Hello guys! It’s Venn,
When we talk about gear, most of the time it’s about computers, outboard processors, instruments, software and such, but what are your thoughts on pointing devices? Are you guys using any kind of special pointing device - extended function mouse, trackpad or trackball? I mean, the main control input device might be the MIDI controller or the DAW mixer controller, but it’s often that we need to edit loads of notes, or do million mouse clicks per dayf or example.
I’ll share with you an experience I had like two years ago. Due to a chain of MIDI heavy projects I’ve worked on, I started showing symptoms of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. At a point it was so harsh that I couldn’t hold a glass of water. Experienced wrist pain on a daily basis and started really worrying for my musical career as I do not only click, but also play instruments and do this for a living, basically.
I’ve consulted a doctor and it turned out everything was due to the wrist friction that happens when you work with regular sliding mouse. I started researching the web and found many people who had the same problem. Luckily, there were technical solutions that soothed the problem and eventually made it disappear after some time.
And that was the case with me. I got a Kensington Expert Mouse, which I previously have seen in a lot of studios, but never really considered a proper pointing device for me, since it looked a bit extravagant and I thought it was used so much due to space restriction of the big mixing consoles.
I took me a while to get used to it, cause it differs so much from the traditional mouse and I’ve been using traditional mouse for more than 20 years. But I was able to catch up with it after playing some FPS computer games, namely the whole Half-Life series, lol.
This type of pointing device lets your wrist relax and remain static and you only move fingers. On top of that, the four buttons are programable and you could also set key commands with them, allowing up to 6 combinations. You can use commands for single axis movement and is pretty customizable. The rotating ring serves are a scroll and is so good for controlling plug-ins and knob parameters. You could also save presets for every application! But the best thing is that my wrist healed and I no longer feel that pain. I think it was the device that reversed my symptoms.
Do you guys have any experience with pointing devices other than regular mouse? I’ve seen a lot of people using Apple’s Magic TrackPad and seen some use graphic tablets and styluses as an input devices too.
Cheers,
Venn