bigcat's random stuff

[bigcat1969]

I'm trying to make my interfaces better and less busy. In the past I've just put a picture in the background. Looking at the VSCO2 and other interfaces, I realize that making the knobs and labels and text really easy to see is important. So I'm trying to be more pleasant but unobtrusive in my backgrounds. I gave the sax a go, but it seems a bit too dull and nondescript to me. Any ideas?

[Samulis]

Try putting a "Vignette" (dark fade) around the edges of the UI. You can also create division by using lines or different textures- for example, if you look at the VSCO 2 UI, Simon used a different leather texture on the top part of the UI.

Maybe try putting a flourishy design/oval border or scripty "BC" behind the instrument at a medium opacity.

Sometimes minimal is the best way to go. Just a few little flourishes here and there to make things pretty.

[bigcat1969]

Thanks. Some good ideas there.

[peastman]

I'm probably a terrible person to ask about this.  I have really strong opinions about UI design, and I really dislike the skeuomorphic designs that are so popular in music software.  I just can't comprehend the mindset of people who think this is a good UI:



But clearly there must be people who disagree with me, so I'd encourage you to totally ignore everything I say. Also, I don't know what constraints you're working with creating this UI, so it's possible some of my comments are about things you just can't change.

Well, if you're still reading...  Your UI isn't bad as such things go.  It's well organized and not too busy.  I've seen far worse ones in commercial software (like that monstrosity above).  I'd suggest removing the wood texture background.  It's distracting, and having it show through in the text fields makes the text harder to read.  Good guiding principles to follow are that 1) your eye should immediately be drawn to the controls, not to the background pattern, and 2) there should be plenty of contrast between the controls and the background.  A solid black background would probably work well, and would nicely set off the picture of the instrument.

What is up with that font???  I know, that's probably something you can't change.  But really, it looks like a bitmapped font designed in the 1980s for use on a 72 dpi monitor!  It makes the text hard to read.

Knobs seem to be very popular in music software, presumably because physical knobs are common on music hardware, but I wish they weren't.  I'm never sure whether to drag them horizontally, or vertically, or in a circle.  Different programs do it differently, and there's no way to predict it just by looking at the control.  In my opinion, the only times a knob is an appropriate UI element is when a control has an unlimited range, or when you're very short on space (but that often indicates other problems).  For setting a value with a finite range, a slider is almost always a better choice.

[bigcat1969]

Thanks for that. It gives me a different perspective. A lot of my restrictions are that I don't really know what I'm doing and I'm not a scripter. The script / GUI I use was made for me by a friend. The font I think is hardwired into Kontakt though I can change the color. Sam probably knows if I'm right on that. I'm not sure why, but knobs seem like the default thing in Kontakt and you don't need a resource container to use them, so its just easier than sliders. I quite like the sliders in VSCO2 though so maybe I'll try that someday. There is a Kontakt GUI maker thing that I think it in really late beta that i purchased a while back, so maybe I can use that to change from knobs.

In the past I just put a picture behind the GUI and that could get really busy, so I'm trying to be a bit less busy and classier.

I got a nice bit of PR in the top 9 free libraries for Kontakt. The bad news is I didn't break the top three (which are very nice), but the good news is bci was 4 to 9 inclusive. Its scary I need to go play with them again as I've forgotten about them really. Reading about them they sound kind of fun. The problem with cranking them out like mad I suppose.

http://www.productionmusiclive.com/blogs...-libraries

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I tried going darker and richer and for a flourish on the outside. I dunno. Below is my older attempt at a Violin GUI.

[peastman]

Quote:The font I think is hardwired into Kontakt

That's what I guessed.  Not many people would choose that font if they had other options.

I think the wood texture on the violin works better.  It's a more uniform texture, so it creates less visual distraction.  With the sax, my eye is immediately drawn to the vertical bars just to the left of the instrument picture.  Also, violins are made of wood so it actually kind of makes sense!  Unless of course this is supposed to be a wood saxophone...

Quote:Its scary I need to go play with them again as I've forgotten about them really. Reading about them they sound kind of fun.

Congratulations I guess?  People really like the things you make, even if you can't remember making them!

[bigcat1969]

Yeah I can see what you are saying with the distraction. Thanks.

I bet Sam can find us a wooden Sax. He can find the most esoteric instruments.

[Otto Halmén]

Ah, poor, poor Sculpture, with its so-so presets, horrendous CPU usage, and an UI that looks like they just polished whatever the DSP developer was using for prototyping. I'll never have a clue whether it's actually a good synth or not.

Simply mapping a control to every single parameter in the algorithmic guts of a plugin is rarely a good idea, especially if it's an instrument. Writing and recording is fairly time-consuming as it is, so a streamlined UI is rarely a bad thing.

As to the graphic design, I think the most important thing to take into account is the sheer legibility of the plugin state. You should be able to tell control positions from the corner of your eye. Unfortunately, this is quite rare among both the minimal/practical and the photorealistic/"artistic" schools of plugin UI design.

[bigcat1969]

Yes digital music making has finally paid off! I got a message from Soundcloud and figuring someone wanted to know something about an instrument I checked. Waiting for me was this message from someone who is clearly love struck for old bigcat.
"Come to me. I am beautiful, gentle, passionate young Asaian ge! "

BTW does anyone know what a 'ge' is?

[Michael Willis]

(02-01-2017, 04:17 AM)bigcat1969 Wrote: BTW does anyone know what a 'ge' is?

Where I'm from, GE is a brand of appliances, so clearly you have a passionate refrigerator android anxiously awaiting your response. Those dating apps are getting really good with their targeting algorithms these days, they must have scraped that conversation about how you are terrified of humans.