Playback Hotkey behavior

[nkuhlman]

Hi all, and thanks in advance.
Relatively novice user, 3.0.16 Ventinari on Win 10

using as audio player only in theatrical performance context

Created a playlist, set prefs to start paused, want to use N & P hotkeys to navigate in playlist. When the playlist is first opened, Space, N & P operate as I would expect. I want, for example, to start a track, cut abruptly from one track to the next, and reastart using Space N Space

If for whatever reason I use the mouse to start a track, then odd behavior begins. Can use either the Space (start, pause) OR the N & P keys, the difference being that I must press Alt (conclusion via trial & error) in order to toggle the active status of menu controls. This happens unpredictably, and may also reflct any mouse activity, not necessarily manipulating tracks. Also please note, it is not the key combination of Alt+space or Alt + N etc but that by pressing the Alt key the underscore under the menu labels comes and goes, along with the change in availability of start/pause and next/previous. So, in order to navigate through this scenario, the key sequence would be Space Alt (slight pause) N Alt (slight pause) Space.

This is unwieldy at best. Is this expected behavior? Is there any way to 'force' the focus to remain on the playback controls?

Thank you.

Nathan E. Kuhlman
Argo Theater, Athens