One of the nicest aspects of the soft controls is that the T‑bar and Search Dial panels provide
simultaneous access to the controls of other palettes than the currently selected palette
displayed in the Trackball panel. For example, the T‑bar panel’s default soft menu is the Sizing
palette, while the default soft menu for the Search Dial panel is the Curves palette. These
defaults let you make adjustments to image sizing or contrast curves at any time, regardless of
what’s currently displayed on the Trackball panel’s soft controls, giving you access to multiple
palettes’ worth of controls at once for the ultimate in efficiency.
Changing Which Palettes Appear
in the Side Panel Soft Controls
However, there’s another benefit to the soft controls on these side panels; you can
choose which Color page palette’s controls appear on each side panel, directly from the
control surface.
To change a side panel’s soft controls to another palette:
1 Press SHIFT UP on any panel.
2 Press the MORE key on the T‑Bar panel or the Search Dial panel.
Once you do so, the fixed keys corresponding to palettes that can be displayed on the side
panels are highlighted on the Trackball and T‑bar panels. This shows you which palettes
can be assigned.
3 Press the key corresponding to the palette you want to assign. For example, if you want to
expose the controls of the Qualifier palette, press the QUALIFIER button.
The selected side panel soft menu updates to show the controls of the palette that you
assigned. If there are more controls on that palette than can be displayed at once (which is
likely), press the MORE key to cycle among all of the available controls in that palette.
For example, if you want to assign the Motion palette’s controls to the T‑bar panel because
you’re adding a lot of noise reduction to the clips of the program you’re working on, simply
press SHIFT UP, then the T‑bar panel’s MORE key, then the MOTION key on the Trackball panel.
Now the Motion palette’s controls appear on the soft menu of the T‑bar panel, and you can use
the MORE button to cycle among each page of available controls. If you want to go back to the
default arrangement, the two default assignments are the Sizing palette on the T‑bar panel, and
the Curves palette on the Search Dial panel.
Why Aren’t the Soft Panels Specifically Documented
Because of their dynamically remappable nature, the soft controls will continue to
evolve over subsequent versions of DaVinci Resolve along with the palettes and
functions they control. For this reason, soft control assignments are not presented
in‑depth as the fixed keys are. Instead, you’re best off referring to the Color page
documentation in the Color Page section of the DaVinci Resolve User Manual to figure
out what each identically named control is used for. All you need to know for now is that
the soft controls change depending on which palette is selected, the mode of each
palette, and the operation being performed.
9Soft Menus, Including Soft Keys and Soft Rotary Controls
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