Best and worst gui u like (nevertheless)

[bmanic]

Definitely Melda plugins. The UI and usability are "sigh.." at best but there's just way too many amazing effects processors and synthesizers in that package that I can suffer through the UI.

what are some of your favourite most used unique melda plugins? i've heard so many great things about them but never managed to get past the ui myself

There are so many but here are some of my most used/favorites.

AutoStereoFix
DynamicEQ (very deep as it lets you completely customize the dynamic behavior)
AutoAlign
TurboReverb
Morph
WaveShaper
SoundFactory (amazing and completely unique synthesizer!)

[Alexander_D]

Fabfilter latest plugins GUI is hot!

[DrOcsid]

The interface of Kirchhoff EQ is effectively like an uglier Pro-Q 3, but it's ugly in a way I honestly kind of like. Helps that it's themeable. I like the Sonnox Oxford plugins too even if they look a bit tacky. In general I can enjoy ugly plugins fine, but there are some exceptions.

By comparison, well... I like Empirical Labs's in-house plugins in concept. The Arousor sounds very nice even if it's a bit rudimentary feeling in terms of look. But their other plugin, Big FrEQ, is a bit too much for me. It's just covered in clashing plain white font over an otherwise skeuomorphic UI. It's certainly readable and usable, and it's a quality plugin on the whole partially due to the saturation option, but wow it is not a looker.

[pekbro]

I prefer the Kirchhoff ui vs FF, since it’s customizable.

*Tho I do agree with Dan W that the filter emulations are useless. Maybe not useless,
but certainly not too effective emulation-wise.

[DrOcsid]

Yeah the Kirchhoff filter emulations if anything are basically just skins for the knobs for my purposes. It's a neat novelty but not exactly a selling point.

[concealed identity]

I found it annoying that you could customize so much except for the one thing I wanted to customize: the filter sorting menu. I can see value in having an option for all filters to follow one emulation (there is an option for default, but not per instance) so that you're emulating the curves of a specific desk or module, and I can see value in having filters sorted by type, e.g. all low pass curves in one section. But at least for me, I don't have intimate knowledge of every filter curve of every EQ, so I'm never like "I wish this had an SSL low pass and Pultec low bump" or something. Having to go to every emulation section to try that version of the filter type was an absolute chore.

[Morty-C-137]

That’s the most frustrating really; plugins that are 90% near perfect in every sense but then the dev never does that last 10% even after user feedback..

[VladK]

I like a clean and functional UI with easy readings. Modern FabFilter is a perfect example. Or VSL. Temperance is another example.
And on another side there are so many synths with terrible UI mimicking analogue wiring desks from the last century it is hard to count them all. But these probably have a lot of devoted followers, and I am not going to blame them for advancing this Eurorack cult.

[osiris]

I can't believe nobody complained that the first Soundtoys (Little Primal Tap) freebie looked like a Synthedit plugin from 2000.

[Amberience]

For me, it really depends on the type of plugin. EQ's, I don't really care for skeuomorphic approaches. But compressors and guitar amps, I certainly do.

My favourites:
Fabfilter Q4.
IK Multimedia Tape Machines.
NeuralDSP Mark IIC+ Suite.
Arturia Pigments.
Oeksound Soothe2.

My least liked:
Pretty much everything Melda.
Pretty much everything Reaper.

The number one cardinal sin for me is not having resize or rescale functionality.

[GaryG]

I think my favourite is Surreal Machines 'Modnetic', basically flat, low contrast, well spaced and clear, but with a hint of 3d-ness to just make the knobs pop (all you can ask for in life...)

Personal peeve is 99% of guitar amp plugs; 1) slavishly recreating the look of an amp or head so loads of wasted space (speaker I can go with if selectable, big 'logo space' above controls uh uh) 2) controls strung out in a single row, excessive mousing, would much rather have them nicely clustered (think klevgrands Stark)

[Gribs]

Agree with dislike of skeuomorphic GUIs.

Agree that Minimal Audio GUIs are good.
The latest plugins that I bought that have decent GUIs are from K-Devices. One of them (Fauve) is mostly green, though, so dblock won’t like it

Worst GUI is a tie between Cubase 15 Pro and Halion 7. Excellent functionality, but poor scalability and feels scatterbrained.

I guess Reason is supposed to be scalable now but I got so frustrated with the GUI at V7 that I stopped using it. I should probably pay to update it and use the rack as a plugin.

[VladK]

KONTAKT 8 is IMO the champion in sh1ttiest UI ever.
Extremely cluttered, badly organized, not intuitive, with screen space used extremely inefficiently, and with important features dropped during the "upgrade" from 6.

[Nathanananan]

my favorite are the ssl plug ins
least favorite is reaper
both ui's are made by the same guy

[Nathanananan]

I also really like all the arturia plug ins. I really appreciate skeuomorphic design if its done right.