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My nifty Wacom Tablet nestled between my Microkorg, laser mouse, and super-thin apple keyboard.

This might be old news to some of you, but I finally got around to hooking up a Wacom USB Pen Tablet to my computer for use in editing audio, and if you get through the adjustment period, this thing will save you a world of time. I initially only imagined using the tablet to finally be able to “draw” over waveform blips with Pro Tools’s “Pencil Tool.”  But as I got a sense of all the custom controls available I realized I could use the tablet to make some really fast workflows.

The Verdict:

The Wacom Pen Tablet works great IF the situation calls for it.  Automation-heavy sessions and fine-tuned dragging of regions and Midi notes seem tiresome on a mouse but completely natural with a pen.  The 6 customizable action buttons (2 on the pen and 4 on the tablet) give you a ton of flexibility and offer some unique setups.

However, the Wacom tablet was utterly infuriating in certain situations.  When trying to tab through tracks quickly, spot-listening to find the desired edit location, two-thirds of my clicks resulted in hair-thin “selections” that caused Pro Tools loop when I wanted it to play through.  I believe this happened because I my pen taps weren’t as precise as I’d like.  I also couldn’t find a setting to compensate for my lack of precise handling, although after a few hours of use I was starting to get the hang of it (though this problem never really went away).

Also, I found that there are just some things I’m faster at doing with key commands.  This might be the product of years of rote-memorization and practice, but there is a reason that Pro Tools’s “Command Focus” set of commands is so widely used.

Pen Tablet Setup:

First off, the tablet is the Bamboo model by Wacom.  These guys make a lot of pen tablets, and this one is definitely the cheapest – why?  Well it doesn’t come with any software aside from drivers, has a relatively smaller tablet space offers less tactile “resolution” and “depth.”  Think of it as being able to draw Midi notes and assigning only volume data as 10, 20, 30, etc. instead of all the values from 0-127.  Still, it’s more than enough for me as most of the fancier models are really aimed at visual artists who do fine-tuned digital artwork.

On a Mac, after you’ve installed drivers, you get a new mutli-tabbed pane on your System Preferences like this:

System Preferences tab for the Pen.

System Preferences tab for Tablet Settings.

That’s where you go to reassign all the buttons to either one of their generic options or custom keystrokes.

I set my Left and Right Arrow buttons to nudge buttons (+ and – on the numeric keypad) so I could do fancy nudging.  Thakfully they tablet’s buttons sync up to the normal keyboard’s modifiers so I can still use shift, ctrl, cmd and opt keys with the nudge keys.

The center circular touch wheel I assigned to do scrolling, which is handy for moving around big sessions, especially when you’re zoomed in.  (Hint: Hold down shift and scroll to go left and right with the wheel)

The two extra function buttons on the tablet I assigned to keystrokes I use relatively often.  The first being selecting 30 seconds from where I’m currently selected.  That usually involves using “/” on the keypad to select the edit selection length at the top of the arrange window.  Then “.” to get into the seconds portion.  Then “30″ for 30 seconds, and lastly “Enter” to finalize the time selection.  Using the tablet, I entered all those commands once, have them saved to the button, and instantly recalled whenever I press it.  That saves me only a few seconds, but TONS of thinking time.

My Custon Keystroke on my Wacom Tablet for Selecting 30 seconds in Pro Tools.

The other function button I assigned to consolidating regions, because that’s another function I find myself using often while editing, plus it’s an awkward key command.

Lastly, there are two awesome buttons on the pen itself, which when assigned creatively, let you pretty much do away with your mouse all together.  I set the lower button to be the modifier “ctrl” and the upper button to “option.”  Now I can hold down the lower button and tap with the pen for a right click, and do the same with the upper button for an opt-click (which in most audio software works like a “global” modifier – turning all solos on or all mutes off, etc.

Best of all, fancier tablets have more buttons and scroll thngs, etc.  So once you settle on a model that fits your budget and space, you can really tighten up your workflow and get away from mousing all over the screen.