[linux-audio-dev] Re: [off-list] Read this after your first cup of coffee

[Paul Davis]

>> erm... actually they can:
>>
>> http://www.digidesign.com/users/user_story.cfm?story_id=1020
>
>well spotted that man.

well, yes and no.

"... Boggs believes that a device such as a J. L. Cooper MCS3800 is a
"must" for a blind producer."

mr boggs doesn't use any aspect of the protools GUI to run
protools. he uses outSPOKEN, a speech recognition system, and a JL
Cooper control surface. since you could connect this style interfaces to
more or less any program, this either suggests that design for the
sight-impaired is unnecessary, or that mr. boggs would still be better
off with a specially designed, non-GUI system. 

i still don't understand how mr. boggs could edit using protools in
the style that such programs have made rather popular. i have a spent
quite a bit of time talking with jeremy hall and others about how we
could add editing to ardour/ksi, and my conclusion is that its a
research project worthy of at least a master's degree, perhaps even a
doctorate. 

the point about GUI systems for tasks like audio editing is that the
screen functions as a sort of backing store for your memory. you don't
have to remember where all the audio regions/events/clips are, because
the screen will show you, both statically and more importantly while
moving one (or more) them around. if you can't see the screen, then
you either have to (1) remember where everything is yourself, and edit
using only that memory or (2) devise some other form of mnemonic
design that performs the same role as the screen does for
non-sight-impaired users.

i have no doubt that with speech recognition and a control surface,
tracking and mixing things in the same way that a sight-impaired
person would have use a tape machine (analog or digital) is entirely
possible. i suppose people used to do what is still called "3 point"
and "4 point" edits on systems that had no waveform displays, so i
guess that is still an approach to editing that is accessible to a
sight impaired user. however, it doesn't seem to come close to the
capabilities offered for creative music production by today's DAWs,
and those capabilities seem to me to be fundamentally predicated on
the visual memory provided by the GUI.

--p