[Just Talk] Re: [linux-audio-user] Why we need graphic designers

torbenh at gmx.de torbenh at gmx.de
Mon Jan 27 14:47:01 EST 2003


On Thu, Jan 23, 2003 at 12:20:24PM +0000, Mike Rawes wrote:
>  --- Dave Griffiths <dave at pawfal.org> wrote: 
> > > I talked to Robert Henke of Ableton about the philosophy behind their
> > > innovative interface, and one of the most interesting concepts was, that
> > > everything *must* fit into one window. Overlapping or popup-windows are
> > > strictly forbidden in Live, because in a live situation you cannot be
> > > bothered with organising windows on the screen.
> > 
> > I *wish* I could figure out a way to do this with ssm. The best way I can
> > think of is to use window placement code from a window manager to more
> > intelligently place the module windows, as AudioMulch does. I guess its not
> > really a solvable problem for a modular, as you can always instance more
> > stuff.
> 
> Module wiring: The biggest improvement is to implement sub-patches [yes, I know
> there are plans for this in SSM :] - that way you can hide a lot of detail in a
> single module.
> 
> For example, a four oscillator synth with a filter, lfo and a couple of EGs
> makes for a lot of modules, especially if you include math modules to scale
> stuff. All of these could be wrapped up in a single patch with half a dozen
> open inputs/outputs. 
> 
> At the GUI end of things - most modular synths seem to assume one-gui-per
> module, which again makes up for a lot of screen space used. In the four-osc
> synth example above, there'd be a lot of redundant knobs/sliders for ports that
> are actually driven by connections.
> 
> From the screenshots, that Tassman3 app that Steve found appears to alleviate
> this somewhat by merging related modules into a single horizontal unit. I
> suppose the ideal solution would be some sort of simple GUI builder so you can
> create a set of controls for connection to a module, sub-patch, or whatever.
> This could to some degree be automated (hide/show controls as connections are
> created/removed).
> 
> I think ArtsBuilder had this last time I used it - GUI elements were treated
> just like modules. Positioning them was a pain though, but it's been about a
> year since I looked at it - things may have improved.

it seems like nobody knows the gAlan...
subpatches, jack (almost stable), gui builder, more controls per component

no routing :(
but with subpatches it is not SO critical...


-- 
torben Hohn
http://galan.sourceforge.net -- the graphical Audio Language





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