GG,

I realize this is an old topic, but I still figured it could be of some help to you...

I understand how you feel about wanting to keep your eyes on the screen and not having to look at your fingers everytime you do an edit. Freedom from your keyboard just makes you work faster, and everyone can use a little of that. Luckly, however, there IS a periphrial out there that can allow you to perform NUMEROUS functions in ACID/Vegas/SoundForge without using the keyboard. It's called the MicroSoft Strategic Commander. Now before you roll your eyes and think, "I'm not controlling Vegas with a joystick", let me explain. The device isn't a joystick. It's more like a mouse for your left hand... with up to 72 programmable functions! The link to the product page is:

http://www.microsoft.com/products/hardware/sidewinder/devices/SComm/default.asp

It's designed to be used for RTS games, but I've been using it for all my multimedia apps. The nice thing is that it's HID-compliant, so you can bind any mouse press or key stroke to it, and in any combination. It also supports timed macros, so you can cut, paste, trim, drop markers, and everything else, with just the click of whatever button you bind the function to. It takes a few weeks to get used to, but believe me, once you get the hang of it, you'll never want to touch that keyboard again. Give it a try. I promise you'll be glad you did.

Regards,
Nick LaMartina

I've thought of this many times. I've done much audio editing on an AMS Neve audiophile and having a control unit, like the one you just mentioned is very nice. Neve also incorporates a rotating wheel, where you can "slip" the audio waves, which is a very nice feature when editing....kinda like using the arrow keys in Vegas but much more efficient. It's kinda funny everyone says they want this stuff, but it's already developed by other companies. You can get this same kind of thing in an Ensonique Paris system......but who's dishing out the money for this? Ohhhh...you want all these features and don't want to have to pay for it?

For that voice recognition feature you're talking about...that would probably be too expensive that no one would be able to buy it. The company I do electrical engineering for has developed a car stereo that does exactly the same kind of thing. You give it a voice command and the radio responds so you never have to take your eyes off the road. You can say the name of someone and it dials their telephone number. The only problem is that this radio sells retail for about $2500.

I guess my point is, is that all the things you have mentioned have already been developed by someone, the only problem is that you have to spend a lot of money developing this technology and sell it at a very low cost so that it appeals to the everyday consumer. So there's not many company's willing to make something that won't at least pay for it's development costs. Sure I'm an engineer and can spend the time and money building exactly what you asked for.....now get 100,000 of your friends promising me they're gonna buy it once I do.

nick
sounds perfect !
thanks
steven

Yeah Nick's suggestion sounds cool... But what makes Sonic Foundry products a notch above the rest is the ability to use professional products that aren't at industry prices. Adding additional equipment would make the product cost a lot more.

I think using a device like the sidewinder would be a good deal, and is a cheap alternative compared to high end non-linear systems. A trackball mouse and the sidewinder would be the closest thing to a hands free system I suppose.

Hey if you people want to shell out the big bucks, then there's other products out there (Avid, Media 100 etc...), if not live with it...

Vegas is still a great program without a specialized keyboard don't you think?

I think my suggestion was mis understood. I never suggested a keyboard that "came in the box" driving up the price. I was thinking something that could be ordered from sf and could apply to all their products. tonight i did find a programable keypad online for $30 , this is more what i had in mind. like somebody previously mentioned, I also have a lot of miles behind a convergence controller and find it hard to switch to "video game" type keyboard short cuts. add to this the fact i can only see out one eye and use one hand. avid now has a product within $1000 of premire and vegas. and of the three, vegas is the only one lacking this keyboard option. I prefer vegas for many, many reasons, and hopefully ive solved my keyboard problem, and if i did ill share my experience.
steven