skinning XT2

[jorgen]

hiya, you may have noticed the "looks" tab in setup is been groving and now Im soon adding bitmap support for skinning. One thing thats bugging me a bit though, is that there is a lof of space in upper part of the ui with transporter, toolbars and rouler.

Im busy working on some core stuff, but if anyone has ideas on how to make XT2 look nicer and more streamlined, please post ideas here



cheers
jorgen

[Diek]

I don't know if it's too difficult to implement, but I miss (and in Energy XT also) transport bar been floating with the option to dock. It could be the same floating window for measure, loop, and other useful info, this way you'll need a whole row less in the upper GUI

[jorgen]

yes, maybe floating transporter bar would be cool. In fact any toolbar could/should be made floatable...

Im a "dock everything" person myself though

cheers
jorgen

[disturb]

yes, maybe floating transporter bar would be cool. In fact any toolbar could/should be made floatable...

Im a "dock everything" person myself though

cheers
jorgen

dock everything, but exactly where you want to is even better

[inzeenir]

One thing that bothers me is, that when you select a clip it turns blue completely - it should still show it's original color somehow. Selection should be indicated in some other way (Cubase/Nuendo, Logic ...) imo. Another not so important thing is that audio waveforms often "hide" the name of the part, so it's unreadable. Suggestion: Make audioforms of the same colour that parts are, only in darker shade (pro tools style) and keep the names in black or make them white if the part is too dark.

Another thing - I would also make the ruler wider (Logic stytle), but I don't think it would make it look nicer, just easier to click. I miss the 4 bar indication in the sequencer (2 shades) - when I zoom out I lose the feeling of how long are the parts.

[silicon/silicium]

ok for floating window if it's optionnal.
About Gui design, in fact, I found the current browser really more annoying than the top zone: It takes some vertical place (so more zoom use in the sequencer), and it's very difficult to navigate among differents folders. eg you insert a hihat sample, then you have to scroll to go back to vsti (and scroll a lot if ou have bunch of samples), you have to choose either to close the sample folder or simply scroll, then if sanre is needed, open another huuuuuge list. in fact, to me it should be two zones: one with folders names (vsti, projects, comps, samples+some favorites folders for samples), the other displaying the content of the folders, with current position remembered. I think I would rather have an horizontal browser, a la acid/sonar, under the sequencing/comps zone.
Also having a way to have a mini mixer in the same zone could be cool.
Concerning the top zone, at least, if you dont plan to use empty space at the right of the transport panel, the second display line (undo etc...) could go here.

About the seq, usefull title should be more clear, eg the track name ine the left mixer strip (instead of havin a big "sequencer" on colored background, it should be something like track name. same in mixer, title are almost lot ine themiddle of the display.
In the object bar, selected object type and nam shoul be more visible.

Just some thoughts thrown across the air....

[Sturgeon]

A very LARGE time/bars beats info display could be good in the upper ui area - user selectable of course.

s.

[inzeenir]

Yeah the browser is actually not that handy - constantly switching between plugins and samples (putting plugins on the right mouse button could help maybe). And audio pool should have more info (path, number of clips in the sequence ..) so, it should be in a separated window imo. But having it in a browser for drag n drop of already used samples in nice too.

[plastique]

Not directly related to this skinning topic per se, but since docking was mentioned ... wasn't the render bar dockable too at some point ?
When I click the button to open it, it opens as a floating window and when I try to dock it to a new page xt crashes with a segmentation fault. This looks like a severe bug to me (only tested in linux).

Back to skinning ...
I think it's ok to leave some free space up there. Keep it for controls that might get added there in later versions. Also don't forget that it will look quite different when e.g. 10+ docks are used.
An idea would be to dynamically arrange those controls vertically (in rows) if the main window gets larger/smaller (like it happens with the docks in xt1 when the window reaches a certain width).
You could also make the docks area floating/dockable so that you could e.g. drag them vertically stacked at the west/east sides of the main window ...

Two other bugs since I'm at it now (having to do with dual monitor)...
- if the window is resized to a smaller value (width or height <= 0) either xt crashes (X11 exception) or it resizes to a irrationally large size
- if the window is resized on the second monitor the size calculations seem to go wrong and xt resizes in some random fashion

[Diek]

Yeah the browser is actually not that handy - constantly switching between plugins and samples (putting plugins on the right mouse button could help maybe).

It would be nice if you could set wich folders appear in the browser (per project). And 1+ for plugins and presets appearing with right mouse button like in Buzz.

[inverseroom]

I would put undo, redo, and the comps stuff on the same line as the transport controls, but over to the right. This would make more room for the sequencer and mixer, and make the whole thing less lopsided.

[jorgen]

thanks for the ideas

how about if I remove the "quick load" dropdown in toolbar and add a recent folder under projects in the browser (and/or File > Recent projects)? I do like theway it is now though (very quick to change projects), so not sure...

cheers
jorgen

[Sturgeon]

Recent folder is a very good idea. Could there just be a + button that adds folders as required?

I like the speed in selecting projects too.

s.

[FragileX]

I would vote for recent folder and "File > Recent projects"

Then you could perhaps move the "bpm" and the "notelisten-togglebutton" to the sequencer next to the "programs-drop down" [which only makes sense if two sequencers can have different speeds].
So we would get a bar with only transport and time_info wich can float or be docked

[insertpizhere]

i would move recent projects to the file menu and to the browser. current project would be shown in the title bar. i'd make the undo and redo buttons optional (and they should probably also be in the edit menu). then i'd move everything to one row, and make a thicker line and more space between the toolbar and everything else. if the dock bar gets too long, it would move down to its own row (like in eXT1). then i would make room for a cpu meter and a counter for the sequencer.

something like this.