KVR Audio

david.beholder · Post by **david.beholder** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 10:15 pm

H-man wrote:

That looks good!
Replacing metallic 3-pos swiches with something better visually might help even more.

fmr · Post by **fmr** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 11:27 pm

david.beholder wrote:
H-man wrote:
That looks good!
Replacing metallic 3-pos swiches with something better visually might help even more.

Completely. Those switches look like ETs among the other elements.

david.beholder · Post by **david.beholder** » Thu Jul 30, 2015 11:37 pm

fmr wrote:
david.beholder wrote:
H-man wrote:
That looks good!
Replacing metallic 3-pos swiches with something better visually might help even more.
Completely. Those switches look like ETs among the other elements.

There are few changes that might be done as well:
1. brighter pointer line on blue knobs
2. move captions like(dest mod / waveform mod) to the sides of switch
3. smaller and greyer source selectors
4. non-3d pushbuttons

Teksonik · Post by **Teksonik** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 12:36 am

Guys here's just one example of the quality that is possible with a GUI. I'm not saying Poly-Ana should look like this or even have this style but I'm pointing out the quality. Notice the clarity, sharpness, the lack of aliasing, the depth and the functionality of this gui (yes there is some wasted space but who cares and yes Poly-Ana is many times more complex but try to focus on the subject of quality. This is the type of quality Poly-Ana deserves. luSH101 is another prime example.

I have every faith that given enough time we'll see skins of such quality for Poly-Ana as well......

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 12:58 am

Surely looks good. LuSH-101 looks too clinical, too realistic for me though, like all D16 plugins. Don't like that look at all. It doesn't add to clearness too, it's just blinky blinky "look this looks like hardware" look.

H-man · Post by **H-man** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 2:23 am

Okay here is a little update on what I posted yesterday. Knobs and switches will have more detail added as I go but comments always welcome and appreciated

In essence, I guess I'm trying to find a colour scheme that looks good but mostly aids the work-flow. I'll stick to the oscillator elements for the time being in order to keep the task from getting away from me.

Interestingly, the image is a little duller when embedded here (for some reason ...maybe the resize?). This one is a little brighter and closer to the colours I have been working with:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gbexwwt44xcyo ... 2.PNG?dl=0

and once I can get this section locked-down I can then work up the energy to tackle the rest of the thing

Echoes in the Attic · Post by **Echoes in the Attic** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 3:39 am

H-man, that looks quite good! If I can offer suggestions, I think the background of the modulation target boxes could be lighter in order to read the text easier. Also I think some of the labels have more ideals positions than the default. For example the oscillator 1/2/3 labels would look good perhaps over in the left corner of the box (as someone has done). And as I mentioned before, and as Ingonator has done, the switch labels look better directly beside the switch rather than cramped in the top corners. Also the source labels can move up to the mod boxes. These label adjustments sort of unclamp it and fill in empty space a little better I think.

Oh and would you be willing to share the skin?

Edit: just noticed you said you hadn't done the rest yet. I look forward to the finished product.

murnau · Post by **murnau** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 4:16 am

H-man this looks very promising.

layzer · Post by **layzer** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 4:26 am

my best work so far...

Frantz · Post by **Frantz** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 4:28 am

layzer wrote:my best work so far...

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner! Give that man a free license.

H-man · Post by **H-man** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 4:50 am

Frantz wrote:
layzer wrote:my best work so far...
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner! Give that man a free license.

Gah!

Bart: You make me sick, Homer. You're the one that told me I could do anything if I just put my mind to it.

Homer: Well now that you're a little bit older I can tell you that's a crock. No matter how good you are at something, there's always about a million people better than you.

Ingonator · Post by **Ingonator** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 7:25 am

Norbz wrote:I'll bow out as of now - I'm trying to help you dude not attack you (a positive critique if you will), nothing on this page is attacking you and I'm giving my free time here just like you for no return and to help an up and coming designer/creative person. I actually felt sorry for you hence my .02 and how you can improve.

Nothing against help but the point is what you posted was not really helpful for me, including that screenshot of the GUI drom that other plugin you posted.
Your approach is "shiny 3D looking" and mine more or less the opposite. Maybe i'll do a 3D one in the future but not now!

MY focus at the moment is to replace most of the labels, including those at the knobs. I already replaced a bunch of them by adding those directly with Knobman. Due to that i already got multipe versions of e.g. the "big knob" with different "rings" and labels (mostly minimum/maximum values). Doing further updates/improvements in Knobman later (e.g. other fonst, bigger ones etc.) is quite simple then.

BTW my skin is no "eye candy", the major colors are grey, black and white. I "color" coded the borders of teh sections (that i had rearranged mostly...) to hav a better seperation of the "signal flow" (= osscillatores -> filter -> Amp -> main volume), The first version was with all frames/borders white which stiil looke sd more confusing than the new "color" coded borders/frames.

Maybe we two just have 2 different approaches but that's fine...

FWIW i DO KNOW taht my skin is not perfect yet (also by my own standards if that helps...) but i am wiorking on that.

Ingonator · Post by **Ingonator** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 7:45 am

Concerning Flavours Of Lime who alraedy posted here some years ago he also made the skin/GUI for the free Tactile Sounds Substance for which i was a tester and did a huge amount of factory presets.
you could check it here:
http://tactilesounds.blogspot.de/p/ts-substance.html
That one looks nice and clean IMO.

limeflavour also made the GUI design of the Quadra Kontakt instrument from Synth Magic where i was a tester and doing pöresets too:
http://www.synthmagic.co.uk/sounds-of-the-quadra.html

Again a really nice GUI IMO.

Tone2 Audio with the latest updates like Saurus 2 and Electra 2.1 also seem to have reduced the "3D effect" of the knobs a bit which was worse in the past. While the knobs still look more or less 3D now you are looking more from the top and not like in a certain angle like in the past.

With Xils Lab while e.g. PolyKB II has those huge 3D knobs that are not so great in other plugins like e.g. Oxium, XILS 4 and Syn'X 2 the knob are much better. Slightly 3D but still not too much and you look at them directly from top. The current Syn'X 2 GUI overall seems to look quite clean, same with Oxium.

Waldorf Largo has those more flat metallic knobs which is still OK for me too. The knobs and buttons in Waldorf PPG Wave 3.V are slugtly 3D too but not too much and they still look clean. You also look directly from top in those.

U-He Diva has some vintage style knobs but overall it looks very clean and pleasing IMO. Those vintage knobs do not really look 3D rendered but look more like some i found for Knobman.

Overall i a not too much into "photorealistic" GUIs or GUI with too much 3D effects (like e.g. that posted by Norbz here..). In my own Poly-Ana knobs and switches i sued some "emboss" to not have a plain black one. Those now lok slightly 3D but not too much. Anyway i would not mind to reduce that 3d effect further if necessary, same for the small switches that are are replaced by LEDs when switched on.

fmr · Post by **fmr** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 8:27 am

Teksonik wrote:Guys here's just one example of the quality that is possible with a GUI. I'm not saying Poly-Ana should look like this or even have this style but I'm pointing out the quality. Notice the clarity, sharpness, the lack of aliasing, the depth and the functionality of this gui (yes there is some wasted space but who cares and yes Poly-Ana is many times more complex but try to focus on the subject of quality. This is the type of quality Poly-Ana deserves. luSH101 is another prime example.

I have every faith that given enough time we'll see skins of such quality for Poly-Ana as well......

I completely agree. But the designer had a great help -> the main concept was na existant and proved one. He just had to adapt it. But some things that should be taken in consideration for Poly-Ana:
The handles are big and visible, but the scales, when existant are discrete (just the minimum necessary for having reference points).
The labels are small and discrete (after a little while, every user knows what is what, and what it serves for, therefore, no need to have big and sometimes cryptic labels that waste space).
Colors are soft (grey and white). Yet there is that 3D effect (discrete but effective) that helps to visually create reference points. The problem with flat GUIs (like Windows 10) is that the lack of shadows and 3D forces to eye to create reference points, which can be tiresome. Also creates a lack of dimension that makes it more difficult to understand what is what. However, agreesive color combination can be tiresome too.
Sections are perfectly defined. You know what belongs to the oscillators, what belongs to the filters, whar belongs to the enmvelopes, the LFOs, etc. Again, there are labels but these are small and discrete - just enough for starters to know what is what.
Some wasted space is the only remark that can be done to this, but I thnk the main excuse for it is that because it follows closely the original PG-800 (which also has some ampount of wasted space.

Norbz · Post by **Norbz** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 8:39 am

Re 3d vs flat that's not a biggie I can remove gradiants/3d easy enough.

Now that a few skins are popping up, I would love to continue (and make some flat(ter) ones..), however not with the current layout.

I'm not sure who's supposed to be providing the "less height" version so it fits everywhere and kills some of the dead space, so I took a shot at it. Also redid the labels with fonts so ppl can simply edit them easier.

Don't mind the SKIN at all for a moment, just look at the saved space/rearrangement of stuff. While it's a bit tight, if this can get XML'd it will finally fit all screens and still allow for layout/knob size changes and adjustments.

**I only did one oscillator and the filters to see how much vertical space I could save - the other two osc/rest of the UI can be done easy enough once/if this vertical shift happens.

Right now it's a photoshop file, and it's 4:30am - I'll be crashing but if someone wants to take this from the current state and adjust accordingly (i'll prepare the background, you can even use current knobs/elements from my other skins as placeholders to move them into place), at that stage I think it would be easier for everyone to make skins and know they'll work on all screens/layout has been finalized/etc.

Thoughts?

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