Hands-free song selection

[Quad]

Been playing around with this idea while using the Aeros buttons as a mockup.

It feels really nice to use “hold” to change the actions on the footswitches.

More important, it feels nicer to have the jump to the mixer screen be on the tap (versus the current use of hold to jump to the mixer). I can’t explain it, but the rhythm of a (hold then) tap feels different than a hold. Perhaps it stems from years of computer use, with right clicking to bring up a menu of choices and a click to actually perform the action.

For some reason, I’ve always felt a little odd about blindly pressing hold to jump to the mixer. It’s like I’m not sure I’m doing the right command until I see the mixer screen. With the change of button labels and then the quick tap, you get that reassurance/reminder/reinforcement. It might feel faster.

Looking for major downsides/conflicts of this approach…

@Quad

Whether or not the Aeros is stopped or playing, holding down the lower left button will cause the bottom button labels to change to the options below:

• Mixer, Save Song, New Song > (“Cancel” label pointing at Play/Stop button)
• Pressing new Song changes the labels to: Song List, 2x2 Song, 6x6 Song
• Scrolling down on the scroll wheel rotates the labels to “< Save Song, New Song, Delete Song”. Scrolling up on the scroll wheel goes back to “Mixer, Save Song, New Song”. Your foot after scrolling down is right above the new option should you so desire to click it.

Whether you are playing or stopped, the Aeros has a consistent way to bring up the navigation (or command mode or whatever you call it) and the the mixer. It’s also easy to see how this pattern will work on other screens or support more choices. Not bad to have a dangerous command like “delete” out of sight that requires “arming” via the scroll wheel before it can be pressed.

Left Hold is your navigation. The mixer is now Left Hold + Tap (and no longer just hold). It sounds harder, but actually it’s a pretty easy gesture (and just as easy as a hold IMHO). Nice thing is that if you accidentally want to go back, just tap one more time. (no change from the way it is now, but it might feel nicer as you just did a tap to get there).