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

[John Check]

On Saturday 21 August 2004 08:10 am, Paul Davis wrote:
> >> 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."
>

-screeeeeeech- "Producer" doesn't necessarily mean knob twiddler.

This is all edge case stuff. Let's talk about quadriplegics who have to use
a sippy/puffy device and laser eye tracking while we're at it. 


> 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.

I question how one without sight would do fine editing unless they had a
pinblock type device (think braille terminal with a big pin matrix). Could be 
ignorance on my part. It wouldn't be the first time (or the last ;)

>
> 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

The traditional speech recognition interface in an analog studio is called an 
intern. Costs a lot less and more satisfying to boot and reboot ;)


> 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