How to use keyboard shortcuts

I cannot figure out how to store (simple) keyboard shortcuts in the VSN1. I currently try to create a copy and paste shortcut, just to try it out.

I selected the button that I want to use for the shortcut, then edited the Keyboard block in the "Button" tab.
I added two keys: L META and C. When I store this on my device and press the key, "cc" will be written out, but not the shortcut (so meta seems to be missing).
Is there a tutorial on how to use this feature?

A key-learn function would also be super helpful.

I also noticed that when I first connected the VSN1 to my mac that a macOS modal to set up the keyboard was showing up. I tried to press the buttons on the VSN1, but that didn't help the system to detect the device. Did I miss a step here?

Replies (6)

timp · September 13, 2025

I think I figured it out. For others, I needed to check the value of the button before emitting the keypress event (if-clause), otherwise the event fires twice, when the button value is 0, and when it is 127. And I needed to change the keys to keydown meta -> c -> keyup meta for the shortcut to be detected correctly.

It would be cool if there was a simpler way to configure the VSN1 for shortcuts. In other app there often is an input box. As a user, you just press the keys that you want to use e.g. cmd + shift + a and the input will learn what to press and configure itself in a way that it will work with common operating systems.

kkerti · September 13, 2025

If you press down and release the keys while in the "macro input field" input field, you can actually see that the input tries to decode the active state pressed down. It takes a bit of finger gymanstics to record a shortcut sequence properly, so yes the input would benefit from a bit of fine tuning. Glad you figured it out in the end though!

timp · September 14, 2025

Oh, I didn't understand that the top part was an input field, thanks. Much easier.

Hybrid · September 16, 2025

Another tip is to use the Press/Release block to avoid double triggering actions and easily control if they happen on press or release.

0xdb · December 19, 2025

I struggled with this yesterday and I'm seeing this post a bit too late. I did realize that the bar would take your input but I couldn't get it to do ctrl+M for me. I think I was pressing one key at a time, trying to press ctrl and then click on it to set it to keydown instead of the whole key combo...

0xdb · December 19, 2025

One more tip... Some of the shortcuts I'm implementing are for entering a "mode" I'll go out of later. The first one was MIDI mapping mode in Ableton Live. I found it super useful to set the Button Event's button mode to toggle (1). With toggle there's no double trigger + the led stays on while the "mode" is on.