I doubt NI thinks about changing anything in Kontakt. They live in a late 90ies bubble. As long as they are convinced to provide one of the most popular sampler in the music business , they won’t change anything and if so then just cosmetic.
That's not the issue. The issue is the thousands of 3rd party libraries that rely on their customizable user interface to operate correctly. They can't change the UI without risking breaking all those libraries.
I agree, I've cut Kontakt from my life 100%. It needs a complete redesign from the ground up. So bloated with outdated features it's unusable for anything other than loading the odd library. Even that is difficult as the library drop down menu collapses every time you load something.
It's an IDE that tries to be a plugin. It would work so much better if you would split the authoring environment from the use of it as an instrument. That way you could make it fullscreen as well.
When you build libraries you are generally not composing stuff.
I fine the most annoying part of Kontakt’s UI to be the core design or the vertical rack layout, where all loaded patches are vertically stacked. When compared to the more sensible approach of other samplers that have a list of loaded patches on the left or right, and clicking on that patch name brings the UI for that patch (and only that patch) into view, Kontakt’s design requires a lot of vertical scrolling for very little benefit. This issue is made *much worse* by the comically bad design decision to have the scroll wheel only scroll the interface by ~3 pixels per tick - in an interface that by design is extremely vertical and designed with scrolling in mind.
Edit: I’m still on Kontakt 6, so I don’t know if this is finally improved in Kontakt 7. But I started using Kontakt back in version 3 and it remained an issue through K6.
I agree. I use kontakt A LOT. The GUI is just terrible. Even the new version it a tad bit better but still bad. It's not the most user-friendly vst. The fact that some libraries don't show up the actual kontakt libraries is crazy. I still love kontakt tho but NI needs to go back to the drawing board.
Devil’s advocate, I think that’s about as simple as you can make something like Kontakt. For a rack of multi-samplers that you can pull from a library or a file browser, with super easy access to multi-output controls and MIDI channel selection, I think it would be hard to make it much more straightforward than it is.
I do, however, dislike the new library view. If I wanted to browse like that, I’d use Komplete Kontrol.
Wow Kontakt bashing one of most upvoted comments lol. FYI for anyone interested, I started using Kontakt Portable about 6 months ago to try and at least have a usable interface/gui for my libraries. Definitely recommend; it's not great but 100x better since it's stripped down and IMO less annoying.
Insane versatility, can work with anything midi can communicate, free as all get out.
I honestly don’t use it all that often anymore but I relied on it for years. I’ve replaced it with other more single-purpose synth plugins as well as alchemy, pigments, etc. But it’s really great as a sandbox to mix all different types of synth engines.
As someone who's first synth experience was Surge XT, it definitely was tough learning. I then reluctantly tried vital and after I learned how it worked it was instantly more intuitive and inspiring than Surge ever could have been. I haven't fully explored vital but so far it's been a much better experience for me.
Ye 100%. It pains that it doesn’t explain a function when you hover it. The manual us pretty decent but I’m not trying to scroll a million pages everytime i don’t understand something
Kontakt is a godsend in many respects but damn it's almost unusable. I avoided for so long because I didn't get it. I'd vote for some of the older Spitfire VSTs like cello or harpsichord that they squeezed into Kontakt's ugly ass.
Have you checked out Airwindows Consolidated?
Still not much to look at, but having them categorized in a single wrapper is nice. And it does kind of have a designy interface.
...
ish
I'd personally give Airwindows a pass as it doesn't even try. It's function over form all the way, it's free, and in the end, it's your DAW/OS that gives you the UI.
Omg stutter edit wtf
It’s sooo confusing. I sat down and learned it once and then went back to it recently and was lost
Like first you have to set it up to just be an effect and not be triggered by midi
Then…Im done
Also, my best in class UI:
Synth- Pigments
Sequencer- Orbit
Pattern Generator- Harmony Bloom
Drum Machine- XO
Multi-Effect/Filter- Shaperbox
EQ- FF Pro Q 3
Compressor- Logic Pro stock
Saturation- Softube Knob
Limiter- FF Pro L
How would you rate Logic daw in terms of ui? I don’t have a Mac but I use garage band often on my phone and logic is as intuitive as GB so it’s enticing a little
Nah fr I stopped using orbit after I realized that if you want to clear out a preset hitting reset doesn't do anything, you have to delete the plugin and bring it back.
End of thread right here! I've stumbled through experimental and intentionally obtuse max/msp runtimes better organized and easier to look at than Poly-Ana. (also bonus spite because AQ ignores all criticism about the gui and has stubbornly kept to it since its debut)
Choose another skin or make your own then.
[https://www.admiralquality.com/poly-ana-custom-skins/](https://www.admiralquality.com/poly-ana-custom-skins/)
I'd agree with that, ultrabeat was awful, the ESX24 also had an unattractive user interface despite it being very powerful and CPU efficient for its time.
I did [a redesign](https://dribbble.com/shots/22968296-Omnisphere-Redesign?utm_source=Clipboard_Shot&utm_campaign=artemiy_design&utm_content=Omnisphere%20Redesign&utm_medium=Social_Share&utm_source=Clipboard_Shot&utm_campaign=artemiy_design&utm_content=Omnisphere%20Redesign&utm_medium=Social_Share) some time ago. Tried to make the different layers more accessible and just make it look more modern overall.
Agreed - while it’s not fair to pit the interface head-to-head against more modern synths, even when Omnisphere 2 first came out the interface felt clunky. If the interface just felt dated I could get past it, but being old *and* having the slowest UI response time/snappy feeling of any of the soft synths I own (by a long shot) makes me avoid reaching for it if possible.
Personally I like it for pads and other atmospheres. They have a ton of cinematic sounds (I think half of the library is meant for movie scores) which I can use to create atmosphere in a track if need be. I also believe you can have 32 sound layers as well, so it’s pretty powerful.
UI is confusing, I had to watch some videos about it and I understand it a little bit more but I still don’t know how to synthesize anything on it yet lol. I can use serum fine and other synths but omnisphere is beyond my comprehension.
Meh - it’s _also_ a rompler. But it’s also a fully fledged synth, with all that entails. It’s just got a slow and unresponsive, and often unhelpful ui. Not limiting at all, somewhat overwhelming what it can do. But not easily.
You don’t know what you’re talking about and you’re just venting an opinion taken from someone else.
Omnisphere 2.8 Synthesis Engine
• Four Layers per patch
• New State Variable Filters
• Over 500 DSP Wavetables
• Powerful Granular Synthesis
• 8 LFOs, 12 ENVs, 34 Filter Types per part
• Doubled Mod Matrix
• Full FX Modulation
Yeah, this is what I came here to say. I'd love to get more creative with it, but the UI means I just end up using it as the ROMpler some people think it is.
This is probably unpopular but I hate when they have a little version of the synth, drumkit, etc. as the ui. Like all arturia synths are great, but it’s dumb af to click around on little knobs and connect fake wires. Matrix grids or little menus are objectively simpler and faster. I get that people want to like get the feel of the original instrument, but it will never be that through a mouse on a computer screen.
Overall arturia has great ui’s, I just don’t agree with the design philosophy of recreating the instrument on-screen.
MPC plugin. For some reason desktop version of MPC is totally unintuitive and actively works against you. It would be 100% better if they just ported UI from hardware (which has it own problems in area of UX but is way more intuitive and consistent)
MPC Beats is the worst DAW. They went out of their way to make it as confusing and tedious as possible. It came free with my MPK mini and I tried to learn it on about 10 separate occasions and just couldn't figure it out, even watching YouTube tutorials.
It's because they took the MPC software, which worked because of having physical pads and knobs to control everything, and even touch screen, and just ported it straight to desktop where suddenly you're limited to mouse clicks and it kills the workflow
I think it’s actually the other way round.
Current MPC software/Beats is reskinned version of the original software for Renaissance, which was quite old and not very intuitive to begin with. Then they created version of that soft for MPC Touch and then for the rest of the standalone MPC’s. In my opinion what we have on MPC is upgraded version of the OG soft, that they never ported to desktop. It makes some sense in case of standalone app, but plugin that is looking and working like standalone MPC would be way less confusing than what we have now.
But probably they know usage stats and since very little people use it, they don’t invest in it too much. And not many people use it, because it is so confusing. It’s a pitty, because it could be great asset for Akai. Many people think they would use it and then don’t because it doesn’t work like their hardware MPC.
It’s only last year when they added option to switch patterns from inside DAW with Program Change message. It wasn’t working for years and nobody noticed! It would be better of course if we could switch sequences by automation (or notes - man can dream!) but no- none automation is working with MPC plugin. And still - seems like nobody notices. Sometimes I feel I am the only person even using those plugins regularly:)
Upgraded to 11 standard and holy shit the regret. I literally have no idea what half the shit genuinely does (so many tabs) and I'd rather be on elements at this point LMAO
This is really curious. Ozone 11 is my first iteration of the plugin, and I'm fine with it.
Breaking existing workflows is quite user hostile, I do understand that.
That is interesting. If it works for you that's great! It's not even that it's bad now it's just that they changed things that didn't need to change, as often happens with Izotope.
I almost brought up Melda. Definitely not ambitious, by any means, but kind of just... boring. I'm not viscerally offended by their UI nearly as much as, say, VOXENGO.
Melda seems divisive. I do like them, even if I misclick to fold a view every now and then. But I can see how they would irritate someone, especially if they're used to analog interfaces.
Man.... Most of the Soundtoys plugins are great, but HOLY BALLS I hate the "flattened photograph of analog gear" aesthetic of most of these plugins. Decapitator is probably the best of the bunch in both UI and functionality. Maybe a little minimalistic, but it's not grating.
But man. Little Plate, Super Plate, Primal Tap, Filter Freak, Alter Boy... They just all look so.... TACKY.
Edit: Actually the old Audio Damage plugins have a kind of similar look but they bother me WAY MORE than the Soundtoys stuff.
Edit edit: OH YEAH. VOXENGO. Hands down. Atrocious to look at!!!
I'm convinced humans did not make the audio damage plug-ins. It's like a vst-design turring test lmao.
"and this knob changes the order of the laplace transformation that is being applied to the wave function. really adds that analog w***th"
Agreed they need to let go of that skueomorphic design language already.
Pro Tools UI is a cluttered mess, worse than a plane’s cockpit. FL Studio is just as guilty.
Logic is the best UI in my opinion.
Logic is my favorite, but it is full of skeuomorphism, which I actually quite like. Ableton is the most non-skeuomorphic and I dislike that look, even if I understand it is more efficient or whatever
For sure. I would say Logic has a more tasteful use of skeuomorphism. They use it where it counts.
Ableton has that minimalist Scandinavian aesthetic, almost vector based approach that scales nicely. Their instrument and effects racks are simple and clean. Like if IKEA made a DAW it would be Ableton Live.
Reason is also very skeuomorphic but I haven’t seen it recently.
Pro Tools UI is a weird thing. It’s objectively terrible. The number of stock/bundled plugins that are literally unreadable plus the inability to resize anything is inexcusable. That being said, for me personally that whole clusterfuck of poor decisions forces me to use my ears rather than my eyes to work and that is good. Still hate working in PT, the sooner the original client base retires the better
I grew up with Cubase SX (I am old), then Logic, and it took me a loooong time to get used to Ableton’s UI. Now I cant imagine using anything else but the look of it is something I still can’t quite get my head around.
I tell myself that what it lacks in snazzy looks makes it more powerful in processing, which given Ableton’s original concept as a performance tool makes sense. Maybe someone cleverer than me can confirm/deny that.
Don't disagree with any of the replies, though it got me thinking about what would even be considered good / bad design?
From an objective perspective, the 303 step sequencer has terrible ux design, however most people would say that the clunkiness / limitations are in fact good for creativity.
What's your take on this? What makes ui truly bad and what are good "creative limitations"?
Good thought
I suppose if it hinders flow and creativity it’s bad
We do end up finding ways to use these things
But if designers from the jump kept this in mind:
“We want users to immediately fall in love and abandon family time, video game time, and lose track of time from the moment they turn this on”
We’d all be so much better off with this expensive software
I contend it’s one reason people wait for sales more often
If I was designing, that’s how I would approach it.
This is my field for a day job so I typically operate on two principles:
How many “wows” can I get and How can I make it so easy that people can focus on the task at hand rather than learning a new language
This approach requires being humbled and learning various approaches that many are to lazy to absorb in my experience
Excellent example, as much as I don’t like Amazon as a company
They are the gold standard for shopping online, them and maybe Macy’s is a distant second
It just works so easily and even with the gazillion options they have, very few report they’re lost using Amazon.
The worst offender in it is just how small the buttons are for switching sounds and transposing etc. Otherwise it's just fine by me, but why do I gotta click on buttons barely the size of a pixel?
The worst offender in it is just how small the buttons are for switching sounds and transposing etc. Otherwise it's just fine by me, but why do I gotta click on buttons barely the size of a pixel?
The worst offender in it is just how small the buttons are for switching sounds and transposing etc. Otherwise it's just fine by me, but why do I gotta click on buttons barely the size of a pixel?
Klevgränd has great, creative design and overall marketing I find. Their little youtube demo videos are very well made, have great music, and make me want to buy the whole package. No idea how good they really are though.
Any stock synth plugin in logic. Vintage synth is ALMOST usable. I bought my first hardware synth because I couldn’t make sense of the apple assortment of Winamp skins to create pleasant sounds
I kinda like the minimalism in their ui design approach, if the sections were maybe organized a bit better that'd probably do the heavy lifting on improving it
I haven’t upgraded to the most recent Logic Pro yet, so maybe things have changed, but certainly as recently as the previous release it still had some truly hideous plugin synth UIs, like someone’s first Winamp skin where they figured out how to get a brushed metal effect and then crammed in all their big ideas.
I agree with Kontakt! It has looked the same forever, and just so many issues that needed fixing for a long time. Not the best UI design at all or file system… but very useful. Not very user friendly, and I started on Reason in 1999!
Melda in general, just pick one at random and I'll stand by it 100%, just like I will the next time you pick one at random, because that will also be the worst UI..
I think Logic’s UI is comparable to Cubase and slightly better than Bitwig and Studio 1 and much, much better than Ableton, ProTools, or Reason. I think Logic is best for live instrument music production and Bitwig is probably best for electronic music production.
I gotta stand up and defend Reason here.
I understand that its "real world" approach to UI design isn't for everyone, but I personally really like it. It helps me visualize the flow of sound way better (+ I think the physical looks of the rack and the REs is just absolutely radical.)
May I ask your opinion on minimum max standards today for moving to Logic Pro
And maybe running some spitfire vst’s and NeuralDSP guitar sims, Steven slate drums
And mixing/mastering tools
Pretty basic
I’ve heard people talking about this small Mac boxes
Kontakt. Downvote me, IDC.
No it’s atrocious from ui point of view. I don’t know why it’s so hard to hire a legit experienced ui engineer to get it right for users
I doubt NI thinks about changing anything in Kontakt. They live in a late 90ies bubble. As long as they are convinced to provide one of the most popular sampler in the music business , they won’t change anything and if so then just cosmetic.
The strangest thing is they do have good UIs for their Kontakt libraries - but not for the Kontakt itself.
That's not the issue. The issue is the thousands of 3rd party libraries that rely on their customizable user interface to operate correctly. They can't change the UI without risking breaking all those libraries.
Which sucks because NI have great libraries. But the bad UI ruins it all.
Usually worth the struggle for the results, but yeah, first reasonable competition and I'd jump ship
Falcon?
I agree, I've cut Kontakt from my life 100%. It needs a complete redesign from the ground up. So bloated with outdated features it's unusable for anything other than loading the odd library. Even that is difficult as the library drop down menu collapses every time you load something.
I always let out a sigh when I realize I have the perfect sound for something in a kontakt library.
As a Kontakt instrument designer, it’s even more convoluted on the design side than the user side. Extremely frustrating.
If I accidentally click load first plugin one more fucking time so help me God...
Angrily opened this thread to say NI stuff, and on top of that they haven’t been that helpful with customer service either.
I do agree. It's just pure evil design.
Especially under the hood. Using it as an actual sampler and building your own sounds is annoying as fuck.
I’ve had it for years and still don’t understand some things about it. It’s not user friendly at all
It's an IDE that tries to be a plugin. It would work so much better if you would split the authoring environment from the use of it as an instrument. That way you could make it fullscreen as well. When you build libraries you are generally not composing stuff.
I hate kontakt
Kontakt’s atrocious UX and UI experience drives me up a wall. Makes me so mad because so many good VSTs use it.
I fine the most annoying part of Kontakt’s UI to be the core design or the vertical rack layout, where all loaded patches are vertically stacked. When compared to the more sensible approach of other samplers that have a list of loaded patches on the left or right, and clicking on that patch name brings the UI for that patch (and only that patch) into view, Kontakt’s design requires a lot of vertical scrolling for very little benefit. This issue is made *much worse* by the comically bad design decision to have the scroll wheel only scroll the interface by ~3 pixels per tick - in an interface that by design is extremely vertical and designed with scrolling in mind. Edit: I’m still on Kontakt 6, so I don’t know if this is finally improved in Kontakt 7. But I started using Kontakt back in version 3 and it remained an issue through K6.
Drives me insane, it’s goofy ass system’s the biggest hurdle when trying to use their otherwise good plugins
Yuppppp
Correct. I sold my Maschine after six months. Interface was trash, and they could keep up with Mac OS updates.
Nah you’re right to say it, it’s bad.
I agree. I use kontakt A LOT. The GUI is just terrible. Even the new version it a tad bit better but still bad. It's not the most user-friendly vst. The fact that some libraries don't show up the actual kontakt libraries is crazy. I still love kontakt tho but NI needs to go back to the drawing board.
nah fam.. Kontakt is a dream compared to some plugins from the early 00s.
Devil’s advocate, I think that’s about as simple as you can make something like Kontakt. For a rack of multi-samplers that you can pull from a library or a file browser, with super easy access to multi-output controls and MIDI channel selection, I think it would be hard to make it much more straightforward than it is. I do, however, dislike the new library view. If I wanted to browse like that, I’d use Komplete Kontrol.
Agree, Kontakt’s UI is utter dogshit from past to present, but atleast past versions were navigable. now it’s just annoying to use
Wow Kontakt bashing one of most upvoted comments lol. FYI for anyone interested, I started using Kontakt Portable about 6 months ago to try and at least have a usable interface/gui for my libraries. Definitely recommend; it's not great but 100x better since it's stripped down and IMO less annoying.
Unpopular opinion: Surge XT
It’s the perfect storm of ugly, unintuitive, annoying, and so useful you have to out up with it all.
What do you think makes surge stand out from the rest?
Insane versatility, can work with anything midi can communicate, free as all get out. I honestly don’t use it all that often anymore but I relied on it for years. I’ve replaced it with other more single-purpose synth plugins as well as alchemy, pigments, etc. But it’s really great as a sandbox to mix all different types of synth engines.
As a new producer opening it for the first time is like yo what does any of this mean
As someone who's first synth experience was Surge XT, it definitely was tough learning. I then reluctantly tried vital and after I learned how it worked it was instantly more intuitive and inspiring than Surge ever could have been. I haven't fully explored vital but so far it's been a much better experience for me.
Vital’s UI is incredible. The fact that it’s free continues to be mind boggling.
Yeah. Hope it stays free forever.
Make sure you are running Version 1.5.5 (“early access” version), as the more obvious link is an earlier version with less features.
Not the worst, but it did grow out of its original constraints.
I think it is pretty good for those features.
Can't stand it either
I refused to use it back before I bought serum because I hated the ui so much. It’s such great synth that is made extremely inaccessible for beginners
Yeah that's why I use the themes
Ye 100%. It pains that it doesn’t explain a function when you hover it. The manual us pretty decent but I’m not trying to scroll a million pages everytime i don’t understand something
Kontakt is a godsend in many respects but damn it's almost unusable. I avoided for so long because I didn't get it. I'd vote for some of the older Spitfire VSTs like cello or harpsichord that they squeezed into Kontakt's ugly ass.
I love how it eats up your entire screen if you dare to run a 1080p monitor lmao
- iZotope Stutter Edit 2 - Anything Airwindows (if they even can be considered, hardly have an interface) - Tracktions F'em. Outside of the matrix.
Have you checked out Airwindows Consolidated? Still not much to look at, but having them categorized in a single wrapper is nice. And it does kind of have a designy interface. ... ish
Airwindows Consolidated is great! The plugin(s) I mean. The interface is very... minimalistic..? But it's good enough, I guess.
One thing I noticed with consolidated, though I only had a really quick look, was that it doesn't have any metering.
I'd personally give Airwindows a pass as it doesn't even try. It's function over form all the way, it's free, and in the end, it's your DAW/OS that gives you the UI.
Stutter Edit 2 is horrendous. I have no idea what they were thinking when designing that interface.
Honestly compared with the first one it's an improvement.
Omg stutter edit wtf It’s sooo confusing. I sat down and learned it once and then went back to it recently and was lost Like first you have to set it up to just be an effect and not be triggered by midi Then…Im done
Also, my best in class UI: Synth- Pigments Sequencer- Orbit Pattern Generator- Harmony Bloom Drum Machine- XO Multi-Effect/Filter- Shaperbox EQ- FF Pro Q 3 Compressor- Logic Pro stock Saturation- Softube Knob Limiter- FF Pro L
How would you rate Logic daw in terms of ui? I don’t have a Mac but I use garage band often on my phone and logic is as intuitive as GB so it’s enticing a little
Logic is literally garageband’s ui with more features and stuff. It’s like using the same program, although the mobile version is pretty different.
Garage band is logics UI with less features
Nah fr I stopped using orbit after I realized that if you want to clear out a preset hitting reset doesn't do anything, you have to delete the plugin and bring it back.
Korg M1 VST. I said what I said.
haha my favorite vst! how dare you?
😂🤙🏼
Seems like it was designed for screens in 2004
https://www.admiralquality.com/product/poly-ana/
Yikes😯😯
Good god this is the worst one
Yikes
Looks very warm.
Looks very warm.
Ikr you can just feel the rich tones steaming out of those knobs
Ffs I’m eating
"How many knobs do you need on this vst?" ... "All of 'em."
End of thread right here! I've stumbled through experimental and intentionally obtuse max/msp runtimes better organized and easier to look at than Poly-Ana. (also bonus spite because AQ ignores all criticism about the gui and has stubbornly kept to it since its debut)
Choose another skin or make your own then. [https://www.admiralquality.com/poly-ana-custom-skins/](https://www.admiralquality.com/poly-ana-custom-skins/)
Spitfire Labs. What do those icons by the sliders actually mean??
Dude, those icons infuriate me! Am I supposed to just understand what they mean? There's *nothing* intuitive about them at all.
Synthmaster2 I fucking hate that GUI I don't like the Synthmaster One either. It's horrible to work with, zero percent intuitive.
Indeed, great synth but UI sucks
Worst: ultrabeat. Actually, any of those old logic stock plugins Best: anything Valhalla. Shout out to Airwindows for just not doing it
I'd agree with that, ultrabeat was awful, the ESX24 also had an unattractive user interface despite it being very powerful and CPU efficient for its time.
Not sure I’m familiar with Valhalla Will check them out!
I like the Space Modulator and VintageVerb
Hah. Ultrabeat is still “new” in my eyes compared to the ESx synths, which could do with an overhaul too.
I think Omnisphere’s is pretty bad. Too many menu layers to sort through IMO.
I did [a redesign](https://dribbble.com/shots/22968296-Omnisphere-Redesign?utm_source=Clipboard_Shot&utm_campaign=artemiy_design&utm_content=Omnisphere%20Redesign&utm_medium=Social_Share&utm_source=Clipboard_Shot&utm_campaign=artemiy_design&utm_content=Omnisphere%20Redesign&utm_medium=Social_Share) some time ago. Tried to make the different layers more accessible and just make it look more modern overall.
Agreed - while it’s not fair to pit the interface head-to-head against more modern synths, even when Omnisphere 2 first came out the interface felt clunky. If the interface just felt dated I could get past it, but being old *and* having the slowest UI response time/snappy feeling of any of the soft synths I own (by a long shot) makes me avoid reaching for it if possible.
Just checked it out, looks fancy but overwhelming How are the sounds? Top notch probably?
Personally I like it for pads and other atmospheres. They have a ton of cinematic sounds (I think half of the library is meant for movie scores) which I can use to create atmosphere in a track if need be. I also believe you can have 32 sound layers as well, so it’s pretty powerful. UI is confusing, I had to watch some videos about it and I understand it a little bit more but I still don’t know how to synthesize anything on it yet lol. I can use serum fine and other synths but omnisphere is beyond my comprehension.
So once again a great tool possibly hindered by its accessibility 😡
Yes, IMO the best stock presets and easy to randomize to find inspiration. That’s why so many top songs use it.
Yeah top notch one of the best sounding VSTs of all time
Its a rompler, so its pretty limiting but if you treat it as more of a sampler then you will be fine.
Meh - it’s _also_ a rompler. But it’s also a fully fledged synth, with all that entails. It’s just got a slow and unresponsive, and often unhelpful ui. Not limiting at all, somewhat overwhelming what it can do. But not easily.
Is it? Since when? I thought it has roms of synth waveforms but was still 100% a romper. Isnt that what all their plugins are? Romplers and samplers
No - it can use samples as waveforms, but it can generate them too, and all sorts of waveforms and synthesis types and processing are available.
You don’t know what you’re talking about and you’re just venting an opinion taken from someone else. Omnisphere 2.8 Synthesis Engine • Four Layers per patch • New State Variable Filters • Over 500 DSP Wavetables • Powerful Granular Synthesis • 8 LFOs, 12 ENVs, 34 Filter Types per part • Doubled Mod Matrix • Full FX Modulation
Yeah, this is what I came here to say. I'd love to get more creative with it, but the UI means I just end up using it as the ROMpler some people think it is.
This is probably unpopular but I hate when they have a little version of the synth, drumkit, etc. as the ui. Like all arturia synths are great, but it’s dumb af to click around on little knobs and connect fake wires. Matrix grids or little menus are objectively simpler and faster. I get that people want to like get the feel of the original instrument, but it will never be that through a mouse on a computer screen. Overall arturia has great ui’s, I just don’t agree with the design philosophy of recreating the instrument on-screen.
I agree about Arturia a step above “some” with ui I enjoy most of what I have seamlessly
MPC plugin. For some reason desktop version of MPC is totally unintuitive and actively works against you. It would be 100% better if they just ported UI from hardware (which has it own problems in area of UX but is way more intuitive and consistent)
MPC Beats is the worst DAW. They went out of their way to make it as confusing and tedious as possible. It came free with my MPK mini and I tried to learn it on about 10 separate occasions and just couldn't figure it out, even watching YouTube tutorials.
It's because they took the MPC software, which worked because of having physical pads and knobs to control everything, and even touch screen, and just ported it straight to desktop where suddenly you're limited to mouse clicks and it kills the workflow
I think it’s actually the other way round. Current MPC software/Beats is reskinned version of the original software for Renaissance, which was quite old and not very intuitive to begin with. Then they created version of that soft for MPC Touch and then for the rest of the standalone MPC’s. In my opinion what we have on MPC is upgraded version of the OG soft, that they never ported to desktop. It makes some sense in case of standalone app, but plugin that is looking and working like standalone MPC would be way less confusing than what we have now. But probably they know usage stats and since very little people use it, they don’t invest in it too much. And not many people use it, because it is so confusing. It’s a pitty, because it could be great asset for Akai. Many people think they would use it and then don’t because it doesn’t work like their hardware MPC. It’s only last year when they added option to switch patterns from inside DAW with Program Change message. It wasn’t working for years and nobody noticed! It would be better of course if we could switch sequences by automation (or notes - man can dream!) but no- none automation is working with MPC plugin. And still - seems like nobody notices. Sometimes I feel I am the only person even using those plugins regularly:)
Airwindows don't have gui at all, but it's actually a feature for performance. So the real answer is Delay Lama
Yeah terrible plugin ux indeed.
I’ve downloaded so many free vsts with terrible interfaces I can’t pick one
Most Acoustica plugins are pretty jumbled together and take a little time before you can work fast with them
Example? Not sure I have any acoustic ones
They're not acoustic, they're from Acustica. https://www.acustica-audio.com/plugins
🤦🏻♂️ Sorry Misread
Nah, not your fault - it was misspelled in the original post ;)
ozone 10 and onwards
Upgraded to 11 standard and holy shit the regret. I literally have no idea what half the shit genuinely does (so many tabs) and I'd rather be on elements at this point LMAO
Fucking hate every Nativ plugin …
What is your work around? Other vendors or just suck it up and use native anyways? Just curious🤙🏼
I fucking despise the Ozone 11 interface. Going from Ozone 9 was such a disappointment. I have no clue why they needed to ruin the maximizer.
Yeah I feel like I'm back at square one with my mastering now
This is really curious. Ozone 11 is my first iteration of the plugin, and I'm fine with it. Breaking existing workflows is quite user hostile, I do understand that.
That is interesting. If it works for you that's great! It's not even that it's bad now it's just that they changed things that didn't need to change, as often happens with Izotope.
Oeksound makes great UI's. Worst UI in my opinion are MeldaProduction plugins.
I almost brought up Melda. Definitely not ambitious, by any means, but kind of just... boring. I'm not viscerally offended by their UI nearly as much as, say, VOXENGO.
Nelda aren’t necessarily the prettiest but I wouldn’t say they’re defective by any means - all the knobs n shit are where you would expect
Melda seems divisive. I do like them, even if I misclick to fold a view every now and then. But I can see how they would irritate someone, especially if they're used to analog interfaces.
Keep hearing good things about oeksound
Massive X
Aka the preset player
WTF did they do to Massive? The original UI wasn't the best but wow.
I'm convinced nobody in this thread has ever tried to use Massive X because holy hell if it isn't the clear winner idk what is
Yeah it’s probably the most unintuitive GUi ever. Even deconstructing a patch is torture
Kontakt is the worst. In 2nd place is the Tela synth from Fors.
Man.... Most of the Soundtoys plugins are great, but HOLY BALLS I hate the "flattened photograph of analog gear" aesthetic of most of these plugins. Decapitator is probably the best of the bunch in both UI and functionality. Maybe a little minimalistic, but it's not grating. But man. Little Plate, Super Plate, Primal Tap, Filter Freak, Alter Boy... They just all look so.... TACKY. Edit: Actually the old Audio Damage plugins have a kind of similar look but they bother me WAY MORE than the Soundtoys stuff. Edit edit: OH YEAH. VOXENGO. Hands down. Atrocious to look at!!!
Just looked 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️ sheesh
I'm convinced humans did not make the audio damage plug-ins. It's like a vst-design turring test lmao. "and this knob changes the order of the laplace transformation that is being applied to the wave function. really adds that analog w***th"
Omnisphere
Melodyne is strikingly old fashioned.
Right!
Not a vat but I think pro tools UI is hot garbage
Agreed they need to let go of that skueomorphic design language already. Pro Tools UI is a cluttered mess, worse than a plane’s cockpit. FL Studio is just as guilty. Logic is the best UI in my opinion.
Logic is my favorite, but it is full of skeuomorphism, which I actually quite like. Ableton is the most non-skeuomorphic and I dislike that look, even if I understand it is more efficient or whatever
For sure. I would say Logic has a more tasteful use of skeuomorphism. They use it where it counts. Ableton has that minimalist Scandinavian aesthetic, almost vector based approach that scales nicely. Their instrument and effects racks are simple and clean. Like if IKEA made a DAW it would be Ableton Live. Reason is also very skeuomorphic but I haven’t seen it recently.
As a decade long pro tools user I used to agree, but I really like the most recent set of updates
Yeah I was just thinking I hadn't checked ked out any new releases
Pro Tools UI is a weird thing. It’s objectively terrible. The number of stock/bundled plugins that are literally unreadable plus the inability to resize anything is inexcusable. That being said, for me personally that whole clusterfuck of poor decisions forces me to use my ears rather than my eyes to work and that is good. Still hate working in PT, the sooner the original client base retires the better
Interesting, I’ve only used ableton and now I use S1 Ableton was a mess to me Not tried protools yet What’s your preferred daw
Ableton is a funny one because people either love it or they absolutely hate it, no in between.
I grew up with Cubase SX (I am old), then Logic, and it took me a loooong time to get used to Ableton’s UI. Now I cant imagine using anything else but the look of it is something I still can’t quite get my head around. I tell myself that what it lacks in snazzy looks makes it more powerful in processing, which given Ableton’s original concept as a performance tool makes sense. Maybe someone cleverer than me can confirm/deny that.
I've always felt fl studio has the most intuitive ui if you are a windows user
Logic Pro’s Ultrabeat, & ES2. Sculpture would be up there too if it wasn’t such a cool synth
ES2 is at least 20 years old, definitely needs an update.
some of them are so tiny. and hard to read. wish there was a way to make them bigger. i even got a bigger screen to try
The idea “we” have to accommodate their lack of effort is sad
Kurzweil K2600XS
Don't disagree with any of the replies, though it got me thinking about what would even be considered good / bad design? From an objective perspective, the 303 step sequencer has terrible ux design, however most people would say that the clunkiness / limitations are in fact good for creativity. What's your take on this? What makes ui truly bad and what are good "creative limitations"?
Good thought I suppose if it hinders flow and creativity it’s bad We do end up finding ways to use these things But if designers from the jump kept this in mind: “We want users to immediately fall in love and abandon family time, video game time, and lose track of time from the moment they turn this on” We’d all be so much better off with this expensive software I contend it’s one reason people wait for sales more often If I was designing, that’s how I would approach it. This is my field for a day job so I typically operate on two principles: How many “wows” can I get and How can I make it so easy that people can focus on the task at hand rather than learning a new language This approach requires being humbled and learning various approaches that many are to lazy to absorb in my experience Excellent example, as much as I don’t like Amazon as a company They are the gold standard for shopping online, them and maybe Macy’s is a distant second It just works so easily and even with the gazillion options they have, very few report they’re lost using Amazon.
Fair. I’ve tried to use the sequencer in a couple of 303 clones, hardware and software, but I end up going straight back to Logic’s matrix editor
XPand2
The worst offender in it is just how small the buttons are for switching sounds and transposing etc. Otherwise it's just fine by me, but why do I gotta click on buttons barely the size of a pixel?
The worst offender in it is just how small the buttons are for switching sounds and transposing etc. Otherwise it's just fine by me, but why do I gotta click on buttons barely the size of a pixel?
It’s impossibly hard to scroll through the presets and not accidentally close the menu you’re currently scrolling in
The worst offender in it is just how small the buttons are for switching sounds and transposing etc. Otherwise it's just fine by me, but why do I gotta click on buttons barely the size of a pixel?
Klevgränd has great, creative design and overall marketing I find. Their little youtube demo videos are very well made, have great music, and make me want to buy the whole package. No idea how good they really are though.
Ok thanks, will take a closer look
I always hated Native Instruments Absynth
I haven’t really tried it much since v2, but it hasn’t seemed to have changed a great deal It was an interesting layout, it just didn’t gel with me
Not a VST but a DAW reason
Reaktor would be the worst, except the low level UI is so bad barely anyone uses it anymore.
Any stock synth plugin in logic. Vintage synth is ALMOST usable. I bought my first hardware synth because I couldn’t make sense of the apple assortment of Winamp skins to create pleasant sounds
Plex 2 or sunra, both horrible to use
Tranzistow [https://www.hrastprogrammer.com/hrastwood/tranzistow/Tranzistow01.png](https://www.hrastprogrammer.com/hrastwood/tranzistow/Tranzistow01.png) [https://www.hrastprogrammer.com/hrastwood/tranzistow.htm](https://www.hrastprogrammer.com/hrastwood/tranzistow.htm)
I kinda like the minimalism in their ui design approach, if the sections were maybe organized a bit better that'd probably do the heavy lifting on improving it
Err these days? None of them are bad you have to go way back to the start to see some of the most spicy ones
I haven’t upgraded to the most recent Logic Pro yet, so maybe things have changed, but certainly as recently as the previous release it still had some truly hideous plugin synth UIs, like someone’s first Winamp skin where they figured out how to get a brushed metal effect and then crammed in all their big ideas.
Spectrasonics products really need a rework on the gui, they are really good as romplers but if you want to use them as synths shit gets messy
Xpand!
I agree with Kontakt! It has looked the same forever, and just so many issues that needed fixing for a long time. Not the best UI design at all or file system… but very useful. Not very user friendly, and I started on Reason in 1999!
Cubase HALion Sonic
Any of Cubase’s stock intruments or their VSTI’s. horribly small and unintuitive.
Massenburg just release a new compressor plugin and looks like it was made in 2004
[This horror?](https://massenburgdesignworks.com/products/mdwdrc2-mdwdrc3/)
Harmor. Seriously, what the fuck do I do
Melda in general, just pick one at random and I'll stand by it 100%, just like I will the next time you pick one at random, because that will also be the worst UI..
I remember when they updated their stuff a few years back to improve some of the guis (thinking chorus right now) and it kinda just made them... worse
I think Logic’s UI is comparable to Cubase and slightly better than Bitwig and Studio 1 and much, much better than Ableton, ProTools, or Reason. I think Logic is best for live instrument music production and Bitwig is probably best for electronic music production.
I gotta stand up and defend Reason here. I understand that its "real world" approach to UI design isn't for everyone, but I personally really like it. It helps me visualize the flow of sound way better (+ I think the physical looks of the rack and the REs is just absolutely radical.)
Yes, and no. Logic’s mixer looks horrible and the inspector menus and design looks like crap and has needed to be changed for along time now.
May I ask your opinion on minimum max standards today for moving to Logic Pro And maybe running some spitfire vst’s and NeuralDSP guitar sims, Steven slate drums And mixing/mastering tools Pretty basic I’ve heard people talking about this small Mac boxes
Any Apple silicon Mac (M1, M2, M3) and as much RAM as you can afford
A DAW instead and a little obscure, but I tried Harrison mixbus. UI was terrible
I like it!
Isn’t the point that it looks like a console?
Mixbus ui for mixer in best you can get! For other parts, maybe not so great, but if you just record and mix, there isn't better.
Synth1
Just use stock plugins
Harmor
[удалено]
[удалено]
Massive X. Absolute trash UI but good sounding synth :/
I used to love Kontakt until 7, now it looks like a COD menu