Programmable Mouse Buttons

[chrismeraz]

I have a Kensington Expert Trackball. I can program shortcuts on its buttons in other apps, but it doesn't work for Pro Tools. I contacted both Kensington and Avid, no one was willing or able to help.

So I bought an ELECOM Deft Trackball, but with the same result. Programmable buttons work in other apps, but not in Pro Tools.

This is on PC, mind you. They both work perfectly fine on Mac!

Any ideas? I'd love to program extra mouse buttons to do things like switch between the mix and edit windows, or crete new playlists - the tasks that I really do most often.

[The Weed]

X-Mouse Button Control. The best mouse driver for Windows I've ever used - and it's free.

On Mac, the closest to X-Mouse would be SteerMouse, but it's a paid app.

[chrismeraz]

X-Mouse allowed me to reprogram one button on my mouse, but it doesn't work for the others. However, that one button does work in PT so I guess that's progress?

[The Weed]

Strange. Works perfectly on my Logitech mouse. I do know there were issues with Kensington mice and Pro Tools in the past. Did you uninstall the Kensington software?

[chrismeraz]

Yes. I'll keep trying to get the programming right, it's likely I made a mistake as well.

[The Weed]

X-Mouse has programming something like Basic or DOS. You need to be precise in the "coding". There are a few options too, like when pressed, or when released, or during, etc. I've got different settings on 4 Layers for Pro Tools editing and switch between them as needed. You can even set up modifier keys and hot keys for X-Mouse settings, but they would be hard to reconcile with Pro Tools keyboard shortcuts.

[EGS]

I also use Kensington Expert Trackball with X-Mouse. Works! I programmed a button for record and another for play.

[thin ice]

Could you not create some additional keyboard shortcuts in the system preferences for Pro Tools? This is really useful for bringing things like audiosuite plugins regularly used, or the colour palette. I haven't tried mix/edit window because I have dual screens, but it should work well.

[chrismeraz]

Originally Posted by thin ice

Could you not create some additional keyboard shortcuts in the system preferences for Pro Tools?

No, I'm on Windows unfortunately.

[chrismeraz]

Simple key combinations will work normally, such as:
Ctrl A
Ctrl S
Ctrl =
NumPad 3

HOWEVER, more complex key combinations don't work, such as:
Win Alt Shift \ (new playlist for selected tracks)
Shift Alt Up Arrow (copy selection to target playlist)
Alt Shift 3 (consolidate selection)

I read the manual but couldn't get any insight. Have you guys tried?

Here's a screen shot of my setup. Button 4 works but Middle Button doesn't in this example. If I switch the commands around, Middle Button will work and Button 4 doesn't.