Which plugins do you want to see redesigned?

[Teksonik]

What plugins would you want to see new skins for?

First of all we need to consider that a re-skin and a redesign are two different things. Re-skin keeps things the way they are but puts a new coat of paint on the plugin and a redesign changes workflow, move elements around, etc.

Having said that I would love to see some fresh skins for ANA 2. I've always felt the factory skins aren't of the same quality as the sound of the plugin itself (I am aware of the Slate ANA 2 skins).

Rob Papen has been mentioned and I agree their plugins could use some new GUIs but I fear Rob and Jon are not interested in providing user skinning (on Windows at least, might already be possible on Mac). If the developer does not provide user skinning capabilities then the alternative is to hack the .dll (again on Windows) and I don't advise that for various reasons.

I always welcome something fresh to look at especially if it's a plugin I use for hours a day. I have paid for skins in the past. I feel skin designers should be compensated just as those who create presets or samples should be compensated for their time and talents. So make something I find visually pleasing and I'll consider a purchase.

None of them. Once I know them I don't want changes.
Time, workflow and efficiency of familiarity is a thing and part of good end results.
More than most understand.

One thing you should understand is that having something to look at that pleases your eyes, fits your monitor display, lighting, etc can only have a positive effect on productivity.

GUI redesigns like the Ploki skins for HIVE 2 etc do require you to learn a new workflow but if you can learn once then learning again should not be an issue. You might find the redesign to have a far superior workflow to the original. Re-skins should not require learning to program the plugin again. In the end alternative skins are optional so you're not forced to use them.

The bottom line is that more choices = more happy campers so I welcome any and all re-skins and redesigns.

[Teksonik]

I'm currently working on something for ANA. Under construcion and far from finished though.

Very nice! Keep us informed as to the progress. I might be a buyer just based on the early screenshot.

[cptgone]

Thank you very much.

You're welcome! You may be able to find similar Hive skins elsewhere, not just on the u-he site.

In case anyone is looking, here's a link to U-he's "old PatchLib" (while U-he is working on the new https://u-he.com/community/patchlib/):
https://u-he.com/PatchLib/skins.html

[ramseysounds]

All Soundtoys

[Digivolt]

I wish it were that easy lol. ANA's GUI ships with a ton of hidden traps. A lot of stuff needs to be fixed and adjusted along the way...

I made the right choice to nope out of attempting it then

[rafa1981]

Attack, PPG Wave and Largo (even 2).

Korg Odyssey. Even after the remake they did not get it right. Probably the Korg Wavestation could have the hardware-like UI quirks lifted.

[deepspacevision]

Very nice! Keep us informed ...

Thanks. In terms of overall look the main interface is relatively close to where it will be in the end. I don't think there will be radical changes anymore. Some details, buttons, wheels, placement of some elements and so on need to be done.
Also not sure about the Macro section yet. The knobs are changing colors when turning them (example taken from an earlier version):

MacroKnobs.gif

But I don't know yet. Usually I'm keeping stuff like that for a couple of days and see if I still like it then. I kinda like it as it is on the big screenshot, I might leave it, or do something totally different lol

I made the right choice to nope out of attempting it then

I can tell for sure you saved yourself a lot of time and nerves with that decision
Can't count how many times I shook my head about how things are done like they are. In theory it's likely possible to just take the factory assets, recolor and throw them in again. But as soon as you're creating your own items and move things around a bit, you're facing issues and realize it will be quite some work to do.
Might be one reason why there are hardly any skins for ANA out there. Ok there's Slate but as far I know, as of today all those skins are already "outdated" and not 100% functional.

slate-drift.png

See those little parameter numbers? That's the "Drift" function, right in the middle of nowhere lol.

And then there are things that likely can't even be fixed/corrected.
Phil Johnston, who I believe is the responsible person for ANA at Sonic Academy, said issues occured when they added higher resolution versions of the GUI, I quote him:

the upscaling to HD version created some miss-alignment.

Apparently those miss-alignments haven't been fixed. What it means is that ANA is placing certain elements (often applies to fonts, but also other graphics) differently and sometimes out of place with GUI sizes of 125% upwards, as opposed to sizes of 100% and smaller.
Quick example with the envelope types. First screenshot is taken with GUI size 100%

envsfont-100.png

The text is pretty much accurately aligned to the center of the panels/boxes.

Next screenshot is taken with size 125%

envsfont-125.png

The text is placed quite a portion lower compared to the 100% size.
And there's no way to prevent that, ANA simply places things differently. If I would make it fit to the center on 125% size, it goes out of place on 100% size

That's just one simple example, there's a lot more stuff like that.


[sorry OP @wayford for going quite a bit offtopic! ]

[concealed identity]

I love the sound of Dune 3, and the interface isn't terrible or anything, but there's just something about it that doesn't feel right. I think it's just having the tabbed oscillators, osc mixer, voice layer selector, and number of voices/layers all in separate parts of the synth. The more complex my patches get, the more I find myself searching around to edit the specific things I want. Even though it's useable now, I definitely think there is room for improvement in Dune 4's interface.

[wayford]

Just a little preview of my Soundtoys reskin

[osiris]

I asked AI to do Ana. It's unreadable, and surely unusable, but I like.

[MartyK]

Air Xpand!2
NI Massive
Synth1

[Monsieur_FyP]

Synth1

Oh yes indeed!

[LFO8]

I use the plugins below and would love to see, at the very least, HD upgrades of the existing skins, they are looking a bit tiny on today's monitors. Of course they are all pretty much legacy software and it's unlikely the devs will do anything major with them. If creating entirely new skins for any of them was doable I would be very happy. I would understand if it's not considering their age.

AIR Hybrid 3
AIR Loom 2
AIR Vacuum Pro
Audjoo Helix
iZotope BreakTweaker
IZotope Iris 2
NI FM8
NI Massive (original)

iZotop Trash 2 for that matter..

[Digivolt]

I asked AI to do Ana. It's unreadable, and surely unusable, but I like.

Would definitely buy if that was hardware

[cthonophonic]

I asked AI to do Ana. It's unreadable, and surely unusable, but I like.

Would definitely buy if that was hardware

Inspiring! Gonna produce my first big hit in the key of J minor.