Re: AU interface consistency
Re: AU interface consistency
- Subject: Re: AU interface consistency
- From: Andy <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 16:33:26 +0100
On Tuesday, October 1, 2002, at 01:14 am, email@hidden wrote:
I have to say that I think Reason's virtual rack is a very tidy
solution to this problem. It allows for a variety of disparate devices
to sit happily together, includes a standard scheme for wiring it all
together and provides lots of consistent controls. The fit to
CoreAudio/CoreMidi just looks a little too perfect to me :-)
Couldn't something similar be provided by Apple? Rather than just
throwing windows up
all over the place like Cubase et al? Tidy yet not overly constricting.
Please please NO!
Reason does indeed /look/ gorgeous but ... have you actually tried
doing any serious work with it? (sorry to cause any offence here, it
is not intended as a slate on Reason) Ok I know some folks do get much
done on these softwares, but you must be seriously committed to get any
work done at any kind or reasonable speed.
Rack mount devices are and were bad enough when they're in the
studio.! Small knobs for big fingers, tiny 16 x 4 LCDs ! Appallingly
designed user interface in those tiny LCDs. Selecting from large menus
of options is useless in such devices. I could list 100s of reasons
why this approach is not a good idea. I'm old enough to remember the
good old days when every parameter on a synth or other device had it's
own knob or button ! Even then things got /very/ confusing! But at
least you could visualize the overall setup. I love graphics and
beauty, I also love simplicity and ease of use.
I believe simplicity is primary, beauty is secondary.
Computer music making has brought about an entirely new set of problems
for user interface. It is not good enough to attempt to emulate past
mistakes that have been made by the hardware industry! Bear in mind
that the only reason we ever saw 1U rack devices with their awful UIs
was because it was CHEAP TO MAKE! We simply could not put a 1000 dials
and switches on a device, that would also be ridiculous.
As for patching, well, you only need to look behind your rack to see
what a mess cables make!
I believe what we really need is some /radical/ new thought in this
area ... dials and knobs have their place, but more importantly, how
can we replace them when they are not really needed? How can we
replace the mouse ? We still need external mixing devices to do serious
mixing work, 1 mouse is not enough fingers ;-)
I say all this from the perspective of someone who not only develops
software but also professionally makes music and is always frustrated
by the amount of time it takes to set software up to work correctly.
Very often, by the time I've got the software ready to work, I've
forgotten what it was I wanted to do! Seriously we need some change
and it's about time we got it! Do not be afraid to make radical
decisions with user interface, do not be afraid of the UI guidelines.
All rules can be and mostly will end up being broken! There will be no
progress if we simply throw up our hands and say, "oh no! that's not in
the human interface guidelines rules!". After all, at the end of the
day if you get it totally wrong, no-one will use your software.
_______________________________________________
coreaudio-api mailing list | email@hidden
Help/Unsubscribe/Archives:
http://www.lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/coreaudio-api
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.