Avoiding keyboard commands going to mixer

[Daniel Keinath]

I really wish I could get rid of Play/Stop in Media manger when hitting the space bar. I need the space bar being directed to the timeline under all circumstances. Every time I use the media manager on a second screen and forget to set the focus back to timeline before continuing normal work, it starts playing media files which I do not want to listen to as soon as I hit the space bar. This becomes particularly annoying when I do not stop the media manager playback again before I return to the timeline. In this case it may happen minutes later that I hear some weird music playing in the background wondering where it comes from.
I agree that people may need the possibility to play back files from the media manager. But in fact I never needed this in years. And if I needed it once in a while I wouldn't mind using the mouse (or any other key which I could define individually)
But at least we do need an option to separate any double shortcuts if needed.

Daniel

[J.Wajer]

bind your spacebar to a macro that does:
"Set Focus To Timeline"
"Toggle Start/Stop"

See if that works.

P.S.: I use Play from Media Manager/GlobLib 1000 times a day

[Daniel Keinath]

Using a macro on all critical keys like space bar (media manager) or arrow keys (mixer) that automatically sets focus to timeline would indeed be a feasible way to work around these kind of problems.
But apparently no macros can be triggered by shortcut when the mixer or media manager is active.

So I tried to use a combination of key-down (set focus to timeline) and key-up (play or zoom) on the same key which surprisingly does work.
BUT: Although this seems to work, it will cause even more trouble since for whatever reason in this case the focus will be set to timeline even when you are simply typing text into a dialog box or for example when you are renaming markers. That means, it will be just impossible to use the space bar (or arrow keys) for any regular kind of typing - this screws things up even worse and makes it unusable.

What I do not understand is:

- Why can macros not be triggered by shortcut when mixer/media manager is active whereas any other menu command can be?
- Why is "set focus to timeline" being triggered by a shortcut even when the cursor is blinking in a text box, whereas no other command does behave so?

This seems to be highly inconsistent to me and is really confusing.
(But it probably needs not be discussed on this thread.)

I hope merging will find a solution for these things that will help everyone soon.

cheers
Daniel

[avi]

- Why is "set focus to timeline" being triggered by a shortcut even when the cursor is blinking in a text box, whereas no other command does behave so?

almost... but if the previous focus was the mixer while recording, and you then stop recording, the "Name Take" dialog box pops up, and you try to move the cursor before typing with the arrow keys, you may find that it doesn't move at all, as the arrow keys are still pointing at the mixer... (unless this has bee corrected in the most recent version). Slightly daft, insofar as you can't do anything else until that dialog box is completed, so there's absolutely no reason for the focus to be anywhere other than that box.

Back more on topic (ish), I too would rather the space bar didn't (or could be made not to) activate play/stop in the media manager. I can't think of any recent occasion where I've wanted or needed to play from there, and several when I have done so inadvertently. I do realise that others may need to, of course, but it would be handy to be able to "de-map" this from the shortcuts editor.

AVI

[fl]

I, too, find it annoying that a tap of the space bar can initiate playback of the last selected item in the Media Manager, when I really want the focus to be on the timeline. But then again, if I had to hunt through a huge library of sound effects or other source material, with the only way to audition them being placement into the timeline - I'd hate that too. I can see both sides and I agree that it should be up to the user to set up how the program should behave. What I believe is needed, is to have Pyramix's focus follow the user's focus as determined by the mouse cursor position.

It's not just the Media Manager tab where the current behaviour is bothersome. I use the Notes tab to enter the names of musical selections and movements for a concert recording ahead of time, so that I can simply copy and paste titles into markers that get dropped during the recording. I will often forget that I left the focus in the Notes tab with some text selected, only to find the next time I open it that I've replaced whatever I had typed in there with some random key commands I've tried to use (ineffectively) in the meantime.

What I would really prefer is to have Pyramix's focus set to a Tab only while the Tab is OPEN - that is, with the mouse cursor hovering over it (this is with the map pin in its "unpinned" or horizontal setting). When it's closed/collapsed, focus should automatically return to the main timeline. The same should be the case with the mixer. Hover over it, and arrow keys control faders; move the cursor back over the timeline, and the arrow keys control the display. Yes, it requires a mouse move, but at least it does not require a mouse move AND a mouse click. Wouldn't having the program's focus follow the user's mouse moves be more intuitive, and therefore more productive?

It seems to me that this capability is already built into Windows - from XP to 7. With the proper set up, the active window is determined by the mouse position. Could this not be incorporated into Pyramix's tabs and mixer?