Oatmeal skins, patches and presets

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[Kermit Jagger]

Yes, 37-3 is only a fix for Receptor use.

[grymmjack]

Where is grymmjack(?) in the Oatmeal skin section. The skins he's done for FrettedSynth and upcoming GVST are...

i've not gotten to it yet, but promise i will eventually. give me a bit as i'm over my head already with stuff. given your post, though, what kind of skin are you hoping for out of me? any artistic advice or preferences would be cool to hear. sizes of the controls, positions/layouts, etc? i'm very keen to skin oatmeal, but there are a few projects ahead of it in the queue. thanks for your compliment.

YAAAAAAAY!!!!! YaAaAAAAyYYYYY!!!!!

It doesnt't really matter WHAT kind of skin you design. What you did with the GVST simple interface was fantastic. And the 3D-ism on the PhazOsc was just as sharp as can be. I'm really glad to hear that you're looking forward to doing it too.

Somone else did a different layout for Oatmeal that was easier to decipher from the outset than the original Oatmeal skin. I actually like the Oatmeal yellow skin and have kept it thus far, but an improvement like you're likely to bring is more than welcome. I can only say from seeing what you've done before that I have confidence in your ability to put out a fine work... there's really no other way to say it

As for layout I can perhaps give the following suggestions:

- That the different *part labels* (ie Osc 1,2, Filter, Reverb, Delay, Chorus...) be distinguished from other function labels; perhaps in colour/size/depth/texture or font etc, so they stand out really well. The smaller the skin, the more true that becomes. You can check out Angular Momentum's Wavedraw for an example of this. VERY simply done, but I looked at it once, and in 15 seconds knew everything that was there and where to find it.
- Maybe, because you're so adept at 3D and the subtle shading that comes with it, you could use these aspects to seperate the *group sections* of the synth (ie Osc's, Effects, Hodgepodge, MOD section...) so the different SECTIONS of the synth stand even further. The guys from Novaflash did this for their Microgram (rather flamboyantly I may add ). Oatmeal is a big synth as well, and this makes it much more navigable.... or nice borders work just as well.
- For size, I believe with Oatmeal it's OK to have one slightly larger than the original rendition, but it's really not important if the controls are easily discernable.

Those are the only suggestions I can muster: just functional ones, I hope. I leave the delicate cosmetics up to you. Like I've said, from what you've done before, you make things very easy to look at anyway (FreeAmp2). It's extremely important when you're concentrating on learning sound sculpture like I am right now. Oatmeal is a reasonably sized synth; making it easy to determine the controls, and keeping everything visible all the time will be quite a challenge. For this case I'm glad you're considering it as a project and I'm RREEEEAAALLY looking forward to it whenever it's done. TA!

thanks very much, really it gives me joy to know others like the stuff i've made so far.

as for the oatmeal skin; those are great suggestions and i definitely will keep all of those in mind. the main goal with any project i do is usability first, then beauty -- so my skin may be a bit on the larger side, and i may reorient the controls a bit, but i guarantee you that i will ask before i do major things like this in the design. at any cost it will always fit on a 800x600 display, and never exceed that.

i will of course be posting a flat 2bit mockup so that you can all make comments and guide the project along. the main thing as you say with oatmeal is there is sooo much stuff crammed into such a tiny area. i hope i can manage it all in an elegant and beautiful way that complements the soul of the instrument. it's really a tweakers dream freebie.

right now the skins that do exist, no offense to the existing designers, just dont do it for me. the layout is mainly the culprit in most of them, and the ones i like the best so far out of them all are Yeagerwhite37mixedknobs.oms, and ezeeskin2black_37.oms -- and only because the features have the most differntiation of the different control sections.

however there still is not enough negative SPACE. i get claustrophobic using it as it is. the other complaint i have is about the size of the controls on the current ones. the click targets are too small in many skins (the yeager skin is an exception) and partly this is what i hope to remedy. i'm thinking the main goal here is usability, form following function.

honorable mention goes to majkens beautiful tiny skin (but it's too small for my old eyes), and that's about the prettiest of them all in terms of spit and polish i think (it may be because i fell in love with the surge UI i feel this way, and majkens colors are similar there).

anyway, thanks for your feedback and i'll get back to this thread when the time comes, since this is like the all-singing-all-dancing oatmeal thread yes? would be ok to use it?

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[R.A.W.]

No need for me to download this then?

it's not too big, is it?
i got no idea if there are any other fixes included, i just tend to install the latest versions of every plug i use

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[Glassback]

new skin

Nice one - list updated.

[GaryG]

nice

thanks.

Nice one - list updated.

cheers.

@Grymmjack:

You bring up some excellent points, re: negative space etc.

The problem as i see is you have over 180 knobs on the main panel alone (plus all the buttons and selectors). Fitting all these into 800x600 along with embelishments to provide distinction between the sections is going to be tough. To be honest, that's why I went for simplicity, forgot about any notion of '3d' (not that i'm any good at it anyway... ) or space.

The other problem is the feel of the slider controls; it takes far too much mousing to move a slider, effectively limiting you to knobs (though you could always make a knob that looks like a slider... hadn't thought of that before...)

Anyway, i feel my skin is a hack to make Oatmeal more useable for me, if anyone else uses (or improves!) it so much the better.

.g

[R.A.W.]

No need for me to download this then?

it's not too big, is it?
i got no idea if there are any other fixes included, i just tend to install the latest versions of every plug i use

arghh so do all the skins and patches still work then!

Yes[...]

[Karmacomposer]

I just tried out Oatmeal for the 1st time.

Wow - I am impressed.

My absolute favorite thing about Oatmeal is the random feature. It's just too much fun - AND has a sense of humor too!

Mike

[R.A.W.]

My absolute favorite thing about Oatmeal is the random feature.

welcome to the club of instantly-random-button-clickers

p.s.: every once in a while oatmeal will display a pop-up when you click the button.. don't be afraid, it's no ad

[grymmjack]

I just tried out Oatmeal for the 1st time.

Wow - I am impressed.

My absolute favorite thing about Oatmeal is the random feature. It's just too much fun - AND has a sense of humor too!

Mike

some of my favorite names:

Emptying Their Aunt
Fool The Sockzombies
Merry Thunderlizards
They Are My Goats

the "merry thunderlizards" is a kick ass name for a band.

[grymmjack]

nice

thanks.

Nice one - list updated.

cheers.

@Grymmjack:

You bring up some excellent points, re: negative space etc.

The problem as i see is you have over 180 knobs on the main panel alone (plus all the buttons and selectors). Fitting all these into 800x600 along with embelishments to provide distinction between the sections is going to be tough. To be honest, that's why I went for simplicity, forgot about any notion of '3d' (not that i'm any good at it anyway... ) or space.

The other problem is the feel of the slider controls; it takes far too much mousing to move a slider, effectively limiting you to knobs (though you could always make a knob that looks like a slider... hadn't thought of that before...)

Anyway, i feel my skin is a hack to make Oatmeal more useable for me, if anyone else uses (or improves!) it so much the better.

.g

gary, no for sure wasn't knocking you, just analyzing out loud. and yes you are right it's alot. the variation knobs by yeager uses faders for envelopes, which imo is a must. envelope controls should ALWAYS be faders if possible just because it gives a better visual overview of the envelope.

[GaryG]

gary, no for sure wasn't knocking you, just analyzing out loud.

oh yeah, i realise that, didn't mean to send defensive.

When I get time, I'm going to have a go at a knob-based slider to see if that works better than a regular slider.

.g

[emdot_ambient]

Just finished this bank . . . haven't really gone in and made sure everything's okay with it, though, so some of the volumes may be off.

Enjoy:

Emdot Bank 1