[LAU] Music Editors for Blind Users?

[Paul Davis]

On Tue, Apr 8, 2014 at 2:58 AM, Fons Adriaensen <fons at linuxaudio.org> wrote:

> On Tue, Apr 08, 2014 at 12:55:56AM +0300, Paul Davis wrote:
>
> > actually i wasn't thinking of editing as much as mixing. you can remember
> > the solo, mute, gain, and FX state of a moderately sized session in your
> > head without a visual reminder?
>
> Sure. As can every audio engineer who has done his share of
> live mixing.


This doesn't fit with  what I've seen in live mixing situations. I
understand the importance of the ergonomics, but I would suggest that if
you were using the best designed mixer and it was altered in one small way,
my question above would remain rhetorically on target.

The modification would be to (a) remove all value indicators from the mixer
(b) replace all the knobs with "endless v-pots".

Even in live sound, engineers are making constant visual inspection of the
mixer controls and state displays. I don't doubt that it is *possible* to
get so good at the job that you really could memorize the entire state of
the console, and I certainly do not doubt the importance of ergonomic
design, but I strongly suspect that most people continue to rely on the
state of the mixer as represented by the visual state to avoid having to
actually perform this full memorization.

In addition, live sound and the editing+mixing workflow are two different
things, related by a common set of concepts and tools. This is easily
demonstrated by the existence of consoles built specifically for live
sound. Certainly one could make a studio console work, but the workflow is
sufficiently differentiated that people have pressed for changes to make
things easier.

I think this discussion has reminded me also of why I think this applies to
editing as well. Although it is true that things like 4- and 3-point edit
ops can be performed without visual feedback, my original point was that
the visual aspects of a DAW or NLE act as a kind of memory for the user,
not as a means of enabling operations. What matters about the DAW display
is not that it allows you to perform an edit, but that it shows you very
easily "what is where".

To be honest, I think that if I were a blind user and needed to edit, I
would probably be looking at tools that used the same kind of workflow as
RTCmix or something similar. A fully text-based representation of the
operations/mix that can be easily manipulated without any visual
presentation. RTCmix has the downside that (if I recall correctly) it can
only play back the entire mix, but I would have thought that this sort of
thing would be a better starting point for a "music editor for blind users"
than Ardour.

Finally, to the Janina, I would note that Ardour KSI was created early in
Ardour's life when we barely had an edittor at all. The interface allowed
control of the mixer and not of editing operations. And as for why it did
not participate in any a11y standards: the blind user who paid me to
develop it did not like them and wanted something radically different.

--p




> Of course on a 'real' mixer some settings are
> visible, but if you depend on that you'll be in trouble before
> you know it - at least if you're dealing with 30+ channels.
> Much of that depends on ergonomic design of the mixer, which
> is what sets the real top class apart from the rest. In my
> experience Neve was the best at that - you could reach for
> any control and have the right one every time, even when the
> the only lights were the level meters and a candle or two,
> as was often the case.
>
> I *do* remember the first time I had to do anything on this
> scale 'on air' - it was quite scary. Studio 1 in Brussels,
> big band, 20 or so players + solos, Harrison console, live
> broadcast and 24-track recording. All levels carefully set
> before turned out wrong because the band had been drinking
> between the rehearsal and the concert, and they were 'in
> the mood'. But after a few times you get your grips on the
> situation and you can relax.
>
> Ciao,
>
> --
> FA
>
> A world of exhaustive, reliable metadata would be an utopia.
> It's also a pipe-dream, founded on self-delusion, nerd hubris
> and hysterically inflated market opportunities. (Cory Doctorow)
>
>
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