Pro Tools "Ctrl" button not working

[chocobo]

Hi everyone,

I'm a newbie in Pro Tools 11, I'm using it on Windows 8. I found that it is not registering the hotkeys involving the ctrl key (e.g. new session "ctrl + n" and new track "ctrl + shift + n"). What seems funny to me is that by pressing z only or shift + z without ctrl, I am able to undo and redo. But then pressing the number keys (cycling between zoom levels) do act normally, while pressing ctr + number keys also act normally by cycling through the tools.

Furthermore, the hotkey combination works when the menu was already clicked open (i.e. "ctrl + n" works when I have already click opened the "file" drop down menu)

I'm just so confused, thanks in advance for any help!

[Emcha_audio]

Helo chocobo and welcome to the forum.

you have one of the Keyboard focus on. Beside the edit window, the clip list and the Edit groups list there's a small A/Z box. By the track page (where you see the waveforms) in the edit window you will have a small A/Z box that is lit, take it out and you will take out the commands Keyboard focus which allows you to do editing shortcuts without using the modifiers keys.

For more information, turn to your Pro tools reference guide that has been installed automatically in the My documents (on windows) or go to the help section in Pro tools. The information on Keyboards focus is at page 24.

[chocobo]

Thanks for responding. However, having tried that, no matter how I switch between the Keyboard Focus mode, it just won't respond to shortcuts like Ctrl + Shift + N or Ctrl + N. Is there any other settings that might be at play?

Thanks!

[Emcha_audio]

Are you sure your CTRL key is working?

[chocobo]

Yea it works perfectly otherwise, even in pro tools, i.e. I'm able to cycle through the tools using Ctrl + 1 2 3 4 etc. in whichever Keyboard Focus mode, just strange.

Edit: Upon further inspection, it occurred to me that it might be the problem of my keyboard/windows locale (Chinese). I searched the Chinese Pro Tools community and discovered that people are having the same problem with Win 8/8.1 + PT 10/ 11.

Seems the matter is unsolvable at this point (even when keyboard is set to straight US English). Hope that could be escalated in some ways.

Thanks for your time!

[Emcha_audio]

I will bring this up, thanks for looking into it further.

[Shan]

Originally Posted by chocobo

Edit: Upon further inspection, it occurred to me that it might be the problem of my keyboard/windows locale (Chinese). I searched the Chinese Pro Tools community and discovered that people are having the same problem with Win 8/8.1 + PT 10/ 11.

Did you try another keyboard during your troubleshooting steps?

Shane

[Shan]

Another solution I myself would try is remapping the scancode of the key in the registry. In brief, find the scancode value of the current Ctrl key on your keyboard. Compare it to the scancode value of the Ctrl key on an English keyboard. If they differ, then remap it to the English scancode value in the registry. It's worth a shot.

Shane

[chocobo]

Originally Posted by Shan

Another solution I myself would try is remapping the scancode of the key in the registry. In brief, find the scancode value of the current Ctrl key on your keyboard. Compare it to the scancode value of the Ctrl key on an English keyboard. If they differ, then remap it to the English scancode value in the registry. It's worth a shot.

Shane

Thanks for your effort Shane,

I did try different keyboard (Logitech and Microsoft keyboards) with same results, work with certain things (ctrl + numbers cycles through tools, ctrl + A selects all of the regions etc.) but not others (create tracks etc.) Furthermore, it's not failing to register my N keys or other keys in that regard, since all keys are registered correctly in typing in the track name/ comment fields.

I'm not familiar with scancodes, I searched around and found a keycode scanner, which returned a supposedly correct virtual scancode



But I'm thinking if PT doesn't correctly register my Ctrl keys, stuff like Ctrol + A should fail to work altogether.

[Shan]

Originally Posted by chocobo

I did try different keyboard (Logitech and Microsoft keyboards) with same results, work with certain things (ctrl + numbers cycles through tools, ctrl + A selects all of the regions etc.) but not others (create tracks etc.) Furthermore, it's not failing to register my N keys or other keys in that regard, since all keys are registered correctly in typing in the track name/ comment fields.

You're trouble shooting seems to show that Ctrl is indeed working when it's used as the only modifier key. The command you listed in which didn't work also includes Shift as a modifier:

Ctrl + Shift + N is the key combo for opening the New Tracks window.

For the above, hold down the Control AND Shift keys together, and while keeping them held then press N. All three get pressed, but the two modifier keys(Ctrl & Shift) need to be pressed first in the sequence. The New Tracks window should then open.

If that doesn't work, then you'll need to confirm that the Shift modifier key is working or not. Run some commands that only use Shift as the modifier and confirm they work. Here are a few to troubleshoot with:

Shift + Z : Redo
Shift + Spacebar : Half-speed playback
Shift + F12 : Half-speed record
Shift + Tab : Extend selection to next Clip-boundary
Shift + Enter : Extend selection to start of session
Shift + R : Record enable tracks that contain the Edit cursor or Edit selection
Shift + S : Solo tracks that contain the Edit cursor or Edit selection
Shift + M : Mute tracks that contain the Edit cursor or Edit selection

Confirm the above Shift modifier with your other keyboards as well. Thanks for the screen shots.

Shane