The Kensington Expert Mouse Pro is a 10 button mouse for use with your PC or Mac computer. These are primarily used in DAW settings where it can be helpful to have a lot of buttons to help you perform all of the tasks necessary in a DAW, and do some in the quickest possible time. While Kensington certainly has the track-ball mouse down, to me this was one of their stepping stones to get there. I'm not sure how old the Kensington Expert Mouse Pro is, but it seems like it is one of the first mice that was put out my Kensington to feature the track ball. While this is certainly useful, to me it's not my favorite track ball mouse. Perhaps it's because I'm not used to the latest version of the Kensington track ball mouse, but I can't seem to get the hang of this one. It has the large track ball for movement in the middle as well as four large buttons to serve as your main mouse clicks. There is then a scrolling button and six more buttons on top which I've honestly never touched before. It is great that you can program this and assign whatever you want to each of the buttons, but since I don't own this one in particular I've never needed to take the time to do so. My main draw back with this one when compared to the newer Kensington Expert Mouse is that it doesn't have the scrolling wheel around the track ball and instead has the scrolling button above it. Of course I'm glad that they've made this adjustment in the newer models, but I don't think I could go back to using this one one a regular basis. In fact, I do prefer the standard Apple Mighty Mouse to this for it's ease of us. While it might be cheaper than the newest Expert Mouse, I'd recommend going with the latest model over the Expert Mouse Pro as to me they've improved upon this one a great deal.
The Kensington Turbo Mouse is one of the first trackball based mouses for Mac of it's kind that I'm aware of. Kensington no longer makes this model of their ever popular trackball mouses, as it's been replaced by the Expert Mouse. However, I believe that this is where the original idea was executed and the newer ones are simply updated versions. It took me a little while to get used to the trackballs in general, but once you get the hang of it I think you'll really enjoy using them. The professional studio that I work at has these trackball mouses in all of our rooms, with the Turbo Mouse only existing in one of our smaller rooms. We have the Expert Mouse and SlimBlade Trackball mouses in our other rooms, with the Expert Mouse being in a few of them. While the Turbo Mouse may not look as sleek as it's followers, it's still just as effective. It definitely looks like it was made in the earlier days of computers, but nonetheless it seems to have all the options and flexibility that you'd get with the Expert Mouse. For those who haven't used any versions of the Kensington track ball mouses, these are awesome for a number of reasons, mostly being that it's super easy to navigate around on your computer using the trackball, as it's quick and simple. The added buttons are also helpful, although I generally don't use more than the main two. I don't see anything wrong with saving a few bucks and going with the Turbo Mouse rather than one of the newer ones. It's more flexible than your average mouse and if you can find one of these used, will almost be as cheap. This is an awesome tool for Pro Tools and beyond!
Kensington's Slimblade Trackball is a unique mouse for use with any computer. I've only used it on a Mac, but it should be the same on either operating system. This mouse is a lot like the Kensington Expert Mouse, but a little bit less in depth. It's got a really smooth feel to it, as I find it extremely easy to move around with the mouse. It will take a little bit of time to get used to, but since I had already used the Expert Mouse a good deal, I already had a pretty good handle on how to control the mouse. Even if you're a little bit slow with it at first, stick with it as I know you'll be glad that you did. It makes moving around in Pro Tools extremely easy. I've only used it for use with Pro Tools, but I'm sure this translates to anything you would want to use it for. While the Slimblade Trackball mouse is certainly slick looking and feeling, and is a great mouse in it's own right, I do have to say that I prefer the Expert Mouse to it. This is most likely because I tried the Expert Mouse first and I'm used to it. In fact, for a bit I was reluctant to get used to the Expert Mouse when compared to Apple's Mighty Mouse, but I'm glad I stuck it out. Perhaps the same thing will happen with the Slimblade Trackball mouse, but there is only one of these at the studio where I work so there's less potential for that. If you are indeed considering getting a trackball based mouse for use with your Digital Audio Workstation or otherwise, I'd highly encourage you to try them out back to back to see what will work best for you. There's really no right or wrong here as these are all great choices...
Kensington's ExpertMouse is an in depth mouse controller for use with any sort of computer. I've used these in a number of different professional recording studios, as these seem to almost be the industry standard when it comes to having complete control with a mouse. I should start off by saying that I do prefer using a regular Apple Mighty Mouse for using Pro Tools and whatever else for that matter, but I do see a lot of potential with the ExpertMouse. It definitely takes practice to get used to the ExpertMouse, as I'm still getting acquainted with it every time that I use it. It has the convenient track ball which makes it really easy to slide from place to place on your screen. It has four different buttons on it, clearly beating the regular Apple mouse which only has one, and the standard PC mouse with two. The only downside to having all of these buttons is that it deifnitely takes a lot of use to get quick with it. Since I'm so used to working with a standard mouse, I'm definitely finding that making the switch over is a bit difficult. However, there's a reason that so many people like using these. It certainly seems like there is a good comfort level with this mouse once you've gotten the hang of it. I don't know that I've seen a mouse out there with more versatility than this one, which is certainly helpful not only in Pro Tools, but any other DAW setting as well. The price is a bit more than your average mouse for sure, but you're getting a lot more with the Kensington ExpertMouse than you would elsewhere. I'd recommend trying this out a bit before getting one, but once you're hooked in I know you'll be finding it hard to work without this...
