Custom Key shortcuts?

Spot|DSE wrote on 10/5/2005, 7:29 AM

I've got a new "experimental" system that I'm sorta thinking outside the box on, and want to set it up as a virtually 'mouse free' editor just to see how much I can do on keys alone. Wondering if anyone has any really cool/unique/efficient keyboard setups they'd like to share?
I have a few custom keys I've done, but nothing terribly elaborate.

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 10/5/2005, 9:34 AM

Spot,

I am not sure that the actual layout is that important: You can learn almost anything and get used to it (I long ago modified Microsoft Word so I can use the Wordstar "control diamond" that I became accustomed to back in the early 80's).

What is important is which commands (and scripts) you make available to your keyboard mapping. Vegas is not a very efficient editor as it is initially set up. You have to spend way too much time mousing around, selecting things, moving the timeline, etc. To make it really fly, you need to assign scripts to keys. The real trick is choosing the right scripts: Choosing the right keys is secondary.

My answer, which I like, but which I am absolutely certain can be improved upon, was the set of simple scripts that I posted over at VASST last winter. You, of course, have at your disposal far more "ammunition" in the form of Ultimate S. The key, I think, is to first define the kinds of edits you want to be able to accomplish, then figure out the fewest number of steps required to accomplish these things and, finally, create (or use existing) scripts to eliminate redundant steps.

Your question about which keys to assign functions to seems like not only the least important part of the exercise, but also the absolute last thing that needs to be done.

FWIW, I assigned my "cut from current cursor location to beginning of event" to the "1" key (at the top of the keyboard, not the numeric keypad); the "select existing event and deselect all other events" script to the "2" key; and the "delete event under the cursor" to the "3" key. I then use JKL to scrub. I also use Ctrl-A to go back one event at a time and Ctrl-F to go forward one event at a time (which is how Wordstar worked: Ctrl-A goes back one word, and Ctrl-F goes forward one word).

Finally, for my personal taste, the key insight that makes Vegas editing really work, is to use scripts to force Vegas to do things based on the cursor position -- and on nothing else. This gets rid of all the crazy interactions between track selection, event selection, timeline selection, and ripple mode status. One of the few mistakes the original (brilliant) designers of Vegas made was not paying more attention to the timeline cursor position.

johnmeyer wrote on 10/5/2005, 1:43 PM

P.S. to my last post:

Since you know more about Vegas than the Sony engineers who wrote the code, you probably know about the "hidden" function of the JKL keys.

In case you don't, here it is:

If you just press J or K or L, the cursor goes left, or stops, or goes right. Each successive press of J or L increases the velocity in that direction, with the increments and ultimate speed determined by the Preference setting. Pressing J after pressing L (or vice versa) changes the direction of playback.

However, what is less known, is that if you press and hold the K key before pressing the J or L, the scrub operation changes in three important ways. First, the speed starts out in slow motion. Second, the increments in speed are much smaller (i.e., each press of the key changes the speed by only a small amount). Third, and most important, pressing the opposite key (e.g., pressing J after having first pressed L), will no longer reverse the motion, but instead simply slows down the speed with each press. Only after repeated presses will the motion finally reverse.

Like I said, I assume you knew all this, but in case you didn't, now you do. Feel free to copy my description for your VASST site or your training, if you wish.

Spot|DSE wrote on 10/5/2005, 3:12 PM

I'm aware of these s'cuts, yes.
What I'm more looking for is a guy/person who's made the transition from AVID to Vegas, and remapped their keyboard to make it key'd only , very little mousing around. there is no way (that I'm aware of) to completely cut the mouse, but would sure like to try.