A few things to mention... most minor..
It would be nice to be able to customize certain aspects. For example to be able to have mabey 3 levels of border thickness to help identify certain workflows that come up during a project. Mabey even set of colors to put on the border, and the background of the button. Through programming if there was a limit of lets say 8 colors.. * light version, and dark versions. And dynamically the text could change color to always be readable......
Its just in my humble opinion that this program would change a persons focus to some degree if he were able to help visualize the flow better. Once it starts getting tangled up with lots of modules and wires... (for me atleast) I want to shut the program down.. and open ableton. If I dont feel there is any overview from a quick glance its too slow of a program to use.
I do understand that a light dark version is a very good compromize... Im just trying to be honest about why its hard for me to become a huge die hard fan of audio mulch.. The functionality of the program is exactly what I am looking for.
And one last thing which is also an EYESORE.. is the labels over the meters. I dont want to blow my trumpet and say im an expert.. but I spent 14 years working for MTV designing things which are meant to convey info in a bunch of BS or trippy stuff. And there are a few fundamental rules being broken with your meters for in or out. Those would be .... Never use a single line for a graphic with the direction facing the same as the text. It creates a Moire effect. ...and then add again the same direction line used to represent the sound level.
The labels over the meters might theoretically save space for the Bigger picture... but thats 90% function and 10% form.. Should always be in the middle if possible.
Anyways Im not here to rag on the design.. Im just trying to possibly influence you to make this amazing program just a tad more comfortable to use.
If any of this really makes sense.. and you might consider it.. I could do some examples of just the minor things Ive mentioned.
Hi Frogstar, and welcome.
Can I ask you to clarify some points?
> 3 levels of border thickness to help identify certain workflows
Borders on what?
Yes, colours are on the wishlist.
> would change a persons focus to some degree if he were able to help visualize the flow better. Once it starts getting tangled up with lots of modules and wires...
Can you be more specific about what is confusing you? I'm unsure what "help visualise the flow better" might mean.
Re the meters: I hear you, but they are a compromise. I'm pretty sure if I moved the text off the meters I'd have people complaining about wasting screen real estate (especially people running multi-channel setups), and if I hid the labels entirely I'd have people complaining about not being able to identify which meters are which. But if there's some other design possibility I'm missing then for sure it should be explored. Improved metering has been on the TODO list for a while: mostly because stereo pairs is not useful for everyone. I think there are different requirements depending on whether you're stereo, small-channel-count multichannel, or large channel count multichannel.
Thanks for your input. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the borders and "visualise flow better" stuff since I'm not really clear what you're getting at there.
Thanks,
Ross.
I did this really fast.... Obviously the border thing would have chamfered edges. And the audio Meter I just quickly slapped it together.. but the nut shell is.. you dont use white on bright green. They are both in a high freq.. and using 1 pixel wide contrasting lines next to the bright green and white.. and then to top it off little white single line thickness mixed in.. It makes the meters worthless imho. I wont use audio mulch because of this little thing.. Im more into live stuff than studio.. So I need to be able to read it fast and accurately..
I used dark blue in this example for text on bright green.. its the same thing like having white on black or black on white.. but in color
[IMG]http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e215/djfrogstar/AudioMulch_quick.jpg[/...
@frogstar: thanks for the suggestion. There is a problem with your meter proposal though: it makes it impossible to read off the decibel level based on the calibrated markings (which are the standard IEC meter ones).
Well its mainly having 1 pixel wide white lines next to text, which is next to 1 pixel wide grey. Thats just a normal thing to avoid when designing on a screen.. especially with it going horizontal and the text doing the same... My example was fast.. IMHO... The meters should be allowed to go anywhere.. next to a module somewhere.. and have a switch to make it vertical.. IMHO its easier to read a meter going up with numbers giving the DB values.. Horizontal gives me eye strain with how it is now..... Reading Levels for incoming Audio is really important for using audio mulch with Hardware. I still use audio mulch for noodling.. but its not my goto anymore because using it live makes the process for me too risky. I still have to admit.. I logically feel relaxed using AudioMulch.. a kind of Zen I dont get with other programs besides Reason and the cables, or Numerology.. but both of those programs are also not as ideal.
Im not saying colorizing stuff is a must... but The more I use it in other programs.. the more I can keep similarities to how I make music ...
> Well its mainly having 1 pixel wide white lines next to text, which is next to 1 pixel wide grey.
I just looked at your screenshots again. The white lines don't appear here, see:
http://media-cache-ec3.pinimg.com/originals/98/5e/e4/985ee436e086d292a31d191e512a738d.jpg
You might want to check that you are using the latest version of AM.
>>> The meters should be allowed to go anywhere.. next to a module somewhere.. and have a switch to make it vertical.. IMHO its easier to read a meter going up with numbers giving the DB values.. Horizontal gives me eye strain with how it is now..... <<<
Yes, this was all possible in AudioMulch 1.0. Unfortunately it became impractical with the "upgrade" to the current user interface framework. I agree with these points. Many are acknowledged in the KnownBugs file.
"Improve input/output level meters" is also an item for future consideration on the roadmap. So I expect it will get fixed eventually.
Can you give examples of software that have meters that you are happy with? And perhaps also what use-case is making them so important for you? I must admit that when I'm using AM live the most important things are "is there any level" "is there the right level" and "is it clipping" all of which work out OK with the current meters. Perhaps you need something more that I'm not thinking of?
Thanks.
You could always use a level meter VST if you need more precisioon/eye candy. I use Sonoris Meter and it's great.