MeldaProduction

pumafred · Post by **pumafred** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 3:51 pm

MeldaProduction wrote:Hmmm, that looks just like channel strip . I'm aiming to something much bigger than that .

I hope you don't intend that we leave our DAWs!

webhamster · Post by **webhamster** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 8:14 pm

MeldaProduction wrote:Hmmm, that looks just like channel strip . I'm aiming to something much bigger than that .

I love your plug-ins, but your comment highlights the one reason that stops me from using them more, the user interface.
What makes this isotope plug-in interesting is the user interface, a big step forward from anything on the market.

Tagirijus · Post by **Tagirijus** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 9:12 pm

webhamster wrote: What makes this isotope plug-in interesting is the user interface, a big step forward from anything on the market.

Static GUI = inovative?

I do not understand why people do not like the Melda GUI, while it is totally customaziable.

(you can even go further and make your own skin, if you'd dig into the style editor).

frizzbee · Post by **frizzbee** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 9:42 pm

Tagirijus wrote:I do not understand why people do not like the Melda GUI, while it is totally customaziable. (you can even go further and make your own skin, if you'd dig into the style editor).

no front, but maybe because it's not our job to provide a useful user interface to his plugins. like melda said in another thread

MeldaProduction wrote:I have no intention of exploring your source codes anyhow (even open source, no difference) and I don't care what other developers think about it. You are selling your product, so you should be doing that. I have hundreds of thousands of lines of code for our stuff, that's enough for one company

i can exactly say the same about the plugin ui. HE is selling a product. it is HIS job to make me want the plugin. i have enough other plugins that work flawlessly and look good. even whithout i have to customize them. imo thats the point of the ui discussion.

webhamster · Post by **webhamster** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 9:46 pm

Tagirijus wrote:Static GUI = inovative?
I do not understand why people do not like the Melda GUI, while it is totally customaziable. (you can even go further and make your own skin, if you'd dig into the style editor).

It is not about colors, but the ability to see and change multiple channels at the same time. Very easy to be able to work on the bass and kick in one window.

vectorwarrior · Post by **vectorwarrior** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 10:09 pm

Oh not this conversation again.

Some people don't like the UI in Melda products. Vojtech has heard people's complaints and has repeatedly stated his opinion on the matter. There have been various iterative improvements over the years and like has been stated above you can modify the UI pretty extensively, but obviously that's not enough to appease people's concerns. At which point I say then perhaps these tools aren't for you. When it comes to UI design you really cannot please everyone, people need to accept that. With the product design that Melda is going for this is especially true; modular design, shared interface/features across all plugins, focus on 'features and power-users' over 'simplicity and fire-and-forget operation'.

To a degree there's an element of 'dumbing down' that must happen if you want to make the tools very accessible, and while that's not always true, I suspect the melda plugins would require a huge redesign in order to retain their power while becoming more accessible/easy to use. I mean, they'd almost have to go back to the absolute drawing board and redesign some key functionality. Personally I'd waaaay rather than development time be spent on making new awesome tools... but then I'm one of the people that 'got over the hump' with Melda plugins. I admit it was a little tough at first, but now I literally no longer see the issue at all so don't see much benefit from any changes.

Apologies if I'm coming across as overly opinionated on the matter, but this isn't the first interesting thread that's totally gone off the rails because people started venting about the UI again. Can I suggest we make a new thread that can be used to discuss this issue productively? Perhaps some actual solutions could be presented that may be easier than I'm thinking. That would be a more constructive use for this discussion

Thanks!

webhamster · Post by **webhamster** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 10:19 pm

@vectorwarrior, I think you confuse design with functionality. The Isotope plug-in has a different kind of functionality in its interface (which Melda also has BTW in the multi analyzer) to show multiple tracks at the same time.
It is very convenient to work on related tracks in the same window and even have them interact, no matter what color it has. I just responded to Vojtech not mentioning that aspect of the Isotope plugin.

vectorwarrior · Post by **vectorwarrior** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 10:27 pm

Yeah, you're right, I'm not really talking about your specific comments... more responding to general gripes about the interface that come up fairly regularly. Apologies if I distracted from a valid issue

webhamster · Post by **webhamster** » Tue Oct 04, 2016 8:15 am

Yes, colors are subjective (and even depend on what monitor we use). What I like about the Izotope plugin is that channels interact. Actually the first Melda plugin I bought was mMultiAnalyzer exactly for that reason. Sometimes it is great to quickly see clashing frequencies. Would love if that would be in other Melda plugins (for example seeing the vocal spectrum while eq-ing the guitar).

In the end it is about the ears, but visuals do help, especially when I'm tired

DarkStar · Post by **DarkStar** » Tue Oct 04, 2016 8:58 am

webhamster wrote:The Isotope plug-in has a different kind of functionality in its interface (which Melda also has BTW in the multi analyzer) to show multiple tracks at the same time.
It is very convenient to work on related tracks in the same window

That is interesting, multi-track working / comparisons would be a very handy.

Can you point me at a link (or place in a video etc) where this is illustrated? The comparative displays could get quite busy so I'd like to understand how iZotope is doing it and where they are using it.

Is this the feature you mean?

Another industry first, Neutron’s Masking Meter allows you to visually identify perceptual frequency collisions, which can result in guitars masking lead vocals, bass covering up drums, and other issues that can cause a “muddy” or overly crowded mix. Toggle seamlessly between any two tracks to carve out sonic space and ensure that each instrument has its own place to shine.

I did find these links for more info on Neutron:
Standard: http://www.timespace.com/product/NEUTRO ... ad%29.html
Advanced: http://www.timespace.com/product/NEUTRO ... ad%29.html

webhamster · Post by **webhamster** » Tue Oct 04, 2016 9:01 am

It is in this video at approx. 8 mins:

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Tue Oct 04, 2016 9:03 am

Tagirijus wrote:
webhamster wrote: What makes this isotope plug-in interesting is the user interface, a big step forward from anything on the market.
Static GUI = inovative?

I do not understand why people do not like the Melda GUI, while it is totally customaziable. (you can even go further and make your own skin, if you'd dig into the style editor).

Skins are not UIs; they're just the window dressing for the UI components. But what Melda has, if I remember, isnt even proper skins, where you'd be able to customise controls individually. Its more like 'themes' or 'styles'; you're changing all the control elements of one type at a time, but you cant change them separately, and you cant move them, hide them, or change the type.
Hardly 'totally customisable'.

MeldaProduction · Post by **MeldaProduction** » Tue Oct 04, 2016 9:43 am

mljung wrote:
MeldaProduction wrote:Hmmm, that looks just like channel strip . I'm aiming to something much bigger than that .
That's sounds very promising Vojtech, but big can also be complicated

One thing I really hope for, is the highest focus set on usability and workflow, as advanced features only gives full meaning if it's also pretty easy to operate - so I hope (also for Meldas success) that this has top priority.

::
Mads

True! And the actual point is to make it simple enough, as much as possible to be done automatically, the rest quick, easy, visual... But we'll see

.

DarkStar · Post by **DarkStar** » Tue Oct 04, 2016 9:46 am

Thank you, webhamster - that explains it.

As a summary you can display two tracks in the Equalizer, and the frequency collisions are detected; you can work on the EQ curves for either track to reduce the collisions, there's a handy "inverse link" feature where a EQ band gain on one track is set to the inverse of the other track and some powerful side-chaining (e.g. side-chain a band from its band on the other track).

(Side gripe: this illustrates perfectly what I dislike about videos (compared with a user guide). You can't tell what they cover until you have watched all of the video. I had previously started watching that video and gave up after 7 minutes!)

To save you watching the video (:)), here's a pic showing the feature (Drums vs Bass):

>>> http://i.imgur.com/sQw4k6v.png

PS is that Global presets window that automatically pops up when the GUI is opened a feature? Having to keep closing it would annoy me a lot.

MeldaProduction · Post by **MeldaProduction** » Tue Oct 04, 2016 9:49 am

webhamster: The main difference between Melda and Isotope is that our plugins are far far far more versatile, and more features means more controls... so there you have it

. I like it this way, others too, some others don't, that's what provides opportunities on the market

.

whyterabbyt: Skins are actually far inferior imho. They are just textures to some simple noncustomizable and nonresizable interface. But styles are complex definitions of visual appearance, so from my point of view, these are the most advanced GUIs out there. You cannot customize each control true, but if you look at say MPowerSynth, there is over 2000 parameters + many more nonautomatable, so I would like to see a person, who would skin each of them

MeldaProduction

KVR Audio

Revolutionising mixing: Izotope goes first, but MeldaProduction later and better?