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Old 09-24-2018, 01:01 PM   #1
DeBased
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Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: UK
Posts: 412
Default Graphics tablets: automation drag w. dimension lock is broken & more

I'm a visual artist as well as a musician/producer, so like most visual artists I switched to using a Wacom graphics tablet exclusively instead of a mouse many years ago. This works great in 99% of all applications, as it's almost exactly like mouse input - but there are some important differences that can completely break usability in specific cases. Dragging automation points in Reaper with dimension (X/Y) lock enabled is one of those:

The reason is that pen clicking (and movement straight after clicks) isn't as precise as with a mouse. When you physically press the pen down onto its nib (ie. a mouse left click), you can't help but move it a pixel or two in a random direction until the tip is pressed deep enough to activate. It's a physical wobble, similar to how touch screen presses and releases move around a bit. The initial drag after the click may also stray a pixel or two in an unwanted direction.

This is generally OK in Reaper, but when using CTRL-SHIFT to lock automation point movement to a single dimensions (X or Y) it breaks, because due to the slight random initial motion, Reaper frequently assumes the pen wants to move in the other dimension than the one you want. So you have to Undo (glitches audio playback) and try again until you get it right - frustrating (and it happens all the time).

Photoshop solves the same locked dragging elegantly: say you accidentally moved in X a little, but wanted Y, so you try to drag in Y during the same drag:

- in Reaper this wouldn't work as X is already locked in.
- in Photoshop, when it detects a larger Y movement than the initial X, it will switch the dimension lock to Y and removes any initial X movement. That gives you the Y-only movement you wanted, all in the same drag.

That simple fix would stop me tearing my hair out .


- another tablet thing would be a fine-adjustment shortcut key for automation dragging. Again because the pens is a little less precise, sometimes I need to make tiny pixel-sized automation adjustments, so a fine adjustment key (like SHIFT with faders) would be great (if that already exists, let me know).


- it would also be really helpful if a minimum dragging distance before a movement is actually registered could be configured, a small 'dead region' where an accidental drag movement doesn't count can make pens much friendlier to use. If it defaults to zero (or whatever the code currently assumes for mice) then pen users can adjust this without affecting anyone else.


Let me know if any of this isn't clear and I'll do some demo videos.
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Last edited by DeBased; 09-24-2018 at 01:12 PM.
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