Fathom Synth Development Thread

[BlackWinny]

I'll provide a few more options for the user to select on the dials.

Metal / Not Metal.
Solid Meter / Segmented Meter.
Ability to change meter colors.

Excellent idea, Everett.


I would also add "Ability no not have any meter crown.

But I'm sticking by my guns with the bigger dial size, I think it looks 100% better than the smaller dials.

For that also, I fully agree. And it is also a very great part of the visual identity of Fathom.

[BlackWinny]

For me the GUI isn't too important unless some elements are too small to grab or almost invisible. I prefer that the mental resources go into crazy synth algorithms.
But even answering GUI requests might steal time. To remove that part of dev discussion, the best is to have an easy customisable GUI. Have each knob as 2D or 3D model, the drawing and background colors, all packed into a script you could point to...
Oh shit, its a can of worms...
But if its done let the users design skins...
Only drawback, some skin creators might ask for more money than you ask for the whole synth...
Well, apply a license to force,them to give the skins away for, free...
And make a golden shiny skin, and sell it as luxury skin for $ 1200,- and proud users can show they supported you with the real value of the synth...

I'm pretty sure that if there was more ads to the awesome freeware Knobman, several commercial skin makers that I prefer to not name explicitly would totally drop the insanely shameful cost of their skins.

[BlackWinny]

The 3 buttons on each side of the preset name field have the same color scheme as the 'non active' buttons on the bottom, like 'Expand' and 'Add Mod', it's confusing. When you hover them with mouse they change to black and blue, why is this?
When it comes to GUI, there's no consensus ever but somethings need to be better designed.

One other thing, the Freq on the Eq sliders should be shown all the time, i keep hovering them to look for the respective Freq. The Freq could be on labels and the sliders should show the gain.

Very good points !

[jmg8]

OK, so here is my opinion:

I love Fathom, it is a forward thinking modern synth.
However the GUI does not suit its personality.
Fathom sounds nothing like analog hardware. So why is it trying to look like it?
3D elements, and now these new hardware style knobs.
Whats next, are you going to add patch cables to the signal flow? he he

I think the GUI should reflect the personality of the synth and should look super futuristic.
I would prefer to get rid of all textures, shadows, 3D elements and go for a flat modern design.
Here are some designs that I like:

Torsion.JPG

Pro R.JPG

Iris.JPG

[fmr]

OK, so here is my opinion:

I think the GUI should reflect the personality of the synth and should look super futuristic.
I would prefer to get rid of all textures, shadows, 3D elements and go for a flat modern design.
Here are some designs that I like:

Torsion.JPG

Pro R.JPG

Iris.JPG

"flat modern design" is something completely untrue, and connected to some trends that don't necessarily reflect the opinion of the majority. So, let's stiock with "flat dwesing",m because it isn't more modern that any non-flat design done today.

That said, I have to say that I like the skins of FabFilter (always had, since the beginning, when they weren't still called "flat modern" since they predate the trend), and I also like the iZotope one.

The first skin is ugly, boring and uninspiring, lacks dimension, and the user doesn't have visual reference points. It's a good example of why this trendy "flat" thing isn't a good option (the other two are NOT completely flat).

Devil is on the details

[fmr]

You'll never be able to please everyone with a single GUI. The only way to get close is to allow custom GUI's or at least a choice of skins like many plugins do.

If you keep going in the direction you're heading you may get more complaints about the new GUI than you did about the original.

In my opinion there was nothing wrong with Fathom's GUI in the first place. It's elegant and easy on the eyes. If it ain't broke......

^^^THIS^^^.

If you want to change the GUI, make the plug-in skinnable, and create two or three alternatives INCLUDING THE CURRENT ONE. This way, people may choose what better suits their taste.

[Scrubbing Monkeys]

I always liked Fathoms original GUI as it was..... new, forward thinking and fit the synth.....clean yet powerful. I liked the colors just the way they were. It was the main reason I stuck with it.

[BeeDog]

I also like the original GUI, different from most other styles on the market.

[elassi]

Another "+1" for the old GUI.

Poll, anyone?

[onerob]

I find the current GUI is pretty good but the background textures are a bit strong for my taste and the preset toolbar buttons lack contrast.

[FathomSynth]

"They" say you can't please everyone, but in this case I might be able to prove that wrong.

If the plan I have works out it might actually be possible to provide a level of customization will cover all the bases mentioned above.

After reading all the posts above, I've had a chance to let this gel in my head a little, and here's what I'm thinking.

1. The old GUI will always be a option.
2. Background color of all panels and objects will be settable by the user with color pickers including hue, saturation, lightness.
3. Opacity of the 3D overlay of all objects will be settable to increase or reduce 3D vs Flatness of everything.
4. Three dial options including the existing ones.
5. Some control over the look of the dial meters such as segmented/solid.
6. Greater color contrast between panels in the new design, with the old options available also.
7. Ability to save all your gui settings to file and post it for other people to use.

In terms of the overall look and feel of the new gui...

I never mentioned this before but now is a good time. The Fathom GUI was originally design to generally stay away from overly bright colors. The reason for this is that, though they may look exciting when you are shopping for a new synth, if you spend a lot of time actually using an interface as a tool for your own music, high color contrasts I found can be mentally distracting from your work flow.

So the original GUI theme was to meant achieve a somewhat "industrial" look which emphasis the synth being a serious studio tool. The vinyl material was meant to be somewhat reminiscent of a mil-spec tablet PC or the dashboard of a sports car.

A really good example of this kind of choice is the Fathom logo at the upper left of the GUI which of course would look great in blue for the marketing pictures, but distracting on a day to day bases, which is why I made it the same color as the panels with only a 3D effect.

So, the industrial feel to the GUI will not change.

But I plan on turning up the volume just slightly in terms of a futuristic look by changing the contrast level between panels, buttons and dials, and a few more reflective edges. I will probably stick by my guns with avoiding overly bright colors since it is distracting for a synth that you are spending many hours using the interface, rather than just a few minutes.

So that's the plan. But like I said this is a side project to the CPU efficiency.

[bsntn99]

Jumped on the bandwagon and so far like what I am seeing. Glad to see cpu efficiency is a priority. Loaded up Zebra and created a basic 4 voice saw, same in Fathom. My cpu in my daw was running at 5% for Zebra and 21% for Fathom. Definitely need some improvement or else I will be bouncing tracks constantly.

With a little fiddling I was able to get Fathom to sound exactly like Zebra, increasing the partial count and a lp filter rolling off a bit at the top as is in Zebra. Also, Zebra has a small bit of resonance at the top. Out of the box, Fathom does not sound analog, but you can get there with some messing around.

Not sure, but I couldn't find the phaser presets mentioned in the manual - maybe a future add? Would love to see a link channels for things like the phaser and oscillator voices, etc. so I wouldn't have to go in and set them all individually. Usually I like to dial the group in all together and then just change a few specific things. So having a link option I could turn on and off would be very helpful. Looking forward to all the future updates planned!

[simmo75]

I think you should make the GUI that YOU want as it’s your synth. Keep to your vision, after all, that’s what interested everybody in the first place.
All this “I want”... Jeez...

[Scrubbing Monkeys]

I think you should make the GUI that YOU want as it’s your synth. Keep to your vision, after all, that’s what interested everybody in the first place.
All this “I want”... Jeez...

[Enkerli]

As a new Fathom user, must say that the GUI has been somewhat offputting at first glance, but it becomes less distracting with time. My main issue, at least in Logic Pro X, is that it can’t be resized so some controls may not actually show up in the interface. Maybe there’s a workaround but several of my other plugins do allow for resizing directly, and that’s quite useful.

So, the industrial feel to the GUI will not change.

But I plan on turning up the volume just slightly in terms of a futuristic look by changing the contrast level between panels, buttons and dials, and a few more reflective edges. I will probably stick by my guns with avoiding overly bright colors since it is distracting for a synth that you are spending many hours using the interface, rather than just a few minutes.

Fair enough. Nice way to push in a specific direction while keeping people’s preferences in mind. And, as this thread demonstrates, you’ve been very responsive to diverse voices, which is quite commendable.

Pretty much agreed with jmg8:

I love Fathom, it is a forward thinking modern synth.
However the GUI does not suit its personality.
Fathom sounds nothing like analog hardware. So why is it trying to look like it?
3D elements, and now these new hardware style knobs.
Whats next, are you going to add patch cables to the signal flow? he he
…
I think the GUI should reflect the personality of the synth and should look super futuristic.
I would prefer to get rid of all textures, shadows, 3D elements and go for a flat modern design.

Not that Fathom is like Forstall-era Apple-style skeuomorphism, but a move to something flatter would probably fit the synth. And help our workflows. When textures and simulated 3D don’t add much information, it might make sense sense to get rid of them and give prominence to those elements which really convey important information. Maybe not go all the way to Max or Pd in terms of having simple boxes on a plain background. But making it easy to recognize which interface elements help in which way. In fact, it’d be nice to have a performance mode hiding most of the patching and focus on the modulation. The “Guitar Hero” display of incoming notes is convenient as is the spectrum display. But it doesn’t sound like we get any visual feedback on MIDI CC when it’s applied to a mod. So, assigning a controller’s knob to an oscillator’s waveform produces the desired outcome but it’s hard to know more as to what is really happening even if you display the waveform while fiddling with the knob.

As a “function over form” person, would rather have strong visual cues having to do with the synth’s functionalities than “loud affordances” connecting the synth to the hardware world.

Just my 2¢.