Why are some knobs so sensitive?

[Scoox]

For example, MIDI Effects > Arpeggiator, the Gate knob is very easy to control, requiring a fair amount of mouse travel to go turn the knob through its full range, but next to it is the Steps knob which takes 1 µm of mouse travel to turn through its full range On the same plugin, different knobs have different sensitivity, and this makes interacting with this plugin very hit-and-miss, since each knob seems to have its own personality. Has anyone else noticed this?

[chrk]

Has anyone else noticed this?

Not too much, may be a matter of mouse speed and/or acceleration.

But your examples pick two knobs that are designed differently, at least while the rate knob is in sync mode.

The gate knob is a percentage, so click and drag is one fluent motion over the whole range. The synced rate button behaves like a stepped or dented pyhsical pot: it 'jumps' from one value to the next. So if your mouse is set up to move very fast and/or for high acceleration, it may quickly jump over a number of steps.

Two possible remedies without changing your mouse setting: holding the <shift> key while dragging slows the movement of the (any) control,
or klick the knob to activate and use the <up> and <down> arrows on the computer keyboard to change the value step by step.

34.3 Adjusting Values

[Scoox]

Has anyone else noticed this?

Not too much, may be a matter of mouse speed and/or acceleration.

But your examples pick two knobs that are designed differently, at least while the rate knob is in sync mode.

The gate knob is a percentage, so click and drag is one fluent motion over the whole range. The synced rate button behaves like a stepped or dented pyhsical pot: it 'jumps' from one value to the next. So if your mouse is set up to move very fast and/or for high acceleration, it may quickly jump over a number of steps.

Two possible remedies without changing your mouse setting: holding the <shift> key while dragging slows the movement of the (any) control,
or klick the knob to activate and use the <up> and <down> arrows on the computer keyboard to change the value step by step.

34.3 Adjusting Values

I disagree that the knobs are designed differently. (Edit: They are designed differently, but I can't see the logic). All knobs in Ableton look identical to me, and so all knobs should take the same amount of mouse travel to go from Min to Max, regardless of what they represent. It doesn't matter if the parameter takes a continuous range of values or a discrete set of values. I'm sure you'd agree the Gate knob is easier to adjust in a controlled manner than the Steps knob. The way this works now means users cannot develop intuitive muscle memory since each knob reacts differently to the same amount of mouse travel. Imagine a computer keyboard where each key requires different actuation force—it would suck.

BTW I didn't realise you could use the keyboard (new to Live here) to adjust knobs, that's pretty neat. With the keyboard, it does make sense that each key press should advance through one step, since key presses can be counted, unlike mouse travel.

[Stormchild]

I thought this was gonna be a post about people who can’t take criticism.

[Scoox]

I thought this was gonna be a post about people who can’t take criticism.

LOL I swear it was unintentional

[Tarekith]