[Feature] Auto-control moused-over control [All?]
CompletedSo, I stumbled across http://www.nobcontrol.com/ tonight. While reading up on it and watching the videos, I thought, "Ya know, it'd be great if a Palette control could do something like this."
So, this is probably a pretty big ask .. but would it be possible to assign a hardware control to behave similar to how the nOb does such that it behaves like a mouse, controlling whatever you've just moused over?
This is basically what I've been doing by using Logic Pro X's "Automation Quick Access". However, it'd be awesome to be able to do it in any music software I use without having to use MIDI learn or click on a control.
Thoughts?
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Official comment
I'd like to re-answer this, I think my original reply missed an important point.
In short: You can adjust any software slider that accepts input from scroll motions, keystrokes (ie arrow keys), or MIDI with a single Palette dial.We take advantage of this capability in LR Classic and other Adobe apps—look for the "Adjust any Slider" or "Adjust Selected Property" functions. Plus, DAWs such as Logic will apply CC7 to the selected track's volume slider.
What Palette isn't designed to do is to take control of the cursor away from the mouse. I think my earlier replies address that point in more detail if anyone's curious.
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Hey Bill, maybe not the answer you're hoping for, but I know we're pretty averse to building any sort of control that "hijacks" the cursor—if I recall correctly, these would basically take over your cursor position to hover over any given control and then emulate a scroll wheel and/or mouse drag in order to control the selected parameter.
This isn't ideal as your assignments can conceivably break every time you move a window or modify your workspace. There are ways to address UI elements without taking over the cursor, our MacOS Menu Mode is kind of a first look at what can be done there, but we can take it much further with more development.
If I'm wrong about Nob control, please let me know, and I'll resurface it with the team.
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Andy,
Thanks for the response! I figured this was a long shot, but wanted to give it a go and see what you guys thought. I'm not sure I'd necessarily call it controller "hijacking", but I could see how it could be viewed as that. It sounds like the knob just behaves as a second mouse, sending click+drag signals as a mouse would, when the knob is turned. I'm not sure I follow regarding the window movement / workspace modification. The click-drag operation would always be relative to where ever you position your mouse, so wouldn't it always work regardless of where the window was? It wouldn't be bound to a specific area of the screen, I don't think... However, it would be up to the user to ensure that the mouse is hovering over the desired control and the hardware is configured to perform the appropriate action for that control (drag vertical, drag horizontal, something else).
Anyway, no worries. If it is out of scope for Palette, I can just save my pennies and give n0b a try later. Was just hoping that I could get that behavior with a piece of hardware I already owned. =]
Thanks again for your time.
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Hi there! I'm not able to add anything regarding the way nOb works, but I would like to heartily add my support to the request. I've been sizing up options for hardware controllers, and PG is definitely the pack leader, yet this one thing is holding me back..
I'm working primarily in AE, where most of the value-fiddling to be done is within the effects controls, and so, on "transient" properties. While dedicated assignments for global controls and shared properties (timeline, opacity, etc) are very useful, the addition of this ability to point-and-control any value would vastly expand Palette Gear's efficacy within AE.
So, please, pretty please, ask the team to consider this again. This would make PG such a killer tool.
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@Bill: I think I misunderstood and went off on a bit of a tangent. If jumping between controlling multiple parameters, it would require PaletteApp to take over the cursor—this would be a no-go, and would break if the window is moved or resized.
However, if it's controlling a single parameter, relative to the cursor position, then that's definitely better from a UX point-of-view and something I could see us working with.
For what you've mentioned, you may find it's quite useful to map the mouse scroll to a dial, or the up and down arrows using keyboard mode—most apps will detect one of the two events and change the selected slider accordingly.
@DW: Have you tried the "Adjust any Property" function in AE? I believe it will fit your use case. Regardless, I think you'll find that context-sensitive controls in Adobe apps are a very possible addition. -
Andy,
Ah! Yes, I think I understand now what you mean.
I was envisioning controlling only one parameter at a time.. whatever the mouse is currently positioned over. I believe that is the way nOb works. So, I could see having a very simple Palette setup where you have one knob to control whatever it is you mouseover, a button to toggle whether the mouse behavior associated with that knob should be horizontal or vertical click+drag, and .. hm, actually, I think that'd be it. The n0b does some other fancy things too, but I think at least for what I'd like to do, I wouldn't need those things.
If you can spare a few minutes to watch, I'd definitely recommend checking out their videos. Hopefully they'll give you some ideas of how Palette could be adapted to work similarly ... and it would give you some added insight in to the competition. ;)
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I believe you're talking about something [like that], just in any app
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@Andy, might my experiment below demonstrate that it's possible for Palette down the line? I am aware you are averse to cursor hi-jack.
I've been researching controllers and looking for something exactly like the OP is talking about: hover the mouse over the LR slider and then use the knob to control it.I want to buy Palette, but maybe not if it doesn't have this feature.
I learned that Pusher Labs "pfixer" app does this. The feature is called Mouse Follower. I downloaded the trial to use with my midi controller. When activated, I just need to hover my mouse cursor over any slider, then turn my midi knob to control it.
When I resize the screen or move the window, it hasn't caused any problems or assignments to break. -
David, I'd like to answer specifically in regards to Lightroom as I think I missed an important point in my original reply:
Lightroom (along with all other Adobe apps) allows you to control any slider by hovering a Palette dial over it, or (in the case of some Photoshop controls) selecting the numerical field next to it.
We absolutely have this capability with any application that can interpret arrow keys or scroll motions in order to adjust a hovered/selected slider.Where we don't have this capability is with any application that requires a click-and-drag motion as we don't want to take over the cursor completely.
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