[linux-audio-dev] Knobs / widget design

RTaylor RickTaylor at Speakeasy.Net
Thu Jun 10 13:14:00 UTC 2004


On Wednesday 09 June 2004 21:54, Dave Robillard wrote:
} On Wed, 2004-06-09 at 22:25, Dan Harper wrote:

} > Also, it's just not natural for me to move my mouse in a circle, the
} > natural movement of my hand is not a circle, try to draw a perfect
} > circle in the Gimp sometime by mouse! This means, that at different
} > parts of the knob tweaking, you'd be changing value by an unpredictable
} > amount depending on how good your circle is.  This means also that
} > left-handed mousers are going to change values at the opposite
} > sensitivity level at different parts of the motion.

 Gimp does have a circle tool. It's designed to get around the limitations of 
the mouse. Vector drawing programs have managed to get past them for vears.

} > There is no easy solution as far as I can see, but what about a few
} > physical knobs, cheaply built, that send some kind of data via USB or
} > something that can change values.  That's the best way I reckon, except
} > for the cost factor.
} >
} > I'll keep thinking about a purely software solution though.
}
} Well, the hardware is always an option of course (a fader/knob box is
} top on MY list-of-things-I-can't-afford anyway) but the UI still has to
} be as good as possible.
}
} Can't map a MIDI controller to every single knob you need to tweak!

 You could if you mapped them to spheres on a 3d grid... { you could indicate 
relative frequencies with color or with some sort of spatial thing... like a 
3d model... spheres would take on a hotter color to indicate higher 
frequencies or you could simply manipulate them in space... given a nice open 
gl box... you could set it up fairly easily. {Sgi... digital performer} Maybe 
you could use both color and space. Besides being accurate... it would be 
fiun {see blender}}} across a bezier line, a bezier plane or variously in 3d 
space. You might check the STK pages for some nifty alternative controls. 
They do something similar to the 3d control I've described above. You might 
also check the eyesweb pages... they take the thing to extremes.

 I can move an optical mouse fairly accurately... I can move the wheel on it 
pretty precisely. If I were to click on a control to activate it and then 
turn it with the wheel... it would work just fine. If you could place control 
points across a line and manipulate it with a bezier handle you'd be able to 
get a fairly high degree of control. If you could map that into an 
additional, dimension you'd be able to make adjustments through time with a 
very high degree of accuracy.
-- 
If I had saxophones / Big baritone, cleanin' up the muddy breaks
If I had Saxophones / I could get some recognition from 
that Mobile Alabama DJ    {J.Buffet}



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