Subject: [linux-audio-dev] Alternative Sequencer User Interface
From: Thorsten Wilms (t_w__AT_freenet.de)
Date: Sat Apr 10 2004 - 06:52:36 EEST
Hi!
Firt of all, since this my first post, some words about me:
My name's Thorsten Wilms, I'm studying industrial design
in Germany/Wuppertal.
I'm very interested in interaction / interface design, and
of course making music on the Linux platform.
My coding skills are _very_ basic:(
Used Cubase VST on Windows, but I can't stand Windows anymore,
and what people around here have developed / are working on
is more interesting anyway, not to forget that open-source
just feels better and gives me a chance to influence things :)
Ok, now the screenshot Tim Orford linked to
(http://80.61.20.184/wiki/smgui_5.png)
reminds me of Ableton Live. Everybody who doesn't know it should
take a look at this screenshots:
http://www.ableton.com/pages/products/live/live3tour/whatislive/live3sessionbig.gif
http://www.ableton.com/pages/products/live/live3tour/whatislive/live3arrangebig.gif
It's optimized for live usage. No pseudo 3d look, everything
fast and easy to 'read'. Not that everybody should copy
this right away, but it might be a source of inspiration.
And now for everybody interested in a different approach to
a sequencer gui, I would like to point to the 3d application
Blender.
It has something like it's own windowing system,
whereby what is called a Window in Blender is rather like
Panes in other environments.
You can split windows verticaly and horizontaly and resize every
window by dragging the borders. Every window (usualy) has a
header (even though these can be at the bottom) wich can hold
buttons and menus. But the first control in every header is
for selecting the windowtype (3d view, file-browser, schematic
view, ...).
Setups of these windows can be saved as Screens. Shortcuts
allow to switch through Screens, or to maximize the window
the mouse is over to full-screen (or minimize afterwards).
All this allows to adapt Blender to one's own workflow
or current task at hand.
Screenshots:
http://wrstud.urz.uni-wuppertal.de/~ka0394/forum/04-04-10_blender_1.png
http://wrstud.urz.uni-wuppertal.de/~ka0394/forum/04-04-10_blender_2.png
The same approach could be used for sequencer / audio suite.
To take it a little further, the windowtypes could be
seperate applications / plugins.
Managing various effects, synths, the mixer and everything
else on a single screen in Cubase was a nightmare. I make
use of virtual desktops under Linux, but a system like in
Blender would be so much more comfortable and fast ...
I can't code anything coming only close to such functionality,
but I'm more than willing to work on conception and graphics,
if there is interest.
Thanks for the attention!
--- Thorsten Wilms
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