Best / worst synth gui

[BONES]

I tried putting my money where my mouth was last night, with the SEM GUI, but I couldn't do it. I definitely think it looks nicer in those pics (above) but, somehow, when I see it in Studio One I don't like it at all.

Anyway, something I realised a year or so ago is just how much influence a GUI has on my opinion of an instrument. I never gelled with Hive 2, I always found it a PITA to work with and that even affected my attitude towards its sound. It never seemed to give me what I was looking for and I gave up trying to work with it. Until...

I saw this amazing looking skin for it that Ploki had made. I loved it so much that I bought it, just so I could look at it, really. But what I discovered was that the skin's entirely different layout actually made Hive 2 much easier to work with, to the point that I am using it all the time these days, because it turns out I can actually get what I'm after from it, now that it's so much easier to work with.

Oh, yeah, it's this skin -

HIVE2_Ploki.jpg

See how different the oscillator and filter layouts are? It makes all the difference with this synth. Getting rid of that central hexagon screen also helps a lot. I wish Rich would do the same with DUNE.

[BONES]

Here are a few others I like. Olga can be a bit of a punish but I don't mind because it sounds so good. Hexeract isn't terribly space efficient but it looks amazing and it works well as a semi-modular. I've put two TRK-01 Bass shots side-by-side, just to show how clever it is. It packs so much into a deceptively simple GUI, yet it is so easy to work with.


JP6K

JP6K.jpg

Olga

OLGA.jpg

Model 84 - extras panel showing

Model84.jpg

Hexeract - main panel

HEXERACT.jpg

Trk-01 Bass

TRK-01 Bass.png

[funky lime]

edit

[HOTF]

Serum probably still has the most intuitive gui

[DJDJ]

Hot take: I like the Plasmonic GUI.
Impression from this thread: Basically, people like GUIs from simple analog synths with very simple signal paths
Personal Favorites: Serum, Kick 2, Ghost, Diva, Microwave 1, and I'm sure a bunch more I'm forgetting

[El°HYM]

Until...

I saw this amazing looking skin for it that Ploki had made. I loved it so much that I bought it, just so I could look at it, really. But what I discovered was that the skin's entirely different layout actually made Hive 2 much easier to work with, to the point that I am using it all the time these days, because it turns out I can actually get what I'm after from it, now that it's so much easier to work with.

Oh, yeah, it's this skin -


HIVE2_Ploki.jpg

^This!

[martiu]

Massive X best GUI

[swilow11]

Serum probably still has the most intuitive gui

It's certainly up there. Just makes sense and to some extent is a benchmark for me when assessing a synths UX. Vital is also great- maybe better than Serum with larger envelopes and LFOs. Current and Pigments also do this extremely well although I only really use Current these days.

[HOTF]

Serum probably still has the most intuitive gui

It's certainly up there. Just makes sense and to some extent is a benchmark for me when assessing a synths UX. Vital is also great- maybe better than Serum with larger envelopes and LFOs. Current and Pigments also do this extremely well although I only really use Current these days.

Yeah vital is great but also it's very much heavily inspired by serum . I am also a fan of pigments

[BONES]

Vital is also great- maybe better than Serum with larger envelopes and LFOs.

Vital always looks too much like an accounting app to me, not a musical instrument. It's beautifully done and very easy to use, I just find it totally uninspiring.

[swilow11]

Vital is also great- maybe better than Serum with larger envelopes and LFOs.

Vital always looks too much like an accounting app to me, not a musical instrument. It's beautifully done and very easy to use, I just find it totally uninspiring.

Ha, yeah I can see that. I just think it's very clear and simple, but slightly bland. But very decent feature list, probably better than Serum although I use Serum more.

[BONES]

Yeah, I'm not actually into feature lists. In fact, if I can't see everything a synth has to offer on the front panel, or if that panel is too big or too crowded or has too many pages or sub-panels, I lose interest very quickly. That's why I buy a lot of emulations - not for the old-school sound but for the simplicity and ease-of-use.

[Psuper]

Vital is also great- maybe better than Serum with larger envelopes and LFOs.

Vital always looks too much like an accounting app to me, not a musical instrument. It's beautifully done and very easy to use, I just find it totally uninspiring.

I couldn't disagree more with your last statement. When something is beautifully done and easy to use, it's insanely inspiring to dig into. Vital is so easy to understand, drag controls, setup insane things, just a dream really.

Most synth guis look like 1970 O-scopes and are just as difficult to understand/route.:

[martiu]

that oscilloscope looks very nice

[osiris]

It's the UI for Massive XI. (what's next? Massive XL - hey that's an idea. Combine very synth NI has made under one - Massive XL)