The older version of the Contour Jog Shuttle Pro (the v1) was also sold under the brand name Hercules back in 2002... I got one of those.
Fortunately, the old drivers still work on Windows 11 (with one caveat) so I can still use it to edit videos. Yeah!
This is how to set it up with KDEnlive.
Some history
I remember I bought this thing ages ago. It's hard to find any documentation today, 20+ years later. (Is it that old? Damn!)
Digging a little bit, I did find one review on a Czech website in 2003, and yeah, this gadget is old. AFAIK Hercules sold its version starting 2002.
I've bought the box somewhere in 2004 or 2005, maybe 2006, soon after I bought a Sony video camera. That one had a firewire output, and Hercules sold this controller, a firewire PC card, and some video editing suite in a box, and that seemed to be the proper way to edit videos.
(As usual I bought it at a discount and on a whim, at a point in time it was already caught up by progress 😅)
The firewire card never worked properly, but the controller did.
Over the years I've used it with different editors, including HitFilm Express (still salty about its demise) and these days I use KDEnlive.
Last time I tried, the drivers were no longer available on the contour website, but I did download and save the latest / last / final version v2133 back in 2021. It still installs on Windows 11.
(If you need it drop me a line.)
Today
The v2 of the unit still sells for roughly a hundred bucks, with a better, more flexible driver.
Anyway, I rebuild this PC some time ago (just before RAM pricing went through the roof) and had not installed the Jog Shuttle yet. When I tried to, it wouldn't work. I turned out the problem was with my USB hub, and not some hidden, background Windows update that killed this old device. Pfew!
The Caveat
The old drivers keep Windows awake if you have the Jog Shuttle connected. Disconnect it and Windows goes to sleep as usual. Now I only incidentally edit videos, so that's fine in my book.
Note that the v1 version does not support Macros. But - if I want to do complex stuff - I'll use TouchPortal anyway.
KDEnlive
... is my current free non-linear editing suite of choice, as it has (some) hardware support (even on Windows). It has some odd behaviour now and again, but I guess I'll survive those 😊
1. Create a new profile. Name it _KDEnlive or something like that, so it always shows up at the top of the list of apps. Always check what profile you are editing, as it's way to easy to accidentally edit the generic profile that applies to everything...
2. As the target application I selected C:\software\kdenlive\bin\kdenlive.exe, so that any activity on the Shuttle should only affect KDEnlive, and not some other program that might be active at that point in time. (The Shuttle Pro software can apply a different profile for each program that has the focus.)
Current config
Row 1 (top)
Button 1 - I - set in-point
Button 2 - Shift + I - jump to in-point
Button 3 - Shift + O - jump to out-point
Button 4 - O - set out-point
Row 2 (above jog wheel)
Button 5 - Home - jump to start
Button 6 - PgUp - previous edit point
Button 7 - Space - play
Button 8 - PgDn - next edit point
Button 9 - End - jump to end
Jog Wheel
Jog Left - Left - previous frame
Jog Right - Right - next frame
Shuttle Ring
Shuttle in Left 7 - Shift + Left - as fast as possible
Shuttle in Left 6 - Shift + Left - 60 times per second
Shuttle in Left 5 - Shift + Left - 30 times per second
Shuttle in Left 4 - Shift + Left - 10 times per second
Shuttle in Left 3 - Left - 60 times per second
Shuttle in Left 2 - Left - 30 times per second
Shuttle in Left 1 - Left - 10 times per second
Right is the same thing, but... right. Right?
Bottom Left (below jog wheel)
Button 10 - Cut all tracks - Control + Shift + R
Button 12 - Undo - Control + Z
Bottom Right (below jog wheel)
Button 11 - not in use yet
Button 13 - Redo - Control + Shift + Z
Missing buttons
The Hercules controller doesn't offer the additional buttons left and right of the jogging wheel that some versions of the controller sport.
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