I was thrown off at first, but it didn’t take long before I was using it comfortably.bmanic wrote: ↑Thu Jun 01, 2023 12:15 pm It could be a single toggle option in setup to make it work like 99.9999% of every other mouse controlled software. Simple as that. I'm pretty sure a lot of sales are lost because of the absolute shock you have when you install the synth and realize its controls are incredibly awkward to use.
I think the thing that bothers me most about this sort of thing is Plasmonic is amazing. The recent walkthroughs posted here show how powerful it is with only a few of it's modules activated. Brian is a one man team, he's not NI, he can't move that fast even if he wanted to, and his vision isn't for everyone. Yet here we are with one poster whose ego is clearly in the way of his ability to admit how overreaction to his initial confusion with the interface is going to hinder sales of a product. KVR is in fact a huge reason for the initial push for smaller developers, U-He no doubt gained massive attention here. Our reactions or overreactions to products do in fact matter, far more than winning internet squabbles.
I can speak only for myself, but my initial reaction to Plasmonic a while ago was „Whoa this thing is UGLY, just like Absynth“. And after watching a walkthrough video I wasn’t sure if I would want to use that thing. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one put off by the idiosyncratic UI and UX, and I didn’t need KVR to come to that conclusion. So far I haven’t bought it.machinesworking wrote: ↑Sat Jun 03, 2023 7:26 am I think the thing that bothers me most about this sort of thing is Plasmonic is amazing. The recent walkthroughs posted here show how powerful it is with only a few of it's modules activated. Brian is a one man team, he's not NI, he can't move that fast even if he wanted to, and his vision isn't for everyone. Yet here we are with one poster whose ego is clearly in the way of his ability to admit how overreaction to his initial confusion with the interface is going to hinder sales of a product. KVR is in fact a huge reason for the initial push for smaller developers, U-He no doubt gained massive attention here. Our reactions or overreactions to products do in fact matter, far more than winning internet squabbles.
Plasmonic is in my top 5 used soft synths these days, it's amazing and a worthy successor to Absynth.
It begs the question that I’ve been asking for years to myself now, when does UX get in the way? Complexity has been compromised for convenience with every single thing recently, hardly anything comes with a complete manual because we’re all supposed to intuitively figure out how to use all hard and software, if it doesn’t immediately make sense to someone they throw a fit. This is about electronic music, that stuff that includes music theory, PD, Max/MSP, Reaktor, Metasynth, modular hardware etc. etc. yet all of it is now supposed to be as simple to get into as Garageband. I’m not OK with that, it’s absolutely fine to have products that are not absolutely 100% intuitive if the end result is added features, and honestly Plasmonic isn’t that hard.nanostream wrote: ↑Sat Jun 03, 2023 9:24 amI can speak only for myself, but my initial reaction to Plasmonic a while ago was „Whoa this thing is UGLY, just like Absynth“. And after watching a walkthrough video I wasn’t sure if I would want to use that thing. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one put off by the idiosyncratic UI and UX, and I didn’t need KVR to come to that conclusion. So far I haven’t bought it.machinesworking wrote: ↑Sat Jun 03, 2023 7:26 am I think the thing that bothers me most about this sort of thing is Plasmonic is amazing. The recent walkthroughs posted here show how powerful it is with only a few of it's modules activated. Brian is a one man team, he's not NI, he can't move that fast even if he wanted to, and his vision isn't for everyone. Yet here we are with one poster whose ego is clearly in the way of his ability to admit how overreaction to his initial confusion with the interface is going to hinder sales of a product. KVR is in fact a huge reason for the initial push for smaller developers, U-He no doubt gained massive attention here. Our reactions or overreactions to products do in fact matter, far more than winning internet squabbles.
Plasmonic is in my top 5 used soft synths these days, it's amazing and a worthy successor to Absynth.
The only reason it’s still on my radar is because I nonetheless think it sounds interesting, and because I keep reading on KVR, among other places, that it’s worth it. You win some, you lose some, I guess.
As it happens I recently bought an MPE controller and I’m looking at MPE synths, Plasmonic being one of them. I’m about to demo it and I’ll try to keep an open mind, but I confess that I’m picky, too. There are just too many fantastic tools around, why waste time with something that’s confusing and not fun to use? I guess I’ll have to see for myself.
After a round of testing I can say, yes, the UI is easy enough to figure out and not a problem at all. It’s still ugly as hell, but I could live with thatmachinesworking wrote: ↑Sat Jun 03, 2023 10:45 am It begs the question that I’ve been asking for years to myself now, when does UX get in the way? Complexity has been compromised for convenience with every single thing recently, hardly anything comes with a complete manual because we’re all supposed to intuitively figure out how to use all hard and software, if it doesn’t immediately make sense to someone they throw a fit. This is about electronic music, that stuff that includes music theory, PD, Max/MSP, Reaktor, Metasynth, modular hardware etc. etc. yet all of it is now supposed to be as simple to get into as Garageband. I’m not OK with that, it’s absolutely fine to have products that are not absolutely 100% intuitive if the end result is added features, and honestly Plasmonic isn’t that hard.
With MPE, 8 macros and a MW it’s an incredibly expressive instrument, that’s for sure.
But I appreciate tools which are well designed and user friendly, yet still complex if they need to be. That’s really hard to do, and I admire developers who manage to do that. Fors devices would be a prime example of that, and something like Tranzistow the polar opposite. It might sound good, it might be logical and consistent, I don’t know, but no thanks. I like the UI, I guess I'm alone in that, but I like the dark green Max/MSP look of it. I'm also really into hybrid acoustic sounds, so to me more physical modeling inspired devices the better.nanostream wrote: ↑Sat Jun 03, 2023 12:15 pm After a round of testing I can say, yes, the UI is easy enough to figure out and not a problem at all. It’s still ugly as hell, but I could live with that
But I’m still not sure if I really need it, because … I don’t know how often I’d need sounds Plasmonic tends to produce? After all, there’s a (apparently slightly buggy) Micro MPE Prism in the Reaktor UL, and there are wonderful modal/PM blocks in the Toybox Nano pack. This might be enough for the occasional weird string sound. Damnit, I’ll have to build something from scratch myself in Plasmonic to get a better feel for what’s really possible.
To partially answer your meta question, I don’t think everything has to be as simple as GarageBand. I’m an avid Reaktor user after all
Plasmonic is far from the worst offender in that regard, even if the UI is quite ugly and a bit inconsistent here and there. The sliders for example are indeed weird, but not a dealbreaker for me.
The thing about Plasmonic is that there isn’t much out there that is similar feature- wise. It’s not like it’s another fairly standard subtractive synth.nanostream wrote: ↑Sat Jun 03, 2023 9:24 am
As it happens I recently bought an MPE controller and I’m looking at MPE synths, Plasmonic being one of them. I’m about to demo it and I’ll try to keep an open mind, but I confess that I’m picky, too. There are just too many fantastic tools around, why waste time with something that’s confusing and not fun to use? I guess I’ll have to see for myself.
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