Reaper is not an ugly duckling anymore !

[Andywanders]

Not all... I've been professionally recording since 1969 ...

Now come on Art, everyone knows they didn't have recording equipment back in 1969!

[shogger]

http://www.ardour.org/

Yeah, how's the midi editing?

Shogger

[Pipelineaudio]

White Tie gave me some faders for my Neve 8108/Studer 827 theme

[swivel]

I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with reaper overall. Especially with a skin like "Akoustic Induction".


But what I really don't like - and this goes for all skins, it's "built in" - is that it's hard to distinguish the clips from the background and from each other... they all seem to meld together somehow.

So a few suggestions:

1) Add skinning support for having a different color on odd/even track unselected clips. (You can do this with selected clips, but not unselected ones - should be the opposite IMO)

2) Make the background a slightly different shade for each large vertical time section like energyxt used to do:


3) make the clip border lines slightly thicker so they stand out more.

4) maybe make the clips slightly smaller vertically so that they are less tall than the track they are on.

5) place the vertical bar delimiters BEHIND clips. Or alternatively, make them dotted when over clips, solid otherwise. But if (4) is implemented, placing them behind clips might work well.

I'm not a GUI expert, but in some hosts the clips stand out pleasingly. Would like reaper to be one of them. With a little tweaking, it could happen!

[sjm]

hmm, have just read 18+ pages of this thread

Thanks first off to whoever posted the Younsoft skin; it's the first screenshot from REAPER that actually makes me think I could use the thing. I have to agree with those who were saying that one way or another, the UI just wasn't inviting and too many of them look like kids designed them.

I also have to agree that a lot of the time the screenshots DO look extremely cluttered. Whether or not you can change this somewhere in the options is irrelevant to me; I do expect the software to look usable and have a relatively clear layout by default. That's why I fully agree with Lunch Money's assessment that white space is important. White space allows you to create a layout that immediately distinguishes different types of information and makes things easy to find. His book analogy is right on the money. In a book, it's important to know what is a title (so I can easily find the section with the info I want), what is a sub-section (ditto) and what is body text.

The same applies to a user interface. It has a layout. There are section and subsections and content. It's important to be able to immediately tell where the content you are looking for is located. That's what the white space if for. Mutant's poll was obviously a complete joke; just the same as the following.

what is more useful to you:
a cluttered illegible mess
a well laid out interface with adequate spacing.

Silly question really.

It's like asking which of these two sentences is more readable...
It'slikeaskingwhichofthesetwosentencesismorereadable...

Both texts contain the same data, but one is an indecipherable blur and one is a readable sentence. REAPER's always put me off in about 10 seconds by looking like the second sentence. Sure, with effort, you can read it. But why write it that way in the first place?

[Pipelineaudio]

All these years I have noticed that the apps drawing pretty pictures on the screen lacked any useable sidechain implementation. It doesnt matter how buffed and waxed your car is if there's no engine in it.

That said maybe more white space is in order

[Mutant]

Jeeezzzz !

I'm SJM, my PC keyboard has ~104 keys and to every person who is not accustomed to computers or typewriters it looks very cluttered, so I'm gonna rip 103 of 'em out because with only one key and so much white space it will be sooooo much more useful !

[Mutant]

btw Now I know who's the second one who voted for empty space. LOL !

[alex zonder]

'Cluttered' may be some special KVR jargon, but in everyday life I'd call the REAPER screen in front of me UNcluttered... Unless I'd open every possible window - something I don't do.



and with a few clicks in the theme editor you got something for white space lovers... still fully functional

[Pipelineaudio]

from the Oxford revised English dictionary of Digital Audio Workstations:

cluttered \Kluh-terd\, adj:
1. Logic
2. Cubendo
3. Logic
4. Logic

[koolkeys]

Alex, those screens you showed were not cluttered, I agree. But to get to the rest of the functional stuff, you do have to open more windows. That's the point. Somebody posted an almost exact picture of Tracktion a few pages back, and people have said that Tracktion is cluttered. I completely disagree that it is in any way, shape, or form.

So I guess it just comes down to preference, what functions you need and use regularly, etc. For instance, in your screenshot, you can't access the effects chain without opening another window. But there COULD be a way, which just that alone would go very far in helping the case.

White space is good. If you can create white space while still allowing very quick access to everything else, you have something going. Reaper is getting there IMO, but could use some work IMHO. Some people love it to death. It just shows that we all don't look at the screen the same way.

Brent

[koolkeys]

from the Oxford revised English dictionary of Digital Audio Workstations:

cluttered \Kluh-terd\, adj:
1. Logic
2. Cubendo
3. Logic
4. Logic

I think Sonar could be in there as well, but you can change EVERYTHING about the Sonar UI if you want I guess. So maybe not. I actually like Sonar when it's organized the way I want. But the default view has too much going on.

Brent

[alex zonder]

Alex, those screens you showed were not cluttered, I agree. But to get to the rest of the functional stuff, you do have to open more windows. That's the point.

What counts for me is that very uncluttered view of the audio/midi tracks. There'll always be windows you need to open (just think of what VSTi's like Guitar Rig do to 'a clear view' of the tracks ) ... and normally I do my recording/editing work on two monitors anyway. Almost everything in REAPER can float on the second monitor, including the whole docker and everything it contains... a lot of comfort and a great workflow afa I am concerned

[Muzik 4 Machines]

from the Oxford revised English dictionary of Digital Audio Workstations:

cluttered \Kluh-terd\, adj:
1. Logic
2. Cubendo
3. Logic
4. Logic

you forgot Logic

[koolkeys]

Alex, those screens you showed were not cluttered, I agree. But to get to the rest of the functional stuff, you do have to open more windows. That's the point.

What counts for me is that very uncluttered view of the audio/midi tracks. There'll always be windows you need to open (just think of what VSTi's like Guitar Rig do to 'a clear view' of the tracks ) ... and normally I do my recording/editing work on two monitors anyway. Almost everything in REAPER can float on the second monitor, including the whole docker and everything it contains... a lot of comfort and a great workflow afa I am concerned

I agree with you. I was just pointing out that the problem here wasn't in the stuff you posted. Many apps can get that clean when you take away other elements. It's how each app handles the extra stuff that has to be shown from time to time that I believe is most important.

Brent