Wacom Tablet Questions

jbone1313 · Post by **jbone1313** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 3:22 pm

I'm posting this again in the General Forum:

Ok, so I got a tablet. This is the coolest thing ever--being able to control knobs with a pen. Awesome.

Now, for the Ableton Wacom support (or lack thereof): I've tried using pen2live. It works great, but I'm wondering what the best way to use this is.

1. Is there a way to make Pen2Live start automatically when the computer boots up, or when I start Ableton?
2. Is there a way to easily toggle my pen (using the Wacom drivers that come installed on Tablet PCs or something else) so that touching it to the screen is a middle click instead of a left click? To elaborate: suppose I'm working on Zebra 2. Turning knobs, blah, blah.... Now I want to go and draw some automation in Ableton. Wouldn't be cool to just hit one button to change my pen to transmit a middle click instead of a left click?

I'm well aware that I can change the pen button to be middle click, but it sucks having to hold that button down when working with Live. Part of the reason I'm using a tablet is to alleviate some RSI, and holding that button down a lot doesn't exactly help.

Finally, any other useful tips for using Live with a tablet would be most appreciated.

Thanks!

jbone1313 · Post by **jbone1313** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 8:30 pm

bathyscaaf · Post by **bathyscaaf** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 9:49 pm

It would help to know what OS you are using.

To get Pen2Live to start up upon boot on XP, place it in the start folder. I don't have XP in front of me so I don't know the exact path -- it is in your user directory under documents and settings somewhere.

To get it to start at boot under OS X go into settings, choose accounts, then "login items" on the accounts settings.

I'm not sure how to get it to open when opening Live... there are likely some very easy ways to do this -- a batch file (.bat) on windows, using Automator on OS X.

jbone1313 · Post by **jbone1313** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 9:59 pm

Thanks, I'm on XP. I know the folder you're talking about.

smutek · Post by **smutek** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 12:41 am

There are quite a few of us who have been wanting to use our tablets with Ableton for some time now. Years really.

As far as I can tell nobody wants anything fancy, just the ability to adjust parameters or draw automation envelopes without the cursor going ballistic, kind of like you can with pretty much every other program ever written..

Ableton has pretty much told us to lick their balls.

They did say they are working on something, no idea when it will be available though. Most likely will be in the next upgrade so we have to pay a couple of hundred bucks for this simple functionality.

You PC people are fortunate to have that pen2live thing, us mac folks are stuck sucking balls.

TITBAG · Post by **TITBAG** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 1:37 am

where the fucking shag do you get pen2live from?

smutek · Post by **smutek** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 1:47 am

http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic. ... ight=wacom

jbone1313 · Post by **jbone1313** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 2:00 am

Titbag: Make sure you grap the latest one. I'm pretty sure its Pen2Live1.3.

So, I've got it starting up now when XP starts. I dropped Pen2Live in my Program Files, and then made a shortcut to the .exe. I put the shortcut in the startup folder. If you put the .dll in there too, it tries to launch the .dll too.

Now for the good part: the best workaround so far (this seems simple I know). Map the erasur of your pen to middle click. Then you're good to go! No button holding! Just turn the pen around when you need to control Live!

jbone1313 · Post by **jbone1313** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 8:21 pm

Update to the workaround: This works on normal Wacom drivers, but the drivers on the Tablet PCs don't seem to support re-mapping your eraser to middle click.

Does anybody know of a way to do that?

I emailed Wacom, but I haven't heard back from them.

I would try installing the normal Wacom drivers on the Tablet, but I don't want to mess up anything.

Please o please o please o pretty please Ableton!!! Please give us Wacom support! Have you ever tried using audio programs with a touch screen??? Its heaven!

bathyscaaf · Post by **bathyscaaf** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 8:06 am

Hi again.
Go ahead and install the Wacom "penabled" drivers. I installed them on my Toshiba TabletPC, no problem. You can set a System Restore point right before you install the new drivers if you are worried. You will be able to re-map your eraser.

I'd also recommend purchasing a Cintiq 18x pen (Not sure if that name is right, but it is the old 18in Cintiq pen) as it works with the penabled drivers. So much better than most stylus that come with the machine.

bathyscaaf · Post by **bathyscaaf** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 8:15 am

Actually, not sure about the eraser bit. Think so, though. You should download the penabled drivers regardless -- mosty likely far superior/recent to the drivers that came with your TabletPC.

jbone1313 · Post by **jbone1313** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 6:00 pm

Thanks bathyscaaf. I already tried all that. I even called and spoke with Wacom. No luck.

bathyscaaf · Post by **bathyscaaf** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 6:28 pm

Got it. Something I remembered: Autohotkey.

http://www.autohotkey.com

Here's a post by a guy that assigned a right-click to his eraser using this:
http://depherios.livejournal.com/76538.html

No instructions, though. There's a fairly rabid community, however, so someone should be able to help you right the macro.

jbone1313 · Post by **jbone1313** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 6:52 pm

That's neat; too bad I've returned the Tablet PC.

Howevs, I'm still not sure about the feasibility or possibility of that with the Tablet PC, because you can't change the function of the eraser at all. It seems like they've "burned-in" some sort of key combo. Maybe I could find what that key combo is, and then re-map that with auto-hotkey.

That seems like an old LJ post. Maybe back then, Wacom didn't allow you to re-map the eraser on their Tablet drivers. Now they do. Just not the Tablet PC drivers.

Wacom Tablet Questions

Wacom Tablet Questions

Wacom "penabled" drivers

Your solution, sir.