Need extra buttons? (hardware for shortcut keys)
polycounter lvl 19
Hey guys!
I just stumbled upon another cool use for a piece of hardware I've had for awhile and thought I'd share.
I've had a cheap $60 mini drum pad (you can get a cheaper one for $35, posted at the bottom of this post) I use for working with music and found a program that can remap the midi inputs to any combination of shortcut keys.
This is the Korg nanoPAD2. You've got 16 keys plus a toggle of 4 presets that change what all the keys do. So in total you can map 64 shortcuts at a time.
Technically you could probably even have more. All the keys are velocity sensitive so you can change the input depending on how hard you hit it. So say if you hit a pad softly it'll do one shortcut and if you hit it hard it can do a different one. I didn't mess with that though, 64 is plenty for me.
As for scale it's almost as wide as my Wacom Intuos 3 6x8
Using this midi mapper program:
http://audio.tutsplus.com/tutorials/production/quick-tip-midi-translation-midi-to-keystrokes/
You can even setup program specific presets that you can turn on/off with the checkboxes on the left.
Now I didn't do a whole lot of searching but I think this is the cheapest midi device you can find. It's the Korg nanoPAD (first model). It's the same as mine except it only has 12 buttons (still has 4 preset modes) so you get 48 shortcut keys total.
You can get it for $35 on Amazon.
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Korg-nanoPAD-Drum-Controller-Black/dp/B001J8EZ4Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1331093536&sr=8-2"]Amazon.com: Korg nanoPAD USB Drum Controller, Black: Musical Instruments[/ame]
If you guys find some other cool hardware for shortcut keys or input devices (maybe sliders like the Intuos stuff? That would be cool!) post it here!
I just stumbled upon another cool use for a piece of hardware I've had for awhile and thought I'd share.
I've had a cheap $60 mini drum pad (you can get a cheaper one for $35, posted at the bottom of this post) I use for working with music and found a program that can remap the midi inputs to any combination of shortcut keys.
This is the Korg nanoPAD2. You've got 16 keys plus a toggle of 4 presets that change what all the keys do. So in total you can map 64 shortcuts at a time.
Technically you could probably even have more. All the keys are velocity sensitive so you can change the input depending on how hard you hit it. So say if you hit a pad softly it'll do one shortcut and if you hit it hard it can do a different one. I didn't mess with that though, 64 is plenty for me.
As for scale it's almost as wide as my Wacom Intuos 3 6x8
Using this midi mapper program:
http://audio.tutsplus.com/tutorials/production/quick-tip-midi-translation-midi-to-keystrokes/
You can even setup program specific presets that you can turn on/off with the checkboxes on the left.
Now I didn't do a whole lot of searching but I think this is the cheapest midi device you can find. It's the Korg nanoPAD (first model). It's the same as mine except it only has 12 buttons (still has 4 preset modes) so you get 48 shortcut keys total.
You can get it for $35 on Amazon.
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Korg-nanoPAD-Drum-Controller-Black/dp/B001J8EZ4Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1331093536&sr=8-2"]Amazon.com: Korg nanoPAD USB Drum Controller, Black: Musical Instruments[/ame]
If you guys find some other cool hardware for shortcut keys or input devices (maybe sliders like the Intuos stuff? That would be cool!) post it here!
Replies
Can midi knobs be assigned through that software too ? Brush size/hardness would be so awesome on knobs !
I'm not sure. I've been wanting to try that but unfortunately I don't have a mixer or something with those kinds of knobs. Do you know if that gives a specific midi input?
This is how this program does it:
1st number is the midi channel
2nd number is the controller number
3rd number is a velocity value
If you have one of those try that capture input and turning a knob. See what happens with that. And let me know cause I'm curious as hell too
If it doesn't work there's bound to be some other program out there that could do it.
I think the biggest problem would be knowing how to assign it to a specific slider.
Ordering now.
finally we could live the dream of making art like mad scientists
http://www.ergocanada.com/ec_home/products/programmable_1.html
I think one thing to keep in mind when looking for an alternative input device is the tactile feeling of the keys/buttons/knobs.
Ideally you'd want your fingers to be able to find the right buttons to press or knobs to turn by feel alone without having to take your eyes off the screen. Without that I think a lot of the potential efficiency of such a device would be lost.
With that said, it might be easy to make a particular generic button feel different than the others just like it by doing something simple like putting a piece of masking tape on it.