In the shop now: Softphonic's WIRE Eclectic Grand

This forum is for discussing Rack Extensions. Devs are all welcome to show off their goods.
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hurricane
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09 Mar 2018

Softphonics wrote:
09 Mar 2018


The discussion here has been a lot to do with the UI during BETA,
Imagine what the discussion would have been had you made it look awesome from the start. I don't think you RE devs should get a break. We should be harder on you. And you should take it as a challenge to improve your product. It only makes it better for you, for us, and for the Rack Extension market in general.


Have a good weekend.
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QVprod
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09 Mar 2018

hurricane wrote:
09 Mar 2018
I don't think you RE devs should get a break. We should be harder on you. And you should take it as a challenge to improve your product. It only makes it better for you, for us, and for the Rack Extension market in general.
There are better ways to give criticism. It's not about giving anyone a break. Simply not buying something is voicing a strong opinion. On the other hand offering suggestions for improvement (without malicious intent) comes off a lot better than straight up insulting someone's work. That's the equivalent of gong into the music forum and telling everyone their song sucks.

Now back on topic :puf_smile:

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hurricane
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09 Mar 2018

I'm sorry I'm not sorry for being blunt.
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selig
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10 Mar 2018

hurricane wrote:
09 Mar 2018
I'm sorry I'm not sorry for being blunt.
There is a fine line between being blunt and being a dick.
Try being helpful. Then you'll have nothing to be sorry for!
;)
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ltbrunt00
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12 Mar 2018

The sounds from this remind me of the Apex Kompozre. I am not to picky when it comes to plugin GUI's since almost all REs and VST look crappy in some way.

I like the sound of this and it is on my wish list. Or at least trial it first.

Since Softphonics is in the forums, this may be off subject, when is the Softphonics AIRE Brass coming out? I use Embouchure stunning brass quite a bit and imagine the AIRE Brass would be an upgrade to the refill.
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Creativemind
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12 Mar 2018

esselfortium wrote:
08 Mar 2018
Looks very customizable, but the preview's audio seems to be in mono, which makes it difficult to judge the sound accurately.

Please hire a GUI designer.
Yeah Facebooks audio is always in mono eh.
:reason:

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PurpleMonkeyDishes
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13 Mar 2018

Creativemind wrote:
12 Mar 2018
Yeah Facebooks audio is always in mono eh.
[/quote]

Its in Stereo here

Music is everything

PurpleMonkeyDishwasher

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Creativemind
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13 Mar 2018

PurpleMonkeyDishes wrote:
13 Mar 2018
Creativemind wrote:
12 Mar 2018
Yeah Facebooks audio is always in mono eh.
Its in Stereo here


[/quote]

That's You Tube?

So was this posted on Facebook? maybe it differs when it's a You Tube video link, I think I may have been confused with Live Streams if so.
:reason:

Reason Studio's 11.3 / Cockos Reaper 6.82 / Cakewalk By Bandlab / Orion 8.6
http://soundcloud.com/creativemind75/iv ... soul-mix-3


starfish91
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15 Mar 2018

I think this sounds fantastic, but...

The GUI is only a slight improvement over the beta. From a designer's POV the piano graphic is gimmicky and distracting, and forces layout decisions that don't utilize the space efficiently (sections on the grey background are too crowded while the section over the piano has far too much empty space). Some of the labels are in upper case and some are not, and they're in a variety of sizes. It screams amateur.

Without starting over, you could greatly improve the layout by making the piano graphic just 5-10% darker than the grey background, then redistribute the knobs so they aren't constrained by it, and make the labeling more consistent. And get rid of those weird, useless brackets to the left of the piano and keyboard.

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Softphonics
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15 Mar 2018

starfish91 wrote:
15 Mar 2018
I think this sounds fantastic, but...

Thanks for the input, This (The sound was the primary goal)
UI's can be adjusted in updates as time goes by... We have seen this with many RE's from many developers.

For us Sound is first and most important.
------
Serious Sound For Serious Producers :reason:
http://www.Softphonics.com

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fieldframe
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15 Mar 2018

starfish91 wrote:
15 Mar 2018
I think this sounds fantastic, but...

The GUI is only a slight improvement over the beta. From a designer's POV the piano graphic is gimmicky and distracting, and forces layout decisions that don't utilize the space efficiently (sections on the grey background are too crowded while the section over the piano has far too much empty space). Some of the labels are in upper case and some are not, and they're in a variety of sizes. It screams amateur.

Without starting over, you could greatly improve the layout by making the piano graphic just 5-10% darker than the grey background, then redistribute the knobs so they aren't constrained by it, and make the labeling more consistent. And get rid of those weird, useless brackets to the left of the piano and keyboard.
This is good advice.

A good phase two might be to scrap the piano shape altogether and instead have a small, simplified diagram of a piano with lines pointing from the knobs to the part of the piano they apply to.

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Softphonics
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15 Mar 2018

fieldframe wrote:
15 Mar 2018


This is good advice.

A good phase two might be to scrap the piano shape altogether and instead have a small, simplified diagram of a piano with lines pointing from the knobs to the part of the piano they apply to.
As said previously, The main goal was the sound, but surprisingly there has been a great response to the GUI too from supporters. Seems more like the forum here has the issue and that maybe because more UI developers are in here? Who knows...
But as for musicians who don't use forums the emails have been really supportive and positive, And at the end of the day it was built for Musicians to make music, not for framing and hanging on a wall. We can come back to the GUI once the dust settles and we get a much broader consensus.
Anyway overall people are delighted with it, particularly the piano players, I don't have permission to share their emails here but take my word for it.

In the mean time have you tried it out yourself? ...

Cheers
------
Serious Sound For Serious Producers :reason:
http://www.Softphonics.com

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fieldframe
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15 Mar 2018

Softphonics wrote:
15 Mar 2018

As said previously, The main goal was the sound, but surprisingly there has been a great response to the GUI too from supporters. Seems more like the forum here has the issue and that maybe because more UI developers are in here? Who knows...
But as for musicians who don't use forums the emails have been really supportive and positive, And at the end of the day it was built for Musicians to make music, not for framing and hanging on a wall. We can come back to the GUI once the dust settles and we get a much broader consensus.
Anyway overall people are delighted with it, particularly the piano players, I don't have permission to share their emails here but take my word for it.

In the mean time have you tried it out yourself? ...

Cheers
I'm glad your product is finding some satisfied customers, and I hope it's a success. I think you'd probably find more satisfied customers with a better UI, but that might be my bias as a UI designer.

I haven't tried it myself yet, but if the UI is going to change, I think I'll save my trial period for later. I appreciate that sound comes first, but personally, if I only cared about sound to the exclusion of the UI, I probably wouldn't be using Reason (!).

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Softphonics
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15 Mar 2018

fieldframe wrote:
15 Mar 2018
I'm glad your product is finding some satisfied customers, and I hope it's a success. I think you'd probably find more satisfied customers with a better UI, but that might be my bias as a UI designer.

I haven't tried it myself yet, but if the UI is going to change, I think I'll save my trial period for later. I appreciate that sound comes first, but personally, if I only cared about sound to the exclusion of the UI, I probably wouldn't be using Reason (!).
I mean plenty of people use Live, and all the instruments and effects a basic black & grey, yet some of the biggest and best get the sound from it they need. If you are implying that Reason users only use reason because of how it looks above anything else then maybe we (Softphonics) should be concentrating more on our Bitwig / Kontakt & Max devices and forget RE.
Thanks Clayton...
------
Serious Sound For Serious Producers :reason:
http://www.Softphonics.com

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FLVZ
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15 Mar 2018

Softphonics wrote:
15 Mar 2018


As said previously, The main goal was the sound.....Seems more like the forum here has the issue

Cheers
Bingo, GUI is a personal taste thing imo, the only issue I see is the smaller writing for the verb and EQ section not having enough contrast to accommodate for the reduced font size. I find it a little disturbing that people say things like, "I won't even try this because of the GUI." Its an instrument ffs, nobody decided they love X guitar or Y guitar because of how it looks, they fall in love with the sound!

avasopht
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15 Mar 2018

---
Last edited by avasopht on 27 Nov 2018, edited 1 time in total.

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Softphonics
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16 Mar 2018

avasopht wrote:
15 Mar 2018
Just tried it out.

So I was curious what sorts of sounds you can get with this, so I twisted the knobs and made a reasonable sounding piano using the Studio samples.

I found it very playable patch with a workstation like level of responsiveness, and it sounded like this one digital Kawai I really like playing with.

But then I started messing with the wire, beauty, metal and artifact and was blown away with how tweakable this piano is. This is capable of a wide spectrum of textures and timbres, and seem to be able to cater to just about anyone's taste with the right tweaking.

Overall, I'm impressed.
Hi Avasopht

Many thanks for trying it out. I am glad you got to experience what we were trying to do with this instrument.
I had said to a few people that you have to play it before making your mind up. Im glad you did.

Happy St Patricks Weekend from Ireland :)


Andrew
------
Serious Sound For Serious Producers :reason:
http://www.Softphonics.com

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fieldframe
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16 Mar 2018

Softphonics wrote:
15 Mar 2018
I mean plenty of people use Live, and all the instruments and effects a basic black & grey, yet some of the biggest and best get the sound from it they need. If you are implying that Reason users only use reason because of how it looks above anything else then maybe we (Softphonics) should be concentrating more on our Bitwig / Kontakt & Max devices and forget RE.
Thanks Clayton...
This is a common misunderstanding of design. In the words of Steve Jobs:

"Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."

Live has some great design, even if it's not particularly stylish. And I love the design of Reason despite the fact that it looks a little dated in places, because it works: Most things are organized in an intuitive way, and it's easy to navigate around. The best REs have a layout that clearly separates different areas of functionality and helps guide the user in terms of signal flow. Wire has some of that, in how you've separated the keybed and hammer/string areas, but the problem is that you've let the idea of the piano graphic take precedence over the functional layout.

kitekrazy
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18 Mar 2018

Softphonics wrote:
08 Mar 2018
eusti wrote:
08 Mar 2018
Just came across this on Facebook:

D.
esselfortium wrote:
08 Mar 2018
Looks very customizable, but the preview's audio seems to be in mono, which makes it difficult to judge the sound accurately.

Please hire a GUI designer.
hurricane wrote:
08 Mar 2018
Will not even trial it because of the ugly gui. That white font on the black background is hideous. This isn’t 2001. And don’t give me that Papen crap where you tell me “no one cares about the GUI, it’s all about the sound”.

But have a nice day, lol!

Hi and thanks Eusti for the OP, I was just made aware of it by a user.

Was not planning to post here because of the continuous negativity, so unsurprisingly when I read the thread.....


hurricane, Nobody has to trial anything they don't want to, we live in a world of choices. We do things our way, and other developers do it thier way, that doesn't make one right or wrong. You may wear clothes that others think are in your words 'ugly' but you may be a nice guy inside, Same with RE's look good to some, look bad to others, Sound good to some sound bad to others. . . . but that is life, we are all free to choose.

But please do have a nice day



negativity.jpg
While I'm a fan boy of your Refills, if you are in development you really need a "bigger pair" or a heavier flame suit. Hiding from criticism is not good for sales. Instead of running away you could ask whats' wrong with it or state why it is that way. Running away because something is negative and stating that might make more enemies than friends. You should see how Scott Fisher at Image Line handles criticism. Another one is Peter from IK, he takes the heat on other forums over IK's stupid upgrade policies.

I didn't see any issue with the GUI at all but I'm not an eye candy freak. It seems people are quite into the visual these days instead of function. The reality is if you provide a good or service people will batch about something. Developers have to deal with it. Just remember there are some of us who really, really, really like your work. Don't avoid us,

botnotbot
Posts: 290
Joined: 26 Oct 2017

19 Mar 2018

That kind of attitude is part of the reason why the world is such a hateful place.

“The developer just needs to get over the haters, the haters do nothing wrong when they spew their crap, it’s on you to grow a thicker skin because everyone knows people are just terrible and will always be terrible.”

“And how dare you raise your own voice to tell them to shove off. This is the way opinions work — they get to flame you to char but if you say a word back you are a tool and a fool.”

I didn’t like the GUI either but for FFS this stuff takes time and if a dev focused on sound over visuals it’s their prerogative. And yes, whining about it can be someone else’s prerogative. Just stop telling the people who are getting attacked to shut up and take it.

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selig
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19 Mar 2018

Can we nudge this thread back on topic please?

Let’s move the conversation about how a dev should act to another thread if folks really want to talk about that stuff, and let’s bring things back to discussing (in a more respectful way) this product.

Thanks!
:)


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selig
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19 Mar 2018

fieldframe wrote:
Softphonics wrote:
15 Mar 2018
I mean plenty of people use Live, and all the instruments and effects a basic black & grey, yet some of the biggest and best get the sound from it they need. If you are implying that Reason users only use reason because of how it looks above anything else then maybe we (Softphonics) should be concentrating more on our Bitwig / Kontakt & Max devices and forget RE.
Thanks Clayton...
This is a common misunderstanding of design. In the words of Steve Jobs:

"Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."

Live has some great design, even if it's not particularly stylish. And I love the design of Reason despite the fact that it looks a little dated in places, because it works: Most things are organized in an intuitive way, and it's easy to navigate around. The best REs have a layout that clearly separates different areas of functionality and helps guide the user in terms of signal flow. Wire has some of that, in how you've separated the keybed and hammer/string areas, but the problem is that you've let the idea of the piano graphic take precedence over the functional layout.
^^^^THIS, a thousand times THIS^^^^^
That is all.
:)


Sent from some crappy device using Tapatalk
Selig Audio, LLC

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Softphonics
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19 Mar 2018

selig wrote:
19 Mar 2018
Can we nudge this thread back on topic please?

Let’s move the conversation about how a dev should act to another thread if folks really want to talk about that stuff, and let’s bring things back to discussing (in a more respectful way) this product.

Thanks!
:)
I tried nudging it back on topic a few times myself but few users are persistent.
Anyway, Maybe I will run a competition for the best sketch of "how you think it should look"
Then develop the GUI for the next update :D
------
Serious Sound For Serious Producers :reason:
http://www.Softphonics.com

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eusti
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19 Mar 2018

Softphonics wrote:
19 Mar 2018

Anyway, Maybe I will run a competition for the best sketch of "how you think it should look"
Then develop the GUI for the next update :D
Ochen K did that for one of his synths...

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=7490594

D.

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