Minimal Audio Current…subscription

[MrJubbly]

Msoundfactory is crazy powerful, but it doesnt matter when the UI is so bad. I own it but never use it, its not fun to use because of its UI. I think the developer should completly redesign it

You just summed up my general feelings about Melda Production's plugin user interfaces. By all accounts, their plugins are great (so I've heard). However, I hate that I find their GUI design throughout most of their product line so extremely depressing to look at.

I also hate the fact that I'm so put off by that, that I have never really given any of them the chance to grow on me, because it really ought to be all about the sound (as that is the most important thing in music production), rather than the appearance. But still, their murky blue-grey, cramped UIs are just the worst (imho) and they look so dated in 2023. Perhaps, we've been spoiled by the much better aesthetics from their competition?

Although, once upon a time, I used to harbour somewhat similar feelings (albeit never so strongly) against Voxengo's plugin designs. However, I eventually came around to Voxengo and actually like how easy they make it for users to quickly recolour their plugins globally to less offensive and easier on the eye hues.

Having said that, I don't think I could manage to ever come to love the Melda Production designs (in their current incarnation) though. They're just too damn ugly. Is there an easy way to easily re-skin/theme them to look less unappealing?

Edit: I just Googled my own question and found a page referring to 'MTexturedStyleEditor' (<-- Even the way they name their plugins, all cramped together like that, with no spaces in-between each word is a claustrophobic eye-boggler). However, there doesn't seem to be many examples online (Google Images / YouTube) of nice-looking re-themed Melda plugins using it?

Why So Depressing.jpeg

[martiu]

bad UI can kill the pleasure of working with a plugin, it is very importan

[Examigan]

We all talk about a special synth.

Keep Reaktor out of it.

Buy Reaktor now.

[liquidsound]

We all talk about a special synth.

Keep Reaktor out of it.

Buy Reaktor now.

That was a quick Reaktion!

[Sinisterbr]

bad UI can kill the pleasure of working with a plugin, it is very importan

Totally. It should be fun, after all.

[martiu]

yeah, i was considering Falcon, one friend have it and i was to his house to try it, the horror of working with that thing, unbelievable

[Held]

Having said that, I don't think I could manage to ever come to love the Melda Production designs (in their current incarnation) though. They're just too damn ugly. Is there an easy way to easily re-skin/theme them to look less unappealing?

If you just want to change the colors, you can do that easily in the settings.

melda_colors.png

MTexturedStyleEditor is only necessary when you want to change how knobs and stuff look.

[RichN]

yeah, i was considering Falcon, one friend have it and i was to his house to try it, the horror of working with that thing, unbelievable

Was that when they took your profile picture?

[chagzuki]

Falcon definitely needs some UI re-jigging. When I got it I thought it would be a one-stop solution, but now I only use it when other synths aren't deep enough for a specific use-case.

[martiu]

yeah, i was considering Falcon, one friend have it and i was to his house to try it, the horror of working with that thing, unbelievable

Was that when they took your profile picture?

yeah, i was smoking and wondering what should i do to make usable sound

[martiu]

that was my Jesus phase , i think i look handsome

[kraster]

Just tried out current for the first time.

It's a really excellent synth by any standards.

Definitely looks and feels like a love child of serum and pigments. And using the best parts of each. Serum's aesthetics and ease of use with Pigments' modulation capabilities and overall flexibility.

Most importantly it sounds great. The already great effects really elevate it. Particularly Rift and Cluster delay. Not as wild about the Reverb however.

I really like the granular engine in current. One of the best around, imho.

One thing I couldn't figure out (and it might be by design) is that there is no particularly easy way to access your own sample libraries/folders from within the plugin.

You can add individual files through a regular system browser or drag and drop samples.

Maybe I'm missing something about adding folders to the "local" browser but the browser itself seems exclusively reserved for the stream aspect.

That's a BIG miss.

The last thing I want in a synth is more samples and wavetables. I literally have tens of thousands of each. Just let me access them within the browser...

Edit: The only way to add user content seems to be drag and drop. No browsing at all that I can find.

[MrJubbly]

One thing I couldn't figure out (and it might be by design) is that there is no particularly easy way to access your own sample libraries/folders from within the plugin.

You can add individual files through a regular system browser or drag and drop samples.

Maybe I'm missing something about adding folders to the "local" browser but the browser itself seems exclusively reserved for the stream aspect.

That's a BIG miss.

I think Minimal Audio want most users to buy their sample packs, rather than using our own. At least, that's the impression I've been getting from their website and business model's.

They seem like incredibly talented plugin developers, who are otherwise, distractingly obsessed with becoming a major sample pack retailer.

Which in my opinion, is a real shame.

It would be like, if you visited u-he's website, but it quickly becomes obvious they're only really interested in selling you something other than what you actually want from them (which is their plugins).

Minimal Audio's effect plugins are great and they show that they really have (or had) the potential to become one of the major players. Shame they're too busy trying to jump on the sample pack bandwagon.

With all the recent modern developments of machine learning for sample to synth patch technologies (like Synplant 2's genopatch) and other 'sample-less' physically modelled instruments getting very close to replacing the multi-gigabyte sample libraries of many older VSTis, it seems like this is a misguided direction for developers to be taking at this point in time.

I believe the most successful plugins in this next decade will be far less reliant upon using samples, than ever before, moving forwards. So perhaps, CURRENT will not be one of the major synths in these next few years then, after all.

[burkek]

I think Minimal Audio want most users to buy their sample packs, rather than using our own. At least, that's the impression I've been getting from their website and business model's.

They seem like incredibly talented plugin developers, who are otherwise, distractingly obsessed with becoming a major sample pack retailer.

To be fair, add-ons is where the money is, and the sustainability. One-and-done (as in, people just buying the synth) is a lost opportunity to reap the rewards of additional, ongoing, sales from existing customers (which I will not be because $200 USD is too much in Canadian money; that's the danger of setting the highest "tolerable" price for Americans - potential customers in other countries drop off).

KEv

[MrJubbly]

I think Minimal Audio want most users to buy their sample packs, rather than using our own. At least, that's the impression I've been getting from their website and business model's.

They seem like incredibly talented plugin developers, who are otherwise, distractingly obsessed with becoming a major sample pack retailer.

To be fair, add-ons is where the money is, and the sustainability. One-and-done (as in, people just buying the synth) is a lost opportunity to reap the rewards of additional, ongoing, sales from existing customers (which I will not be because $200 USD is too much in Canadian money; that's the danger of setting the highest "tolerable" price for Americans - potential customers in other countries drop off).

KEv

Yes. And they are making it quite obvious, that is reason why they (at least are trying) to do that.

However, just like DLC and microtransactions in gaming, it doesn't follow that just because a particular company wants to do what will return the most profit for itself (i.e. milking their own customers). That its customers, should then support that which is really only in the best interest of the company, rather than the consumer, themselves.

Adobe could get away with going subscription only. Because it was the only real player (on that professional level) in town.

I don't really see subscription/monthly payment models working any where near as well within the music scene. There's just way too much competition around in an already saturated market, for anyone to really succeed long term on such a business model. Especially, a relative newcomer. And in a global recession, no less.

Huge 'potential profit' from selling monthly subscriptions to access sample packs, only works if enough people are willing to sign up for such a service. With the other established competition already available, I just don't see it happening.

And besides (imho), Minimal Audio should just focus on doing what they are best at. Which is surely not the making and selling of sample libraries.