Audacity Forum

I spend several hours a week with Audacity editing.
I used a jog/shuttle controller years ago doing video editing and this is a great idea for time line audio editing in Audacity.
I purchased a popular and reasonably priced edit controller the Shuttle Express.

http://retail.contourdesign.com/?/products/22

It works with linux (linux kernel has correct USB drivers for it) but if the application has no direct support for it you have to try to make a kind of "hack" implementation work for key bindings. Less than ideal for sure.
Being able to use such a controller with Audacity should would make my work easier.

doing video editing

There is one problem that pops up almost immediately when people use those words. Audacity will not scrub. You can't play rapidly screaming up to the edit point and then very slow back and forth over it until you're sure of where you are. People who arrive from video editors are stunned that we can't do that, suddenly realizing how much harder it is to find an edit point without it.

Koz

Dr. Righteous wrote:Being able to use such a controller with Audacity

to do what? What would you want the controller to control?

Would you want it to take over from the current mouse wheel functions?

Mouse Wheel scrolls tracks up/down (assuming more tracks than fit on screen at one time).
Shift+Mouse wheel scrolls the track display left/right.
Ctrl+Mouse Wheel zooms in/out.

steve wrote:

Dr. Righteous wrote:Being able to use such a controller with Audacity

to do what? What would you want the controller to control?

See: http://forums.contourdesign.com/viewtop ... f=9&t=3494 .


Gale

steve wrote:

Dr. Righteous wrote:Being able to use such a controller with Audacity

to do what? What would you want the controller to control?

Would you want it to take over from the current mouse wheel functions?

Mouse Wheel scrolls tracks up/down (assuming more tracks than fit on screen at one time).
Shift+Mouse wheel scrolls the track display left/right.
Ctrl+Mouse Wheel zooms in/out.

The idea is to avoid taking my eyes of the edit point I want and looking for the next mouse click.
There are keyboard shortcuts but the edit controller has 5 assignable buttons in additional to the jog/shuttle control.

I don't see why using a jog/shuttle control is "weird" to some of you.
It is a common device in post production work.

But I need to shuttle the time line forward or back when my next edit happens (I hear it) right at the edge of the window.
I'm not concerning with "scrubbing" playback, but accurately positioning the edit point with the jog control. All the while keeping my eyes exactly where I want the edit and not button hunting on the screen or keyboard. IF I can assign a few basic function to the assignable buttons on the controller there wouldn't be much else I could ask for in making the intensive editing sessions easier.

Gale Andrews wrote:

steve wrote:

Dr. Righteous wrote:Being able to use such a controller with Audacity

to do what? What would you want the controller to control?

See: http://forums.contourdesign.com/viewtop ... f=9&t=3494 .


Gale

That is nice.

But I use linux.

kozikowski wrote:

doing video editing

There is one problem that pops up almost immediately when people use those words. Audacity will not scrub. You can't play rapidly screaming up to the edit point and then very slow back and forth over it until you're sure of where you are. People who arrive from video editors are stunned that we can't do that, suddenly realizing how much harder it is to find an edit point without it.

Koz

I have no need to "scrub" the timeline in the same sense you do it with video editing. No need to play the audio back real-time while moving the jog/shuttle.
I just need accurate position of the edit points, and to shuttle the audio in the window back and forth at a slow or fast speed.
Then assign the 5 buttons the functions I need the most. play/stop,select,delete,zoom in,zoom out.
For others, those 5 button assignments might need to be totally different.


If you have this functionality in mind such an edit controller makes sense.
At least to me.

Does this help: http://forums.contourdesign.com/viewtop ... f=9&t=3881

Dr. Righteous wrote:I use linux.

I had noticed but I was wanting to show Steve the image of all the settings that could be assigned to the Shuttle.

I assumed from your first post that you were already using a program such as Steve mentions to map Shuttle buttons to key presses, and your request was for hardware support for the Shuttle, such as (apparently) avidemux offers.


Gale

According to the web site, our developers could contact the crew there for a Audacity specific implementation.
Controller integration would be a nice feature in general. It hasn't to be a commercial one; do-it-yourself is not everyone's taste though.