Announcing the launch of ULTRA

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ultra_audio wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 3:30 am Does anyone have a preference for any of these three styles of slider for the mod range?
I like the look of the Bar and Arrow versions, as they both make it easy to get a rough estimate of the amount it's set at, just by looking.
I'm a little bit uncomfortable using the Arrow style, as I often spend more time than I want to, trying to make sure I grab the slider directly on the Arrow (thanks to the annoying XY panel in Zebra 2 for that).

For that reason, I would suggest Bar.

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Echoes in the Attic wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 11:21 am I think I like the bar best.
yes me too, the bar is elegant, not distracting and functional. +1

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ultra_audio wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 3:30 am Does anyone have a preference for any of these three styles of slider for the mod range?
  • Arrow - a bit asymmetrical, more accuracy
  • Bar - symmetrical, a bit less accuracy
  • Round - symmetrical, least accuracy but best looking perhaps
sliders.png
Always go for clarity over aesthetics. The arrow looks good and does the job the best, though the bar is also OK.
Zerocrossing Media

4th Law of Robotics: When turning evil, display a red indicator light. ~[ ●_● ]~

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The bar is good as long as it move only when the mouse is actually “on” it and drag rather than jump to the mouse cursor if accidentally you click somewhere else in the slider area (loosing the original position from where you wanted to do a fine adjustment).
ABEFLGMOPPRRST :phones:

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liquidsound wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 5:18 pm The bar is good as long as it move only when the mouse is actually “on” it and drag rather than jump to the mouse cursor if accidentally you click somewhere else in the slider area (loosing the original position from where you wanted to do a fine adjustment).
Yeah thankfully it doesn't jump when you click elsewhere on the slider area. You can click anywhere to start dragging so you don't need to click right on the bar (or whatever icon being used), which I think is the right way to do it for any sliders, vertical or horizontal.

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Indeed. Relative movement is an absolute must (and the norm for most good plugins). If it suddenly jumps to where you click, it would become frustrating extremely fast.
"Wisdom is wisdom, regardless of the idiot who said it." -an idiot

"They don't ban hate speech; they ban speech they hate." -an oracle

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The mechanics of all 3 are identical.
  • Clicking the slider anywhere hides the mouse cursor
  • Dragging adjusts the value from the current position
  • Releasing the mouse puts the cursor in the center of the handle
  • Holding command allows fine adjustments
So when I say the round is a little less accurate, I mean that you can't easily tell if the value is on zero or 1 pixel to the left or right.

I've thought about putting a center line that shows up when you are on zero.
https://ultra.audio
Wellington, New Zealand

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For those of you who are interessed, here it is the Discord server dedicated to this wonderful synth:

https://discord.gg/Qnzt7ZEM

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Regarding copy protection:

The simple question to be asked for proper copy protection is this--can I take a copy of the software and a copy of the authorization from an archived backup, and then install it to a new computer, without the existence or further involvement of the vendor, and without the internet. If not, then the copy protection hurts the honest more than the pirate, since the pirate can simply go and download it and run it.

It serves no point in arguing about it. Simply vote with your wallet. Don't buy software from vendors that care more about the pirates than the honest consumers that purchase the software. Yes, there are fewer choices, since not all vendors care more about the honest than about the pirates, but there are still a lot of choices. Buy them. When people ask why you don't buy <poorly copy protected product> you simply tell them.

No reason to get angry or upset. If enough people do this, the problem will eventually go away.
Vendor‑Dependent Copy Protection: Customers lose. Pirates win.:mad:
(Also: I'm Accused of lying about Linux—it boots, runs my pro audio workflow, stays stable, updates--though yearly dismissed as “niche”. Yet I'm the deluded one.)
:roll:

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ultra_audio wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 7:59 pm The mechanics of all 3 are identical.
  • Clicking the slider anywhere hides the mouse cursor
  • Dragging adjusts the value from the current position
  • Releasing the mouse puts the cursor in the center of the handle
  • Holding command allows fine adjustments
So when I say the round is a little less accurate, I mean that you can't easily tell if the value is on zero or 1 pixel to the left or right.

I've thought about putting a center line that shows up when you are on zero.
do you display a numeric valuie whilst actually dragging, makes those 'is this exactly on zero' issues go away

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jdnz wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 8:52 pm do you display a numeric valuie whilst actually dragging, makes those 'is this exactly on zero' issues go away
Yes there is a tooltip which you see while dragging, and also when you hover on the slider for a while.
tooltip.png
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https://ultra.audio
Wellington, New Zealand

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audiojunkie wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 8:47 pm It serves no point in arguing about it. Simply vote with your wallet. Don't buy software from vendors that care more about the pirates than the honest consumers that purchase the software. Yes, there are fewer choices, since not all vendors care more about the honest than about the pirates, but there are still a lot of choices. Buy them. When people ask why you don't buy <poorly copy protected product> you simply tell them.
I respect your ideology, but please don’t tell others what they should or shouldn’t do.
Mac Mini M4 Pro | 14 Cores (10P/4E) | 48GB RAM | Studio One | Reason | Bitwig Studio | Logic Pro | FL Studio | Cubase Pro | Waveform | Reaper | Renoise | ~1000 VSTs/AUs | ~350 REs

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zerocrossing wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 4:38 pm
ultra_audio wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 3:30 am Does anyone have a preference for any of these three styles of slider for the mod range?
  • Arrow - a bit asymmetrical, more accuracy
  • Bar - symmetrical, a bit less accuracy
  • Round - symmetrical, least accuracy but best looking perhaps
sliders.png
Always go for clarity over aesthetics. The arrow looks good and does the job the best, though the bar is also OK.
This ^^^ for 'ease of use'. :tu:
I'm not a musician, but I've designed sounds that others use to make music. http://soundcloud.com/obsidiananvil

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Definitely prefer the triangle to round. Still slightly prefer the bar maybe, but pretty close between the bar and triangle.

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Echoes in the Attic wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 5:40 pm
liquidsound wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 5:18 pm The bar is good as long as it move only when the mouse is actually “on” it and drag rather than jump to the mouse cursor if accidentally you click somewhere else in the slider area (loosing the original position from where you wanted to do a fine adjustment).
Yeah thankfully it doesn't jump when you click elsewhere on the slider area. You can click anywhere to start dragging so you don't need to click right on the bar (or whatever icon being used), which I think is the right way to do it for any sliders, vertical or horizontal.
Agree. You made a better point.
ABEFLGMOPPRRST :phones:

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