Synth UI - Synthesis made understandable

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petal
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Synth UI - Synthesis made understandable

Post by petal »

Ableton Live's new wavetable synth is, at least in my eyes, a great example of, how to use the computer screen's strengths to communicate what t.. f... is going on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj3P8yHFuig

More of this please!
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Nestor
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Re: Synth UI - Synthesis made understandable

Post by Nestor »

1000% with you there! No more restrictions in size, it makes no sense anymore in this present day.
*MUSIC* The most Powerful Language in the world! *INDEED*
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kensuguro
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Re: Synth UI - Synthesis made understandable

Post by kensuguro »

yeah, I think this sort of presentation makes synthesis more accessible, though I wouldn't call it a necessity. It does help to have a solid grasp on what the individual modules do, and how they are wired together, and how each parameter affects the behavior of the modules. Visualizing them definitely makes it more immediately understood. With simpler synthesis, it's also possible to pick up on these changes and "what is going on" with just the sound, but with more complex calculations like with the DX7, it's near impossible to know what exactly is going on from just the audio... and maybe even with visualizations.

Apart from usability and being able to produce the sound you expect, I think there's also a more pragmatic "tool" factor. Making things more accessible is great, but many times these optimizations also make tools faster to use. I believe speed is crucial for creative tools. The human mind is hilariously fallible and limited. Quite so that we spend an enormous amount of mental energy fooling ourselves otherwise. That limited ability to think and sustain focus is a precious resource, and optimizations that help preserve that energy I think makes a huge difference especially if aggregated over the long run. It may not be apparent in a single tune or a single melody line, but with that tiny extra bit of mental capacity, if the composer were to have a more closer, intimate, honest relationship with the material he is writing, that will have a huge impact on the musical development of that composer.

Then there's life. Say these speed boosts gave the user 30 minutes of time back from each session. If a writer writes every day, that would be 3 hrs extra time per week to just experience life. Meet people, taste new things, experience deeper emotions, fall in live, be heartbroken, help people, thank people. Well, unsurprisingly these are great material that many a music have been written about. Not quite exactly what you may think of when a particular synth is quick to work with, but perhaps its implications may be as small, or as big as you make them.
petal
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Re: Synth UI - Synthesis made understandable

Post by petal »

All though I do get your point about efficiency, I guess my point is that while familiarity might be a plus (and more efficient for some people), recreating a hardware UI's visuals on a screen, might not be the best way to create an UI for a software synth.

Instead I call for accepting that a screen is not tactile in the same way a hardware unit is with knobs and sliders, but instead realizing that a screens potential as a dynamic vizualizer for communicating complex info, might be a better approach when creating UI's for software synth's etc. which I do believe that Abletons new wavetable synth is a good example of.
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Re: Synth UI - Synthesis made understandable

Post by dawman »

Sounds really interesting.
I just tried the u-He Repro 5 BETA.
What a waste of talent and time.
Sure it looks like a Prophet, sounds like a thin native version.
Same UI, etc.

John Bowen and Klaus Piehls Scope DSP Vrs. from 17 years ago sounds as good.

I’d rather developers follow the example mentioned here.
It’s obvious Native quality will never equal discrete Audio.
I’m bored with trying anymore.
Wish we could get hardware modules for quality of sound and have a UI from this century to program with.
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kensuguro
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Re: Synth UI - Synthesis made understandable

Post by kensuguro »

Oh right, I gotcha. Yes, this takes advantage of the screen for what it is. There's very little to gain by trying to force the screen to turn in to a hardware controller. Maybe a flat surface 'ribbon' like controller, but that's about it. Much more useful for visualizations, which most of what a screen is, is designed to do.
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dante
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Re: Synth UI - Synthesis made understandable

Post by dante »

dawman wrote:Sounds really interesting.
I just tried the u-He Repro 5 BETA.
What a waste of talent and time.
Sure it looks like a Prophet, sounds like a thin native version.
Same UI, etc.
The circuit board rendering version is kinda cool tho.... couldn't do this on a h/w synth without the beer wrecking it. Apparently for some the CPU is left on the floor crying afterwards :P

Repro Beer Resistant Circuit Board
Repro Beer Resistant Circuit Board
uhe-repro1.jpg (297.37 KiB) Viewed 1612 times
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