Key presses in Plugin buggy?

#1

Hello,
I’m trying to allow the user to control some of the values in my plugin using key presses.
I’m debugging using Reaper.

Apparently Reaper prioritises some keystrokes/commands over others.
f.e. “arrow up” is recognised by the plugin, although it’s reaper’s shortcut for zoom in.
“alt + arrow up” and “alt + cmd + arrow up” are intercepted by reaper, those are the shortcuts for “Scroll view up” and “Go to previous track”

Studio one f.e. intercepts the “up arrow” immediately as long as it can use it and then sends it to the plugin.

I’ve also tested the AudioProcessorValueTreeDemo plugin: In the AudioPluginHost it’s possible to type spaces in the value editors. In Reaper it just plays.

Is there any way to make sense of this?
Thanks

#2

Plugins are supposed to pass any keystrokes they don’t use to the host. Lots of plugins are buggy and don’t do this, breaking shortcut keys in the host. Reaper says F-You to the plugin and takes the keystrokes anyway. This breaks typing in the plugin. There is an option to turn it off.

I think the option is called ‘Send all keyboard to plugin’

#3

I’m having the same issues as Rollo but Studio One behaves differently for me then what Rollo described. For me, Studio One intercepts any keystroke for which it has a registered shortcut. That includes all arrow keys, shift key, cmd/ctrl key, etc. which makes it very difficult because my plugin has various text boxes and tables that you should be able to move around in via arrow controls… This only happens in my plugin though… other plugins do accept arrow key controls in their text boxes so I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong… In most DAWs it works fine but Studio One has always been a source of frustration for this… Rollo, did you have to set anything in Studio One or in your plugin settings to enable keystrokes to reach the plugin in Studio One? Is there anything that I can do to force keystrokes to go to the plugin? Although G-Mon’s explanation makes sense… I don’t understand why a DAW would take control of keystrokes like that, when it should be left to whatever window is on top to delegate key strokes. Anybody have any advice on this? Thanks in advance!!

#4

Thanks @G-mon!
That did the trick for Reaper. This doesn’t explain though why FabFilter manages to use spacebars even with the “Send all keyboard to plugin” flag disabled.

@Adar I’m experiencing exactly the same as you described in Studio One.
I think it is somehow solvable, but I have a feeling it’s a general Juce problem.
Since f.e. the demoplugins have the same issues with textboxes, whereas FabFilter does just fine. I’ll keep your posted if I find a solution…

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#5

Bump! Can anyone from the JUCE team way in on this? Odd that plugins not built in JUCE work perfectly in Studio One but that even the JUCE demo plugins don’t work properly… Something has to be done! Studio One is a popular DAW for both Windows and Mac users so it seems like something worth looking into. Thanks in advance!

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