Routing window "plugholes"

[Joat]

Am I the only person who thinks this is awkward?

The small connection triangles on devices in routing window are a pain to use. I have Logitech laser mouse in my daw machine and yet it's really annoying to try and connect the devices together. In order to have a big enough view on sequencer and everything I have the monitor set to a high resolution, and that in part makes them triangles really small and difficult to hit.

Would it be quite easy to add a popup or something? Like there would be only "inputs" and "outputs" buttons in each device. When clicked, it would open a menu showing the connections. When the device is connected it would show as it does now, but with "connections" button added.

That way the process of connecting devices would become a lot easier.

Or am I missing something here?

[erminardi]

Use the "n" key shortcut:
- connect the first virtual cable
- then press "n" key from keyboard for the times that you need

I hope that this solve some of your problems

[wayne]

Shift-N to get 'em all in one go..

[Joat]

Don't have my scope now to try it out, but thanks for these tips! I obviously was missing something.

So I first draw one cable from input to output. When that is done, all I need for those subsequent cables is to press N as many times I want the cables. Or if I want to make say 15 other connections from something to something that has 16 slots, I can press shift+N to get them all at once.

Cool.

Now, is there a key command to select first output or input of the device in focus? That would free me from hunting that first slot with a mouse.

[dbmac]

You can also make connections with the "LIve Bar" - sometimes it's more convenient than the routing window.


/dave

[Tau]

You can also make connections with the "LIve Bar" - sometimes it's more convenient than the routing window.

yes, this is very useful. Took me a while to find that out... that and the INs OUTs panels, but it can surely save you some trips to the routing window!



T

[garyb]

make the connection to the number or letter closets to the triangle, not the triangle itself.

[Neutron]

if you are visually impaired or your monitor is so excellent that the pixels are tiny (apple 30" for instance) you can use windows magnifier which is free and comes with windows(apple probably has one too). and some laser mouses are perfect for this because you can change the speed with a button (its for game snipers, but its good for accurate mousing in programs too)

its also useful when trying to line up graphical elements for instance in SDK.

and dont forget you can drag wires out of the way if they are blocking a connection.

[dawman]

Awesome....
I have enough screen swapping and the Live Bar always stays on top anyways...

Ankyu.

[at0m]

Or decrease mouse speed, and increase pointer acceleration. That works great on larger monitors while retaining accuracy at lower distances.

[valis]

Actually there are some 27"ers with 0.30 pixel size which make a big yet very readable picture.

Yep, I've got a Samsung 275t here just for that reason. I was initially wanting the 30" model, but both Samsung & Dell were having some issues with their 30" models when I was ready to purchase, and Dell's WFP3008 wasn't out yet. When I looked at the pixel sizes and realized that the 27" model could sit 1-2 meters away and still be quite usable, I went that way instead. Unlike the years of using my 22" widescreen Hitachi pro CRT, I finally have my entire desktop free, the 275t sits behind my desk on a small bedroom endtable (which sits behind my desk). The monitor is also pretty much between my 2 nearfield monitors, which I'm sure has improved the midrange quite a bit (avoiding the nasty comb filtering from the sound reflecting off and bending around the sides of the monitor).

Another nice side effect is that I am still able to run games and 3d software in my screen's native resolution without resorting to SLI (which was something I hadn't considered at the time). I'm not a huge gamer but I do own quite a library and prefer gaming to television when I'm bored or ill (and feeling unproductive.)

On Mice:
A carryover from my use of graphic design and high end 3d software is that I've preferred 'high quality' mice for years. Not all gaming mice are suitable for 'normal' work like using Scope, but I have happily owned the following mice: Logitech's MX510, MX518, G5 & G9; Razer Deathadder & Lachesis; Microsoft Explorer 1.0, 2.0 & 3.0 (and hear the new model with blue-track is nice though not really different than other mice).

Having adjustable sensitivity 'on the fly' is indeed great, and useful when you need precision in audio work or graphics work (in addition to gaming). None of the explorer models that I've used had it but most of the others have. I used to prefer having a larger mouse (large hands) like the Microsoft Explorer models, the Logitech MX518 & G5, and the Razer Deathadder but the chair & desk I use right now wind up making my hands a bit higher. So the G9 & Lachesis have resulted in less strain with my current wrist position (as they're held from behind with your fingers on each side of the mouse, rather than cupping the full mouse).

Logitech seems to have slipped a bit in terms of the stability of its hardware & drivers the last 2-3 years (compared to the decade before) and Razer is always a hit & miss affair (it takes several firmware & driver updates for their mice to be 'amost perfect'). Microsoft's mice have always been incredibly good (and their keyboards) and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them, although make sure you check the model out in a local store to insure you're happy with the fit to your hand. Another nice thing about MS is that you don't have any issues getting a replacement, you can even call them up and tell them the mouse died completely and they'll just run a serial check and mail you a brand new mouse.

I tend to wear through mice in about 6 months (along with keyboards) due to the amount of time I spend on my machines, hence the long list of mice I've owned. Also when I begin to notice keys misfiring or clicks missing (even if only occasionally) I get annoyed at the workflow 'hitches' that result and buy a new one pretty quickly. I don't toss my mice when I get a new one, they get moved to secondary roles on other machines here. There's 4 keyboards and 4 mice in use in this room, so by the time they wind up on the 4th PC they're quite worn out.

[valis]

Quite happy with mine. Samsung makes excellent monitors for the consumer & prosumer lines.

I would consider the models like the 275t (245t & 305t) to be 'prosumer', it's not quite an SEC or Eizo but once calibrated it's quite nice for graphics work as well. Beware that it's a wide gamut monitor, which may be a good or bad thing depending on what else you do besides music (I just generate profiles and that solves it for me).

[valis]

The Wide Gamut of the monitor would only be an issue if you're going to be doing a lot of photo editing (or web graphics) as the colors would appear to be more saturated on this monitor than they will on others (leading to possible problems when printing or publishing to others on the web.) For a very casual user who only has a $200-250 camera etc it's a non-issue. Color calibrators are available for under $200 that work quite well too, but unless your camera is 2-3x that cost it's not a worthwhile concern imo.

The BEST place I know of for LCD information is xtknight's thread over at the AnandTech forums: The LCD Thread.
There's a wealth of information in the first 2 posts including great summaries on current terminologies & issues to look out for, as well as recommended models broken down into categories by use, then into rankings based on suitability to that task & the quality of the unit etc. Beware that going beyond that may require reading up the last few dozen pages before the 'current' posts in the thread...