Difficulties with MuLab

[MuTools]

About the two-fingered trackpad scrolling: I've taken note on the wishlist to have a look at that.

[paradiddle]

Great thank you! It would feel much more comfortable to use in general!

[MuTools]

Resizing is strange. MuLab doesn't buffer enough to keep up with resizing so you get big white regions before they get filled.

I can't repeat this with MuLab on MacOS Sierra. I read you're on MacOS 10.9. Question: Why are you not using Sierra?

[EvilDragon]

In any DAW that uses VSTs it is impossible to detect wether a project has changed or not.
There is a related Q&A about that on this doc page: http://www.mutools.com/info/docs/mulab/ ... swers.html

Reaper does it just fine. i.e. load your project, tweak a parameter in a plugin, and it will show [modified] next to project title in the program title bar.

[MuTools]

Not always true. Example: Insert NI Massive and tweak the LFO shape, Reaper doesn't detect that the project has changed.

[EvilDragon]

Right, that might differ from VST to VST, depending how they're reporting parameter changes, I suppose. But hey, better something than nothing.

[MuTools]

I'm not sure about your last sentence because when the host indicates whether or not a project has changed the user will trust that and so when it is not reliable this might lead to (very) uncomfortable situations eg closing a project that has changed and no save option that pops up. That's why i chose to clearly say that a DAW cannot reliably indicate whether or not a project using VSTs has changed.

[feijai]

Conclusion: Eventhough i do understand and respect your points of constructive criticism, and while i will continue to improve the general look & feel and user comfort, i conclude we have a different view on things, especially when it comes to supporting MacOS specific standards.

I can only bring a horse to water. I can't make him drink.

Operating system interfaces are about many things, but they are *primarily* about consistency. What makes a good GUI easy to learn, easy to use, and easy to automate, is that things work the same way from application to application. This leads directly to the Principle of Least Astonishment. Or as I like to put it, reducing the rate of WTFs per minute. It also greatly improves the ability for a user to use two applications together in his workflow.

I'm saddened to report that MuTools is, in this sense of things, unusually astonishing, and that's not at all good. Now you might say that you have little choice because your resources are too few to customize per-OS [to which I would reply: I understand these constraints, but doing this right would be well worth the investment]. But I hope you don't simply disagree with the Principle of Least Astonishment, which has an awful lot of research and development behind it. Please reconsider supporting OS X as a first-class environment.

[MuTools]

I can only bring a horse to water. I can't make him drink.

Why are you still on MacOS 10.9?

Please reconsider supporting OS X as a first-class environment.

I already do. But we have different views on how much an app should obey to certain platform specific guidelines. And, as already said, i also have to protect myself, as a small indie dev, against the many MacOS version quirks and incompatibilities. I have replied to the list of issues you saw and most have been sorted out (eg no inter-app copy-paste audio, also not by other DAWs, has nothing to do with MacOS incompliance, it's just a platform-independent Feature Request), others (like certain text input issues) will be improved in the next version. I agree with you that the text input behavior needed an update, thanks for highlighting that.

[Michael L]

Someone else was curious and read that "Principle." It recommends that an interface should "borrow heavily from functionally similar or analogous programs with which your users are likely to be familiar" and MuLab certainly does have a similar interface with other DAWs. You argue that a DAW interface should be similar to all OSX (10.9!) programs like Chrome, Safari or FinalCut, but they are not functionally similar

[BlackWinny]

I can only bring a horse to water. I can't make him drink.

Operating system interfaces are about many things, but they are *primarily* about consistency. What makes a good GUI easy to learn, easy to use, and easy to automate, is that things work the same way from application to application. This leads directly to the Principle of Least Astonishment. Or as I like to put it, reducing the rate of WTFs per minute. It also greatly improves the ability for a user to use two applications together in his workflow.

I'm saddened to report that MuTools is, in this sense of things, unusually astonishing, and that's not at all good. Now you might say that you have little choice because your resources are too few to customize per-OS [to which I would reply: I understand these constraints, but doing this right would be well worth the investment]. But I hope you don't simply disagree with the Principle of Least Astonishment, which has an awful lot of research and development behind it. Please reconsider supporting OS X as a first-class environment.

The best would be certainly to bring your horse to the right river.

You want a DAW which sticks perfectly to the OSX specifications? Buy Logic Pro! It is made by Apple themselves!
http://www.apple.com/logic-pro/

It is not the same price: Logic Pro costs three times the price of Mulab.

But Apple is a huge brand while Mutools is a one-man company!

And from a one-man company we don't have to ask for an arm when he offers a hand!

Please reconsider supporting OS X as a first-class environment.

And please reconsider the river you bring your horse to. And please reconsider the amount of investments a one-man company can do compared to a major brand which is focused exclusively on its operating system and on the applications made exclusively for its own operating system!

This!