Trackball or mouse?

rydaken · Post by **rydaken** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 12:11 am

inverseroom wrote:The software doesn't interfere with anything? I'm trying to keep my music computer lean and mean...

Nah, it's never interfered with my rig, and that is all my rig is for. But come to think of it, it only works with the Macs & Windows 98, 2000. Not xp. And it is only practical if you are getting one of the multi-button trackballs in their "expert" line, otherwise their isn't much of a point to getting "Mouseworks".

apropos of nothing · Post by **apropos of nothing** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 6:11 am

For any two-button, Windows should already have a driver in the database. I've never had to install any driver for a trackball.

inverseroom · Post by **inverseroom** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 6:52 am

I would assume XP just thinks it's a mouse.

YOUR KONG · Post by **YOUR KONG** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 9:19 am

inverseroom wrote:I'm a little frustrated trying to mix with a mouse.

Maybe the solution is to make less .003dB changes?

No serious - I find trackballs to be more conducive to ergonomic computing than mouseses. Go TB.

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 2:09 pm

I've used a Kensington Turbomouse for about 12 years now. Love it. And no funky wrist problems. I only get those when forced to use a mouse.

inverseroom · Post by **inverseroom** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 5:45 am

FYI, I just got the trackball...it feels great...I don't think it will be very hard to adjust to.

I think the thing that kills the wrist is all those tiny moves from side to side...and now that will be gone. Nice.

JES · Post by **JES** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 1:41 pm

Another happy trackball user for my music computer. And then, when my optical mouse shit the bed, I replaced it with a trackball for work too. Brilliant! Extra bonus--you're not moving the thing all over your desk.

--JES

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 1:47 pm

JES wrote:not moving the thing all over your desk.

Definitely a selling point if you've ever seen my desk.

radiationroom · Post by **radiationroom** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 5:37 pm

If you want to try a sweet 4-button trackball, get yourself a Logitech "Marble Mouse". At roughly $20.00-USD they rock on Pro-Tools. I got two of the USB version which work flawlessly with the Mac running both OSX and Classic. The Marble Mouse works just fine with KVM switch systems as well.

Info can be found at - http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/produ ... ENTID=5003

SaneMan · Post by **SaneMan** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 7:17 pm

I'm a trackball addict, and am completely retarded on Pro Tools without one. Like someone already said, you can assign functions to the various mouse buttons and it will speed up your editing by amazing amounts. I've got the black Kensington one with 4 buttons, and the best way I've figured(and I've worked with a lot of really good engineers, and just steal their techniques) is to leave the button by your thumb as the normal clicker, then starting at the top left, going clockwise, set the other three to Trim, Selector, and Grabber. Then if you turn on the Command Key Focus(click the a..z button, or Command+Option+1 to enable), with your left hand you can use the d,f,g keys for fades, a & s keys for quick trims(followed by a fade in no more than a second), and the r & t keys for zoom in/out in combination with e for the zoom to selection and w to center the screen on clicker. Using this technique, you can essentially leave your left hand in one position on the keyboard and your right hand on the mouse and satisfy all your editing needs. Hope this is more helpful than confusing.

Might take a little getting used to, but it will greatly increase your editing speed. As far as the software, I wouldn't worry about it. It's commonplace in every major studio I've been in, and has never gave me problems at home either.

inverseroom · Post by **inverseroom** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 7:56 pm

Welp, I got the two-button and it's plenty...I really, really like it. I didn't realize the trackball would be a GIANT MARBLE...very cool...has weight to it. Last night I moved like eight guitar chords about 30 to 60 milliseconds...very tedious...piece of cake. I'm in LURV

helmuth · Post by **helmuth** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 10:10 am

And you can swap it for an 8ball

inverseroom · Post by **inverseroom** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 10:37 am

Oh fantastic...

What are those speakers, dude? And why does every pic you post of your studio look outrageously cool and rustic-slash-modern?

You Swedes!!!! I love it!!!!

helmuth · Post by **helmuth** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 1:26 pm

Certainly not mine.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun04/a ... dinand.htm

inverseroom · Post by **inverseroom** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:47 pm

Awww, you shoulda made up some sexy lie.

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Trackball or mouse?

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