Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] ladspa plugin GUI proposal
From: Paul Barton-Davis (pbd_AT_Op.Net)
Date: Thu May 25 2000 - 04:51:11 EEST
>Someone mentioned the beauty of many VST interfaces. I'm of the opinion
>that the "chrome" factor is of zero practical importance. Am I nuts, or
>is it really so important to be able to make 3-d chrome interfaces for
>plugins? What if the user wants something different? What if the user is
>blind? My thinking is that it's already secondary if it doesn't end up
>on the CD you make with it. The primary concern should be user control
>and audio quality.
Except: I'm in interested in getting musicians and sound engineers to
use Linux. When faced with the VST GUI for Freeverb, and the one
constructed by gdam for the freeverb plugin (not that i've seen it,
but i'm going on what it does right now with other LADSPA plugins),
95% or more of the musicians will find the VST GUI interface
compelling, and the gdam one merely acceptable.
Yes, you can play it too them over and over and show them how good it
sounds. But when they can *the same plugins* (or better) using a VST
GUI, why bother with Octal, or Linux at all ? Oh, yes,
stability. Well, they'll believe that *after* they've shelled out for
the Windows machine.
I think this chrome-aversion is a kind of inverted snobbery on the
part of *nix users. If the user is blind, they won't be using a GUI at
all, so the appearance is irrelevant. If the user wants something
different, provide a themeing/skins capability. But make the baseline
GUI attractive, appealing, intuitive, immediate, stunning. I hope that
nobody is claiming that these adjectives rule out the other important
set: powerful, ergonomic, accessible, flexible. They don't.
Traditional engineers of audio gear spend weeks designing their
physical user interfaces, while people in the *nix work seem to think
that the same scrollbars that work for their sysadmin programs or text
editors are automatically the right choice for a program designed to
be intuitive to people *who don't use computers for other purposes*. I
think this is arrogant. Those users are our friends. We're not winning
any of them over by sticking butt ugly interfaces that even their
Windows counterparts don't use onto potentially vastly superior
technology.
Just my $0.02's worth of ranting.
--p
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