Good GUI, Good Sound?

[MrJubbly]

My stance hasn't changed.

What did u-he plugins look like back in 2005 when the initial comment was originally posted?

And which u-he plugins were available, or were currently in development around that time?

[mcbpete]

What did u-he plugins look like back in 2005 when the initial comment was originally posted?

This was Zebra circa 2003:



To be honest it looks like what I think Zebra would look like today if Madrona Labs were the developers:

[Maccaroni]

My eyes, my precious eyes!

But at least it’s on sale. Why does everyone have a “summer sale” nowadays? Are people less likely to buy software in Summer?

[billinder33]

The only synth that remains with a terrible GUI is Omnisphere, that thing is stuck in 2005.

Yeah, the v3 GUI was big disappointment for me. Such a shame, because the guts of it are so good.

[FigBug]

But at least it’s on sale. Why does everyone have a “summer sale” nowadays? Are people less likely to buy software in Summer?

People are pretty much trained now not to buy unless there is a sale, so pretty much everybody (except a few companies famous for never doing sales) pretty much need to do sales constantly to move product. Why not just lower the price -- who knows, human psychology is weird.

[Teksonik]

How does one even find a 21 year old thread to necro?

My stance hasn't changed.

Thank god your taste has changed........

This was Zebra circa 2003:

Here's where we are in 2026:

GUI 3.png

GUI 2.png

GUI 1.png

I think it's great that people are making GUIs for toddlers.......


But seriously I grew up using hardware so I feel comfortable when the plugins I use look like hardware. I can use plugins like Pigments but they're not my favorite. I wouldn't even download a plugin with a GUI like the three above. If I called up one of those in my studio I'd get laughed out of the room but then everyone I know is way older than Gen Alpha, a generation that grew up with an iPad as their babysitter.

Since the year this ancient thread was first created I've been using the term "Psycho-optics" to describe the effect a GUI has on the user's overall perception of a plugin. It's most prominent on a emulation plugin when it looks as close to the hardware as possible. For example a Jupiter 8 emulation wouldn't generate the same satisfaction if it had a dead accurate GUI of an Oberheim and so on.

Obviously staring at something you like is more conducive to productivity than being forced to look at something you hate. (this post only addresses appearance, functionality is a different subject and yes of course sound is most important)

[paramita123]

As someone who discovered computer music in 1999 (with the Reason Rack and the magic TAB button) and hasn't stopped since, this kind of post gives me sweet nostalgia !!
More than 20 years trying 1000s of plugins, removing most of course, but some unforgettable gems along the way.
Of course all the U-HE freebies have a particular place in my heart...
Some people nowadays are Airwindows-kind, choosing sound over aesthetics, some are Acustica Audio, in love with skeuomorphism. Some feed their GAS with AI slop too
What matters is despite our differences we all find enjoyment in this world with too often highly questionable morals.
Make some music, be a good person, share the love forward.

[Examigan]

I remember using Softsynth way back (before actual plugins) on my Atari
ST. The UI wasn’t bad, especially for
1987.
https://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/digi ... synth/2119

[zerocrossing]

The first plugin instrument I ever bought was Absynth, and while I loved the sound, and even thought it looked cool, I found it difficult to use. It took me a lot of time to get used to it.

I’d say the same thing about Zebra. While I don’t find either that intuitive to use, I think it’s worth the effort to learn them, because of their capabilities. OTOH, Phase Plant mostly made sense to me without much effort. I think the only thing that tripped me up was how filters and effects could live in the generator pane or effects pane, and their abilities were different depending on that. Same with Serum. I don’t think I really ever had to crack a manual or watch a tutorial to feel like I had a strong understanding of it.

As for how pretty a UI is… I don’t care, as long as it’s clear, and well laid out. I think Zebra 3 looks great. My complaint is that it’s often not obvious or clear to use.

[rod_zero]

I remember arturia moog modular being particularly horrible to use because the GUI didn't fit the screen, you had to scroll, fonts were horrible too.

[Teksonik]

I remember using Softsynth way back (before actual plugins) on my Atari
ST. The UI wasn’t bad, especially for
1987.https://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/digi ... synth/2119

I had an Atari 520 ST back then as well but don't remember if I ever tried Softsynth since I had a ton of hardware synths.

If you had told me back then that one day your computer will be able to make all the sounds your hardware can and a whole lot more I would have called you a nutter and asked you what you were smoking and where I could get some.

It's amazing all the technological advances in that 40 year time span. I feel very lucky to have lived through that period. I've said it before, we really are living in the golden age of synthesis...

[oscillik]

I remember arturia moog modular being particularly horrible to use because the GUI didn't fit the screen, you had to scroll, fonts were horrible too.

Trying to use this on an iBook G3 with 1024x768 resolution was indeed a chore.

[MrJubbly]

What did u-he plugins look like back in 2005 when the initial comment was originally posted?

This was Zebra circa 2003:

Looks pretty good to me, especially for that time period.

Clean layout and easy to understand. Would still be useable today, around two decades later.

[Munin]

Honestly it is not that far from Liquid Glass...time is a flat circle.

[Ploki]

All of these still have skeuomorphic aspects in their UIs though. Most all of them have drop shadows around physical appearing buttons, they put curves and graphs visually into displays and they use virtual LEDs to display states. Most mimic a light source with virtual edges being brighter on some sides and darker on the opposite sides, some even have gradients on panels mimicking diffuse reflection. Even Vital subtly places panels "above" backgrounds by dropping shadow on latter.

But yeah, thankfully those with 3D aspects all use parallel projection, not that gimmicky perspective look where knobs stick out towards the outer edges (which btw. I suspect is one of the reasons some UIs use humungous amounts of memory, as each 3D knob needs its own animation stack)

aren't most of your plugs skeumorphic? even zebra3 - to a degree

i absolutely agree re: "lens" perspective plugs with crooked knobs. looking at you softube.. smh