Best and worst gui u like (nevertheless)

[DCrown]

The look.of a plugin might have some influence on whether u like a plugin or not, but it is no rule, so

I start with plugins I don't like the gui, but use quite often.

Valhalla (use their delay only)
Sonnox plugins

I don't like Softube guis, maybe I just don't like Swedish art haha no kidding, always found better options, don't like Arturia's guis a lot, only a few exceptions, but use about 4 plugins sometimes and UVI Workstation I don't like guis, rarely use it, although some nice sounds. Well, obviously French and Swedish is not my cup of tea.

I like the classic gui of Avenger a lot, a masterpiece imo, but that is just me and I use Avenger a lot for making my own presets.
And I am fine with Waves, simple and effective.

What about you? Or don't you care about gui at all?

[billinder33]

Minimal Audio. Best GUIs in the biz by a wide margin IMO.

I pretty much dislike all skumorphic interfaces based on real or imaginary physical hardware.

[kraster]

Fabfilter ProQ4 is probably my favourite. It's a bread and butter plugin but looks great and the functionality is fantastic.

Agree with Minimal audio. Super clean.

I like Serum 2 a lot.

Microtonic might not be the prettiest and is a bit dated but it's a masterpiece in terms of function. It still amazes me how many sounds you can get out of so few controls.

I love Beam. It's super flashy eye candy but actually really functional.

GRM Atelier has an amazing UI. Very modern, clean and very consistent.

Admiral quality plugins are fugly.

Some of the DDMF plugins are hideous. I mean wtf is Magicverb?

Some Tracktion plugins are pretty bad.

[DCrown]

Minimal Audio. Best GUIs in the biz by a wide margin IMO.

I pretty much dislike all skumorphic interfaces based on real or imaginary physical hardware.

I checked their website and the first thing I thought, they must be from Minneapolis, all the purple color, but couldn't find any information on website, though.

I don't like the fact that you can't just download a trial version, but have to order their subscription (14 days free of charge) and have to cancel it before

[funky lime]

Reaper in general feels like the devs don't care about design, and the designer doesn't actually use the software or care about music. It can't decide if it's a light theme or a dark theme, so it has the worst parts of both. But the software is so good that putting a few hours into tweaking the theme (LCS Flat 7) and visuals was a worthwhile investment for me. ReaEQ is one of my most-used plugins and i love/hate it. Dead simple, easy, looks janky as f**k.

Melda has a similar vibe... so much power and flexibility, and it's just a pain in the ass to actually work with. It's too easy to get distracted/overwhelmed and lose track of what I was even doing in the first place.

Valhalla is great, not distracting at all, very clear and usable... and boring as f**k. I love it.

TDR Kotelnikov is like my ideal compressor plugin design... simple, straightforward, nice quality of life features (like the tooltips), and just enough visual feedback to be extremely useful without being overbearing or distracting.

If instruments count, I'll also mention Kontakt. Probably my most-used VSTi, and while it was never great to start, they somehow keep making it worse and worse with each new version.

When it comes to egregious waste of screen space, pick nearly any guitar amp or tape sim.

Orchestral Tools SINE Player is an awkward chromium web storefront, that also happens to have rudimentary sample playback capabilities.

[cryophonik]

Rob Papen, I love your plugins, but I’m begging you to hire a better UI designer.

[jamcat]

The GUI for Virtual Sound Stage 2 is a lot of fun

[swilow11]

I like Aberrant DSP Sketch Cassette and Digitalis- both quirky and intriguing and also unique and excellent sounding.

I used to dislike the look of Phase Plant but I've come to really appreciate it. Given its huge power, having an uncluttered and unassuming GUI is so well thought out. Also big fan of Serum 2- works perfectly, also doesn't feel overwhelming despite its incredible capabilities.

Current was awesome too. Somewhat regret selling it. Pretty much ideal GUI wise.

Don't own it, but the Lunacy Audio stuff looks great albeit a bit distracting.

Disagree with Valhalla. They are boring to look at but I think simplicity helps focus.

One of the worst is FM8. I still use it but damn, it is super bland and sterile. It feels odd making beautiful twinkling shimmery pads on such a start, lifeless interface.

I sold all my Arturia synths but found the ridiculously skeumorphic interfaces kind of tacky.

Not a big fan of Spire- has an aesthetic that was maybe cutting edge 20 years ago but looks dated now. Great synth though...

[billinder33]

If instruments count, I'll also mention Kontakt. Probably my most-used VSTi, and while it was never great to start, they somehow keep making it worse and worse with each new version.

Have you tried v8 yet? I've been upgrading Kontakt over the years hoping it would get better, but haven't made the move to 8 yet.

At a glance it looks better and the preset browsing has to be an improvement, but I didn't feel like buying another Komplete update this year because it's not one of my primary tools and I didn't feel like any of the new content was worth it.

[El°HYM]

Worst GUI still is Bitwig & Would love to see this change.

[Vortifex]

My favourite synth UI is Invader 2. It's not flashy or trying to be 'modern'. It presents everything in a straightforward logical way that's easy on the eyes, with good use of contrast and subtle design elements for easy visual separation. Honourable mention to Massive X for cramming a lot of stuff into a small space in a way that to me looks acceptable and is easy to use. Also I think the UAD synths look great (except Opal which has issues).

UI I dislike the most but still use... gotta be Phonec2. I don't hate it. It's easy to use, but it's ugly af. Sounds great though.

Effects, I like Valhalla for their clarity and simplicity. I think the colours on Futureverb are pretty bad though.

[dblock]

Best GUI of all my plugins Wave Alchemy Drumvolution. That plugin is absolutely beautiful to me. 2nd place might be WA Revolution even though I'm not a fan of working with it.

[billinder33]

Worst GUI still is Bitwig & Would love to see this change.

Have you seen Ableton?

[dblock]

Worst are All green GUI plugins. I never ran across a green plugin I could look at more than 2 minutes.

[El°HYM]

Everyday.