MuTools

dakkra · Post by **dakkra** » Sun Sep 20, 2015 2:49 pm

charlesnavi wrote:I'm not sure if there are any designers among the members of the MuTools community, but I think it would be nice to have some blueprints so we can vote or express our view before implementing the new design.

You're talking to them. Mutools is probably one of the best non-open source community/user driven projects (Hence why threads like this are even a plausible thing vs other companies who have their own agenda and the users might get to pick 1 or 2 features).

charlesnavi · Post by **charlesnavi** » Sun Sep 20, 2015 7:48 pm

dakkra wrote:You're talking to them. Mutools is probably one of the best non-open source community/user driven projects (Hence why threads like this are even a plausible thing vs other companies who have their own agenda and the users might get to pick 1 or 2 features).

Yeah, I know. That's the thing a like the most about MuLab/MUX.

I meant UI/UX Designers (people who actually work designing interfaces).

janhardo · Post by **janhardo** » Sun Sep 20, 2015 10:03 pm

Mulab for the whole world!
Mutools is now facing the problem how to get the attention of the world for his software.
Stupid world.. the only solution is to attract people by the looks of mulab

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 9:40 am

Thanks everyone for your very interesting feedback, much appreciated!
Taken notes about the common things said.

Essentially i think i'll have to make the UI even more skinnable. I think the looks code does not need a completely rewrite, but rather needs extented parameterization and preferencing. And of course also make the font a user preference and select a better default one.

I'll do my best to r&d such extra skin options asap so that we can tweak the looks, discuss concrete examples, and choose the best default one.

To be continued.

Grizzellda · Post by **Grizzellda** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 10:02 am

mutools wrote:Essentially i think i'll have to make the UI even more skinnable. I think the looks code does not need a completely rewrite, but rather needs extented parameterization and preferencing.

Interesting stuff! Do you think you could offer the same level of customization as REAPER? Or would that require a "complete code rewrite"? Could you elaborate please?

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 10:24 am

Grizzellda wrote:Interesting stuff! Do you think you could offer the same level of customization as REAPER?

No that's not what i have in mind. Basically the current UI system will stay, but more tweakable. For example: The buttons now have a rounded corners, i'll add a preference so they can be less rounded or even rectangular corners. Also want to add more user control over the gradient intensity of buttons, racks etc. Does this answer your question?

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 10:32 am

sl23 wrote:I also believe one of the main things that may put people off could be one of mulab's strengths, it's minimalistic interface. The emptiness makes you wonder how to use it! But get used to its different ways and it's far better.

+

liquidsound wrote:I think MuLab could benefit (grabbing more attention) if the interface (in its minimalist way?) could reveal more of the "ways" and "tools" available for its modular tridimensional workflow at first glance.

I understand that maybe MuLab looks a bit too simple. A light UI feel and ease on the eye are important design goals, but atoh it may not be too simple indeed. Already did rebalance that in the recent updates but will continue the challenge of showing enough but not too much.

Grizzellda · Post by **Grizzellda** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 11:15 am

mutools wrote:No that's not what i have in mind. Basically the current UI system will stay, but more tweakable. For example: The buttons now have a rounded corners, i'll add a preference so they can be less rounded or even rectangular corners. Also want to add more user control over the gradient intensity of buttons, racks etc. Does this answer your question?

Well, I don't think this is real "reskinning" then...it is just offering more preferences. Sure, that would always be welcome. But let's consider REAPER...the UI is basically set, but the different themes create many different looks for the program...but to do that for MuLab might require some deeper code changes, right?

Come to think of it, REAPER seems alot more popular than MuLab...and without any real advertising either! Maybe you could consider giving users more control?

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 11:27 am

I gotta say that MuLab not using OS windowing (at least for the main window) is a bit of a throw-off. And yes, the default font.

As for the overall looks of it, I don't find it cheap looking, but it's not exactly pro looking either. It is a very light design, contrast is pretty good (very important!). Submenus in contexts shouldn't need a click to open (was this changed recently?).

runaudio · Post by **runaudio** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 11:37 am

all this talk about reaper whos care we are not here to talk about reaper so if its reaper you want to use go ahead

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 11:46 am

runaudio, thx for your opinion, but pls understand that it is very relevant to compare MuLab to other DAWs. So that's where, among others, Reaper comes into this topic.

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 11:49 am

Grizzellda wrote:Well, I don't think this is real "reskinning" then...

Maybe 'Theming' is a better term then?

runaudio · Post by **runaudio** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 11:52 am

sorry jo i understand

runaudio · Post by **runaudio** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 11:54 am

just wondering what it look like alpha testing cant wait

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Mon Sep 21, 2015 11:54 am

chuckwood wrote:I have spent some time playing around with Mulab to try and better explain what I think could be improved with the interface.

Thanks a lot for your detailed post. Taken several notes, even about things i'm not explicitly replying about.

The default yellow colour behind knobs isn't nice. I know this can be changed and I have changed it, but again, from a new user perspective, the default is the first thing they see.

From the current M6.5 dark skins, which color do you prefer most? This is also a question to other users. You can switch color themes via MuLab menu -> Edit Colors -> Presets -> Load Preset.

I have always disliked the look of the rack and have tried to pinpoint what it is. I'm still not 100% so may elaborate later. I think the downward pointing triangles on the rack are a bit out of place, perhaps should be curved to fit the rest of the theme or should be more bold. The other way of thinking is that there are too many curved edges in the rest of Mulab, as mentioned earlier, and this doesn't work with the triangles.

Could you post a mockup of your preferred rack looks.

In terms of user skinning, a little while ago I tried hacking the theme but came a bit unstuck when thinking about re-designing the knobs. I realised I would have to render any new knob design in several different rotated positions and I couldn't figure out a quick way to do that.

See http://www.g200kg.com/en/software/knobman.html

Seeing as the knob design was going to be a bit of trial and error anyway, would there be a way for us to simply create one position of the knob and have MUX/Mulab do the rotations.

If the source knob picture includes shadowing/lightning, then simply rotating the knob will not look good.

Perhaps you could even have a splash screen contest where you hand out the basic images with any technical or design requirements you have and let people loose. I would be game. You could always reserve the right to not use any of them in case they are all terrible!

Good idea. Lets call the MU splash contest opened. To everyone who's interested: Please design splash picture in such way that it is usable for different MuTools products, currently MuLab and MUX Modular Plug-In, but more may be added. Please also properly preserve the source files of your design and construct it as flexible as possible so that if some detail needs to be changed, it's easy to do so.

I also already had the idea of updating the splash for M7. This is the one i had created already, opinions welcome:

p1.png

Note that the "MuTools - Enjoy Making Music" is to be replaced by
"MuLab - Music Production Studio"
"MUX Modular - Modular Audio & Effect Plug-In"
...

MuTools

KVR Audio

MuLab & MUX UI Looks