Maybe it's just me, but interfaces for VST synths and samplers are just getting plain scary. So many settings and layers and options and configurations and customizations and...

This got me thinking everyone probably has one VSTi that they just get instinctively, one that you can do anything you want to with easily (within its range of options).

Or maybe I'm just dreaming, and such a beast doesn't exist.

Albino 2

I just get that gui - real easy to program.

Best regards,

Spe3d

:O)

I'll second Albino 2.

To me the mark of a good interface is when the GUI controls and sound changes are well coupled. Straight away with Albino I felt confident on which control did what and produced a predictable result.

The knOb...

http://www.kvr-vst.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=689555

Honestly...WilliamK's stuff is pretty sraight forward and easy to use as far as common sense and the GUI factor is concerened.

Rhino - after reading the manual tbh but I am conviced it can't get any easier

I find the MOTU MX4 has one of the clearest and easy to get GUIs ever.

Btw., anyone else think MOTU have hired the same graphic designers as Emagic?

Best regards,

Spe3d

i don't play with the envelopes much and i don't like the way you can't directly edit patches with the VSTi, but i think absynth is pretty good.

for bad UIs that ought to be good, i think that monologue has a pretty crummy UI - i find the colour scheme fatigue inducing, and for a fairly straightforward monosynth, it seems overly complicated. sounds great, though.

MOTU isn't VST

Doug Nelson wrote:

MOTU isn't VST

Oh my, mea culpa, please excuse me...

Best regards,

Spe3d

I actually didn't find Albino at all intuitive. The problem with multi-page GUI's is that you cannot quickly analyse a problem with your ears and go and fix it. e.g. you can hear unwanted modulation on a sound but you often need to page through LFO and envelope screens to find the culprit. just as bad are mod matrices where you can freely assign sources and destination as you need to concentrate on each entry to find the combination you're looking for.

One of the big reasons I am so into ORION and SynthEdit is because I can create GUI's that are perfect for me. e.g. In the Default Wasp skin the filter envelope comes before the amp envelope. You cannot imagine how many times I accidentally tweaked the wrong envelope. My Wasp skins have the filter envelope with the filter and the amp envelope at the end, mimicing the signal path. This is far-and-away the best way to layout an interface; oscillators - filter - vca - effects with the LFO and other modulation sources in there somewhere. As far as I'm concerned, if you cannot fit it all on a single-page UI, don't put it in.

ImpOSCar

Spe3D wrote:

They are pretty consistent in their GUIs as well

Korg Polysix VST
Novation V-Station
Spectrasonics Atmosphere
Synth 1
ReFX Vanguard

Understood them all the very moment I laid eyes on them.. and that's why they are my favorite synths

Moog Modular V.









Hey, it's what I grew up on. Instantly familiar.

Meffy

dr.wackler wrote:

Doug Nelson wrote: MOTU isn't VST Oh my, mea culpa, please excuse me...

of course it is


edit: - no, the mx4 is not

the Mach5 is though...

I'll probably get laughed at for this but I like the cs-80v

moog modular too

Pro-53

Ok, it's a toss-up between Max/MSP and SampleTank2.



Forever,




Kim.

This one's a no brainer for me:



In the words of the great Steve Jobs; "it looks so nice you want to lick it!" ..

Koorby wrote:

"it looks so nice you want to lick it!" ..

Unfortunately, the image won't appear for me... the browser just waits and waits, then gives up. What is it, then?

Meffy

P.S.: Jobs' description puts me in the mind of reFX PlastiCZ.

n.i. reaktor

well, delay lama is really easy to understand.

Meffy wrote:

Koorby wrote: "it looks so nice you want to lick it!" .. Unfortunately, the image won't appear for me... the browser just waits and waits, then gives up. What is it, then? Meffy

http://www.kvr-vst.com/get/409.html

b.tw.: check this out:

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned OnePingOnly
ew

not everyones taste

M-tron

jens wrote:

http://www.kvr-vst.com/get/409.html

Ah! Mercy buttercups. *bow*

Meffy

Whoomph wrote:

not everyones taste M-tron

Heh, that's pretty close to a minimalist interface, sure enough! Instantly understandable, but the ABC knob bugs me. Switching between preset selection and attack-decay controls is a bother.

Another: Cameleon 5000. Because I was already well acquanited with FM7 and tonewheel organs (real and virtual), the operator-page idiom was familiar and friendly and the additive technique seemed downright homey. (Not Homey the Clown, homey like a cat sleeping in front of the fireplace while Grateful Dead play on the radio. ) Easy to pick up.

Meffy

Meffy wrote:

(Not Homey the Clown, homey like a cat sleeping in front of the fireplace while Grateful Dead play on the radio. ) Easy to pick up.

You think a cat sleeping in front of the fireplace is easy to pick up? You haven't owned a cat, have you?

Forever,




Kim.

B-4.

But then I play (real) Hammond organ at home and church, too.

Doug

Jeez wrote:

You think a cat sleeping in front of the fireplace is easy to pick up? You haven't owned a cat, have you?

Heh... I've had a few. We get along well, being close relatives (see sig). =^_^=

--

dougsyo wrote:

B-4.

Oh my, yes. Feels just right.

So, for that matter, does the freeware ORGANized trio. Its EP mate, Mr. Ray, is great too -- but I suspect few people (other than experienced Lounge Lizard users) are able to get the best results from day one tweaking its physical modeling params.

Meffy

Mda epiano

My baby *cuddles it*

Reaktor, oddly enough - I like making simple purpose-built synths in it that do one thing well and don't eat lots of CPU. Since I am familiar with their innnards tweaking them is a no brainer - as opposed to the gargantuan thingies with mod matrixes and such that black belt Reaktorites build and which take a month of study to decode. Though they're good to steal ideas from.

Oh oh! 4front epiano too. Lovely.

z3ta+, and no I'm not joking

VB-1. It's simple, trivial even but easy. Does what it's supposed to. When run through effects can sound fairly good. Costs the same as a wish sandwich or a rubber biscuit.

Meffy
bao bao bao

micro-Tera
somehow i just connected with how it works

much more so than Albino, z3ta and rhino

maybe odd, but no odder than those

no wonder gui designers have such a difficult job

you'd think we'd all have a common 'computer interface' background/culture by now, but apparently not

learning yet another way something new works, I've found slow and difficult.
the last two weeks at work i busted my butt to get across a fairly smart and complex configuration model into a user interface and I got two comments that are just depressing
'i don't think i like that, but i don't have any better idea'

'is there an existing convention that solves this problem?'

Meffy wrote:

Quote:

VB-1. It's simple, trivial even but easy. Does what it's supposed to. When run through effects can sound fairly good. Costs the same as a wish sandwich or a rubber biscuit.

Gee VB-1 , I remember the first time I saw it and I dared to think that this might have something to do with how things were going to go in the future ,

Microtera yeah ,

Fm7 purred in my hands like a kitty ,

after having a cz1000 and wishing I had a DX7 FM7 melted in my mouth just like a cat singing grateful dead songs in front of the fireplace ...
No
I take all of that back , Fm7 came to me pretty easy(Just like a kitten) after I'd wanted a DX7 for so long .

Now must go to bed GMT plus 10 hours 3:14am must fight the will to stay here reading funny posts


Oh yeah claw anyone ?

reFX Slayer 2. I don't even know that much about guitars or amps but this thing couldn't be much sweeter.

Made the best acoustic guitar sound I've heard from a synth in less than a minute!

Not a VST but Reason. I get every single aspect of Reason. I understand that program like I understand how to jack off.

As for a VST... well... Pro-53 is a piece of piss to use, but so were the original analog synths.

My favourite VST comes in the shape of Odo's Dreamer.

Quote:

I understand that program like I understand how to jack off.

Now that's funny.

Yeah, I'm with impOSCar. For some reason I just clicked with it, and I what I know about programming synths could fit on a matchbook.

I'll second Micro-Tera and add Plasticz...I think the sounds on these two synths are great, too.

ChrisA wrote:

n.i. reaktor well, delay lama is really easy to understand.

Delay Lama is kind of like an e-bow. On one level it is very easy, but to get really interesting performances, you have to know more about it.

Whenever I put DL into a piece I need to have the manual up so I can remember which CC's control the glide, timbre, vowel, vibrato, etc.

Sure, it takes no effort to get it to go "Ahh Ahhh Ahhh" , but if you want something more complex and interesting it takes a bit more digging.

superwave performer is a dream to program. Wish that they would update it though.

Microtonic is awesome for simplicity to power ratio.

Delta III is a JoY.

However, the best by far, for me, is Energy XT.

Vanguard. Mucho modulation. Damn easy to program.

foosnark wrote:

z3ta+, and no I'm not joking

I agree..its pretty straightforward when you spend a little time with it.

This thread brings up the interesting and often conveniently overlooked fact that the GUI is really important to ease of use but also really subjective. I wonder how long it'll be until someone develops a user-customizable GUI format so you can take a synth and set it up your way from knobs to colors. It's logical to work with the visual format that's most natural so why not just set it up for each synth you like? I NEED it simple and logical and spacious: my ideal VST would look like Traction in custom colors just because it's so clean it's easy to think in it. But other people might well want lots of visual activity, and should be able to have that too. In the end it's like any design problem, there are certain functional parameters and certain aesthetic parameters: how hard to let everyone simply chose their own?

SampleTank2 lets you change the colour...

Forever,




Kim.

Jeez wrote:

SampleTank2 lets you change the colour...

It appears that ST2LE doesn't

Doug

dougsyo wrote:

Jeez wrote: SampleTank2 lets you change the colour... It appears that ST2LE doesn't

That's right. Custom paint jobs are a "premium" feature, only available on the higher-priced models. You also get alloy wheels and a lush leather interior.

Forever,




Kim.

Jeez wrote:

You also get alloy wheels and a lush leather interior.

Not to mention a classy sound system.

Meffy

Fabfilter One
VSynth
EVD6

jens wrote:

b.tw.: check this out:

And what, exactly, am I looking at???

That's Wusikstation..& it's in group buy mode right now:

http://www.kvr-vst.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=55139

very nice VSTi..check it out.

Meffy wrote:

Jeez wrote: You also get alloy wheels and a lush leather interior. Not to mention a classy sound system.

Well, it's mostly the same... you just get the blank lower panel replaced with a graphic equaliser, and the CD player upgraded to a six-CD changer that reads MP3 CDs too.

Forever,




Kim.

PlastiCZ is probably the most intuitive synth i've ever used.

ImpOSCar... i can't believe you find it easy and intuitive... i love this synth, one of my fav actually, but man! what a mess...

SFZ has to be the simplest!