Melda Production vs Sound Radix quality?

[Robert Randolph]

Melda looks like shit but they're damn good. Feels like cheating to use those plugs... and prolly is cuz they copy everyone ahahaha

Be sure to let us know what MTurboReverb copies. Or MDynamics.

Or MPowersynth. People keep bellyaching about that one because it doesn't work like most softsynths.

Everything. Too much shit to copy out there right? So melda copied em all and put em in one plug for each type. Makes sense to me ahaha

That's all just jokes man. He copies some shit yea but does it his own way. Then there's the originals. Like mspectraldynamics is some alien technology shit...

MSpectralDynamics isn't unique though...

http://www.voxengo.com/product/soniformer/

Soniformer does damn near the same thing, and it's been around longer.

[MrBauer]

I once used some of the free bundle stuff but ran into bugs. I contacted the support which wasn't really helpful. I got answered that these bug aren't in the plugins but in my DAW I said that they only occure with Meldaproduction plugins but he was obsessed with the opinion it's not his fault but everyone else

The point where I decided to never use Meldaproduction plugins was when I had a feature request. He said this will not be possible. I dropped that a Waves plguin has this feature and he started to rant about Waves and others After reading some topics here on kvr I now know I'm not the only one who had such experiences.

[Neon Breath]

I once used some of the free bundle stuff but ran into bugs. I contacted the support which wasn't really helpful. I got answered that these bug aren't in the plugins but in my DAW I said that they only occure with Meldaproduction plugins but he was obsessed with the opinion it's not his fault but everyone else

The point where I decided to never use Meldaproduction plugins was when I had a feature request. He said this will not be possible. I dropped that a Waves plguin has this feature and he started to rant about Waves and others After reading some topics here on kvr I now know I'm not the only one who had such experiences.

Pretty much the same thing happened to me with his Morph plugin. Ended up buying Zynaptiq instead.

[Winstontaneous]

I'm out.

I think Melda stuff is great and once you get a bundle, you're in for life.

Unless you want to sell, then there's a 20% transfer fee.

[onerob]

Unless you want to sell, then there's a 20% transfer fee.

Yeah, that's not so good.

[plexuss]

I'm out.

I think Melda stuff is great and once you get a bundle, you're in for life.

Unless you want to sell, then there's a 20% transfer fee.

20% of the regular price too (no matter what you bought it for).

[nichttuntun]

(snip)Please don´t confuse "layout" with the GUI-design here again.

There is nothing better for me to open (for example) 4 modulator-curve-designer windows simultaniously plus having the main page of the VST still open to tweak further. All windows are sizeable! And with 2 monitors this is such a relaxed and comfortable working process...that I now begin to miss that feature in most other equally complex VSTs from other devs. (snip)

Having that in mind I am really asking myself (and you!) where are the real arguments against Meldas layout-decisions? I couldn´t find one reasonable in this whole discussion which is a real reason to not use Melda VSTs. I just read about objections and they all seemed to be based on emotions.

I have to quote myself because there are still missing well-founded positions which are convincing against using Melda Plugins. The most comments have an emotional background missing facts. And there where many non-constructive excessivly "funny" comments which just detracted from the main discussion. Purpose?

[plexuss]

(snip)Please don´t confuse "layout" with the GUI-design here again.

There is nothing better for me to open (for example) 4 modulator-curve-designer windows simultaniously plus having the main page of the VST still open to tweak further. All windows are sizeable! And with 2 monitors this is such a relaxed and comfortable working process...that I now begin to miss that feature in most other equally complex VSTs from other devs. (snip)

Having that in mind I am really asking myself (and you!) where are the real arguments against Meldas layout-decisions? I couldn´t find one reasonable in this whole discussion which is a real reason to not use Melda VSTs. I just read about objections and they all seemed to be based on emotions.

I have to quote myself because there are still missing well-founded positions which are convincing against using Melda Plugins. The most comments have an emotional background missing facts. And there where many non-constructive excessivly "funny" comments which just detracted from the main discussion. Purpose?

There are many UX issues with Melda's GUI. Here are some off the top of my head:

- medla's gui requires you to remember where the controls are for various things that are hidden in numerous pages. the pages have to be opened in order to search for the parameters you want. for people with plugins from many different manufacturers, this can become a major issue

- features and functions like how the graph editing works is also not something that is apparent from the GUI - something else you also have to remember

- there are often so many parameters and implications that again trying to remember where everything is and how it works in the context of the plugin is also an issue

Melda might be great for someone who is only using Melda or primarily using Melda, but many people (most people?) will have plugins from other companies and so trying to remember all this about Melda's GUI can cause one abandon use of them and use something easier and more obvious.

There are many more specific issues with UX for Melda. I do UX for a living and if Melda would like to pay me to do a heuristic evaluation of their plugins I would do it. But just the plethra of pages and plethora of specific usage is probably the biggest UX offender.

[Sam-U]

I have to quote myself because there are still missing well-founded positions which are convincing against using Melda Plugins.

Peoples experiences. That was easy It's ok if you like and use them. Others won't. Where's the problem?

[nichttuntun]

Hi plexus,
thank you for your insights. What is UX?

Hi Sam-U,
there isn't a problem

Cheers

[plexuss]

Hi plexus,
thank you for your insights. What is UX?

Hi Sam-U,
there isn't a problem

Cheers

TL;DR (Too Long ; Didn't Read)
UX = User Experience. If you don't know, it's the job of figuring out what to do to make a product easy to use and give the user a pleasing experience. As you can imagine, it's a very imporatant ascpect of any product, digital or not. It's been a part of physical product design and software product design for a long time. Especially after Henry Ford ruined the Model A because he choose to keep it's features based on what the engineers said was important and not what customers wanted. This killed the Model A as a viable product. Look it up. So now companies that can afford it will higher a "User Experience Designer" who's responsiblity is to impact the design of a product so that it's easy to use and meets users' expectations and generally gives users a positive experience. UX is a specifc set of compentencies that align to these goals. But we fight a lot with the business, because the business usually wants things that are counter to good UX. Also to some degree the technical engineers, some who fancy themselves UX designers, but lack the competencies. As an example, a lot of small plugin devs are just one person and who's revenue they don't want to put towards highering a UX designer. A good senior UX designer would cost $75US per hour in Canada and Europe and $120US per hour in the US and Austrailia (there is a pretty wide range of income based on location, as per a recent industry salary survey by Loop11).

An important part of UX is UCD = user centred design. This is where we UX designers use actual users to help with the design. Typically we'll create a prototype and use it to test how well it does with users. We try and employ as much scientific method as we can by creating tests that are objective as we can - this is all about human psychology, so it can't be 100% objective. More accurately, it's about trying to get objective data out of a very subjective experiement. But it can be done. We test the usability and then make revisions to the design based on user feedback. we may do several round of this. it's very expensive to do.

The output is basically the same as a blueprint is to a building - a wireframe of the product with thought and validation put towards how the UI is presented. this includes parameters, groups of parameters, flow through the UI and labelling and nomenclature. Also anything to do with interaction - what controls do when used, their range, etc. It can also includ recommendations towawds the final visual design. The wireframes are used by visual designers to design the final look and feel - think, interior designer for a building. So, the UX Designer is like the archictect of a building. We come up with the structure and flow of the experience but also take into account engineering and business requirements (eg. strength of materials, cost, time etc). And we test with users when we can.

I am actually doing some UX work for Boz and LVC. For LVC we will soon be releasing a test version with a usability test survery to help with UCD so we take into account your feedback in the design.

Sorry for being so long. Thought this might be interesting to you.

[nichttuntun]

Hi,
no, you are not too long. It was interesting to read. Thank you for the explaination

I have some BOZ plugins as well and I like them both soundwise and design-wise. But of course they have a completely different aproach and feel to it than Melda plugins. BOZ is compact and some of their plugins have this "one-button" approach, which I like for their kind of tools because it spares the time to build up large chains in a DAW. There you have it all in one on a small screen. Re-sizability would be great here

I do understand that you shine some light on that matter from another side. Cheers.

[SparkySpark]

@plexuss

I'm actually teaching a class on UX design (university level) right now and will copy your excellent explanation to give my students.
I already bombard them with ID and IxD examples taken from VSTi's.

[plexuss]

@plexuss

I'm actually teaching a class on UX design (university level) right now and will copy your excellent explanation to give my students.
I already bombard them with ID and IxD examples taken from VSTi's.

Cool. Glad I could help.

[nichttuntun]

I am glad too due to the circumstance that I could inspire that with my previous post that's what I understand about being constructive together.