Kensington Track Ball and Cubase and Autohotkey too

For those that might be interested:

I got a wired “Kensington Expert Trackball” recently, and learned that it can be customized so that it plays very nicely with Cubase!

Briefly, the 6 physical buttons on the trackball can be assigned to any key command previously set up in Cubase. This requires pointing the trackball to “Cubase N” in the hard drive first, very easy to do.

I saw this in Dom Sigalas’ youtube: Do you need a Trackball mouse? Why do PROS use them! - YouTube (warning: high over-caffeinated factor there)

This functionality can also be extended to other .exe programs in the hard drive, where the same physical keys can be set up to perform application-specific functions. There is even a “All Applications” profile that can be used for general use. For example, I now don’t have to double click ever again … I just press the two bottom buttons on the track ball.

I’ve just set it up, haven’t used it yet in Cubase as Dom Sigalas has, if there are any problems when I do I’ll post back.

Very excited!

Signed,

Easily Amused

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Wanna hype the experience to a new, never before seen level?

Install X-Mouse Button Control and enable an infinite number of possibilities, like chording using any combination of buttons, sending keystrokes, set mouse speed per application… etc., etc., etc.

The dev is one lone Englishman, probably living on the peaty moors, and he offers the software as donation-ware, even while he continues to maintain it.

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If you think that’s cool, AutoHotkey will blow your mind. :wink:

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omg. What would happen if someone combined X-Mouse Button Control with AutoHotkey!?
:exploding_head:

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There’s this urban legend of a guy who wrote a whole album by just holding down shift and clicking the left mouse button.

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I have learned to accept that I am not well endowed with “The Vision Thing”, so am only mildly embarassed to ask this :grin: :

For the X-Mouse Button Control users … what button mappings to Cubase have you guys set up? Seeing your list will help me I’m sure to make my own :slight_smile:

(PS: I took a look at Auto Hot Key a while ago, I can’t remember why but it seemed too challenging for me at the time, perhaps there was some coding I had to learn? But thanks for that hint, @mlib, maybe one day!)

My setup is rather simple these days,

the 4 buttons
4  |   3  
2  |   1

1=double click
2=click
3=ctrl-click
4=right-click

2+1= middle-click

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I don’t use the X-Mouse Button control app. My Microsoft mouse comes with a configuration app that allows per application settings in a similar fashion.
In Cubase, my 3 extra mouse buttons are assigned to Shift, Ctrl and Alt respectively. I’ve had it that way for over a decade and really speeds up editing tasks.

Yes, AHK is a programming language you would have to learn. It’s a popular tool so you’ll find a lot of examples and scripts online to get you started. It’s very powerful.

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Here’s an excerpt from the ahk (Autohotkey) script I use for Cubase which
enables using the Windows Logo key as a modifier, by having ahk send various keystrokes upon hitting Win+<some key> (the # symbol represents the Windows key) I use keycodes that don’t have an equivalent key on my keyboard, but which Cubase can use.

#SingleInstance Force

#1::Send,{U+00B9}  ; ¹
#2::Send,{U+00B2}  ; ²
#3::Send,{U+00B3}  ; ³
#4::Send,{U+20AC}  ; €
#q::Send,{U+024B}  ; ɋ 
#a::Send,{U+00C0}  ; À 
#z::Send,{U+0179} ; Ź
#w::Send,{U+1E80} ; Ẁ
#s::Send,{U+015A} ; Ś	
#x::Send,{U+02E3} ; ˣ
#e::Send,{U+00CB} ; Ë
#d::Send,{U+010E} ; Ď
#c::Send,{U+0106} ; Ć
#r::Send,{U+0154} ; Ŕ
#f::Send,{U+0191} ; Ƒ
#v::Send,{U+01B2} ; Ʋ 
#t::Send,{U+0162} ; Ţ
#g::Send,{U+011C} ; Ĝ 
#b::Send,{U+0181} ; Ɓ
#y::Send,{U+01B3} ; Ƴ 
#h::Send,{U+0125} ; ĥ
#n::Send,{U+0148} ; ň
#u::Send,{U+016D} ; ŭ
#j::Send,{U+0135} ; ĵ
#m::Send,{U+019C} ; ę
#i::Send,{U+012D} ; ĭ
#k::Send,{U+0137} ; ķ
#o::Send,{U+0298} ; ʘ
#l::Send,{U+013D} ; Ľ
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Thank you, folks!