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A year with the Elgato Stream Deck

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Re: A year with the Elgato Stream Deck

#101

Post by adanto6840 »

bonestamp2 wrote: post #47
adanto6840 wrote: post #17

Shameless self-promotion, but I used a Stream Deck to make "Princess Buttons" for my kids: https://dantonio.info/projects/the-buttons/ Allows me to not be the DJ/arbiter of music for my toddlers, yet still provides them with control over the music (Sonos) and helps them learn to negotiate & take turns between themselves. The Stream Deck has, thus far, held up to quite a lot of abuse. I've added some lighting control…

I love this, thank you for sharing. Also, I'm curious... what does the "Great Wolf Lodge" button do?

It originally turned the misters on plus queued their "Great Wolf Lodge" playlist. It now just does the latter, as the misters weren't as well-received as I thought that they'd be. =D

Re: A year with the Elgato Stream Deck

#102

Post by eproxus »

cletus wrote: post #32

As an alternative to a stream deck, I started using a MIDI board last year. I tried a copule and settled on the Behringer X-Touch Mini [1]. It's less than $100. What I primarily use it for is volume control (including muting). Like I have a particular knobs for Chrome, Master Volume and games. This is all pretty easy to set up with something like MIDI Mixer [2]. There are Youtube videos on it. I also use the media co…

They're a bit pricey but the gear from Intec would be perfect for this: https://intech.studio

Re: A year with the Elgato Stream Deck

#103

Post by kllrnohj »

cletus wrote: post #32

As an alternative to a stream deck, I started using a MIDI board last year. I tried a copule and settled on the Behringer X-Touch Mini [1]. It's less than $100. What I primarily use it for is volume control (including muting). Like I have a particular knobs for Chrome, Master Volume and games. This is all pretty easy to set up with something like MIDI Mixer [2]. There are Youtube videos on it. I also use the media co…

> In an ideal world, the hardware volume could be synced to the system master volume

This already works if you're using something that can be controlled via the windows volume. Eg, a USB dac+amp usually works like this. That is, the "hardware volume" and "windows master volume" become one synchronized slider.

Very often there's a break in the digital chain that prevents this from working more broadly, though (for example if you're outputing analog to your speakers, or using separate dac & amp)

Re: A year with the Elgato Stream Deck

#104

Post by Twirrim »

memoriasit wrote: post #63
Twirrim wrote: post #61

I never thought I'd have a use for extra buttons all that much. There's always keyboard combinations to spare. Yet about 18 months ago, I remembered I'd got these 5 custom buttons on my keyboard that in something like a decade and a half of using this keyboard model, I'd never once used. A little bit of searching later, I figured out how to write a bash script that would (for Linux) find the zoom window for whatever…

Could you share that script?

Hopefully I get this right with the formatting.

    #!/bin/sh
    ZOOM=$(xdotool search --limit 1 --name "Zoom Meeting")
    ZOOM_WEBINAR=$(xdotool search --limit 1 --name "Zoom Webinar")
    
    if [ -z "${ZOOM}" ]; then
        xdotool windowactivate --sync "${ZOOM_WEBINAR}"
    elif [ -z "${ZOOM_WEBINAR}" ]; then
        xdotool windowactivate --sync "${ZOOM}"
    fi
    
    sleep 0.1
    xdotool key --clearmodifiers "alt+a"

Re: A year with the Elgato Stream Deck

#105

Post by Twirrim »

hammock wrote: post #97
memoriasit wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you share that script?

Would it work for Mac?

It relies on xdotool, which I don't think works on Mac?

If I was still on mac, I'd probably try and use hammerspoon somehow. I used that for a few bits of automation, and I know it had ways to choose applications.

Re: A year with the Elgato Stream Deck

#106

Post by guiambros »

I love my Stream Deck for all the reasons described by others in this thread, but unfortunately support for Linux is nonexistent.

You need to rely on the open source reverse-engineered version of Elgato StreamDeck in Python [1], with the StreamDeck UI on top [2][3]. It works, but it doesn't offer all the functionality, and it's even more rough on the edges.

Plus, if you have a StreamDeck connected to a KVM and it is switching between two computers (a Mac and Linux, in my case), then you'll have completely different experiences, with different icons, plugins that are not available on Linux (e.g., Spotify, Clock).

I still use it and find it worth the investment, but hoping that Elgato dedicates some love to Linux users in the future.

[1] https://python-elgato-streamdeck.readthedocs.io/en/stable/#

[2] https://timothycrosley.github.io/streamdeck-ui/

[3] https://github.com/timothycrosley/streamdeck-ui

Re: A year with the Elgato Stream Deck

#107

Post by spicybright »

helloguillecl wrote: post #70

I wonder if the Touch Bar was actually a poorly executed good idea. I've always used a full external keyboard (with numeric pad) but I'd love to have the F16-F19" keys graphically mapping to something depending on the context. For example, in VS code, I currently have F13 for start debugging and resume. F14 for stepping over, and F15 for stepping into. I would wish to have a physical F key with a configurable charact…

It absolutely was.

I use a program called BetterTouchTool on mine, and it turned it from an annoyance into the best streaming deck you can imagine.

Mine consists of shortcuts to webpages, a scroll able section for all my note files, media controls, one touch setting toogles, etc.

Killer feature is using 2 fingers and sliding changes the volume. 3 for screen brightness, 4 for keyboard backlight.

It's genuinely sad how little apple cared about the software for it. It could have been exactly what everyone else in this thread are saying and better.

Re: A year with the Elgato Stream Deck

#108

Post by nickjj »

danadannecy wrote: post #99
nickjj wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One advantage is that you can map a button to a folder, allowing you to drill down into a whole different set of items. You can do this with custom key mappings on all major operating systems. Basically you can open a program, open a folder, run a script or do anything you can run from the command line (including running multi-step operations). On Windows there's AutoHotkey. It sounds like it might be complicated b…

I think you may have misunderstood, by open a folder, they meant open a folder of buttons on the stream deck, allowing you to press a button to completely change which buttons are displayed on the screen.

Is the goal to be able to have multiple sets of key mappings depending on which "folder" is open, sort of how you might describe "profiles"?

If so you can do that with numpad re-mappings too. You could have 17 specific key mappings depending on which app is in focus or you can arbitrarily activate a different specific set of mappings.

It's not going to be as intuitive since there's no visual icon to display but the functionality is there. AutoHotKey could also make it easy to show which "folder" is active by showing a little tooltip when you switch folders.

It sounds like the real appeal to it is the visual icons but the trade off is needing more desk space and reaching for buttons that are not on your main keyboard (+$125 to buy it).

Re: A year with the Elgato Stream Deck

#109

Post by filoleg »

busterarm wrote: post #81
filoleg wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any resources that you could recommend on this? Was thinking of trying to put mine up to a similar use.

A lot of apps that I use support midi input. The Launchpad has a webapp that lets you configure the outputs of each pad to send different types of MIDI outputs. The only hitch is that the Launchpad doesn't send NoteOff messages, it sends NoteOn twice with the second time being volume 0. For apps that don't support MIDI input, there's a tool called Midikey2key which lets you map MIDI messages to keyboard inputs/shortc…

Ah, so it gotta be done on the OS level, and the approach would differ per individual midi device (to set which exact midi signals are sent per button) and OS (for automating actions based on those signals received)?

Got it, thanks for answering this.

Re: A year with the Elgato Stream Deck

#110

Post by swyx »

hh3k0 wrote: post #35
swyx wrote: post #33

question for fellow streamdeck users - is there any voice change software for mac? like if i want to add echo or autotune while i speak by pressing a streamdeck button. the main one all over google search results only works on windows

You could probably route your voice through an audio processing software via Sunflower, Blackhole or Loopback. Loopback is paid software but it'd seem they have this precise scenario described on their website: https://rogueamoeba.com/support/knowledgebase/?showArticle=M...

thanks, yeah it looks like it uses Audio Hijack, which can "improve voice quality" but doesnt quite do the fun voice effects i wanted. thanks though! i wound up finding Voxal which maaybe does it but doesnt do the echo. and i cant see it plugging into streamdeck.
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