How to work with keyboard triggers in SoundFlow
In this article let's walk through the process of adding and editing keyboard Triggers for your SoundFlow Commands.
In SoundFlow we refer to "Keyboard Shortcuts" as "Keyboard Triggers"
A Trigger in SoundFlow determines when a command should run.
You can see the trigger for SoundFlow Commands in the top right panel of the editor page;
There are many different types of Triggers which you can use to run SoundFlow commands;
In this articel we'll focus on adding a Keyboard Trigger.
How to Add a Keyboard Trigger
First, select a macro, script, deck or surface that you'd like to add a Keyboard Trigger to.
If you look through the folder structure in the "Package" column in the left side of the SoundFlow "Editor", you can see all the packages that reside in your account. The ones with the blue icons indicate that they are commands that are built into SoundFlow.
By clicking on a folder, the "Command Name" list will be populated with a list of commands that reside in that folder.
For this example let's add a trigger to toggle the "Preview" button in the Automation window of protools.
The "Toggle Preview" command can be found under "SoundFlow" → "Pro Tools" → "Automation Window" → "Automation Window Buttons" → "Factory Presets" → "Write Enable" → "Toggle: Preview".
Once the "Toggle: Preview" command preset is selected, you can test the command by pressing the "Run preset" button.
System-wide Trigger
To add a keyboard Trigger, Click the "New Trigger" button and select "Keyboard Trigger"
In the Trigger editor, you can customize how and when the Triger will run your command.
To assign a trigger to use on all applications, set the "Keys" property by clicking on the "Record" button and then press the keyboard shortcut you'd like to use. In this example lets use the "Control + P" keyboard shortcut.
You can now test the shortcut by pressing "Control + P". This will toggle the preview button in the Automation Window of Pro Tools.
Limit a Trigger to an app
Let's say you want to limit the Trigger to only work when a particular app is in focus. In this example lets edit the trigger so that it only works when Pro Tools is the focused app.
This can be handy in situations where you want to reuse the same keyboard shortcut to trigger a different command in another app.
To set this up, reselect the trigger you created to open the Trigger Editor. You will see there is a property named "When these apps are focused" that by default is assigned to "All apps".
Click on "All apps" and then select "Pro Tools".
Now when you press the "Control + P" keyboard shortcut in any other app than Pro Tools the "Toggle Preview" command will not be run.
But when you switch to Pro Tools and press "Control + P" the "Toggle Preview" command will run and the Pro Tools Preview button will toggle as expected.
Note: You can remove a commands Trigger at any time by clicking the "x" button in the top right corner.
Default Triggers
In SoundFlow we have somthing we call "SoundFlow Default Triggers"
SoundFlow Default triggers are a set of trigers that we have already designed and mapped out for you.
Some of these triggers are system-wide shortcuts that perform tasks like moving windows arround your screens. An example of a system wide trigger would be "Control + F1" to open SoundFlow or "Control + Esc" to bypass SoundFlow. Some of them add new shortcuts to Pro Tools that didn't exist before, and some of them overide shortcuts that already existed in Pro Tools.
Why have SoundFlow Default Triggers
The reason why we have these default triggers is to give SoundFlow users a starting point.
SoundFlow has more than 500+ built-in commands, so it could take you a long time to map out all your SoundFlow Triggers from Scratch.
If you choose to use the "SoundFlow Default Triggers" option you get a head start, and you can always bypass them one by one.
Keyboard Map
The Keyboard Map can be accessed from the "Keyboard Map" tab at the top of the SoundFlow Editor.
The Keyboard map gives you an overview of all the keyboard triggers that are currently mapped to SoundFlow commands in your profile.
Disable/Enable SoundFlow Default Triggers
As an example you can see when the Defult Triggers are enabled, SoundFlow uses keys 1 to 0 on the keyboard to open inserts 1-10 on the selected track in pro tools.
If you want to see what a keyboard shortcut is mapped to, just click on the key and you'll be taken to the Command in the SoundFlow Editor.
You can then see that the command has a Default Trigger assigned to it.
Note: You can Identify Default SoundFlow triggers by their blue corner.
So lets say in this case you don't want to overide the Pro Tools shortcut. You can easily unassign the Keyboard trigger by clicking the triggers toggle switch.
SoundFlow Default Triggers Options
Disableing each of the Default Keyboard Triggers one by one could be quite time consuming, so we have a solution for this to give you full control on whether you want to use the SoundFlow Default Triggers at all.
You can customize SoundFlow Default Triggers from the "Profile" menu.
- No Default Triggers
Use this option to start with a clean slate and assign all your keyboard shortcuts yourself/
- Use SoundFlow Default Triggers (Minimal, Modern, or Legacy)
This option has all the SoundFlow Default Triggers activated, allowing you to manually disable any individual keyboard shortcuts you'd prefer not to use.
- Use SoundFlow Default Triggers (Disabled)
This option makes available all the Default triggers but they are disabled by default allowing you to toggle any you'd like to enable for your workflow.
Note: If you're not entirely sure which option to choose. We recommend you use the last option Use SoundFlow Default Triggers (Disabled). This way SoundFlow will not overide any shortcuts you are using in Pro Tools, but you still have access to enable the default triggers one by one.
And remember, no matter what you choose all triggers can be edited, so you always have full control.