I did not know that...Cool Feature

I have been talking about game keyboards/mouses for years here...what is really cool about the 12x3 function keys (I have on my keyboard) is I set up different DAWs with function keys that do pretty much the same things...so when I bounce between DAWs  things are pretty much the same.  the 1st group is for Sonar, the 2nd group is for Cubase, the 3rd is for Sibelius.  Things like "Quantize", "Insert", "Time Sig" "Insert Tempo Change"  are the same buttons in all three programs.
Jumping between programs is mentally much easier 

WallyG
II also tried it in Sonar and it also brought up the tool menu. If everyone else already knew this, then I must have been living under a rock. (Although I do play some). I googled it and it did not show up.
 
So I hope maybe this tip might help somebody else.
 
Walt

I did not know that either, Walt. Press scroll wheel once, it appears where your cursor is, press again, it goes away. This promises to be a huge workflow enhancement. Kewl! Thanks, Walt and of course the Bakers who put it there waaay back in X1!

DeeringAmps
I was clueless as well.
Go figure?
 
T

I feel a little redeemed! I think I'll start a Saturday "Tip of the Week" of stuff that I find out by accident...
 
Walt

And probably another example of why this forum is so much better than some hude database of documentation.

A simple and very effective control surface/mouse replacement is something like the Contour Designs Shuttle Pro 2.

https://www.bhphotovideo....OV2_ShuttlePRO_v2.html

Yeah cool and cool, that shuttle pro thang looks cool, ide get one of those if i was actually a sound engineer...meaning, im mainly a musician barely past the record,fast forward rewind stage...however i find this forum extremely entertaining, and educational.......i should probably shut the **** up, but i dig the sesne of community here!!!

mudgel

WallyG

DeeringAmps
I was clueless as well.
Go figure?
 
T

I feel a little redeemed! I think I'll start a Saturday "Tip of the Week" of stuff that I find out by accident...
 
Walt

If you’re serious about it just keep it on hold a little while longer till this forum’s future is sorted.....

Anybody who knows me, can vouch that I don't have a serious bone in my body.  
 
The main exception though was when I earned a living as an Analog Integrated Circuit Designer. I was really serious about my work...., except there was one time when I was designing the Twilight Sentinel Program for GM. At the last minute they needed to change one function. We had already made enough finished wafers for 100K ICs. I figured out that if we used our new double layer metal process, we could add another layer of metal that would have only ONE metal run to join two nodes together. This would fix the problem until I redesigned the first metal layer for the next run of wafers. 
 
I couldn't help it. I made the metal run in the shape of a Band-Aid.....
 
Walt

WallyG
 
Those I knew about. I try to stay away from the keyboard though, because I have arthritis in my shoulders. Doesn't affect my accordion playing, but it somewhat hurts to raise my arms up.

I hear ya Wally. I have similar issues myself.
I bought a used Mackie Control MCU off Craigslist for 175.00 USA bucks about 2 years ago and it has been possibly the best investment I have ever made, as far as a studio hardware upgrade goes.
 
It has 8 buttons that can be assigned to do almost anything within sonar, along with a button for every View.
Motorized faders, pan knobs, exc.
The thing I like most about it is Sonar has made upgrades to MCU and Alexys got a Mackie Control add on that he designed so communication between Sonar and Mackie controller is very stable and tight along with deep button assignment features. I also have 2 footswitches plugged in to the back of it for Punch recording and cycle dock tabs. but even those can be assigned to almost anything.
A hardware/control surface is the thing that really helped me most. because of fatigue and soreness. along with fact that once upon a time.. we came from the old school, where we only had buttons and knobs.
So it makes me feel more comfortable in that sense.

I missed this, probably because I use a trackball that has no scroll button. But I use the keyboard all the time for shortcuts anyway. I also have ergonomic concerns so I have both the keyboard and trackball on drawers/platforms mounted lower than the desk surface.
 
I did have the ShuttleXpress for years and really liked it. I only dropped it when I got better with keyboard shortcuts (LOL go figure). I also needed the real estate on my desktop to make way for a MIDI keyboard controller.

Thanks for the scroll wheel tip. I can't say I've read all the SONAR documentation, but I've been through enough of it to wonder why I hadn't seen this before. Just now I did a search to see how this feature is described. Here's one of the references: "You can press the middle mouse button to open the Tools HUD." I think I may have read this before and thought "my mouse doesn't have a middle button -- that's where the scroll wheel is."