Would You Not Buy A Synth Because It's Not Skinnable?

[raiderpdog]

it always will come to sound first for me. I will try to use any synth that sounds great to me, even if the GUI is less than desirable. I accept it as is, and it is up to me to learn it, or not. If the sound clicks for me, it's a keeper.

[Scotty]

I do keep a 1080p monitor in my studio for plugins that are not scalable but I shouldn’t have to in what is soon going to be 2023. The majority of waves and Universal Audio plugins are not comfortable to use on my main screens which why I have transitioned away from those that aren’t. Plenty of fish in the sea and most plugins are pretty reasonably priced theses days. I’m hoping to ditch my 1080p monitor this year once I replace a few more plugins with alternatives that scale.

[Vortifex]

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[Synthman2000]

That's fair commentary I have no issue with it and understand it. Name 1 synth you don't use cause of the GUI. Personally I would use black on white or vice versa synth if it sounded great.

Something nice to look at is fine but I tend to respect the developers vision and the character they see fit for a synth. I refer back to hardware, layout and how it looks is something you just had/have to put up with.

For myself there are 100's if not 1,000's of things of greater concern when making music than synth GUI. Any mix I do gets about 100-150 tweaks, every one more important than any single synth GUI.

But if you need something sweet to look at that is fine as well, the important things can co exist with the unimportant for the ultimate in enjoyable music making experiences.

[machinesworking]

the old tiny GUI is useable but barely IMO on a 1080p system.

And all 1080P screens are the same size in your universe?

Plugins can have a fixed resolution, never a fixed size.

Pedant much? I think it's entirely safe to say taking out laptop screens, the average screen sizes for 1080p for computer monitors is 27" maybe as low as 24", hardly ever 30 or above. I have a 1920x1080 27" that sits 12" from my face being a Raven, and an old 28" 1920x1200. FM8 is tiny on these screens, it's on the edge at least.

[ramseysounds]

Whatever

[Vortifex]

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[Michael L]

The GUI is a window to the synth architecture
There are good reasons to reject a synth based on GUI

Some people are more sensitive to design & color
Other people don't really notice it that much

One standard cannot apply to everyone
But it's interesting to see differences

BTW I chose monitor ppi to see legacy plugs

[Samiver]

Sound first for me however a skin does make a difference in everyday use. Hive2 is a great example as personally I have enjoyed it a lot more since they brought out the new skin. Seems more accessible in some way.

Overall for me it's more about the options and modulation however the better I like a gui the more likely I am to enjoy using the synth.

[sin night]

If the gui has usability issues, then I’d almost certainly avoid that synth. If only a third party skin solves the issues, I’d still avoid the purchase, because I don’t want to depend on third party work that can be broken at any time… if a dev doesn’t care about usability (and, unfortunately, I have a few examples in mind), I don’t want to have any business with his brand and products, full stop.

If a product allows me to change skin, I usually take advantage of the feature by looking for the darker / less fatiguing one… but that’s it… the synth has to be usable regardless of the skin choice…

To be honest, there aren’t that many good sounding products that are worth getting but with such a bad gui that I’d avoid them, so skinning is not really an issue for me…

[SamDi]

Skinning is nice and OK, but at the end I don't care...

[Boy Wonder]

I voted for "Not unless the GUI was really problematic" which I would apply to Waverazor. Just staring at that synth makes my eyes bleed. I am going to demo it, though, because Richard Devine created presets for it and also because people have touted its unique sound.

BTW, are their "normal" skins for it somewhere?

[chk071]

Couldn't care less.

I wouldn't buy the synth if the default skin or GUI is unbearable though.

[cryophonik]

Exactly, I won’t buy a synth with an unbearable GUI and, fortunately for all of us, there’s no shortage of good looking options. But, I do appreciate a good looking GUI and will occasionally take advantage of a nicer looking skin or just switch up the look for the hell of it, if that’s an option. It’s funny how easily that pisses some sensitive people off, but whatever. I also have no desire to drive around in a hideous car, wear ugly clothes, or hang ugly art on my walls. Sue me.

[THE INTRANCER]

I'll add to my post that if someone is in the business of designing skins and not actually making music, then they will naturally consider skinning an essential thing for them. It's a completely different discipline from creating music which takes a lot of time, patience, knowledge, and skill. You can create a piece of music in a few hours, or a few days and be done. Creating music is very easy in comparison, which is probably why there are so few skin designers - (if it was easy every one would do it). It gets complex when you need to script GUIs (understanding how everything links together, the rules in what you can and can't do and how to do it) and in some cases work on the graphics as not all developers do things the same way.