I’ve used a Logitech MX mouse for several years and it’s great. I was just reading the November issue of Recording Magazine, which has an ending article about the ergonomics of where you make music with computers. Things like chairs and computer mice make a difference.
An audio engineer named Chandler Bridges highly recommended a trackball, the Kensington Expert Trackball. He said it’s the standard in studios so if you spend time there, you’ll want to be familiar with it.
I tried one. He’s right.
I’m still learning what it can do, but two things stand out. 1) my wrist isn’t as tired because the action feels more natural. 2) there is a ring surrounding the ball that is incredibly helpful for rapid scrolling of pages. I don’t just mean Internet browsing, though it works there; the real beauty is for music notation. Using a typical mouse to scroll through a full orchestra or big band score of 30 pages is tedious. The Kensington ring gets me anywhere in a flash.
And I had tried trackballs before, when my wrist ached during a job writing four songs for symphony orchestra. I even sent one to Don Gaynor hoping it would help him. But this one is different. It just works and it feels right.
ps he also recommends the chair brand Herman Miller Aeron, for long mixing sessions.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
Excellent tips, I haven't used one, but I can see how there might be benefits, especially with advice of your own findings.
Might have to look out for one.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
Interesting! I think this would be good for my music production but I also do a lot of gaming which I don't think would work well. Here is a good video from someone who uses it for music production but not for gaming. I might get one to use strictly for music if it is easy to switch between regular mouse and trackball.
When I was suffering from pretty bad wrist strain/pain from using a mouse, I tried a number of different systems to give my poor wrist a break, including several trackballs and a couple of vertical mice and a wrist splint. What I found was that the change to a different device was a great help, but after a while the problem returned, but switching again gave further respite. For several years I just cycled through the various mouse-like devices each time one became painful. Things have now settled, though I don't use mouse-like devices quite to intensively.
Thanks for posting you experience so far with it, and your enthusiasm for it.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2025 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .
One solution hasn't yet been mentioned yet . . . use your other hand to give the problematic hand a break and sufficient time to recover from the damage.
A quick story. When I was working my way thru college all I could afford was a rust-bucket of a vehicle that had no heat. Lack of heat per-se wasn't a problem as I was young, healthy, and had a warm coat and gloves. The prblem was no de-froster. So I had to pull over every few miles to scrape the ice build up on the windshield, which would significantly add to my travel times. But then it occurred to me that if I removed the glove off my right hand (while driving) I could press it against the inside of the windshield and the combination of the heat from my hand and the flapping windshild wipers would melt a small port hole from which I could see thru and drive. Problem was, that hand turned blue and was quite painful.
Solution? Put that glove back on and use my other hand And so, I would alternate hands until I reached my destination. The Good Lord gave me not 1 but 2 hands and they sure came in handy.
Such is the lot of those that grew up blue-collar and in cold climates. But this simple principle has paid dividends over the years in other situations. Of course, thru hard work, I now have more heat in my vehicles than I know what to do with. Nonetheless, I never forgot this principle.
Side benefit and icing on the cake: Years ago I read that those that force the usage of their weaker hand in doing various tasks enjoy better brain health. And better brain health may result in better music
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
One solution hasn't yet been mentioned yet . . . use your other hand to give the problematic hand a break and sufficient time to recover from the damage.
I'd forgotten that; yes.
I became quite ambidextrous with all the mouse-like devices and was able to use two devices at the same-ish time on two computers doing two different tasks. Apparently, as a man, I'm not able to multitask, but unfortunately nobody at the time had told me that. These days computers are usually so quick that there's little or no benefit.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2025 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .
I've never used a trackball, sounds interesting. I have a vertical mouse that I often use if my wrist gets tired. The trackball sounds like another solution. Thanks for sharing.
Good point on using the other hand. I did that especially while writing those symphony pieces, and it gave some relief to switch off (and so did a rigid wrist brace). The trackball above can be used with either hand.
I am not a gamer but i am guessing gamers would want the fastest left-click possible. I don’t think the trackball would be good for that, since you use a thumb.
Ergonomics used to be a more important consideration back in the 1980s. It was a regular short part of my intro to comp. sci. courses. Now, you don’t hear much about it unless it’s in a specific product review like the Kensington review. I don’t know whether that’s because people now take ergonomic considerations for granted, or they dismissed it as a fad. Either way, it’s real, especially the older i get.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
And my chair is from Staples, a Sorina. Think Amazon sells them too. Comfortable for me, has flip-up arms which makes it easy to play guitar, and fairly inexpensive. The material does flake off after a while though.
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And so, I would alternate hands until I reached my destination. The Good Lord gave me not 1 but 2 hands and they sure came in handy.
These days computers are usually so quick that there's little or no benefit.
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