While hunting around for a solution for something else, I stumbled across this:
http://www.maxkeyboard.com/max-falco...assembled.html
Also available in a DIY unassembled kit for less, with your choice of switches. If you've never had a GOOD mechanical QWERTY keyboard, trust me, the ease of use is night and day different from a membrane switch setup, like the chicklet keys on a laptop!
Essentially it's a 20-key programmable keyboard, about the size of the 10-key pad at the left of your keyboard, and can have each key programmed as a macro. They will also build custom key-caps, so I can specify text or graphics, and I *THINK* this could be a pretty slick addition to my setup.
My thought is that it would free up valuable desk space and/or eliminate the repetitive switch from mouse to keyboard for a lot of the common editing tasks. I have my keyboard on a pull-out shelf under my desk, and while not annoying, the switch from mouse (on the desktop) to keyboard and back, over and over again, is moderately irritating, particularly when doing a lot of editing work. Ideally, I would like to have my right hand on the mouse, and my left on the keypad for 90+% of the common editing moves...
Before I order, I just wanted to get a gut-check on my idea, particularly the key assignments.
Keys 1-4: ESC, Windows key, Zoom in, Zoom out: The zoom keys are for when I figure out how to program macros in Reaper to blow up to a specified track height and collapse it back down again.
Keys 5-8: Undo, Rewind, Select All Within Area, Item Properties
Keys 9-12: Add time marker, Add stretch marker, toggle spectral display, glue.
Keys 13-16: Copy, Paste, Cut, Split
Keys 17-20: Shift, CTRL, ALT, Play (spacebar)
So, what do you folks think? What utterly critical functions have I forgotten? And before anybody brings it up, no it's not the cheapest thing on the planet, but let's leave that out of the discussion, please.