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0 pointstel5y ago0 comments

I was thinking VSTs as well. It's kind of funny, I truly dislike the UI of most VSTs I use. Cluttered, hard to understand, many hidden features and menus, and often rampant unhelpful skeuomorphism.

But also there are a few which are remarkable: the 3 synths from Madrona labs, the prosaic and convenient UI from Valhalla's plugins, up to the complex patchbay interface of something like VCV Rack, for instance.

VSTs balance a number of interesting perspectives in their UI. They are facing a very challenging domain (audio synthesis, analysis, manipulation in creative and often real-time interaction), have a complex user base (ranging from pros who really would prefer to be using their actual rack effects, to audiophiles who are pretending they've got a garage of classic synths, to modern electronic musicians who are digital natives), and have essentially zero strong UI non-skeumorphic conventions (knobs, sliders, presets, A/B switches, modules).

It's totally the wild west of UI.

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coldtea5y ago· 2 in thread

>and often rampant unhelpful skeuomorphism.

That's the best part of it. They work like hardware, which if you get serious, you often end up buying and using as well, which means studio musicians immediately know what they do, computer musicians get to learn how hardware units works, and the designs are nice and life-like.

The bad about skeuomorphism is not looking like a hardware unit, but being restricted to interacting like it's a hardware unit.

Which is not the case in most skeuomorphic VSTs - you have all kinds of computer-only interactions to make your life easier (double-click to reset knobs, preset search, A/B comparison, draw curves, etc).

Skeuomorphism there is just the cherry on top, not a rotten core, like the skeuomorphic DVD player programs of yore.

zapzupnz5y ago

It would be kinda cool if the basic slideable/toggleable options of a plugin could be defined somehow so that the program/OS of your choice can render them as a nice boring inspector palette or something. Then you can choose between that and the vendor-defined skeuomorphic design. Perhaps it already exists?

coldtea5y ago

>Perhaps it already exists?

Yeah, it does. Not sure if it's available on all DAWs, but the capability to enumerate and control the various options corresponding to various widgets exists in the protocols.

Logic and Ableton Live do offer this view as alternative.

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