Which Plug in GUI's make you wish they were Hardware.

[Keith Sylvester]

Originally Posted by eddie.machete

If you had to have a top three list that was going to be made into hardware, what plugs would you choose?


When I buy a really great plug in which also looks amazing I always think, God I'd love a hardware version of this.

I guess it's a reverse of a lot of the reason for the support in plugs, to emulate hardware, I want hardware to emulate plugs.

Softube Tsar-1

[brockorama]

Stilwell Rocket.

[The Beatsmith]

vintage warmer

[RiF]

deleted (misread post)

[TheBrightSide]

Originally Posted by The Beatsmith

vintage warmer

This one.

I've wanted a hardware version of this for years.
If it ever came out, I'd be like one of those people camping out for an Iphone 5.

[TheCoon]

Originally Posted by The Beatsmith

vintage warmer

Yes!

[dubmunkey]

Echo boy
Replicant
Vinyl

[sswenk]

Slate FG-X

[Polarelch]

Anything from Softube

[login]

Diva
Aalto
Reaktor Prism

[Dbas]

Originally Posted by Polarelch

Anything from Softube

Well most of it is!

[Sino]

SoundToys Decapitator, Echoboy, Waves H-Delay maybe.

[theblue1]

I cannot figure out for the life of me why a serious recordist cares about how "amazing" a given plugin looks.

Don't get me wrong, I think the UI can make a HUGE difference in workflow, ease of use, and ergonomics, and if I have a choice between an attractively designed, cleanly laid out, easy to see/use plug and one that has awful colors or a clunky layout or impractical controls (like those idiotic virtual knobs that you have to 'turn' with the mouse in a tight little circle, rather than the happily more common 'knob' that effectively works like a slider (mouse up for more, mouse down for less), sure, I'll take the one that's easy on the eyes.

But I hate plugins that take up more screen space than they have to (for this reason plugins that can resize or have different 'surfaces' or aspects for different modes are nice), or that have a lot of needless photorealistic rendering, or waste valuable CPU resources by animating dancing VU meters and such. I'm not saying a plugin should be ugly or plain -- I'm just saying, keep it clean and functional and efficient. There's nothing wrong with a nice "3D" visual, as long as it improves usability and clarity of function. But there's just something in me that is aesthetically offended by plugins whose developers seem to have put an inordinate amount of time (or worse, your computer resources) into needless ornamentation.

FWIW, I came up in tape days and have a storage room and part of a garage filled with 'real' gear. I work on a computer because of the increased power and productivity, not to mention ease of use. (And I use a hardware mixer for cue monitoring because I have zero tolerance for cue latency.) So, you know, when I see all this heavy, graphically hyped comic book style ornamentation on plugs, all I can think is, gee, this is kind of sad.

[eddie.machete]

Originally Posted by theblue1

I cannot figure out for the life of me why a serious recordist cares about how "amazing" a given plugin looks.

Don't get me wrong, I think the UI can make a HUGE difference in workflow, ease of use, and ergonomics, and if I have a choice between an attractively designed, cleanly laid out, easy to see/use plug and one that has awful colors or a clunky layout or impractical controls (like those idiotic virtual knobs that you have to 'turn' with the mouse in a tight little circle, rather than the happily more common 'knob' that effectively works like a slider (mouse up for more, mouse down for less), sure, I'll take the one that's easy on the eyes.

But I hate plugins that take up more screen space than they have to (for this reason plugins that can resize or have different 'surfaces' or aspects for different modes are nice), or that have a lot of needless photorealistic rendering, or waste valuable CPU resources by animating dancing VU meters and such. I'm not saying a plugin should be ugly or plain -- I'm just saying, keep it clean and functional and efficient. There's nothing wrong with a nice "3D" visual, as long as it improves usability and clarity of function. But there's just something in me that is aesthetically offended by plugins whose developers seem to have put an inordinate amount of time (or worse, your computer resources) into needless ornamentation.

FWIW, I came up in tape days and have a storage room and part of a garage filled with 'real' gear. I work on a computer because of the increased power and productivity, not to mention ease of use. (And I use a hardware mixer for cue monitoring because I have zero tolerance for cue latency.) So, you know, when I see all this heavy, graphically hyped comic book style ornamentation on plugs, all I can think is, gee, this is kind of sad.

I agree with most of what you say man. But I was curious if anyone else thought the same thing about wanting a hardware version of a plug that isn't an emulation of existing hardware.

I also didn't go into functionality because I was talking both functionality and aesthetics, aesthetics being the main concern of the post.
Nobody would buy a very nice looking unit if it sounded crappy right...You would hope.

This wasn't intended to start a debate over audio functionality versus GUI. That is a moot debate, functionality wins every time, I'd rather use a cardboard box with superior functionality than some over stylised and niche targeted unit that doesn't do much other than sell you hype.

Point still remains there are some very pleasing to the eye plugs that sound great that I would pay over the odds to have on my desk!

[Jeezo]

[loscolorados]

[kreeper_6]

ValhallaRoom

[Jeezo]

lol ....i so hate this interface ....

[Insomniaclown]

Originally Posted by brockorama

Stilwell Rocket.

Agreed. I think all Stillwell UI's are amazing with the Rocket topping the list. Would love a hardware version of that.

Would also add:
Klanghelm DC8C
Sonimus Sweetone

[narcoman]

the one at "dirtyboobs.com"..... oh you mean music.

[theblue1]

Originally Posted by eddie.machete

I agree with most of what you say man. But I was curious if anyone else thought the same thing about wanting a hardware version of a plug that isn't an emulation of existing hardware.

I also didn't go into functionality because I was talking both functionality and aesthetics, aesthetics being the main concern of the post.
Nobody would buy a very nice looking unit if it sounded crappy right...You would hope.

This wasn't intended to start a debate over audio functionality versus GUI. That is a moot debate, functionality wins every time, I'd rather use a cardboard box with superior functionality than some over stylised and niche targeted unit that doesn't do much other than sell you hype.

Point still remains there are some very pleasing to the eye plugs that sound great that I would pay over the odds to have on my desk!

Ah, I get you, sure.

For instance, my favorite EQ plug has both a rubber-band graphic mode and a (very low rez) graphic RTFA (dancing frequency bars ) mapped beneath the rubber band -- so you get a clear (if not too detailed) visual feedback on what you're doing (depending on settings, you can also switch the RTFA to pre-EQ). If one had an all hardware rig, it would be great to have that kind of control/ease of use.

[antwoneb]

The Sausage Fattener

[zvukofor]

no one, because half of greatness of plugins disappears in HW, such as physical space and portability, lack of power consumption and interfacing - cables, AD-DA and other bad things.

Maybe it is OK to have a HW copy of a synth, but for FXs? Pretty strange idea. For those who lack physical control - did you ever tried to use MIDI/OSC controllers, or you're too lazy for this?

[stinkyfingers]

Airwindows

[nickelironsteel]

the slate FXG already is hardware, its called the shadow hills mastering compressor it looks a bit better in reality though

[eddie.machete]

Originally Posted by zvukofor

no one, because half of greatness of plugins disappears in HW, such as physical space and portability, lack of power consumption and interfacing - cables, AD-DA and other bad things.

Maybe it is OK to have a HW copy of a synth, but for FXs? Pretty strange idea. For those who lack physical control - did you ever tried to use MIDI/OSC controllers, or you're too lazy for this?

That's a stellar attitude man. Keep up the good work.

That MIDI idea of yours is pretty revolutionary.

[yourmajesty]

u-he diva

[Rikharthu]

Originally Posted by zvukofor

no one, because half of greatness of plugins disappears in HW, such as physical space and portability, lack of power consumption and interfacing - cables, AD-DA and other bad things.

Maybe it is OK to have a HW copy of a synth, but for FXs? Pretty strange idea. For those who lack physical control - did you ever tried to use MIDI/OSC controllers, or you're too lazy for this?

I think the advantages of physical control disappear when you still have to deal with software. You have to go back and forth between the two worlds - the screen, indirectly accessed by a mouse and keyboard, and the tangible, three-dimensional space that we've evolved to function in. I can certainly thrive within either environment alone, but I think a hybrid setup is the worst. Unless, of course, you treat your computer as a tape machine and have every single function you'd ever need to deal with mapped to a controller. I did this once, being on a stiff budget at the time - created a shell .exe that would automatically start my interface application and DAW (with a default project loaded), so all I had to do was press the computer's ON button and get a cup of cofffee, then I'd be good to go. I even disconnected my screen. But I'm ****ing nuts.

But yes, he's speaking aesthetically.

For me, I really don't know. All of the plugins I use are plain and developed for actual use. I'm not at all a fan of fancy looking GUIs. The stock Reaper plugins are perfect in my eyes - sliders, numbers, grey, intelligible. I think they're beautiful. Sorry for not contributing anything to the actual topic at hand, but hey...

[zvukofor]

Personally, i hate all those pseudo-real fake 3d interfaces. As a professional designer. Yet there can be some elements, but it is really hard to make it nice looking interface without wasted screen space, as we can see in the most plugins.

Anyhow, you cannot do all operations from control surface, but there's no need to. I have all important controls right on the Lemur on iPad, so you can really focus on music creating or mixing, but if you want to change some rare used functions, it is not so uncomfortable to rarely go to the screen and mouse/touchpad, but this is really rare, and much more easy than go to the menu diving on HW devices.

Yet it is kind of hard to make your own setup, but i really think it is not hardness but lazyness that distract people from this kind of working, that's why in our little tech lab we have a service to make control surfaces in Lemur/whatever controller for a lazy people. ))
Those who used this service really appreciate easyness of working with a good programmed control surface, you really can use your ears to make judgement to what you're doing in the mix or arrangement, and this is the only reason why HW interface can be better than screen-mouse interaction.