Petty Peve About DAWs Interface

[HankKingsley10]

Have you considered scripting with Auto-it using Send Keys to give Mixcraft back the focus and stop playback? You'd search for the text in the titlebar,(if text="XXXXX")give that (mixcraft) window the focus and stop playback. I did this with our automation system to make one click or one key combination replace 5 or 6 different ones needed to change focus. (it's just giving the window focus and emulating the keystrokes). It's been 6 or 7 years since I scripted anything with Auto-it, but it is "BASIC" like in its structure and simple enough when just sending keystrokes. Some people have even written working programs with GUI's with it. So when you hit the spacebar, your script (which can be compiled as an exe) gives the mixcraft window the focus and emulates hitting the spacebar.

[jchase9101]

Thanks everyone who replied, although I'm old and sometimes cranky, I DO appreciate the attempts at assistance.

(....and Greg, I think it was, who replied to my sarcastic comment about virtual instruments versus VST effects, hey man, you're talking to a neanderthal rock guitar player, my knuckles have been rubbed raw from dragging them on the ground all my life, so if somehow those are the same thing I sure do apologize, but I just record big drums, distorted bass, rock guitars, and shrieking vocals, don't have much use for midi or virtual instruments, so please excuse my faux pas.)

...so, after posting my little "venting" post, when I went back to mixing, I made a point of really paying attention to which FX plugins were grabbing window focus.

I noticed first, that, it does not happen with all VST FX plugins, some do, some don't grab focus away from the DAW.

The one I use the most, which I otherwise freaking LOVE, is ToneBooster's Parametric EQ.

....and yes, you guessed it, that particular plugin grabs window focus from Mixcraft, so that, when you use TB Parametric Equalizer to make an adjustment to a track and then hit the spacebar to hear the results of your changes, nothing happens, till you then click on some part of the mixcraft interface, then hit the spacebar, at which point it works, the track plays, and you can hear the results of your edits in the plugin.

So my personal little hell is the plugin that I use on pretty much every single track I ever record, the plugin that I love dearly and just feel some weird sense of companionship with because it gets me and I get it, that's the one that is causing the issue I experience so many times per day.

.... and finishing up, as I noted above, I don't experience this happening with all VST plugins, it happens with some, not with others, so I would imagine that means it is possible to code for that not occurring, and I will go ahead and take a moment and beg and cajole and ask pleadingly that if it ever be possible to take a bit of time and "make it so",
the effort to do so would save cro-magnons like me gajillions of wasted milliseconds of their lives.

... that's all, I'll say once again I've been a loyal Mixcraft user since Vs 6 (having migrated from Pro Tools), and I love Mixcraft, it's perfect for my needs, please don't be offended if I got a bit cranky,
you all do excellent work!
cheers!

[Rolling Estonian]

The one I use the most, which I otherwise freaking LOVE, is ToneBooster's Parametric EQ.

I would highly recommend checking out Fabfilter ProQ3, a truly remarkable eq. It costs but if you can get it on sale, worth every penny.

M

[bsheen74]

I guess the only thing I'd question is why do other DAWs not have this issue? I've never experienced a plugin of any type being taken over in Cakewalk. If you hit the space bar it start/stops the transport no matter what. In my mind it seems like it would be something that could be programmed in Mixcraft. No?