Post by Kristal Rose on Feb 22, 2010 20:11:04 GMT -5
Ok, here's the deal. I plan to be making a new sort of sythesizer plug-in. What sort really doesn't matter. The GUI comes down to the same controls everyone else has, basically dozens of knobs, buttons, and sliders. These are all implemented as transparent ping animations based on identical mouse-movements however, so there's no reason that a control visual couldn't be the height of a flamingo head or the colors in a rainbow instead of a turning knob.
So far I have a few themes. I'm interested in two things, your new ideas on themes for soft-synth control screens, and your opinions on which might be most succesful.
For the life of me, I can't figure out why everyone has stuck with knobs and sliders, especially since they all look the same, are hard to read, and don't in any way make controls either easy to associate with sound texture settings, or even pick the right knob. I suppose a pictorial theme is an innovation, but I'm not afraid of exposing it. I mean sheesh, someone at least must be doing this somewhere.
Here are the themes I come up with so far:
** Themes // Components: **
-- Garden
Hummingbird wings, growing flowers, clouds, waves, rivers, sky color, peacock,
-- Early electronics
Leyden cells, Brass blade switches, Tesla-Coil, Jacobs ladder, Kirlian-Sphere, X-ray, patch cords
(16 levels of x-ray for 16 frog poses would mean 256 frames. )
-- Steam-Punk
Valves, centrifugal regulator, steam guages, pistons, weather-vane, boiler-flames, solar dish, bphe,
-- Abstract Op-art
Half-tone, moiré, Calder mobile, lava lamp
-- Aquarium
Each note pressure is animated leg of colorful squid, swimming fish, coral fans, geysers
-- Metaphysical artifact shelf
Ghost portrait, crystal ball, candle/lamp, statuettes, incense burner, bones, globes, postcards
-- Music paraphernalia/instruments
Harmonicas, picks, cords, comb, ocarina, tuning fork, guitar tuning keys, tensioned drum pad
New theme ideas? Opinions?
So far I have a few themes. I'm interested in two things, your new ideas on themes for soft-synth control screens, and your opinions on which might be most succesful.
For the life of me, I can't figure out why everyone has stuck with knobs and sliders, especially since they all look the same, are hard to read, and don't in any way make controls either easy to associate with sound texture settings, or even pick the right knob. I suppose a pictorial theme is an innovation, but I'm not afraid of exposing it. I mean sheesh, someone at least must be doing this somewhere.
Here are the themes I come up with so far:
** Themes // Components: **
-- Garden
Hummingbird wings, growing flowers, clouds, waves, rivers, sky color, peacock,
-- Early electronics
Leyden cells, Brass blade switches, Tesla-Coil, Jacobs ladder, Kirlian-Sphere, X-ray, patch cords
(16 levels of x-ray for 16 frog poses would mean 256 frames. )
-- Steam-Punk
Valves, centrifugal regulator, steam guages, pistons, weather-vane, boiler-flames, solar dish, bphe,
-- Abstract Op-art
Half-tone, moiré, Calder mobile, lava lamp
-- Aquarium
Each note pressure is animated leg of colorful squid, swimming fish, coral fans, geysers
-- Metaphysical artifact shelf
Ghost portrait, crystal ball, candle/lamp, statuettes, incense burner, bones, globes, postcards
-- Music paraphernalia/instruments
Harmonicas, picks, cords, comb, ocarina, tuning fork, guitar tuning keys, tensioned drum pad
New theme ideas? Opinions?