Best / worst synth gui

[martiu]

blocks are very beautiful also

Screenshot (1474).png

[Starbright]

To be honest worst gui for me Surge XT.
I really love this synth but I hate how it looks with everything way too small and too convoluted.
At the same time it's absolutely amazing.
When it comes to best gui: Dune 3, Serum, Vital and Blocks.
All of them show so easily what does what, that after 2 tutorials I have been able to craft sounds.
I realy love Blocks in particular, even though it doesn't run too well on my system...

[BONES]

When something is beautifully done and easy to use, it's insanely inspiring to dig into.

But it isn't "beautifully done", it feels entirely unmusical to me and, I imagine, anyone who has every worked with hardware instruments. It looks like a spreadsheet.

Vital is so easy to understand, drag controls, setup insane things, just a dream really.

What synths aren't easy to understand? They are pretty much all just variations on a handful of well established themes. Even the DX-7 was easy to understand, just impossible to get sounds out of.

Most synth guis look like 1970 O-scopes and are just as difficult to understand/route.:

Really? What's so hard about it? Again, they are all just variations on a few themes. If you know how one of them works, then any of them become easy to understand.

Looks a bit like Sugar-Bytes' Cyclops, which I find hugely inspiring to work with.

[IvyBirds]

But it isn't "beautifully done", it feels entirely unmusical to me and, I imagine, anyone who has every worked with hardware instruments. It looks like a spreadsheet.

Yeah, I'm not actually into feature lists. In fact, if I can't see everything a synth has to offer on the front panel, or if that panel is too big or too crowded or has too many pages or sub-panels, I lose interest very quickly. That's why I buy a lot of emulations - not for the old-school sound but for the simplicity and ease-of-use.

That's the problem you think everyone wants to work exactly like you and gets overwhelmed by any level of complexity

You need and want simple basic things

Others or use want to go deeper and have complex tools for complex sound design. We don't need inspiration from tools, we already have inspiration and need deeper more powerful tools to bring our inspiration to light

[Psuper]

When something is beautifully done and easy to use, it's insanely inspiring to dig into.

But it isn't "beautifully done", it feels entirely unmusical to me and, I imagine, anyone who has every worked with hardware instruments. It looks like a spreadsheet.

Coming from my share of hardware instruments (though ditching most over the last 20 years), most hardware instruments are not intuitive until you grasp the basics, and many do share the same basic workflow. But you still need to familiarize with each interface because they try to look 'unique'. Software emulations tend to keep the same original layout to not throw off the old-timers who are intimately familiar with the original, plus nostalgia and all that.

Course there's the scrolly-screen era like the K2000 and plenty others which absolutely sucked, but I suppose sorta bridged the gap at the time.

Vital is so easy to understand, drag controls, setup insane things, just a dream really.

What synths aren't easy to understand? They are pretty much all just variations on a handful of well established themes. Even the DX-7 was easy to understand, just impossible to get sounds out of.

Sure but we're talking GUI, still I know what you mean. With Vital's GUI we can drag controls around with precise plus or minus values with absolute ease all on one screen, adjust to taste and all while instantly mapping to the matrix. Most everything is done from the main interface not needing to jump around various spots, inputting values, or guess what it's doing. It's almost entirely visual, pleasing at that and perfectly clear, with no over-done bling and eye bloat.

Most synth guis look like 1970 O-scopes and are just as difficult to understand/route.:

Really? What's so hard about it? Again, they are all just variations on a few themes. If you know how one of them works, then any of them become easy to understand.

Sure, but again we're talking GUI. A good gui allows even newcomers to get going without much head-scratching on how to get something done, even more complicated routing. Vital has this in spades.

It took me a long time to get grips with o-scopes during the military, though to be fair it was more about what you were troubleshooting and looking for than how to adjust the unit. I just thought the photo would be a cute comparison, doubted many would even know what an o-scope was.

[stoopicus]

Most synth guis look like 1970 O-scopes and are just as difficult to understand/route.:

Oh man, that's a *gorgeous* old Tek. And pretty simple control-wise really

[BONES]

That's the problem you think everyone wants to work exactly like you

No, that's just what your sad little mind chooses to believe because it allows you to keep thinking you're not just another sad, little nobody. Sorry to burst your bubble.

You need and want simple basic things

No, I want to build complexity as I need it. I don't want to make anything any more complex than it needs to be. That's why I get things done and you don't.

Others or use want to go deeper and have complex tools for complex sound design.

You don't even know what sound design is. You're talking about patching synths, which is at the same level to a musician or producer as starching a uniform for a parade is to a soldier. Successful artists hire other people to do that shit for them, so they can work on the important stuff.

Anyway, if you have nothing to contribute to the topic at hand, how about you shut the f**k up? Try thinking about someone other than yourself for five minutes, your krap just makes the thread worthless.

[BONES]

... most hardware instruments are not intuitive until you grasp the basics, and many do share the same basic workflow. But you still need to familiarize with each interface because they try to look 'unique'.

That's just like remembering a new way to the beach. The human mind is designed for it.

Most everything is done from the main interface not needing to jump around various spots, inputting values, or guess what it's doing.

So it's not as bad as a lot of other synths I don't like using, that's not the same as being good.

It's almost entirely visual, pleasing at that and perfectly clear, with no over-done bling and eye bloat.

But it's a musical instrument, not a spreadsheet or a diagnostic tool, the bling and bloat matter. Vital lasted less than a week on my computer, it just didn't grab me at all (and I didn't think much of the filter). A good GUI has to do more than just be easy to use, it needs to make you want to use it, to explore its depth and breadth. Vital didn't do that for me at all. OTOH, that skin for Hive I showed a couple of pages back, I didn't get onto that because it made Hive easier to use, I bought it because I wanted to look at it. Touch it. Play with it. The other stuff came later. I didn't even have Hive installed when I bought the skin.

Sure, but again we're talking GUI. A good gui allows even newcomers to get going without much head-scratching on how to get something done, even more complicated routing. Vital has this in spades.

I don't think that's true at all. A newcomer would be overwhelmed by Vital. It's not a synth I'd recommend to anyone as a way to get started. It's something you have to work your way up to,I think.

It took me a long time to get grips with o-scopes during the military

Didn't you have them at high school?

doubted many would even know what an o-scope was.

Neither would I if that's what you called it. Its proper name is "oscilloscope".

[Psuper]

Stuff

So you don't like vital, gotcha. The GUI is still miles better than anything out there.

The fcc-98 multiplexers we worked on were called 'Mux", and I'm sure most people didn't work with those as well. 'Synth' for 'Synthesizer' and 'GUI' for '"Graphical User Interface" since we're playing the 'proper name game' in case op's subject was confusing too.

[HOTF]

I'm not sure wich soft synth did it first, i think it might be OG massive but i'm might be wrong about that, but putting animation that shows the modulation being applied to settings is one of the best advancement in soft synth GUIs. you can load any preset and immediately what is being modulated, by how much and at what rate.

[Alexander137]

I also agree that Vital has one of the best GUIs. Unfiltred audio plugins are nearby, but the graphics are sharper - this is not very pleasing to the eye.
But I don’t often use plugins for the interface, more often for the sound. Although the really ugly ones are scary.

[martiu]

the really ugly ones are scary.

dont be scared homie

[lobanov]

I also agree that Vital has one of the best GUIs. Unfiltred audio plugins are nearby, but the graphics are sharper - this is not very pleasing to the eye.
But I don’t often use plugins for the interface, more often for the sound. Although the really ugly ones are scary.

For me, Unfiltred audio plugins has the ugliest GUIs. Especially their first ones. Some their latest plugins (Lion, for example) make exception and I even like them.

(I don't want to argue with you. It's just funny how different opinion and preferences may be.)

[BONES]

So you don't like vital, gotcha. The GUI is still miles better than anything out there.

You can say that nut I don't like it BECAUSE OF THE GUI, so I don't see any validity in your point at all. Yes, maybe I'd put up with it if it had anything to offer over the several other WT synths I never use but the GUI is definitely what puts me off most.

I'm not sure wich soft synth did it first, i think it might be OG massive but i'm might be wrong about that, but putting animation that shows the modulation being applied to settings is one of the best advancement in soft synth GUIs. you can load any preset and immediately what is being modulated, by how much and at what rate.

Don't your ears tell you that? Of far more use to someone trying to work with a synth is where the f**k that modulation is coming from. Pigments does that really well, I think, as does Concept and a few others.

[HOTF]

Don't your ears tell you that?

It depends sometimes it's obvious so you can tell easily with yourt ears sometimes modulation is subtle. Also depends on the source and the destination