I picked up a couple of foot pedals built to control manual transcription software from thrift stores. That was years ago and I hacked them to control music software instead. Then one day I got Nvidia's Parakeet model running locally and was sold on automatic transcription in an instant. So in an ironic twist, I started using one of my spare transcription pedals to do transcription by wiring it up to a harness for Parakeet. It's great and the setup is basically trivial to create these days on Linux with a bit of help from an agent.
Funny I just built a custom midi controller firmware and configuration manager app for the Line 6 Pod GO (which is traditionally not a full midi controller):
As an organ player, I sometimes dream of having a full midi pedal under my desk. Would be an easy way to get some extra exercise. The problem though is that I don't think such a thing is compatible with a comfy office chair. The polished wood of an organ bench isn't comfortable but it allows for mobility.
I used Behringer Xtouch Mini mapped to Lightroom. This allows tactile controls, and also lets you keep your eyes on the photo being edited, instead of the constant back and forth between the controls and the photo.
I used a usb foot pedal with three switches for playing world of warcraft - originally bought it for PTT but realised how useful it was and ended up using it for the speed boost spell and the big damage cooldown.
You can keep your hands on the keyboard. Some people find having to move them away from their usual home place breaks their flow.
Sure there are things like an Elgato StreamDeck that you can do similar things with but they still require you to move a hand from the keyboard.
I suppose it is similar to using voice control things like Alexa. Setting a timer by hand in the kitchen isn’t exactly hard but it is so much more convenient to do it by voice if your hands are covered in raw chicken juice or the like.
I have something like this in linux using a novation launchcontrol, it's quite straightforward using aseqdump, say I use the buttons to switch desktops, I have this launched as part of my session and always in background. While developing this I just printed $line to see what aseqdump sent to figure out the regexes
while IFS=' ' read -r line; do
if [[ "$line" == *"client"*"Launch Control"\* ]]; then
device=$(echo "$line" | cut -d' ' -f2)
fi
done < <(aconnect -i)
aseqdump -p ${device::-1} | while IFS=' ' read -r line; do
if [[ "$line" == *"Note on"* ]]; then
note=$(echo "$line" | grep -o "note [0-9]*" | cut -d' ' -f2)
if [ "$note" == "9" ]; then
wmctrl -s 8
fi
elif [[ "$line" == *"Control change"*"127" ]]; then
note=$(echo "$line" | grep -o "controller [0-9]*" | cut -d' ' -f2)
if [ "$note" == "114" ]; then
# some macro
fi
fi
done
Repo is 2,500loc, all-in, according to SCC. Should be really easy to point your favorite coding agent at the repo and have it one or two shot something similiar in the language of your choice.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Line6podgo/comments/1wgo1tr/pod_go_...
I used Behringer Xtouch Mini mapped to Lightroom. This allows tactile controls, and also lets you keep your eyes on the photo being edited, instead of the constant back and forth between the controls and the photo.
This takes it to the next level!
If you lack special buttons, you could also just buy a bigger keyboard (or a MIDI controller that sits on the table).
Sure there are things like an Elgato StreamDeck that you can do similar things with but they still require you to move a hand from the keyboard.
I suppose it is similar to using voice control things like Alexa. Setting a timer by hand in the kitchen isn’t exactly hard but it is so much more convenient to do it by voice if your hands are covered in raw chicken juice or the like.
22:56:38.740 note_on channel=1 note=36 velocity=89 [nanoPAD2 PAD]