Poobah@Zynewave wrote:
I searched for 4-way mouse wheel scrolling, and found a couple of new Microsoft mice (MS Touch Mouse and MS Explorer Touch Mouse), which support speed-adjustable horizontal scrolling. I think the Logitech touch mouse supports 4-way scrolling as well. I’ve now spent a couple of hours adding the support for WM_MOUSEHWHEEL, for the upcoming 3.1.1 release.
Thanks! This should also help with a variety of other input devices:
Poobah@Zynewave wrote:
The WM_MOUSEWHEEL message only reports vertical scroll wheel.
If you look closely, the message I was talking about was the WM_MOUSEHWHEEL message rather than the WM_MOUSEWHEEL one!
@Zynewave wrote:
Considering the time required to implement this feature, and the small number of users who will find it useful, I put this feature request at a very low priority.
I think that’s fair enough if it really does take a significant amount of time to implement it.
@Zynewave wrote:
If you want horizontal scrollbars in the editors, it is possible to add those by editing the editor profiles (adding a scrollbar region). Editing the profiles requires some insight into how the profiles work though, as it’s possible to mess up the editors. If that happens, use the “restore default editor profiles” setup menu command.
Thanks! I might try to figure that out when I have time.
@Zynewave wrote:
If you click above/below the marked range in the navigator, you can scroll horizontally with vertical position locked.
I just tried that and got it to work. Thank you!
Anyway, thanks for your time. I have actually found another reproducible way to make Podium crash, so I might detail it for you when I have time.
Poobah@kingtubby wrote:
‘Alt+Mouse wheel’ scrolls horizontally
Thanks! This makes moving around in the arrangement editor much better. However, it’s awkward to use since it’s not a standard shortcut combination.
@Zynewave wrote:
I remember testing this a couple of years ago, and was not happy with the result. I have a mouse with side-tilt, but it provides horrible accuracy.
Wouldn’t it be better to have it available for the users who would use it? The users who don’t like it could just not use it. I don’t think its accuracy is any worse than a scroll wheel; they both scroll a fixed amount that is configurable in Windows.
Is the code for the tilt support the same as for a horizontal scroll wheel? (I mean checking for a WM_MOUSEHWHEEL window message.) I remember once having a mouse that had two scroll wheels – one for vertical and one for horizontal. It’s useful when applications support both directions rather than ignoring the horizontal scroll messages. Keep in mind that not all users have a second hand available to press the Alt key, either because they are disabled or using the other hand for something else.
The reason I’m talking about all of this scrolling stuff is I find this aspect of the program a bit annoying. With most good Windows applications, you can scroll using a native scroll bar, horizontal scroll wheel or using the middle mouse button. With Podium, you can’t do any of these. I know that you can use the viewport thing at the top of the arrangement editor to scroll horizontally, but it also scrolls vertically, which I find annoying; I don’t want the arrangement to be scrolling around vertically when I’m trying to scroll horizontally.
I’ve seen similarly unusual and non-standard navigation in other digital audio workstations, but I think that they provide a poor user experience. They’re definitely very functional, and users can adapt to them and become proficient at them, but it’s inconsistent with most other applications, which decreases the user experience. (Maybe Podium’s style of navigation is standard for DAWs. I’m looking at this as a newcomer to DAWs and an experienced Windows user.)
For comparison, I find Audacity’s navigation to be a much easier and more natural experience than Podium’s because:
In summary, here’s what I’d like to see in Podium regarding navigation:
A do like the program’s intuitive user interface functionality, but I think it can have a steeper learning curve for new users because of the absence of these standard features.
PoobahThanks for your reply.
@Zynewave wrote:
It should be possible to have instruments assigned to the tracks of an imported MIDI file, but it requires that the instrument are present in the project before the import. There is a youtube video that shows how it can be done:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV1Eg7zToZw&list=UU5f_La02aUXMdDIWfYa_QNA&index=5&feature=plcp
Thanks for that. I watched the video, and now I am able to do it. Perhaps when you import a MIDI file, Podium should provide a dialog asking you what to do instead of making assumptions about some of these details. (However, couldn’t Podium just always put imported MIDI tracks inside a single audio-capable master track so that it works automatically and is structured like normal arrangements?)
@Zynewave wrote:
I have SampleTank, and I believe I remember it crashing for me too when changing Podium settings that will cause a reset of plugins. The safe way to do it, is to first unload the plugins by switching off power in the arrangement, and then configure the engine preferences.
Thanks for the tip; I hadn’t used that button before. Would it be a good idea for Podium to automatically do this sort of thing when the audio settings are changed? It seems that some other programs do it this way.
I think it would also be good if Podium supported horizontal mouse-wheel scrolling. Some mice support tilting the scroll wheel left and right to scroll horizontally. Standard windows controls seem to support this. Could Podium also support this so that such users can easily scroll horizontally in the arrangement editor?