I know I'm speaking to a lot of the converted, although some of you are using T in spite of the GUI rather than because of it. However, I see the following comment:
"The GUI in Tracktion looks like a toy."
so much that I thought I'd address it a bit... and I didn't really feel like standing up in the middle of the hosts forum (or any other forum) to do so, so I'll just post'er here and maybe some people will agree and maybe some won't.
I don't understand what it is that makes people think it looks like a "toy". If anything, it is LESS "toy-like" than the UI of any of the other major players. I believe what they mean to say is that they don't like the flatness and simplicity of it... which is fair enough (I guess...
), but is certainly not "toy"-like. Are they just echoing what they've heard other people say in other threads? Are they just not creative enough to find their own way of expressing more concisely what it IS about the UI that they don't like? I don't know, but let me elaborate on my argument:A toy is characteristically very colourful, using a healthy dose of primary colours; more specifically, they use TINTs of primary colours (the base colours modified with varying amounts of white/brightness). On the other hand, Tracktion does NOT use primary colours very often, and when it does, they are quite obviously SHADES of a colour rather than tints(the base colour darkened). The end result is that the display is very easy on the eyes. Not only do I have to respect this from a total design perspective (ie. the developer has considered ALL aspects of the program and not just "does it work"), but more specifically it seems clear that the Tracktion colour scheme is the antithesis of "toy" design standards.
A toy often uses bright lights and noise to grab a curious child's attention. For example, kids just LOVE toy fire-trucks and police-cars (again, more primary colours...). While sequencers like Cubase and others will often use bright glowing buttons and widgets to grab a user's attention (well, more accurately, to show off their designer's abilities), the only glowy bits of Tracktion are in place for practical reasons (finding the markers and moving filters) only, as far as I can tell. The rest of the features are easy to find because of good layout.
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Let me extend the argument a little bit further-- let's say that our sequencers are little "work-rooms" (because in a way, they are). What's really impressive for many people (especially people who are unfamiliar with the technology) in a studio? Lots of blinking lights and knobs and things. Steinberg and Logic aren't stupid. They are very aware of how easily impressed we (myself included!!) are with real hardware studios, and are trying to invoke that same feeling in their users so that the user feels that their virtual "work room" resembles a real hardware studio with all its glowy LEDs and knobs and things.
Tracktion does not resemble any of these machines. Does that mean it's a toy? Surely not... because as most of us will admit to, all those hardware compressors, synths, and mixers ARE just toys for big boys and girls. So by emulating them, it's Steinberg and the rest that are actually more toy-like.
To take it one step further-- those LEDs and things may be fine in a studio, but do you want them cluttering up your living room? No, because they're ultimately very distracting. Tracktion is more like being in your living room, where simple design is king and shiny aluminum and LEDs would CERTAINLY make visitors say, "What's with all the toys in here??" The fact that Tracktion happens to have used a good interior designer with a sense of elegance and colour makes it more MATURE in appearance, rather than more "toylike".
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Just to make sure this post is entirely clear-- I am not saying that all people should now believe that Tracktion's style is superior, though I'll make no quibbles that *I* certainly think it is. Rather, I hope people will reconsider what they really mean to say, ask themselves if they're just blindly echoing an opinion they heard once somewhere, and make an attempt to explain more succinctly next time what it is that they don't like about ANY particular design principle, be it Tracktion or something else.
Ultimately, I guess it's the English teacher in me fearing for a world in which people are so lazy about communication that they don't know how to articulate their own opinions after personal efforts in critical thought.
Greg
rob
