Some while back, Boodabang posted a message in the Vegas Scripting forum about a game-controller keyboard he or she was using with Vegas:
http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?Forum=21&MessageID=235519
This is something called the Belkin Nostromo SpeedPad n52. I don't get the Joseph Conrad reference, but this thing is amazingly cool, and I think it's going to revolutionize my Vegas operation.
It's a USB keypad for the left hand. There are 14 keys and a scroll wheel accessible to the fingers, and two buttons and a directional switch reachable by the thumb. There are four shift modes that can multiply the number of functions the keypad can perform.
The idea is that you can do just about EVERY editing function with the mouse in the right hand and the SpeedPad in the left hand. Your hands only need to leave your wrists to type text on the keyboard.
First of all, it's plenty cheap -- I got mine from Dell for $30.45, with free shipping. The software allows you to assign single keys or macros to any key, and the macros include the ability to do mouse clicks. Each application you use it with can have its own macro set. The software appears to be well designed.
It just was delivered about an hour ago, so I have plenty more experimenting to do. The first thing I tried was a key to open a clip in the Trimmer, something I do fairly often. Right-mouse-click M is the key sequence I programmed into the keypad, so I just put the mouse pointer over the event and click with my left little finger on the home row of the keypad. Presto -- clip is open in the trimmer.
There are SO many possibilities. Single keystroke to make the scopes appear and disappear. One-stroke select-events-to-end. Etc., etc. WAY more useful than a keyboard with Vegas functions displayed on it, I think. Of course, I still will have to memorize the keypad functions, but I can assign them in a way that's most convenient and memorable for ME.
Thank you, Boodabang!
http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?Forum=21&MessageID=235519
This is something called the Belkin Nostromo SpeedPad n52. I don't get the Joseph Conrad reference, but this thing is amazingly cool, and I think it's going to revolutionize my Vegas operation.
It's a USB keypad for the left hand. There are 14 keys and a scroll wheel accessible to the fingers, and two buttons and a directional switch reachable by the thumb. There are four shift modes that can multiply the number of functions the keypad can perform.
The idea is that you can do just about EVERY editing function with the mouse in the right hand and the SpeedPad in the left hand. Your hands only need to leave your wrists to type text on the keyboard.
First of all, it's plenty cheap -- I got mine from Dell for $30.45, with free shipping. The software allows you to assign single keys or macros to any key, and the macros include the ability to do mouse clicks. Each application you use it with can have its own macro set. The software appears to be well designed.
It just was delivered about an hour ago, so I have plenty more experimenting to do. The first thing I tried was a key to open a clip in the Trimmer, something I do fairly often. Right-mouse-click M is the key sequence I programmed into the keypad, so I just put the mouse pointer over the event and click with my left little finger on the home row of the keypad. Presto -- clip is open in the trimmer.
There are SO many possibilities. Single keystroke to make the scopes appear and disappear. One-stroke select-events-to-end. Etc., etc. WAY more useful than a keyboard with Vegas functions displayed on it, I think. Of course, I still will have to memorize the keypad functions, but I can assign them in a way that's most convenient and memorable for ME.
Thank you, Boodabang!