to you than pressing a key while the choice is visible? I think the current way has several advantages:

+ You'll never forget how it works because the alert is visible and explanatory.
+ A single key is faster than a modifier key combi.
+ Modifier key combis are cryptic.
+ The current way fits much more the trend towards touchscreens, which is a very important trend imho. Modifier key combis don't fit the touchscreen trend.

What's your your opinion on this?

[EvilDragon]

It's great for newbies, but pop-ups can annoy in longer sessions. If there'd be an option to disable popups in favor of mouse modifiers (once user sets them up and fits them into their workflow - they become second nature), I think that's the best way of dealing with this. You press a mouse modifier with clear intent to do something, it's something you decide before you move your mouse, what you're going to do. Using pop-up is good for newbies - "oh, you don't know what you'd like to do, or what's possible to do? OK, lemme tell you!". But when you learn the program, those questions can annoy, when you already know them and you already set the modifiers to your liking (provided mouse modifiers get implemented fully in MuLAB, like Reaper got them at some point).


I, for one, am not in favour of touchscreens for DAW work. I will always be more precise and faster with mouse+modifiers.

[DHR53]

Ironically, I don't have a problem with the options popping up, if the options are useful and or really give me choices that I might use. As compared to the "Are you sure you want to delete" dialog that seems to pop up too much. I prefer cmnd. keys for everything as I try and work them into my workflow... so I remember them. But some things that have more than 1 or 2 options almost need a dialog. There are a number of things that are menu only now that I would like to be able to access with a cmnd. key... but I'd have to make a list. One thing I think would be useful in MuLab is some dedicated tools for editing. i.e. a slice tool and or some way to differentiate between "individual" parts and shared parts. So you could quickly decide what you wanted to do without all the "shift-option-click" stuff, that oddly I never remember.

[EvilDragon]

Well alright, we're not all the same, so you might not be bothered with pop-ups. But somebody else might. So why not support both workflows?

[dakkra]

I, for one, am not in favour of touchscreens for DAW work. I will always be more precise and faster with mouse+modifiers.

Same here! A mouse is much more precise than a finger. My finger covers a hundred pixels and is very in-acurate. My mouse however, I can b precise to a pixel.


The problem with supporting two work flows is that it makes twice the work when you add a new option/tool. You have to add it in for both the mouse and key work flow. Unless Jo make some "quick add in" system by making a variable that gets used twice (if that's even possible) then it would be twice the effort.

[DHR53]

So you want a mouse combination that covers 5 options? I'm not sure I could actually remember that. This seems to stem from the many looping options within a sequence anyway. Which is unnecessarily complicated IMHO. Might be the problem there...

[EvilDragon]

I do it in Reaper day by day and it's fast as hell (using mouse modifiers - once you set your own logic for them it's a piece of cake to apply them however you want)!