is there a solution for 4k screens? Host or plugin with zoom?

[koalaboy]

Bitwig deals perfectly with this - its GUI is sharp and VST plug-ins. Live in v10 finally got this right as well.

Does it allow individual resizing per plugin ? It never used to - it was all or nothing.

I haven't used the latest Live as I won't upgrade for just the 4K changes (for my needs), so I don't know exactly what it does, but I've yet to find a DAW that will respect 4K for capable plugins, but upscale those that won't (and are therefore too small).

40" 4K monitor here, sat 12" away. 1080p looks blurry, but non-compliant plugins are too small to read at 4K.

[GreyLion]

An Nvidia-based GTX960 card is about the oldest slowest one you want to use to drive a 4K screen.

For music making?! An embedded graphics chip on i5 or i7 CPUs is enough to drive 1 or 2 4K screens for music production. What you were thinking about is gaming, then I can agree you don't want to go below GTX960 and even that will be too weak for most new games...

Actually, to this day most DAWs don't even use dedicated GPU for rendering their GUIs...

*sigh* Moving parts, with one that I haven't kept up with, as I focused on other toys. Looks like you're right. I use my machine for too many different things, and have an older CPU/MB, so needed a GPU to do the stuff I do. After a quick google, it looks like along about Kaby Lake (maybe earlier?), you could get decent 4K performance onboard, without taking up too much RAM and CPU. My bad.

Since I always like to be right, though, does this make the case that 4K is the emerging baseline standard resolution?

[antic604]

Bitwig deals perfectly with this - its GUI is sharp and VST plug-ins. Live in v10 finally got this right as well.

Does it allow individual resizing per plugin ? It never used to - it was all or nothing.

No DAW let's you freely resize the VSTs, Bitwig included. It's up to VST developer to implement this, as they're separate processes (executables) only hosted by the DAW

[antic604]

Since I always like to be right, though, does this make the case that 4K is the emerging baseline standard resolution?

I don't think so, considering how few people have issue with small plugins or blurry GUIs. Other explanation might be they're blind or just focus on making music instead of ranting on forums

[GreyLion]

Hey, I'm willing to accept that as an alternate theory. I certainly struggle to focus on making music instead of ....everything else...

I don't remember seeing any complaints about small GUIs a few years back, with a few exceptions for plugs that really are tiny, and I'm seeing them more and more this year. That may be an artefact of my particular obsession, of course. Time will tell. Guess we can revisit this issue in a couple of years, and let it sprawl out in all directions again, as usual.

[Scotty]

There are lots of us finding guis very small. Hi DPI laptop screens are common as are 4k desktop monitors. Not everyone is 24. I was in my studio and I can remember the exact moment that I could no longer focus huddled over my Cubase screens. From then on I needed glasses. Every two years I would need stronger prescriptions.

Hey, I'm willing to accept that as an alternate theory. I certainly struggle to focus on making music instead of ....everything else...

I don't remember seeing any complaints about small GUIs a few years back, with a few exceptions for plugs that really are tiny, and I'm seeing them more and more this year. That may be an artefact of my particular obsession, of course. Time will tell. Guess we can revisit this issue in a couple of years, and let it sprawl out in all directions again, as usual.

[acYm]

That 27" Asus pg27vq looks awesome! ...But it also costs twice as much as mine did last fall... And mine is aging tech already.

well, it's a luxury item, way overkill if the 165 frames per second or the ghosting-free active 3D image won't be used. for me though, I've been losing sleep over it, as I'm still on a 2011 model and my eyes will be in for a treat, for a change, typically my ears get all the candy.

[GreyLion]

Not that my opinion matters, but I thoroughly approve of your obsession.

[EnGee]

I don't think it is a good idea to buy a 4k monitor less than 40" unless it is for movies or games maybe! I'm still looking for the best monitor for me but I use old plugins like Korg ones, NI and Reason. I can barely see them on my 27" 1920x1080 resolution!

So, I think the only solution for those who own 4k is to use new/updated software that has suitable GUI size for 4k resolution. However, in my case I mostly will buy a 32" with the same 1920x1080 resolution as I want to use my old plugs comfortably.

I'm currently between two monitors 32":
this one https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/MONSAM ... ull-HD-LED
and this one https://www.mightyape.co.nz/product/32- ... r/26619721

I don't know which one I will choose (although I prefer the first because it is cheaper!). Is there a difference in quality between 60Hz and 144Hz in DAW/plugs/text view? I know there is a difference in games (which I play, but don't care about visuals that much). Anyway, I don't know if there is a difference in every day applications including music software.

[DJ Warmonger]

Bitwig deals perfectly with this - its GUI is sharp and VST plug-ins. Live in v10 finally got this right as well.

Does it allow individual resizing per plugin ? It never used to - it was all or nothing.

I haven't used the latest Live as I won't upgrade for just the 4K changes (for my needs), so I don't know exactly what it does, but I've yet to find a DAW that will respect 4K for capable plugins, but upscale those that won't (and are therefore too small).

Live does exactly that. You can choose to automatically upscale eahc plugin or leave it with original resolution.

[koalaboy]

Bitwig deals perfectly with this - its GUI is sharp and VST plug-ins. Live in v10 finally got this right as well.

Does it allow individual resizing per plugin ? It never used to - it was all or nothing.

I haven't used the latest Live as I won't upgrade for just the 4K changes (for my needs), so I don't know exactly what it does, but I've yet to find a DAW that will respect 4K for capable plugins, but upscale those that won't (and are therefore too small).

Live does exactly that. You can choose to automatically upscale eahc plugin or leave it with original resolution.

Thanks for confirming - I'm just struggling to justify the update of Live suite to 10, when the only thing I want is the 4K support.

[Psuper]

40" 4K monitor here, sat 12" away. 1080p looks blurry, but non-compliant plugins are too small to read at 4K.

12" away? You gotta have some young eyes. Which doesn't make sense cause I'm 48, sit about 3' away and see every plugin and app perfectly at 4k on my monitor.

Don't get me wrong, it's great if a plugin scale-resizes based on your needs, however you have to plan accordingly with what you use and what is available. The 4k "issue" is about knowing what size monitor you need to match the apps you intend to use.

[antic604]

Bitwig deals perfectly with this - its GUI is sharp and VST plug-ins. Live in v10 finally got this right as well.

Does it allow individual resizing per plugin ? It never used to - it was all or nothing.

I haven't used the latest Live as I won't upgrade for just the 4K changes (for my needs), so I don't know exactly what it does, but I've yet to find a DAW that will respect 4K for capable plugins, but upscale those that won't (and are therefore too small).

Live does exactly that. You can choose to automatically upscale eahc plugin or leave it with original resolution.

Well, to be precise Live doesn't "allow individual resizing per plugin", by which I understood ability to drag the corner and resize the VST as you wish, like for example Audio Damage's Quanta VST does.

What it does allow is to decide - per plugin - if on a high-DPI screen it should allow the plugin to handle it by itself (and 99% of plugins fail at this) or that Live should "trick" the plugin into thinking it's running at [native res] / [scaling factor], effectively forcing it to stretch the plugin. For example on a 4K screen with 200% Windows scaling Live will "trick" the plugin thinking it's a 1080p display.

[antic604]

40" 4K monitor here, sat 12" away. 1080p looks blurry, but non-compliant plugins are too small to read at 4K.

12" away? You gotta have some young eyes. Which doesn't make sense cause I'm 48, sit about 3' away and see every plugin and app perfectly at 4k on my monitor.

Don't get me wrong, it's great if a plugin scale-resizes based on your needs, however you have to plan accordingly with what you use and what is available. The 4k "issue" is about knowing what size monitor you need to match the apps you intend to use.

12'' vs. 3' I believe are not the same distance units?

Also, you're using Reason which handles high-DPI screens and plugin resizing just fine, but I don't know what the other poster uses, for example S1 or Live 9 fail at this terribly.

Regarding your 2nd sentence, I've my doubts. A year ago I wouldn't think - when buying new laptop - that I have to get the 1080p screen and not a 4K, because DAWs don't support it and actually I shouldn't. If I buy the latest thing - and it's not like 4K screens showed up last year - I have the right to expect that unless I'm on the bleeding edge of the technology my software will support it, especially if it has an annual paid upgrade cycle. Also, sometime you don't have choice of screen resolutions, like with MS Surface line.

[Psuper]

40" 4K monitor here, sat 12" away. 1080p looks blurry, but non-compliant plugins are too small to read at 4K.

12" away? You gotta have some young eyes. Which doesn't make sense cause I'm 48, sit about 3' away and see every plugin and app perfectly at 4k on my monitor.

Don't get me wrong, it's great if a plugin scale-resizes based on your needs, however you have to plan accordingly with what you use and what is available. The 4k "issue" is about knowing what size monitor you need to match the apps you intend to use.

12'' vs. 3' I believe are not the same distance units?

I'm not sure if you're being serious or not here. 12" away you will see small stuff much better than 36" away.

Also, you're using Reason which handles high-DPI screens and plugin resizing just fine, but I don't know what the other poster uses, for example S1 or Live 9 fail at this terribly.

I stated I see every plugin and app. Which means Reason, Studio 1, Reaper, and the couple dozen or so other apps and plugins I regularly use.

Regarding your 2nd sentence, I've my doubts. A year ago I wouldn't think - when buying new laptop - that I have to get the 1080p screen and not a 4K, because DAWs don't support it and actually I shouldn't. If I buy the latest thing - and it's not like 4K screens showed up last year - I have the right to expect that unless I'm on the bleeding edge of the technology my software will support it, especially if it has an annual paid upgrade cycle. Also, sometime you don't have choice of screen resolutions, like with MS Surface line.

No, its about knowing what you are going to use and planning accordingly. There's no right to expect anything of the sort. You have a need, fit it, the onus is on you alone.