A few visual suggestions

[Ogopogo]

I generally like the Bitwig theme, however I feel it could be a bit simpler in a few places so I made a few mock ups to show.

Firstly, the way panes in the inspector are displayed now creates too many edges/borders for me:



I think it'd be possible to get rid of the edges of the panes to make things a bit more clear, and bring the inspector view more in line with the other windows which simply have one outline and their contents within, including the browser which establishes a precedent for the straight cuts. You could also fill in the black area in the middle are create some other transition if it doesn't look perfect:



Also, some might not agree with me on this, but I think I'd prefer items in the arrange to be 2d. This way they are consistent with their clip launcher brothers and the arrange view as a whole seems less like distinctive eye candy which is bothersome.



There are some other things as well that I didn't get around to mocking up. One of my least favorite parts of the gui would be the piano keys in the editor. I think the 3d is bothersome and right now it's difficult to see which keys are being pressed because the colors change so little. Part of this difficulty is the 3d effect itself though. Bitwig seems to almost have a theme going where the only 3d stuff is the function buttons and knobs which I like a lot, it makes it pretty easy to see settings and relevant info at a glance, but right now I think the 3d keys and some of the other 3d edges/panes conflict with that so I'd like to see them ironed out. I'll post some more stuff here sooner or later.

[svervs]

difficult to see which keys are being pressed

Yes please ...

[Adrian Myers]

I definitely agree about the business of the border elements. Bitwig's logical layout is very elegant, but the visual presentation is cluttered. A minimalist option or skin/theme editor (even if just in the form of an editable file!) would be wonderful.

[PolaroidThePenguin]

I definitely agree about the business of the border elements. Bitwig's logical layout is very elegant, but the visual presentation is cluttered. A minimalist option or skin/theme editor (even if just in the form of an editable file!) would be wonderful.

Second that!

[TeotiGraphix]

There was a thread a while back that talked about the theme skin file Bitwig uses(it has one).

I swear I also saw a custom Bitwig skin that was made using custom icons and everything but can't remember where the link is.

I would bet this is already implemented and they will release skin support after other major workflow items have been pushed out.

Mike

[Ogopogo]

Here's another option for the inspector where the grouping boxes extend to the sides like in the browser configuration view. I think it's pretty nice and clear. You could fill in the middle or not:

There was a thread a while back that talked about the theme skin file Bitwig uses(it has one).

I swear I also saw a custom Bitwig skin that was made using custom icons and everything but can't remember where the link is.

I would bet this is already implemented and they will release skin support after other major workflow items have been pushed out.

Mike

That's cool, but not really a big deal to me. The theme is pretty ok as it is I think, and I don't know if I wanna go mucking around with trying to create a theme file even if there are a few things I could do rather easily. I just think it would be nice if the designer at bitwig considered some of this stuff.

[frenchboy]

difficult to see which keys are being pressed

Yes please ...

Not just that, there's no way to know which octave you're on unless you click the pianoroll and look for the flashing light. If there was a pop up somewhere (like at the top where the BPM is or something) telling you which velocity and octave you're at when you press Z and X that would be great. Same thing with the Sampler multi sample window, there's no way to know which key you're pressing while looking at that window, just which sample is being triggered, and sometimes the sample is on many keys or there's no sample at all, and you have no information as to which octave is being pressed.

[svervs]

when you press Z and X

Btw ... I've never reported this so far, I somehow got used to it, but the Z and Y keys are switched for me.
G# and Octave down key. No matter what language I choose in BWS. And the language doesn't change either. Just me ..?

German OSX 10.8.5
Up to 1.0.9 RC1

[Ogopogo]

I don't think we really need the title and category at the top of the browser, do we? Obviously you know you are in the browser and the contents of each category are pretty self explanatory anyway or even have the category title right there in the contents, for example you see "All devices" first thing in the "devices and presets view." If you don't know what you're looking at you need to rtfm.

[Ogopogo]

Did anyone else notice that the ruler is actually two very slightly different shades of black on the top and bottom? Kinda weird... Yeah I know, really nitpicky.

[askewd]

Did anyone else notice that the ruler is actually two very slightly different shades of black on the top and bottom? Kinda weird... Yeah I know, really nitpicky.

Yes, it's to visually indicate the area where you can drag your loop cycle region and I personally think it needs MORE contrast and also needs to be a few pixels thicker. Setting the loop region is one of the things people tend to do constantly so it's quite important and currently its a lot faster & slicker in Daws such as logic. In BW the bar is so thin it's as if I have to 'aim' for it carefully with steadier hand or hover around it until the cursor change into pencil. I believe that on something so fundamental you shouldn't really need to engage brain at all, just want to be able to quickly swipe and be done with it.

[Ogopogo]

Yes, it's to visually indicate the area where you can drag your loop cycle region and I personally think it needs MORE contrast and also needs to be a few pixels thicker.

Seems easy enough to see that area without another color I think, you've got a few things to go by. The fact that it's under the ruler numbers, that it occupies the same space as the lesser division notches, and just that it's the bottom part of the ruler.

The size I've heard before and that makes sense to me, although I use it so little it hasn't really gotten to me. If that area was made the same size as the top section of the ruler, in addition to being easier to handle it would be pretty clear visually because it'd be pretty easy to tell if you were in the bottom half of the ruler or not.

[garyboozy]

i'd also like to see the tiny faders (next to the text values) enlarged too, so that double-clicking the bigger faders resets the values to default, and double-clicking on the text still lets you enter the value manually.

[codec17]

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 9&t=412645

sorry...
Got the idea that this one is watched more...

[askewd]

Yes, it's to visually indicate the area where you can drag your loop cycle region and I personally think it needs MORE contrast and also needs to be a few pixels thicker.

Seems easy enough to see that area without another color I think, you've got a few things to go by. The fact that it's under the ruler numbers, that it occupies the same space as the lesser division notches, and just that it's the bottom part of the ruler.

The size I've heard before and that makes sense to me, although I use it so little it hasn't really gotten to me. If that area was made the same size as the top section of the ruler, in addition to being easier to handle it would be pretty clear visually because it'd be pretty easy to tell if you were in the bottom half of the ruler or not.

i'd be kinda ok with that, ie it always being the 'bottom' part of the bar... the problem though is highlighted further when the markers are enabled. Then it just floats in the middle, and is really thin. See pic:

withmarker.jpg

For me this is one of the most used and important areas of the program, and i believe it needs improving on.