Countdown to Sample Tank 3, with 64 bit support

[24MTS]

You've got to be kidding.....people care about the overall function and appearance of the new GUI not what the instruments that are loaded will look like.

I wonder sometimes do you guys just comment because you do not have anything else better to do?

Here's an insight (really!) of what the new GUI might contain and the very graphic, modern and user-friendly appearance the ST3 will have and yet you find just another reason to complain! How do you call that? Not in medical terms...

Please, if there's nothing good you might add, you could as well keep it for yourself.

[vintagevibe]

Peter, I could kiss you!

Just last night I discovered Miroslav has mono sounds.

It took me 6 days, but I found them! That makes Miroslav amazing to me...

Also: Core in Kit has my General MIDI snare.

Only I would be excited about this.

And since we're all drilling you with questions, will there be mono variants of certain sounds? They would help a lot. Mono pianos and strings, mostly.

That is sooooooo hard to find these days. I do backing tracks for my lives show and most stereo samples have way to many phase problems. I have EWQLSO and Session Strings Pro but I still love my Miroslav!!! I just wish I could use them reliably in 64bit.

[sfd]

Another suggestion:

- Better MIDI learn function

- FREE upgrade from ST2

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

You're right we shouldn't include graphic representations of the instrument for quick reference like a ton of other products do... We should make it completely unique, our bad. We've been taking so long so that we can invent a new language too so it can be completely different

[JasonSpatola]

I think Teksonik is saying that he'd rather see screenshots of the entire interface rather than just the "loaded instrument" icon, and that IK may benefit from it by having the users chime in with comments, suggestions, and improvements *before* the completed/finished product is released (sort of like Klanghelm and others have done) to preemptively avoid the interface-hatred issues many have voiced regarding ST2.

That was a long sentence.

[vintagevibe]

They are part of the user interface.

You've got to be kidding.....people care about the overall function and appearance of the new GUI not what the instruments that are loaded will look like.

Speak for yourself. When you get Kontakt loaded notice all the great graphics showing what the instruments look like.

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

I think Teksonik is saying that he'd rather see screenshots of the entire interface rather than just the "loaded instrument" icon, and that IK may benefit from it by having the users chime in with comments, suggestions, and improvements *before* the completed/finished product is released (sort of like Klanghelm and others have done) to preemptively avoid the interface-hatred issues many have voiced regarding ST2.

That was a long sentence.

I understand that. I was making a joke. We'll show more as we get closer, and I find it hard to believe that others find it hard to believe that we're not shooting in the dark with product decisions for the last 17 years or so and use actual data and insights all along...

Edit - Basically, I do find it hard to believe that people worry that we haven't heard the suggestions (though I'm sure, as always, you can't please all of the people all of the time). I know others may basically almost fully crowdsource their UI design but we do take suggestions which is part of the reason I'm here, and we do also have multiple (many) points of data, reference, and testing to rely on.

[24MTS]

Basically, I do find it hard to believe that people worry that we haven't heard the suggestions (though I'm sure, as always, you can't please all of the people all of the time)...

I, for one, am completely convinced you've heard and considered the suggestions. That is why I am rather bothered with some of the comments here in this thread that are putting down something is not even released yet!

Never mind. That's human nature.

[BBFG#]

I personally like the old interface for its direct simplicity. I really just need it bigger and easier to read.

Physical eye biology says the three colors that are the most conducive to reading for long periods on a computer screen are light yellow/green/blue backgrounds. That can be done on the current version. It's really about the font size, which seems to need to be a minimum of 11.

[HaganeSteel]

I personally like the old interface for its direct simplicity. I really just need it bigger and easier to read.

Physical eye biology says the three colors that are the most conducive to reading for long periods on a computer screen are light yellow/green/blue backgrounds. That can be done on the current version. It's really about the font size, which seems to need to be a minimum of 11.

Me too!

I like SampleTank's current GUI. It does have its flaws, but I've seen so much worse.

I've also seen better: see the Hyper Canvas and Aria player.

When ST first came out, 1024x768 was the standard, wasn't it?

I could go into great detail on what I find wrong with ST's current UI, including a lot of screen real estate that is used up by virtually nothing.

But I feel the guys at IK already know this because Miroslav actually has a very comfortable GUI with bigger fonts made possible by a slight layout change.

As a result, I'm not concerned.

Judging by the looks of SampleTron, SampleMoog, SampleTank, Sonik Synth and Miroslav, it seems like IK has been experimenting on perfecting its GUI design.

I'm going to now go into great detail into where I think ST went wrong with its GUI.

I'm sorry if I annoy anyone in advance.

I'm not complaining, though! I'm trying to give constructive feedback! I want to help!

The main flaw in ST's GUI is trying to stuff everything onto one page.

Probably one of the worst design decisions was splitting the 16 parts up between 2 pages, like in SampleMoog, Sonik Synth 2, etc.

The reason this isn't functional is because I need to switch between pages to glance at the level meters, thus pretty much defeating the purpose of having those level meters to begin with, since I can just route them to different outputs and judge by my DAW's mixer - which I'd likely do anyway.

Ergo, having those "level" meters is just using up screen real estate. Even if it seems "logical" to have them, how functional is it, really?

Freeing up that space won't yield much of a result in ST's current form, which we all know, but like I said before: It's little design decisions like this that add up to create a big usability barrier.

Don't be afraid to think outside the box and just do away with stuff that serves no immediate purpose. Be functional, not logical. I say this because "logic" tends to be subjective.

On the other hand, it's possible to fit everything onto basically two pages (I edited this for clarity). The Hyper Canvas did it with excellent results.

Below is an example of the Aria player.



Look at this GUI! Look at how easy to use it is. You click on the MIDI channel up top, a drop-down menu appears, and you pick your instrument! Takes 5 seconds, and it's laid out so well.

But look at the color contrast of the part I circled in red!

Did you know that makes it so much easier to look at? The brighter gray against the darker colors immediately draws your eye towards selecting an instrument.

You can see up top, the bright gray against the bright gray - it's a bit harder to look at. It clashes more.

Color contrast is of the utmost importance, and ST doesn't really have that.

Now you might say, "but wait. Aria is so much bigger (edited ) than ST."

Is it? Or is Aria just unnecessarily big with a lot of blank screen real estate because it can afford to be, since it was made in this age of huge screen resolutions?



For all intents and purposes, the Hyper Canvas is smaller than SampleTank, but achieves the same effect as Aria.

There's nothing stopping the Hyper Canvas from functioning the same as Aria player - when you click on "Piano 1" a drop-down menu appears, so on and so forth.

Size doesn't really matter overall. Color contrast and how you use that size both matter immensely.

The great "logic flaw" that ST has is that IK falsely assumes putting everything on one page was better. But that's not necessarily true. Good layouts can span multiple pages, like Aria. What matters is categorization.

Good categorization of the editing/mixing functions makes for a good GUI.

Edit: Edited for clarity.

[SJ_Digriz]

and this is where the trouble starts ... Aria is a simple to read well laid out interface. The Edirol one is a complete eyesore ... gives me a headache just thinking about having to use it for more than 10 seconds. Obviously, that's in my opinion.

[Teksonik]

You've got to be kidding.....people care about the overall function and appearance of the new GUI not what the instruments that are loaded will look like.

I wonder sometimes do you guys just comment because you do not have anything else better to do?

I was just about to ask you the same thing........Irony is so delicious.....

Here's an insight (really!) of what the new GUI might contain and the very graphic, modern and user-friendly appearance the ST3 will have and yet you find just another reason to complain! How do you call that? Not in medical terms...

Awwww somebody is complaining on the Internet.....that certainly never happens. Life sucks get a helmet......

Please, if there's nothing good you might add, you could as well keep it for yourself.

Once again I was just about to suggest the same thing to you.....except I wouldn't throw in the medical insult.....

So even the slightest negative comment is not allowed ? We might as well just shut down the shop and all go have a beer....

Look, it was just a comment on iK Multimedia's reluctance to make any effort to keep interest in the five year old project that is Sampletank 3....just show the damn GUI...not here but on one of their many social media outlets....certainly that can't be so controversial...Once again for the hundredth time iK is lucky people even care after all this time.

Or don't show it and don't give any real info about ST3.......I've installed Kontakt 5 today and I'm pretty happy with it.......but having said that if the upgrade price for ST3 is a good deal I'll still buy it so don't lose any sleep over it oh ye defenders of the iK Mulitmedia machine.......

[BBFG#]

... Aria is a simple to read well laid out interface.

+1
And I'm hoping Kontakt might take a clue in that direction too. More so than Sampletank, but something between ST and AP would be welcomed. But all I really need is a bigger font.

[murnau]

Member: 24MTS
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so evil..

[Numanoid]

Life sucks get a helmet......

Good advice, I never leave the house without one