W10 users: How do you get Windows key to be an actual mod key, when using Cubase?

Cubase
21

I’m sure you already know this but I thought I’d bring it up: you can also use combinations of mod keys, and you have Alt Gr, which in essence acts as combined Alt+Ctrl. So for the sake of thoroughness, you have Shift, Ctrl, Alt, Shift+Ctrl, Shift+Alt, Shift+Ctrl+Alt, Ctrl+Alt… Did I miss any? :wink:

22

If Pro Tools can manage it… Why can’t Cubase, is my question?

1 Like
23

If I may Windows uses Alt, Ctrl and Shift. Those are the mod keys used with Cubase under Windows. Mac uses Ctrl, Option and Command.

24

Mac also uses the Command/Apple key, so on Macs is ctrl, opt, shift, cmd. One more modifier than on Windows.

25

Because of the Win key only being for Windows, Windows has one less mod key than Mac, simply. In Cubase this means that you have one less mod key to do custom key commands with, which is a big deal when you’re going from Mac to Windows and have tons of key commands using that extra mod key.

26

An issue without a difference.

27

Sorry, don’t understand what you mean. The difference is that Mac has four modifiers available in Cubase, and Win has three.

28

Wow. Maybe that is because Macs use a one button mouse and Windows uses a two button mouse. Although I can’t recall anyone feeling mod key inadequate with Windows. :smiley:

29

I’m not sure where you got that idea, that’s not right. Raino is correct.

30

Pro Tools on Windows uses the Windows Key for may of their shortcuts (referenced as the Start Key in their documentation)… So why don’t Steinberg and others figure out a way to make use of the Windows key is beyond me.

2 Likes
31

There’s some kind of disconnect here. It’s a forum, so it’s OK.

Here is all I am saying: When I try to use the Win key for any custom keyswitches in Cubase, it simply doesn’t work; Ii only does Windows-related functions. You can’t use it in Cubase, unless there’s something to change that. If I’m missing something, please tell me specifically how I can use it directly in Cubase (from Cubase itself) so that I can have four mod keys like Mac to use in Cubase, instead of three in Windows because of the Win key issue that I’m talking about.

What key is which in Mac vs. Windows doesn’t matter, or anything else, really – I just want to be able to use the Win key as a mod key for custom keyswitches like I could on Mac (whatever the key that it corresponds to is called – it doesn’t matter). Turns out I can do a workaround with AutoHotKey which is great, but far better would be if Cubase allowed used of the Win key as a mod key like Pro Tools and some other apps do.

32

This is becoming a weird conversation. (It’s irrelevant, but FYI I always used a two-button mouse on Mac – couldn’t live without it, and it does the same things it does in Windows). I have zero interest in this being a Mac vs. Windows war – I simply wanted to know if there’s a way to get four mod keys to use in Cubase on Windows like I had on Mac. Turns out I can’t directly, though at least I can use AutoHotKey to somewhat make up for that, even though it takes extra work compared to having it directly in Cubase as it is on Mac.

33

Yes, it would be beneficial for everyone to have this directly implemented in Cubase, as an option for those who don’t want it for whatever personal reason.

34

I also transitioned from Mac to Windows in my studio years ago and definitely missed the additional modifier key. I think the best solution is using Autohotkey to remap the Windows key to Ctrl+Alt+Shift (which I would guess most people are unlikely to be using normally).

If you wish, you can also make this remap only happen in Cubase, leaving the rest of your Windows experience as normal.

35

That’s a good idea. How would I make it so that it only happens in Cubase?

36

Here’s what I came up with for a script to do this only in Cubase. I literally just wrote this tonight so there might be some quirks I haven’t found.

  1. Check ahk_exe using the Window Spy provided by Autohotkey. If you’re using something than Cubase11.exe update accordingly.
  2. As mentioned in the script comments, Win+L and Win+U are intercepted by Windows before Autohotkey can do anything. If that bugs you you’ll have to disable all Windows hotkeys. I accidentally hit it Win-L once and noticed it’s causes shift/alt/control keys to get stuck in the down position. If you end up not able to type normally just type each of those modifier keys one at a time to snap them out of it.
  1. The sleep command means you have 300 milliseconds to press whatever button you want to press along with ctrl-alt-shift. After that Cubase will just see whatever other key you pressed. If that is too fast just raise it up.
  2. This only works with the LEFT windows key, because that’s all my keyboard has. If you want to use the right windows key also/instead, figure it out yourself. =)
#NoEnv  
    ; #Warn  
    SendMode Event 
    SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%  
    DetectHiddenWindows, Off

    ;Win-U and Win-L cannot be used unless you disable Windows button altogether in registry

    LWin::
    {
    if WinActive("ahk_exe Cubase11.exe")
    {
    Send, {Control down}{Alt down}{Shift down}
    sleep 300
    send, {Control up}{Alt up}{Shift up}
    Return
    }
    else
      send,{Lwin}
      return
    }
1 Like
37

Has anybody found an easy(ish) solution for this? I know how to reassign keys using Sharpkeys, but as In_Stereo has pointed out, you can reassign keys, but Cubase only recognizes 3 modifiers in Windows as opposed to the 4 in Mac. . So I’m down one less modifier, which is a drag sing I have a bunch of shortcuts that depend on having 4 modifier. Anything that I had assigned as a hotkey that used “Control” now says “Meta” in the key commands.
Autohotkey is a bit above my paygrade. I have no coding experience. I tried the idea of assigning the missing modifier to a sequence of keystrokes (in powertoys) using Control+Alt +Shift, but it’s not letting me do it.
Does anybody have a solution that doesn’t involve any type of coding? Is this just a limitation of Cubase operating in Windows that I need to accept and just start remapping a bunch of shortcuts? I really hope not.

38

The Windows key cannot be used as a real modifier, and Autohotkey is the only way to do anything about this. End of story.

There are many ways to do it in ahk, But the script can be simple. My way is this
An ahk script that maps Win+ to characters not on my keyboard. the U-codes are unicode characters codes that I simply picked randomly. (there are like 1,000 glyphs available)

This below, is the entire script. Paste it into a plain text file, and save it with the suffix .ahk and Install Autohotkey. Double click to open the script and you’re in business. This got me 20 extra shortcut keystrokes available, all accessible with my left hand, while my right hand is doing something else. Don’t ask what.

Once done, open the Cubase Key Commands dialog and you will see the characters generated in the Type in Key field when you hit the key combo.

(I am using a Mac keyboard btw, iirc the Command key was mapped to Windows key out of the box. )

#SingleInstance Force

#1::Send,{U+0152}
#2::Send,{U+0162}
#3::Send,{U+0172}
#4::Send,{U+0182}
#q::Send,{F16}
#a::Send,{F17}
#z::Send,{F18}
#w::Send,{F19}
#s::Send,{Media_Next}
#x::Send,{Media_Prev}
#e::Send,{Media_Play_Pause}
#d::Send,{Media_Stop}
#c::Send,{Pause} 
#r::Send,{Help}
#f::Send,{ScrollLock}
#v::Send,{U+0124}
#t::Send,{U+0126}
#g::Send,{U+0128}
#b::Send,{U+0130}
#y::Send,{U+0142}
3 Likes
39
1 Like
47

Thanks I will give it a go.