Alternate Mice

[KenNickels]

Does anyone use DP with alternate controllers such as joysticks, trackpads, pens, pedals? I have repetitive injury on my click finger and have to fine something else to use. And I'm worried because editing in DP requires precise control.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Magic trackpad. But are we talking carpal tunnel here? Just had surgery for both hands last Winter. Best thing I've done in a long time.

[KenNickels]

Sorry to hear about the CTS, MLC. Hope you had a good surgeon. I only have the right index knuckle with tendonitis. I'm using my left hand for now. Sucks.

Is the trackpad really good enough for getting into those teeny tiny places? The Wacom Bamboo trackpad looked interesting. It has a pen, too.

[jbyerly1]

Do you miss your mouse at all. I find with my Mac Book that I love some features but have been using a track ball for others like click & drag & selecting. Click & drag has been a pain for me personally. I must say I only really use my Mac book playing live so I'm not on the pad as much as a mouse at home

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I'm equally comfortable with a mouse or trackpad but prefer the mouse. I have a 14 button (or thereabouts) Logitech Revolution with Steer Mouse. Fastest thing on Earth in DP and Finale.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

PS - the guy I had do the surgery is the head of a few medical societies related to hand surgery and teaches at UCLA Med Ctr. But that's for another discussion. Never been better and I was at the point of either getting surgery or changing careers. Really! Haven't hit 6 months just yet but no restrictions except I can't do handstands. Never could anyway.

[mikehalloran]

Magic Trackpad and a Logitech Trackball here. I have never liked the mouse.

[stubbsonic]

This looks promising! ($70!!-- pre-orders only, hasn't dropped yet).

https://live.leapmotion.com/blog/

[stephentayler]

I personally have never got on with any trackpad, although I do have the Magic Trackpad as an option.

However, for me the best ever solution has been the Magic Mouse, especially with Lion.

Using a Belkin Mousemat with Gel wrist pad, I find that my movements only need to be minimal and subtle to give me incredibly fine control. My wrist remains static on the pad and everything else seems to be done with the fingers. I seem to have the speed and dynamics set so that the movements can be minimal.

I used to get regular RSI using any kind of mouse.... no problems at all now!! I just bought another one to use with my MacBookPro as well!!

Cheers

Stephen

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I think there's a whole other thread on that here. $70? I'm in - after the initial reports are out.

[KenNickels]

I personally have never got on with any trackpad, although I do have the Magic Trackpad as an option.

However, for me the best ever solution has been the Magic Mouse, especially with Lion.

Using a Belkin Mousemat with Gel wrist pad, I find that my movements only need to be minimal and subtle to give me incredibly fine control. My wrist remains static on the pad and everything else seems to be done with the fingers. I seem to have the speed and dynamics set so that the movements can be minimal.

I used to get regular RSI using any kind of mouse.... no problems at all now!! I just bought another one to use with my MacBookPro as well!!

Cheers

Stephen

I agree with you about keeping your wrist from moving too much. I've been doing some research and was surprised to find so many options. Some require your hand to hover, using your biseps to move. They may reduce RSI but they seem clumsy. Can you imagine using your biceps to hone in on that little red overload indicator on the channel strip?

These look interesting.

http://www.logisyscomputer.com/viewsku. ... ID=MS601BK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZWLwjbJZ-s

[dosuna11]

Been using this for 10 years. Still use the mouse if I need to be absolutely still but that is not that often.
http://www.google.com/products/catalog? ... CGEQ8wIwBA

[dpg4macman]

I use the Export Mouse from Kensington along with the Apple Magic Track Pad.

http://www.kensington.com/kensington/us ... C2%AE.aspx

http://www.apple.com/magictrackpad/

When my hand gets tired on one I move to the other. Both work great.

mvh

[frankf]

Magic Trackpad and a Logitech Trackball here. I have never liked the mouse.

Mike, do you use them both simultaneously? Never thought of using them together. I use the Logitech only because it's more precise. I find the trackpad too uncontrollable for editing in DP. But I love the gestures of the trackpad.

FWIW, I'm right handed, and have a work environment where I try to keep my right hand on the trackball and use my left hand for keyboard commands, except for text of course. DPs commands and their programmability are pretty amazing. Using my left hand only for triggering commands that require gyrations to up to 5 keys at once can be challenging using the Mac Keyboard alone, so I use Keypad Pro on my iPad on the left where I've programmed single tap buttons to trigger DP commands or combination of commands using hard to reach key combinations, like cmd-opt-ctrl-shift-p. I can trigger commands like these with a single tap of a named, colored button. Plus a lot of left hand reachable Mac Keyboard combinations. Actually, as you probably know, DP is smart enough to know when you are in a text field or not, so you can program non reserved single keys to trigger commands. Tap q for Quantize for example. Mac keyboard number keys 0-9 to recall window sets is another.


Frank Ferrucci