Unlike apps for the iPhone, these virtual knobs and sliders don't benefit from a touch screen. No keybindings. No tabbing between them. Just reduced functionality and wasted screen real estate for the sake of looking ``cool'' to people with crappy taste.
I strongly disagree; where apps are emulating the sounds of particular pieces of musical hardware (which plugins frequently are) there's a distinct plus in having the same layout as the emulated device.
While there's a lot of value in providing more direct controls in this context (eg envelopes, EQ curves, and so forth), many of these are not ideal for performance (as opposed to composition) because they either constrict the performer by requiring use of a mouse, or provide insufficient tactile feedback because of the limitations of glass. Despite the limitations of abstraction, knobs, sliders, and buttons still work incredibly well for physical performance - hence the popularity of generic MIDI controllers which map to virtual controls in the software plugins.
Now it's also true that one could use physical controls to manage the sort of manipulations that are hard to abstract in hardware while being relatively easy to do in software, such as additive or granular synthesis; and there have been a few applications that combine excellent sonic potential with excellent UX (such as Borderlands Granular [1] or AudioGL [2] but making the most of these requires a good deal of domain knowledge that makes them inaccessible to other musicians.
I eventually (mostly) stopped using software plugins, but not because of dissatisfaction with the UX paradigm; I just went back to using hardware. I like having ~100 physical controls, plus my deck looks like the Enterprise :-)
PS in general I hate skeumorphism and strongly prefer flat design...but I think there's much more justification for it in domains like this, not least because one is often blending a mix of old and new technology in music production; it's not unusual to combine digital aduio manipulation with analog or acoustic sources and treatments.
It is. The first hour or so is sort of tough to get with because the interface is so minimal, but it's very powerful. He's financing development through the beta and although I don't do much composition on the computer now I think I'm going to buy a license from him because it's so different from anything else out there. It sounds filthy, and I mean that in a positive way.
Comments
Unlike apps for the iPhone, these virtual knobs and sliders don't benefit from a touch screen. No keybindings. No tabbing between them. Just reduced functionality and wasted screen real estate for the sake of looking ``cool'' to people with crappy taste.
I strongly disagree; where apps are emulating the sounds of particular pieces of musical hardware (which plugins frequently are) there's a distinct plus in having the same layout as the emulated device.
While there's a lot of value in providing more direct controls in this context (eg envelopes, EQ curves, and so forth), many of these are not ideal for performance (as opposed to composition) because they either constrict the performer by requiring use of a mouse, or provide insufficient tactile feedback because of the limitations of glass. Despite the limitations of abstraction, knobs, sliders, and buttons still work incredibly well for physical performance - hence the popularity of generic MIDI controllers which map to virtual controls in the software plugins.
Now it's also true that one could use physical controls to manage the sort of manipulations that are hard to abstract in hardware while being relatively easy to do in software, such as additive or granular synthesis; and there have been a few applications that combine excellent sonic potential with excellent UX (such as Borderlands Granular [1] or AudioGL [2] but making the most of these requires a good deal of domain knowledge that makes them inaccessible to other musicians.
I eventually (mostly) stopped using software plugins, but not because of dissatisfaction with the UX paradigm; I just went back to using hardware. I like having ~100 physical controls, plus my deck looks like the Enterprise :-)
1. http://www.borderlands-granular.com/app/
2. https://www.audiogl.com/en/ BTW this seems like an ideal excuse for an Oculus Rift.
PS in general I hate skeumorphism and strongly prefer flat design...but I think there's much more justification for it in domains like this, not least because one is often blending a mix of old and new technology in music production; it's not unusual to combine digital aduio manipulation with analog or acoustic sources and treatments.
>AudioGL
That looks insane. Trying it when I get home from work.
It is. The first hour or so is sort of tough to get with because the interface is so minimal, but it's very powerful. He's financing development through the beta and although I don't do much composition on the computer now I think I'm going to buy a license from him because it's so different from anything else out there. It sounds filthy, and I mean that in a positive way.