About menu shortcuts

[MuTools]

One of the most wanted feature requests is user definable key shortcuts.

For a good understanding i would like to get some feedback on what you would want to do with menu shortcuts.

Please give me some examples of which shortcuts you would like to have/make, and how you would use them.

[pljones]

I'm more interested in remote control through MIDI, personally. Whatever you do, please design with that in mind. I'd want access to:
Stop, pause, rewind to start of selection, rewind to start, play, record, audio recording toggle, midi recording toggle. Ability to select and mute/unmute tracks and parts would be nice. Same for racks and plugins (if that's not already there for MIDI).

I'm so used to using the mouse to do everything I don't know how much of this already works:
Alt-F for the File menu; Alt-E for the Edit menu; F1 for Help.
Ctrl-N to create a new session; Ctrl-O to open an existing session; Ctrl-S to save a session.
Ctrl Z/X/C/V for Undo/Cut/Copy/Paste.
Shift-Del/Ctrl-Ins/Shift-Ins for Cut/Copy/Paste.
(Yes, multiple bindings to the same command -- depending what my hands are doing one or other may get used.)
More navigation that command level: Tab/Shift-Tab to consistently move forward and backward between screen elements.
Context-dependent "Insert". On bare composer, it inserts a new part (prompting for sequence/audio, etc). On a rack element, it lets you choose the plugin.
Delete should delete the selected element (with no "Are you sure?" if Undo works).
More navigation: cursor keys for up and down in lists... if the list is nested, cursor right should open a nested entry, then descend into the nested level; if not, works like down; left oppositely... Oh, and Home, Page Up, Page Down, End should work on lists. (By the way, scroll-wheel handling still breaks in the latest version -- it will work for some time and then not. I've yet to pin it down.)

I mention that lot as I've seen apps where you can define keybindings to that depth of detail -- I don't know whether there's any significant overhead of loading keybindings from a user-defined file vs having them hard-coded, of course.

[robenestobenz]

One of the most wanted feature requests is user definable key shortcuts.

For a good understanding i would like to get some feedback on what you would want to do with menu shortcuts.

Please give me some examples of which shortcuts you would like to have/make, and how you would use them.

My main wish for shortcuts in terms of control, is:

- More than one binding possible per command
- MIDI CC or note support
- The usual modifiers, CTRL ALT etc, being available.

As for what to have shortcuts for, the ones I'd use most are:

The transport, obviously... I would split the back button into a few shortcuts, namely: rewind to song start, rewind to loop start, rewind to cursor. The way you have to go back step by step is a minor annoyance at the moment, I think.

As well as the main record button, I'd also make it so that you can toggle the Audio / Midi rec. states -- with these things, it frees you up a lot to record without having to turn back to the computer. On that point I think it'd be a good idea if newly recorded parts were selected on stop and the "keep part?" prompt disabled. With MIDI assignable shortcuts this would allow you to redo takes (by pressing delete or a shortcut, because the part just recorded would be selected) and layer recordings very quickly. Thoughts?

Other commands I use a lot:

- Grid snap toggle
- Grid size +/-
- Mute part
- Zoom selected
- Split part
- Quantize notes
- Select inverse

//edited for clarity

[theorize]

+1 for midi control of the transport that would flow nicely with my axiom 25

+1 for grid size shortcuts

also somthing to bring up the patch browser would be nice even if an icon (ok especially an icon)

[MuTools]

I'm more interested in remote control through MIDI, personally. Whatever you do, please design with that in mind.

Yes, that's the case

I'd want access to:
Stop, pause, rewind to start of selection, rewind to start, play, record, audio recording toggle, midi recording toggle. Ability to select and mute/unmute tracks and parts would be nice. Same for racks and plugins (if that's not already there for MIDI).

What midi event would you use to e.g. 'rewind'?

Yes, multiple bindings to the same command

Yes, that's in the current core design already.

More navigation that command level: Tab/Shift-Tab to consistently move forward and backward between screen elements.

Like the standard tabbing in dialogs you mean?

More navigation: cursor keys for up and down in lists... if the list is nested, cursor right should open a nested entry, then descend into the nested level; if not, works like down; left oppositely... Oh, and Home, Page Up, Page Down, End should work on lists.

That's already the case. Doesn't it work on your system?

(By the way, scroll-wheel handling still breaks in the latest version -- it will work for some time and then not. I've yet to pin it down.)

Looking forward to your detailed report.

I mention that lot as I've seen apps where you can define keybindings to that depth of detail -- I don't know whether there's any significant overhead of loading keybindings from a user-defined file vs having them hard-coded, of course.

The current plan is to save/load the shortcuts in an Xml file.

[MuTools]

My main wish for shortcuts in terms of control, is:

- More than one binding possible per command
- MIDI CC or note support
- The usual modifiers, CTRL ALT etc, being available.

Yes, that's all in the current core design already

As for what to have shortcuts for, the ones I'd use most are:

The transport, obviously... I would split the back button into a few shortcuts, namely: rewind to song start, rewind to loop start, rewind to cursor. The way you have to go back step by step is a minor annoyance at the moment, I think.

Mmm, interesting.

Thing is that currently all functions are also listed in the context menu.

When adding such 'detailed' functions, the context menu may become bloated.

So maybe we should think of functions which are only there for shortcuts.

As well as the main record button, I'd also make it so that you can toggle the Audio / Midi rec. states -- with these things, it frees you up a lot to record without having to turn back to the computer. On that point I think it'd be a good idea if newly recorded parts were selected on stop and the "keep part?" prompt disabled. With MIDI assignable shortcuts this would allow you to redo takes (by pressing delete or a shortcut, because the part just recorded would be selected) and layer recordings very quickly. Thoughts?

So you're looking for a recording situation that you don't have to touch the computer for a while, right?

Other commands I use a lot:

- Grid snap toggle
- Grid size +/-
- Mute part
- Zoom selected
- Split part
- Quantize notes
- Select inverse

Mmm, i see, interesting.

[robenestobenz]

So you're looking for a recording situation that you don't have to touch the computer for a while, right?

Yup, very much so Once you're able to control the transport and delete what was just recorded, it's easy to delete and layer takes. Well, maybe not layer them in MULab yet because you can't set track focus by MIDI channel. Multitracking's a future plan anyway, as you've said before.

But yeah, being able to keep away from the PC keyboard/mouse is a great workflow feature, IMO.

[pljones]

What midi event would you use to e.g. 'rewind'?

Probably MIDI notes I don't generally use. I'd only need one pad: light hit, medium hit and hard hit for various degrees of rewind - the TrapKAT can issue different notes (or CC values or other events) depending how hard a pad is hit.

When adding such 'detailed' functions, the context menu may become bloated.

Make mouse events bindable and define the menus in the same XML file? So the format could be something like
focussed-object | trigger-event | command
where "focussed-object" is something like "first 16 pixels of note" or "rack mute button", or "global", etc;
"trigger-event" is something like "shift-ctrl-alt-rightmousebutton" or "T";
and "command" is something like "snap note to grid" or "rewind to last play position", or "menu:foo". Then "menu:foo" would just be defined in terms of its commands (with some keywords to auto fill things like VST plugs, etc -- with easy inclusion of sub-menus, of course).

[MuTools]

Probably MIDI notes I don't generally use.

OK.

Make mouse events bindable and define the menus in the same XML file?

Yes, definable menus may be the answer.

[pquenin]

The shortcut I would like to have is the one that put the start and end loop at the start and end of the currently selected part(s).

Another to insert a hole beetwen the current start and end loop positions (and spliting and pushing the existing material to the right).

Another one to split the selected part at the current play position.

[MuTools]

Another one to split the selected part at the current play position.

In M3 it will indeed be possible to split a part using a key/midi shortcut, but the split position will be defined by the mouse cursor.

So imagine is mapped to Split Part, then click the part you want to split at the position you want to split and press .

Works very well, imho.

In fact if the part you want to split is already selected, you can just hover the mouse at the split position, then you don't even have to click.

Anyway, if the split position would be defined by the play position, you would practically have to stop the sequencer to split a part and that's not very user friendly.

To avoid any confusion, the above is about MU.LAB 3 which is under development.

[pquenin]

Yes, you're certainly right...

[MuTools]

So you're looking for a recording situation that you don't have to touch the computer for a while, right?

Yup, very much so Once you're able to control the transport and delete what was just recorded, it's easy to delete and layer takes.

Well, in M3 you'll be able to trigger the 'Undo' command from MIDI.

So after you recorded something, and you decide you don't want it, just hit your MIDI->Undo key/CC/prog-change and the recording will be undone

[robenestobenz]

So you're looking for a recording situation that you don't have to touch the computer for a while, right?

Yup, very much so Once you're able to control the transport and delete what was just recorded, it's easy to delete and layer takes.

Well, in M3 you'll be able to trigger the 'Undo' command from MIDI.

So after you recorded something, and you decide you don't want it, just hit your MIDI->Undo key/CC/prog-change and the recording will be undone

Cool. Works just as well for me, as long as there's some way to get rid of the keep/lose recording prompt.

How is M3 coming along? Do you think we'll see a release this year?

[MuTools]

This year? Sure!

As soon as i have a more precise timing, i'll let you know.