Pros & Cons of various macro utilties: QK vs KM vs CM vs ??

[stubbsonic]

I'm dusting off this old thread. I recently needed to set up a macro, and tried using ControllerMate but haven't been able to get it to execute the macro.

I tried emailing the developer a couple of times and got no reply. There's a forum, but the links all take you back to the home page. I suspect the forum may have gotten over-run by spam (I saw some other forum posts suggesting that possibility).

Looks like I might be giving Keyboard Maestro (KM) a try. Ken? (CM dev) If you're out there, would love to know what's up.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

KM has been working very well. Some apps are not as receptive at times (Finale in particular).

[labman]

LOVE LOVE LOVE keyboard maestro here. That along with Default Folder, I don't EVER wanna be without.

[frankf]

I’ve been using KM with DP for several years and I’m a big fan. It saves me a lot of time. Developer frequently updates the app and is responsive.

The above mentioned Default Folder is also a “can’t do without utility” for me.

No problems here with DP9 and Sierra/high Sierra.

I came from QK myself and never looked back.

One thing with any macro program. As Mac OS and third party utilities are updated, watch for duplicate system wide or DP Command conflicting key or MIDI triggers which will disrupt your DP workflow



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[stubbsonic]

I'm going to give Keyboard Maestro a try. I don't know if there is a demo period, but the price is reasonable, and it looks both feature-packed and user-friendly. Glad to hear about support & updates. This is one of those tools that I'll have to learn about and get creative with how I can use it.

Just downloaded. Cool to see all the legacy versions are available as well.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

KB doesn’t have much of a learning curve, but coming from QK I had to change my mindset on how these things work. It’s a bit confusing on how to isolate a macro to be active in one running app but not in another. There are many ways to do the same operation in KM and the programmers are quick to respond to questions on the forum. It works, but it is to QK (RIP) what Sibelius is to Finale. Lol

[dix]

There's two aspects of DP that drive me crazy. I've wondered for a while if a macro utility could help (somehow I doubt it).

1. In the ME, could a macro be applied so that the pull down menu on the bottom left for controller display mode stays on Lines? I have to manually toggle it with a mouse, hundreds of times a day often.

2. With some exceptions I almost always want audio Fade ins and outs to be Linear and crossfades to be Equal Powered. Could a macro do this so I don't have to always be opening the Fades dialog box? Again, something I do often do hundreds of times a day.

Better yet. Maybe there's some pro tips for either of these groove killers I don't know about.

[stubbsonic]

I imagine it could. The first thing is to always check DP's COMMANDS windows to see if there is a short-cut for any of those things you do often. The second thing is to make sure you save a good default 'new' file, so that a bunch of those settings are already taken care of when you start up.

I think these macro tools can have you click somewhere relative to the corner of a window, so-- in theory, you could have it store some locations to click & open things-- but it would take some up-front trial & error.

There's probably more tips like window sets in DP, and other stuff I haven't dealt with much.

KB doesn’t have much of a learning curve, but coming from QK I had to change my mindset on how these things work. It’s a bit confusing on how to isolate a macro to be active in one running app but not in another. There are many ways to do the same operation in KM and the programmers are quick to respond to questions on the forum. It works, but it is to QK (RIP) what Sibelius is to Finale. Lol

I have a visceral sense of what that means-- not that my Finale experience was a picnic-- but at least with Finale, I ALWAYS got unstuck.