Best Mouse for FCP

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Whistlerrr

New member
I'm about to buy a new mouse and I want to get something other than a simple two button mouse. I use Final Cut Pro a lot and I've seen mice that offer programmable buttons, scroll wheels, etc. Anyone have any opinions on a mouse that has helped them work faster with FCP?
 
Logitech MX Revolution. Timeline zooming via a thumb rocker, two programmable thumb buttons, right, left, and middle clicking, a "free spin" auto-shifting scroll wheel, and one programmable button on the top. A really wonderful mouse. A bit pricey at $100 though.
 
Logitech MX 518 gaming mouse is what I use and I love it. Only $50 also. If you use the application Steermouse in combination with this mouse you can program 5 extra buttons not including left right click and the click on the scroll wheel.

Steermouse is a shareware app so you can't just d-load it and use it forever without contributing something (only $20), but I would say it is worth it.

Also consider a Contour Design Shuttle Pro if your looking to speed things up a little. Really nice for programing the most used buttons in one place. Plus the shuttle/jog wheel is great for digitizing. It's like your controlling the deck right on your desk. (some lag though because it isn't the one directly on the deck but nothing to baulk at.)

Any way that's my 2 cents.
 
Mighty mouse is OK but after a while your finger can start wondering over to the right click side, which can get annoying. Because there is no center thing splitting them up. And of course no programmable buttons.

Plus the ergonomic shape of the above mouses comes in handy after a solid 10 or 12 hours at the desk.
 
The Mighty Mouse scroll ball is much better than a click wheel which "rocks" left and right for horizontal scrolling. Except that it's flaky and stuttery. I WISH someone would come up with a better implementation of the Mighty Mouse style scroll wheel, on a more ergonomically shaped mouse.

I don't like wireless mice, so I use a Logitech LX3 (with a "rocking" scroll wheel for horizontal scrolling) in my right hand and a ShuttlePro under my left! I'd like an extra button or two on the mouse, but haven't yet found a wired mouse with horizontal scrolling that feels as good.
 
ncje said:
Did it take you long to adust to using the track ball? Ive heard they are awesome if you give yourself the time to get used to it.
Click to expand...
i was working orofessionally as an editor of motion picture trailers at the time I made the switch. by the end of the first week (of 10 hour days) i'd reached the point where it was helping me work faster, rather than me learning the nuance of using it. one cool thing I do is map the top left button to "save all" whenever i'm hired to work on someone else's flaky avid system. so every now and then i just tap the button to protect my work against inevitable crashes. bottom left is click, top right is right click, etc...

the older models of the expert mouse were cool because you could replace the ball with a billard ball. lot of old school editor's out there are spinning the eight ball.

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One other tip if you don't want to switch to a track ball and stick to the reg mouse. Crank the speed of the mouse up all the way. I know that sounds nuts but do a couple eight hour days like that and you wont even know the difference. some people probably don't relize it but if you have your mouse set kinda slow you are really moving your wrist a lot in a day and it slows you down. With the mouse speed cranked your only moving your hand no more that an inch to get from one side to the other on a dual mon. setup.

Ullanta, shuttle pro users unite!
 
Zak Forsman said:
i was working orofessionally as an editor of motion picture trailers at the time I made the switch. by the end of the first week (of 10 hour days) i'd reached the point where it was helping me work faster, rather than me learning the nuance of using it. one cool thing I do is map the top left button to "save all" whenever i'm hired to work on someone else's flaky avid system. so every now and then i just tap the button to protect my work against inevitable crashes. bottom left is click, top right is right click, etc...

the older models of the expert mouse were cool because you could replace the ball with a billard ball. lot of old school editor's out there are spinning the eight ball.
Click to expand...

That sounds agreeable. I have enough Yodabashi points to pick one up without spending a dime.

Zac as someone who has a Pro editing perspective one more question if you dont mind. I consider myself extremely fluent on FCP these days having made the switch a year ago. Ive read the manuals countless times in bed - gone through them again whilst actually following processes - scoured every tip/hint/online tutorial in that changover. Upgraded to a MAC Pro to get as much speed as I can.

Do you use any other hardware interface devices? And if so - what do you consider the most time saving of those?

Cheers
Noel
 
there really isn't much the hardware can do. the exception of course is one of those old avids that required you render just about every thing.

but really, most important to me is a great chair. a good chair keeps me in the bay. a bad chair gives me reason to go stretch my legs.

the second most important is a great AE who really knows their stuff.

and about that trackball -- it's perfect for me because i am like a bear in the edit bay, so the bigger the buttons, the better chance i have of hitting the right one.
 
ncje said:
Do you use any other hardware interface devices? And if so - what do you consider the most time saving of those?
Click to expand...

Hey Noel - don't ignore the ShuttlePro suggestion. Once you get your setup right you almost never touch the keyboard... you're hands stay in place, which is a tremendous time saver. Tools are all at your fingertips all the time. The shuttle/jog action also feels a lot better and more precise than keyboarding the same actions.
 
You could also get a newer FCP keyboard that has shuttle control built in. I've seen a few of those kicking around. I believe its the Bella Pro series kb that has it.

Though the advantage to the shuttle pro is the programable buttons. Not to say you can't just use keyboard short cuts, but a few extra buttons with some of your most used commands, might be handy to have around. It depends what you're comfortable with.

cheers.
 
I like the ShuttlePro and that is one of the front-runners but someone told me that it is NOT a mouse. Meaning, I couldn't use it outside of FCP because there is no laser or ball inside to move the cursor. Is this true?
 
it's definatly not a mouse. just something you use with a mouse. Like a second mini keyboard. with a wheel on it.

Although you can program it to work with pretty much any app. firefox, AE, Photoshop, etc. so it really pays for itself.
 
To add a bit: The ShuttlePro software recognizes which application is in the foreground, and acts appropriately for that application. You can customize it's operation for any application, and it comes with a lot of useful presets. So, very useful outside of FCP - it knows what you're doing, and adapts to it!

One of the most useful features of the ShuttlePro is that you can assign buttons to change presets - that is, if you have a general editing preset, and one that, say, is customized for syncing audio (something I spend a lot of time doing!), you can set up a button on thge shuttlepro to switch between 'em, giving you sort of an infinite number of buttons...
 
ullanta said:
To add a bit: The ShuttlePro software recognizes which application is in the foreground, and acts appropriately for that application. You can customize it's operation for any application, and it comes with a lot of useful presets. So, very useful outside of FCP - it knows what you're doing, and adapts to it!

One of the most useful features of the ShuttlePro is that you can assign buttons to change presets - that is, if you have a general editing preset, and one that, say, is customized for syncing audio (something I spend a lot of time doing!), you can set up a button on thge shuttlepro to switch between 'em, giving you sort of an infinite number of buttons...
Click to expand...
I ahve one question though in regards to programming the Shuttle Pro to FCP.

I ahve teh original Shuttle Pro that I have used for many years with Sony Vegas on the PC side. I recently purchased a new 2.66 QUad Mac Po system and FCS2, and am in the process of switcing OS's and editing apps.

But I notice that when I turn the Shuttle Pro dial to the left or right, that it only moves at a slow speed, and will not scrub the timeline at a high speed like I want it to.
How can I program the Shuttle Pro to scrub my timeline quickly uning the SP's jog dial?
 
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