Fractal Talk

[Boudoir Guitar]

Sting is a pretty remarkable musician. He plays bass, which is inherently ugly as an instrument, despite it being important musically. Within the world of ugly basses, his old-ass "that's not a P-Bass?!?" P-Bass is even uglier. So...yeah, I'm not gonna take his word on the importance of an instrument's appearance. Also, that really doesn't sound like something he'd say, though a million other people have said. Also also, I've been playing the hell out of my DIY weight relieved 335 lately and been wildly inspired by it, despite it being ugly AF. Also inspired by my SG. SGs are on the same level of basses in terms of physical beauty. Which is to say, adjacent to shit. And my particular SG, like Sting's particular bass, is particularly ugly AF.

(thread even starts with "TRIGGER WARNING" so highly relevant):

DIY weight relief

TRIGGER WARNING!!! This is not for those that get squeamish about a little blood/splinters/burn-marks/less-than-straight-lines on a guitar. I don't recommend @Eagle looking at these images. I've had this Hamer Echotone 335 knockoff for 2 or 3 years now. I think I paid $300 for it, and it...

thegearforum.com

 

[Musicknurd]

Sting is a pretty remarkable musician. He plays bass, which is inherently ugly as an instrument, despite it being important musically. Within the world of ugly basses, his old-ass "that's not a P-Bass?!?" P-Bass is even uglier. So...yeah, I'm not gonna take his word on the importance of an instrument's appearance. Also, that really doesn't sound like something he'd say, though a million other people have said. Also also, I've been playing the hell out of my DIY weight relieved 335 lately and been wildly inspired by it, despite it being ugly AF. Also inspired by my SG. SGs are on the same level of basses in terms of physical beauty. Which is to say, adjacent to shit. And my particular SG, like Sting's particular bass, is particularly ugly AF.

(thread even starts with "TRIGGER WARNING" so highly relevant):

DIY weight relief

TRIGGER WARNING!!! This is not for those that get squeamish about a little blood/splinters/burn-marks/less-than-straight-lines on a guitar. I don't recommend @Eagle looking at these images. I've had this Hamer Echotone 335 knockoff for 2 or 3 years now. I think I paid $300 for it, and it...

thegearforum.com

Some people marry ugly women. Taste and inspiration is subjective.

 

[norminal]

You’re so triggered dude lol. GTFO

Weren’t you banned from here?

 

[Musicknurd]

Weren’t you banned from here?

lol nope. Sorry.

 

[norminal]

lol nope. Sorry.

You don’t have to apologize. Doesn’t bother me. I just thought you had been banned a while back, that’s all.

 

[Orvillain]

Oh. Cunty chops is back. Hullo cunty chops!

 

[State of Epicicity]

I ordered cunty chops at a family restaurant last week. The gravy was excellent.

 

[Orvillain]

I ordered cunty chops at a family restaurant last week. The gravy was excellent.

 

[KHAAAAAAANNNNNNN!!!!!!!!]

Well. Here we are...

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Well. Here we are...

I'm sure Cliff has had many sleepless nights worrying about the visual aesthetics of Axe-Edit. "Sorry kiddo, can't make it to the soccer game this weekend. Gonna be another 400 hour month. Gotta find a more pleasing font and color scheme for the editor."

 

[Stone]

FM/AXE Edit is bye far the most powerful,easiest and Intuitive to use of any editors out there
I mean of course you have to know what the parameters do it's not just turning knobs

 

[laxu]

I'm sure Cliff has had many sleepless nights worrying about the visual aesthetics of Axe-Edit. "Sorry kiddo, can't make it to the soccer game this weekend. Gonna be another 400 hour month. Gotta find a more pleasing font and color scheme for the editor."

I guess you haven't seen the original Axe-Edit.

Axe-Edit for Axe-Fx 2:

Current FM9-Edit:

I used FM9-Edit here because the screenshot on Fractal's website was more up to date than the one for Axe-Edit.

You can immediately see that the current version looks much cleaner, with less embossed buttons and skeumorphic design for knobs and switches.

IMO it doesn't really need any visual overhaul.

It needs practicality improvements, like say the manual integrated so you can find out what various params do without digging out the Blocks Guide.

 

[State of Epicicity]

You can immediately see that the current version looks much cleaner, with less embossed buttons and skeumorphic design for knobs and switches.

I'm on the other side of this; I like the old style better! To me skeumorphism is more beautiful in general.

I understand the design aesthetic eschewing skeumorphism, but I feel that too much modern design is based on minimalism, without ornamentation. I feel like it began with Steve Jobs being influenced by the Japanese minimalist design of his friend's mother.

To me designs in the real world, even when the technology behind those objects are obsolete, can have inherent beauty. The design of audio knobs and switches is in that category.

To me, just because we're in a world dominated by computers, it doesn't mean we have to live in an aesthetic largely dominated by aesthetics of computers themselves.

And to clarify, I think Japanese minimalism is beautiful, and it has warmth to it. To me Apple took that and removed the warmth, making it sci Fi, but that's awesome for what it is. What I think sucks is trying to base all design on that. I love my computers to look like they're from some tech utopia future, but I love for design elements on a screen, where most of us are productive, to have a warmth to it.

In this one way, I love what IK Multimedia does with Amplitube.

If you need me, I'll be in the shed demolishing my computers while crying uncontrollably...

 

[Stone]

It needs practicality improvements, like say the manual integrated so you can find out what various params do without digging out the Blocks Guide.

Or a basic Mouseover tooltip

 

[Achilles]

You can immediately see that the current version looks much cleaner,

But it loses the look of a physical interface.
Another vote for skeuomorphism as a positive!

 

[duzie]

Or a basic Mouseover tooltip

This would be awesome!
In Logic Pro you can toggle on and off whether the tooltip is active .

 

[LCW]

I guess you haven't seen the original Axe-Edit.

Axe-Edit for Axe-Fx 2:

Current FM9-Edit:

I used FM9-Edit here because the screenshot on Fractal's website was more up to date than the one for Axe-Edit.

You can immediately see that the current version looks much cleaner, with less embossed buttons and skeumorphic design for knobs and switches.

IMO it doesn't really need any visual overhaul.

It needs practicality improvements, like say the manual integrated so you can find out what various params do without digging out the Blocks Guide.

 

[Achilles]

View attachment 23863

I had to stare hard for a tick!

 

[laxu]

I'm on the other side of this; I like the old style better! To me skeumorphism is more beautiful in general.

I understand the design aesthetic eschewing skeumorphism, but I feel that too much modern design is based on minimalism, without ornamentation. I feel like it began with Steve Jobs being influenced by the Japanese minimalist design of his friend's mother.

To me designs in the real world, even when the technology behind those objects are obsolete, can have inherent beauty. The design of audio knobs and switches is in that category.

To me, just because we're in a world dominated by computers, it doesn't mean we have to live in an aesthetic largely dominated by aesthetics of computers themselves.

And to clarify, I think Japanese minimalism is beautiful, and it has warmth to it. To me Apple took that and removed the warmth, making it sci Fi, but that's awesome for what it is. What I think sucks is trying to base all design on that. I love my computers to look like they're from some tech utopia future, but I love for design elements on a screen, where most of us are productive, to have a warmth to it.

In this one way, I love what IK Multimedia does with Amplitube.

If you need me, I'll be in the shed demolishing my computers while crying uncontrollably...

If you invert the colors of FM9-Edit, you end up with something vaguely Dieter Rams-ish design - not a lot of superfluous elements. Obviously with the limitations of graphics editor invert functionality making many things look crap. The old Axe-Edit by comparison has a lot of highlights that detract from functionality (reading the knob position), but that was the look of a lot of software back at the time.

I think for example NeuralDSP executes functional minimalism quite well in some of their plugin UI designs, where the skeumorphism does not detract. This is from the Mateus Asato plugin:

I don't think that sort of aesthetic would necessarily work for Axe-Edit though, since it needs to present a unified UI for a lot of different block types. Maybe something Axe-Edit could use is some color coding for grouping parameters together, say amp EQ.

It's clearly slow firmware update week when we are talking about this stuff!

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

I guess you haven't seen the original Axe-Edit.

Axe-Edit for Axe-Fx 2:

Current FM9-Edit:

I used FM9-Edit here because the screenshot on Fractal's website was more up to date than the one for Axe-Edit.

You can immediately see that the current version looks much cleaner, with less embossed buttons and skeumorphic design for knobs and switches.

IMO it doesn't really need any visual overhaul.

It needs practicality improvements, like say the manual integrated so you can find out what various params do without digging out the Blocks Guide.

I owned an Ax8 and so am familiar with earlier editions of the editor. Quite honestly, I had to look at your screenshots a couple of times to notice that there was any difference.