Computer mice and (wo)men.

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.