What are your favourite plugin UI's?

[KHAAAAAAANNNNNNN!!!!!!!!]

i dunno- its AN aspect. if i have to be stuck in a visual medium for an inherently non visual medium, its nice to not make it misery. frankly, i hate computer recording BECAUSE it makes me look at shit. i dont want to. but things that emulate hardware help it suck less, to me anyhow.

I think this sums up what I was getting at. It's either perfect, or it's shit. I was speaking on the obsession with minutia. I just don't care too much as long as I get the results I want .

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Studer 800 just wastes so much space. Those hidden controls (which look a bit crap to be honest) could be done in another way and whatever those channel things with lights are on top make no sense to me, as a person who has never operated a tape machine.

Yeah I don’t agree at all here. The secondary controls are hidden away for a reason. There are instances where you may want to adjust them but they are also the sort of controls you can do a lot of damage with and it makes sense for them to be hidden with an additional click. It’s also helpful that they have smaller knob styles that are visually distinct from the rest. If you compare the Studer plugin to Waves J37, Kramer, BRA Magnetite, Fuse Flywheel, Slate VTM, U-he Satin etc I think it strikes a pretty great balance (and still looks closest to it’s real counterpart). I think the deeper controls being hidden away creates a useful hierarchy with the available controls - as an opposite think about some of the deep parameters available on a Fractal device that live side by side (and share the same visuals) to the primary controls. Having a priority and direction to use things is beneficial.

When you say “with no good reason”, it seems to imply that available space should have a knob or some kind of visual feedback? Is a totally congested plugin somehow an improvement? I think space+contrast are very important in order to direct your focus to where it’s supposed to. The more things are crammed in and exposed, you lose this visual contrast and the experience suffers. So “blank space” or pretty graphics absolutely serve a purpose.

Lots of great designs have a very contextual approach, so while space may appear somewhat empty in some uses, in others it will fill in. I WAY prefer this to just being overwhelmed with things you don’t need 98% of the time. Having that empty space means it’s easier to find what you do want. I don’t think it needs to be done to a ridiculous extreme, but I do think GUI’s like NDSP and UAD strike a pretty optimal balance.

 

[FuzzyAce]

I find the obsession with how UI's look interesting. No shade. Not macro issues like being blindingly bright, or unreadable. But the focus on minutiae, on something that is just a representative picture of code that sounds "something like" the picture.

As Spock would say, "Fascinating".

It's a design thing. Aesthetics are important for a lot of people, and even inspire a certain level of creativity themselves.
Me personally, I like something to be clean and crisp on the screen, easy to read and navigate, which is a small reason using some Waves plugins can be annoying to me.
If they can be clean AND cool looking that is a plus. None of that trumps what they can do in the sound design aspect though, but to have all of the above is not a bad thing.

 

[newholland]

I think this sums up what I was getting at. It's either perfect, or it's shit. I was speaking on the obsession with minutia. I just don't care too much as long as I get the results I want .

i definitely think some folks take it too far, for sure, in terms of expectation of minutiae. but by and large, its fun to have modeled gear i could never afford and to learn a bit of it in its 'original' form in case i actual ran into it- which is largely unlikely it just helps me feel less like some dork in the wilds making music nobody hears

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

Are ya ready? Got a ton. These are some of my favorites from my giant stash.

Screenshotted my fave UIs; suffice it to say I prefer reality the most, then a nice clean layout... with a nod to vintage:

(apparently I'm also a huge fan of faux wood trim)

Arturia:

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

Bettermaker:

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

brainworx:

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

Eventide:

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

fabfilter:

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

IK Multimedia:

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

Kiive Audio:

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

Lindell Audio:

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

Neural DSP - all of them (but especially the Purple SLO-100):

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

Softube amps are picture perfect:

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

Soundtoys - clean and simple:

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

TBTech Kirchoff EQ - similar to fabfilter's q3, but more features:

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

And can't forget Universal Audio; here's several:

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

UA continued:

...now if you'll excuse me, got some knobs to turn and buttons to push!

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Kjaerhus Audio - one of the very few ancient plugins (x86) set I've been using since very early 2Ks:

View attachment 37726

I guess you don’t know why these plugins stopped being supported. A quick google search of the dev will probably make you want to stop using it, but have a bucket nearby

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

I guess you don’t know why these plugins stopped being supported. A quick google search of the dev will probably make you want to stop using it, but have a bucket nearby

Ah, I see. Never knew.