5 ms·

If interfaces like reason's and ultrabeat's were the best UI possible for music software, then the interface for Final Cut Pro would be a rack of virtual VCRs a

If interfaces like reason's and ultrabeat's were the best UI possible for music software, then the interface for Final Cut Pro would be a rack of virtual VCRs and assorted machines, maybe even a bench for cutting and taping virtual pieces of film together. When all you're doing is copying the physical device experience, it's the laziest UI design you can possibly make, completely ignoring the medium you're working with. Sure it works, just as well as the physical machines with a hundred buttons and knobs do, but it doesn't make use of all the possibilities a computer can offer. The best and the worst of the physical experience has been ported. To me this is the same as emulating a rotary dial as a mobile phone's only means of dialing a number. It only sounds ridiculous because we all know the more efficient alternative. I think a lot of music software has yet to find the UI breakthrough it needs. Whenever that happens and a new standard of music software UI makes better use of the computer as medium, people will look back at UIs like reason's and find it very misguided. That doesn't mean the answer to all UI issues is to go minimalistic like the article suggests, but I think real-life device mimicking is generally a sign of lack of UI/usability hard work. It's always the easier solution to copy the existing rather than think hard on a better solution nobody's done before.

anigbrowl 16y ago
Up until the last year or two, you had to use a mouse to interact with music software. Touchscreens existed, but were prohibitively expensive - the iPad is beginning to change that. Indeed, it's only within the last 5 years that processing multichannel audio hasn't hit the CPU so hard that the UI starts to get choppy (preventing complex animations of what's going on in the signal). You will see some interesting multitouch applications within the next few years, but the real breakthrough will require some sort of 3d holographic display. Truly interactive musical creation requires the same sort of open-ended conceptual space as sculpture does.

anigbrowl 16y ago

Up until the last year or two, you had to use a mouse to interact with music software. Touchscreens existed, but were prohibitively expensive - the iPad is beginning to change that. Indeed, it's only within the last 5 years that processing multichannel audio hasn't hit the CPU so hard that the UI starts to get choppy (preventing complex animations of what's going on in the signal). You will see some interesting multitouch applications within the next few years, but the real breakthrough will require some sort of 3d holographic display. Truly interactive musical creation requires the same sort of open-ended conceptual space as sculpture does.