App settings (Alt+8)

Everything about AccessCaster itself rather than the desk: what it says, its keyboard shortcuts, how it starts and closes, and its own updates. None of it is in a backup of the desk. Four pages: Announcements, Keyboard shortcuts, General and Updates.

• Announcements: Speaks what happens on the desk, so you know without the touchscreen: mutes and solos with the channel's name, bank changes, channel buttons and the encoder, and anything changed on the touchscreen, such as a processing switch, a mix or which channel is on a fader. A change that moves many settings at once, like a preset, is counted rather than read out. Announce fader and monitor levels adds each level as you move it, by name. Play a tone for mute is quicker than speech but does not say which channel. Recording starting, pausing and stopping can be spoken, played as tones (one, two or three beeps) or left silent.
• Voice, output and volume: Announcements have their own voice, output and volume, separate from your screen reader. The output matters: left on the RODECaster, announcements can end up in your recording and go quiet when you solo a channel, so your computer's own speakers or headphones are usually better. Refresh voices and outputs reads both lists again after you plug something in.
• Warn when the main mix clips: Says Main mix clipping when the desk's main mix reaches full scale. It listens to the desk as a Windows audio device, so it does not work over Remote Desktop.
• Keyboard shortcuts: Shortcuts that work in any program, even with this window closed, all held on the same keys, Ctrl, Alt and Shift to begin with. Add a shortcut offers over 100 commands, so anything you can do on a page can go on a key. A new install starts with seven: announcements on and off (A), mute every mic and open them again (M), start or stop a recording (R), hear the desk's state (S), bring this window to the front (O), answer a CallMe call (C), and decline or hang up (D). Each shortcut says what it did, unless you tell it not to. The mic key only reopens mics it muted itself, so it never opens a mic you had shut.
• Playing pads from the keyboard: Use the SMART pad keys adds a set along the number row: 1 to 8 play the pads of the bank the desk is on (1 to 6 on a Duo), dash and equals step down and up through the banks that have pads on them, and P says what is playing and how long is left. These keys stay silent, because the pad itself is the feedback. You can also put one particular pad on a key of its own, which plays that pad whatever bank the desk is on. Playing a sound pad switches the desk's MIDI control on, because that is the only way to make the desk play a sound.
• General: Start AccessCaster when you sign in to Windows starts it in the tray, so your shortcuts work from the moment you sign in. Keep running in the system tray when the window is closed is on to begin with; switch it off and closing the window quits the app. Save this app's settings to a file keeps your shortcuts, announcement choices and CallMe contacts in one small file, to restore later or copy to another computer.
• Updates: AccessCaster looks for a newer version of itself once a day, or as often as you set, and never installs one without asking. Press F12, or use the tray menu, to hear what changed, then Install now, Skip this version or Later. Installing closes AccessCaster for a moment and starts it again on the new version. It only contacts updates.slightperception.com, and refuses any version that is not signed as ours.