plugin windows steal transport controls

I’ve been noticing lately that more and more plugin GUI’s seem to take control over the transport controls - for example the space bar making it impossible to start / stop unless you click somewhere outside the plugin GUI. It never used to be this way. Has something changed along the 6.x update path???

I’m on 6.5 btw.

I would think that there’s a difference between “transport controls” and “hitting the space bar”.

From what I know of Windows API, the window with the focus gets the keyboard commands. Programs, however, can “capture” keystrokes. These plugins could have programming that “captures” the key press, thus preventing Cubase’s transport controls from recognizing it.

I, therefore, wouldn’t say that Cubase’s updates are at fault. More like the plugins (assuming they are third party) don’t play well with a DAW’s transport controls.

I have a couple of plug-ins that did this (having to click in Cubase to get the space bar to start stop) with Cubase 5. Same plug-ins still do it in C6 and 6.5. Surely it depends on the plug-in. Lots of plug-ins are able to accept key commands.
J.L.

I’ve noticed a change in behaviour in recent times too. Its actually become a major PITA as I’m now constantly having to click somewhere in Cubase (usually on the tansport bar) to regain focus so I can toggle playback/stop with the spacebar. Behaviour seemd to change with an upgrade somewhere along the line, so I’m not convinced its necessarily plugins ‘stealing’ focus but rather something within Cubase itself? I need to investigate more, but whatever’s going on its a real nuisance thats for sure and certainly compromises efficient workflow. :confused:

it seems so, yes-- there is a handful of plugins that didn’t exhibit this type of behaviour in c5 and eariler, that now do not pick up on spacebar presses (or any cubase native keyboard shortcuts for that matter). i wonder if something can be done to remedy this, perhaps as simple as adjusting some xml code. all i can think of is actually programming a macro that will upon a spacebar press move the mouse cursor to the corner of the screen, execute the spacebar press, and return the cursor to the previous position. sounds way to extreme indeed.

In SX3 there was an option under preferences → VST called “plugins receive key commands” which did exactly what you are requesting.

The option was removed in Cubase 4 :unamused: Hooray for “progress” !

Users have been requesting the reinstatement of this since 2007 but appear to have been completely ignored.

Instead of clicking w/ the mouse to regain the focus on Cubase, does ALT-Tab once or twice allow you to do the same thing?

I’m w/ old PW on this one, “Less mouse clicks!”.