Keyboard Maestro Randomly Ignoring Key Strokes in Macros for Pro Tools

Questions & Suggestions
1

I am just getting into Keyboard Maestro and would greatly appreciate any help to further my understanding on how to solve this issue.

I am trying to create a macro that will switch between recording passes/groups and flip the sends of A-E and F-J of the recording tracks I am leaving and those I am addressing.

The issue is Keyboard Maestro ignores the switch send commands "Shift +4" and "Shift + 5", which are integrated into Pro Tools as the hot key to toggle the sends. the vast majority of the time.

It works the first time after writing the macro and then fails about 90% of the time. The macro continues to execute the remainder of the script, but fails on toggling the sends. It feels as if it is missing the "Shift" modifier key.

I have tried various delays and "sticky keys" etc is not on in System Settings.

Attached is a screenshot of the macro.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Screenshot 2023-03-29 at 10.56.04 AM
Screenshot 2023-03-29 at 10.56.04 AM1920×804 172 KB

2

This is purely speculation since I am not familiar enough with Pro Tools: Many DAW's can change the focus to various parts of the software/interface and hence interpret key commands differently, depending on which part the focus lies (Logic and Cubase come to mind where the focus can be on the main arrangement part or on any "drawers" like editors or the mixer).

3

I do understand what you mean. I do not believe that to be the case here. From what I can tell, it is though Pro Tools, or the OS, does not see the shift key sometimes when it is pressed to do the "shift + 4 or 5" to toggle the sends. It is as though the shift modifier is asleep at first or has a lag in activating. I have checked "slow keys" etc in system prefs and it is all off.

Because the shift key seems to miss sometimes, multiple layers of the macro fail, as they are triggering proprietary built in hot keys/shortcuts for Pro Tools to toggle sends.

What is even wilder, is I will write the macro with no delays and it will work the first few times then fail.

4

Perhaps you could try to use "Select menu" instead of the "Keystroke" action; at least to check if that changes anything?

5

Hey Chandler,

Keyboard Maestro only emulates keypresses on the system and is not an actual replacement for a hardware keyboard.

Sometimes apps do weird things and this comes into play.

It's very difficult to troubleshoot without using the app in question, and I don't have Pro Tools...

However – see if AppleScript keypresses perform differently than Keyboard Maestro's.

tell application "System Events"
   tell application process "Pro Tools"
      keystroke "4" using command down
   end tell
end tell

Run from a Execute an AppleScript action.

  • You can do more than one character in the same keypress.
  • You can use more than one keypress in sequence.
  • Use delay <seconds or fractions of a second> as needed.
  • Employ more than one Command-Key by using a list:
tell application "System Events"
   tell application process "Pro Tools"
      keystroke "4" using {command down, shift down}
   end tell
end tell

-Chris