Re: [linux-audio-user] Usability vs Intuitability in Ardour

From: Renick Bell <renick@email-addr-hidden>
Date: Wed Jul 27 2005 - 10:56:45 EEST

> > nothing other than its an impediment to getting started..most apps
> > including mac/win DAWs and word processors let you create an untitled
> > proj without first prompting for a save location..but agree copying
> > 80gb would be bad..
>
> yes, and we've wondered how they manage to do that and discussed it
> several times over on #ardour. we have never come up with a solution
> that felt "right" for a potentially multi-user system.

For what it's worth, I've just switched (about a month ago) to Ardour
from Cubase SX. In Cubase, I am required to choose or create a project
folder as soon as I start a new project. Ardour's requirement for the
same was completely natural for me. Making people think a bit before
they jump seems like a good idea to me.

I really don't understand most of the complaints about Ardour's
usability, at least for experienced DAW users. I've been using Cubase
for eight years, and I've mixed a handful of sessions in ProTools. For
me, getting used to Ardour just required an afternoon reading the wiki
and a couple of ignorant questions in #ardour that had been answered
in the documentation. The lack of tools (scissor, eraser, etc) threw
me off at first, but I've found that the reduction in mousing by using
the keyboard more really improved my speed (and reduced the pain in my
wrist). How to do these operations was explained in the documentation.
Wishing that one could operate a tool of this complexity without
reading the manual is absurd. Just aping what other apps have done for
familiarity's sake also doesn't make sense. Had Ardour had a scissor
tool in the toolbar, I might not have ever realized there was a better
way of working.

My biggest gripe (which is still a trivial one) was about the lack of
anti-aliased text in the interface, and that seems to be coming soon.

-- 
Renick Bell
http://www.the3rd2nd.com
Received on Wed Jul 27 12:15:06 2005

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Wed Jul 27 2005 - 12:15:07 EEST