Adobe Community: FX rack plugins steal space bar focus in CS5.5

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1. SuiteSpot,

Sep 5, 2012 7:43 AM in reply to icfm

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I just opened a CS6 session and tested a few internal fx and a couple of external fx and pressing the space bar will start & stop playing of the session if that's what you mean.

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2. icfm,

Sep 5, 2012 7:53 AM in reply to SuiteSpot

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Thanks for checking.

Just to clarify -- as you mentioned working in a "session" -- is it behaving the same way if you have the FX rack open to process a single audio file in wave edit view?

E.g. here, if I do this...

1. open a single audio file,

2. insert the "Tube modelled compressor" into a slot in the FX rack

3. open the GUI of the compressor in the rack

4. click and drag the compressor threshold control

5. click the space bar to audition the file

...the audio file does not play because the plugin has space bar focus.

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3. SuiteSpot,

Sep 5, 2012 8:34 AM in reply to icfm

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Following those steps exactly..............

Yes the audio plays just fine

I'm guessing you just found a reason to upgrade

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4. therealdobro,

Sep 5, 2012 9:45 AM in reply to icfm

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icfm wrote:

Hello all

I am currently using Audition CS5.5 under Windows 7.

One workflow problem in wave editing view is that when I open the GUI of any plugin that's in the FX rack, I can't use the space bar to trigger playback of the current audio file while the plugin is in the foreground.

It makes tweaking and testing plugin settings laborious because after every adjustment on the plugin GUI, I have to click outside the plugin window, in order to return the space bar focus to the audio file playhead.

Could any CS6 users confirm if this is still the case in the latest version of Audition? (It would help me decide if I should upgrade yet.)

Thanks!

You should upgrade to 6 because it's so clearly better than 5.5, but in my experience, the problem you describe occurs in 6 as well, with this variation. If I load a plugin, I can trigger playback with the spacebar. But if I change one of the settings in the plugin GUI, the spacebar no longer triggers playback, and then I have to mouse the playback button in the transport controls. I wish I could consistently use the spacebar. Durin?

But yeah, upgrade to 6 if you're of two minds about it. 6 rocks. I like it better than 3, and for me 3 was the best of softwares for what I do.

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5. icfm,

Sep 6, 2012 2:17 AM in reply to therealdobro

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Ha, so you're saying the opposite to one another!

@therealdobro, what you're describing isn't a variation on my experience - it's the same. I think I just didn't explain it clearly enough. It *is* the case that "If I load a plugin, I can trigger playback with the spacebar. But if I change one of the settings in the plugin GUI, the spacebar no longer triggers playback, and then I have to mouse the playback button in the transport controls".

Would be great to hear from Durin on this issue. I think most (all?) plugins are designed to work without needing space bar input, because it's so commonly used for host transport.

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6. SuiteSpot,

Sep 6, 2012 2:42 AM in reply to icfm

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Maybe it depends on the fx or something because I don't seem to have that problem

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7. ryclark,

Sep 6, 2012 4:32 AM in reply to SuiteSpot

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I have just tried this out. It works OK with Audition's internal effects. However the Space bar playback shortcut doesn't seem to get passed on by external VST effects.

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8. _durin_,

Sep 6, 2012 9:21 AM in reply to ryclark

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This is a known issue with some VST effects. VST plug-ins are basically their own little programs that can take keyboard focus or not. Some plug-in authors do a great job of parsing keyboard input and if it's not something they're using, passing the command along to the host while others simply gobble up any input and keep it for themselves.

Unfortunately, there's not much the host application can do since, when the VST UI is clicked it gets focus and all bets are off.

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9. therealdobro,

Sep 6, 2012 10:37 AM in reply to _durin_

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In that case, I'm going to isolate which one(s) of the plugs I use is the obstruction and contact the vendor. Thanks, Durin.

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10. icfm,

Sep 6, 2012 1:46 PM in reply to _durin_

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Thanks for posting, Durin.

The behaviour doesn't seem entirely consistent, at least in CS5.5. I tested with three of the internal effects (Amplify, Tube-Modelled Compressor, and Analog Delay) and found that Gain doesn't steal the spacebar focus, but the Tube-Modelled Compressor and Analog Delay definitely do.

I then tested a third-party VST (Waves L3), and found that the spacebar focus in Audition was taken by the plugin. However, the same VST in Samplitude 11.2.1 didn't take spacebar focus away from the host program's transport. This seems to be true for other Waves plugins also - only in Audition do they steal the spacebar. If you're certain that it's a problem with the plugins rather than Audition, please let me know because I can pass the message onto Waves QA.

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11. _durin_,

Sep 6, 2012 1:56 PM in reply to icfm

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Sorry that I wasn't more clear - I missed the subject line that indicated you were using CS5.5. This was a bigger issue in CS5.5 because some of our effects are provided by iZotope and at this time, they were trapping keyboard input. With CS6, they resolved this issue so all native effects would behave correctly. We may have done some work on our end to improve this - I don't recall offhand - but there is the larger issue that plug-in authors need to pass along keyboard input that they don't use. I just checked my Waves plugins on Mac and Windows CS6 and had no problem using the Space bar to start/stop playback when focus was inside the effect UI.

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12. icfm,

Audition CS5.5 & CS6

FX rack plugins steal space bar focus in CS5.5 - still true in CS6?

Sep 5, 2012 7:09 AM

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