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The world’s worst NLE keyboard shortcut defaults
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[Andrew Kimery] “Currently w/my PPro layout I’m up to about 40 programmed keys on my G13 and 6 on my mouse.”
Thanks to some of your previous posts about this, I started thinking about using a dedicated hardware solution too.
A while back I started using the AVID Artist Transport (now obsolete but still available from some suppliers), which has roughly 50 programmable keys and works well across a variety of applications.
The major bonus is the very nicely engineered jog wheel which can be programmed to all sorts of functions besides jog – this is probably my favourite feature.
For many tasks the Artist Transport is a really great solution. I’ve got it paired with the Artist Mix as well which makes for a very powerful combination. It’s still a tricky question how best to map everything, whether to try and achieve some sort of conformity between applications, and indeed what functions are best not mapped to it.
However, one wider point I would make here is that pretty much no input device is perfect for every task, even within one application.
For example, when I’ve got a day of rotoscoping or retouching ahead of me, the Wacom gets plugged straight in and nothing gets the job done faster or more precisely. But at any other time, I simply don’t find it an efficient way of working at all.
Similarly, a trackpad is a much better input device than a mouse for scrolling through a newspaper article, but in lots of cases it’s very inefficient.
The mouse is a pretty awful and antiquated device, but for many tasks it still comfortably outperforms anything else. And for many tasks, the keyboard is streets ahead of anything else for speed.
It’s very easy to get seduced by a input device and start thinking that it provides advantages across the board, when in fact it may well be slowing you down in respect of a lot of important tasks.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
I completely agree.
Premiere’s shortcuts are just bizarre.
I think I’d have to nominate Cmd-Shift-E as the worst of the worst. Not only is it using two (!) modifiers for a function primary enough it deserves an unmodified keystroke, but it’s also a very uncomfortable single-handed action.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
[Oliver Peters] “What I have always heard is that the original Avid design was based on where your left and right hands rest on the keys. That’s how we got JKL, for example, which everyone has followed ever since.
“I think there’s a good case to be made that the AVID (default) mapping is the most efficient for working exclusively with the keyboard (though it’s not without anomalies). I sense that there was a lot of clever thinking that went into it that other NLEs haven’t ever matched. My gripe is that there seems to have been a lot of laziness here.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
[Jeremy Garchow] “Pr has a weirdly empty default kb shortcut set. More often than not, going to search for a shortcut ends up empty, like replace edits of any sort which are unassigned by default in Pr.”
As an After Effects user, Premiere’s default shortcuts mess me up big-time every couple weeks. After Effects uses Comma and Period for the very benign operation of zooming the composition window. Premiere uses Comma and Period for the very serious operations of insert and overwrite. Pretty much any time I want to see some kind of detail in the Pr’s program monitor, I’ve done three or four overwrite edits before I figure out what’s going on. Thankfully, Undo is mapped to Ctrl+Z in both apps.
The FCP keyboard shortcuts in Premiere are even worse. As covered in another thread, I need to hold the pen to fiddle constantly with the UI, but I’m right-handed, and all the primary FCP keybindings are on the right side of the keyboard.
I think Discreet got it nicely. The classic Smoke keybindings are really pretty good; they’re designed for left-handed operation, while the pen is in your right hand. They don’t address Simon’s zoom critique, but a classic Smoke op would handled that gesturally with the pen.
Brian Mulligan hits the high notes:
https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/smoke-hotkeys-you-should-customize-to-work-faster/For visual thinkers:
https://logickeyboard.com/shop/autodesk-smoke-linux-3151p.htmlWalter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
[Simon Ubsdell] “I think there’s a good case to be made that the AVID (default) mapping is the most efficient for working exclusively with the keyboard (though it’s not without anomalies). I sense that there was a lot of clever thinking that went into it that other NLEs haven’t ever matched. My gripe is that there seems to have been a lot of laziness here.”
When I switched from Avid to FCP 7 I kept the Avid keyboard layout. I liked it, but it was also because I didn’t want to learn a whole new set of commands. When I switched to FCP X, I committed to learning the new layout. The Avid keyboard layout is designed for additive and subtractive, 3-point in-out editing. To over simplify, Avid’s editing is frame-based. FCP X’s is clip-based. I almost never set Ins and Outs on the FCP X timeline, like I did all the time with Avid. Commands like Lift, Extract, Clear In, Clear Out not to mention using 6 keys for Video and Audio track selection don’t translate well to FCP X’s connected timeline.
But I’m sure you’re right that FCP X’s layout can be improved. I just don’t think it’s awful (like FCP 7’s was).
I also agree with you on specialized work surfaces. I’m not interested, if nothing else, because I edit on multiple workstations and on the road with a laptop. I don’t want to become attached to an individual device. As far as mouse versus keyboard. Keyboards are good for instantaneous actions (blade, marking in-out, connect, etc.). Mice are good for variable input (skimming, parameter adjustment, etc.) Using both appropriately is the best strategy.
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Brett Sherman
One Man Band (If it\’s video related I\’ll do it!)
I work for an institution that probably does not want to be associated with my babblings here. -
[Jeremy Garchow] “Premiere’s constant track height adjustment on mouse scroll is maddening. “
Oh, I LOVE that. Great feature in my opinion. Especially for audio waveforms. I wish it were in X.
[Jeremy Garchow] “Pr has a weirdly empty default kb shortcut set.”
Agreed. I tend to use (and tweak) the FCP7 keyboard map. Seems the most natural to me these days, especially since Premiere’s design is closer to FCP7 than anything else.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Walter Soyka] “As an After Effects user, Premiere’s default shortcuts mess me up big-time every couple weeks. After Effects uses Comma and Period for the very benign operation of zooming the composition window. Premiere uses Comma and Period for the very serious operations of insert and overwrite.”
In general, there’s a disconnect between the Premiere and AE teams in a lot of things, especially UI design and menu layout. Even more true across the wider spectrum of Adobe creative apps. However, there seems to be a big effort over the last few years to unify this. Of course, it’s not like Motion/FCPX/LogicProX are consistent either.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
I agree that there is no one right solution for each person and each situation. Though for me my left hand is pretty wedded to the G13 these days. My right hand could bounce between a mouse, a Wacom or a trackpad just depending on the situation (or if I feel an RSI coming on).
[Simon Ubsdell] “The mouse is a pretty awful and antiquated device, but for many tasks it still comfortably outperforms anything else. And for many tasks, the keyboard is streets ahead of anything else for speed.”
Compared to the QWERTY keyboard the mouse is just a child. ????
IMO the ubiquity of the keyboard is it’s greatest asset. People already know where to find the “B” key so saying “B is for Blade” is pretty dead simple. With a new hardware device you are asking people to learn two things, the physical layout of the inputs on the device plus the functions attached to those inputs. Years ago I used JLCooper’s panels for color grading with Apple Color and I never got around to learning of any of the tertiary soft keys/buttons on the device. I used the transport controls and controls directly related to grading, but the dozen or so keys for saving, jumping between tabs, etc., largely remained untouched.
-Andrew
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[Andrew Kimery] “Though for me my left hand is pretty wedded to the G13 these days. My right hand could bounce between a mouse, a Wacom or a trackpad just depending on the situation (or if I feel an RSI coming on).
“That’s the case for me. I almost have to use a pen as otherwise, things start to hurt too much. The trouble is, most of the time the pen is really for me, but it’s not the best for every case.
Also, I have trouble with the pen in Pr. When I am on my laptop, i have to use the trackpad to scrub position/scale parameters. When I am on my desktop, I have to grab the Wacom mouse to scrub parameters because the pen doesn’t scrub those specific parameters, but I can scrub the timeline, or hover scrub. I’m sure this is some sort of user error, but it’s strange none the less.
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[Simon Ubsdell] “Everyone, it seems, is using an alternative method to avoid having to be stuck with the defaults.
Which suggests that I’m cranky but not wrong.
;-)”
touché! 😉
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