Who...exactly...designed the new X1 GUI???

After hearing some of the comments of the CakeBakers I am beginning to think it might not have been an "internal" design but rather a paid for "external design" which has contractual obligations Cake must meet which include...limited color customization...no alteration of any sort to the "ProChannel"...some elements of the GUI which cannot be changed.  So...I ask the Cake staff;  WHY are we "wedded" to this new interface and it's color scheme?  WHY can't some elements be changed?  WHY so cryptic in your response so far as regards this issue?  And, finally, who really kidnapped the little Lindbergh baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
PS:  I'm not asking for the actual name of the guy or gal who designed this thing.  I don't want people camping out on their lawns burning straw dummy likenesses of them in effigy or anything...I just mean was it a Cake employee or a hired gun?

lol

you are probably right. EVERYTHING is outsourced these days. Hell, my company outsources the secretarial work even!     

Hell, the company I worked for laid off all the service people (the only ones who were actually doing anything) and kept all the sales people (the only ones who weren't doing anything). I worked with a sales manager who hadn't (still hasn't - I've been checking) sold a single thing in the 2 years he was there ... and they kept him and shut down my service department who could barely keep up they were so busy.

The whole world is topsy turvey right now.

"Who...exactly...designed the new X1 GUI???"

Excellent question Olpal.

I doubt anyone from CW is going to come forward and admit to it.

I don't object to the new GUI at all. I object to the loss of what we had in Sonar up till now.

My somewhat facetious post does have a serious crux.  Replys to various posts from our (admitted long time pals) the Bakers lead one to believe that "there's nothing to be done" about certain aspects of the GUI as we are "wedded" to that.  Which, of course, begs the question:  WHY??  If Cake designed it and controls it, and if so many don't like it...why are we "wedded" to it? 

Cakewalk designed the SONAR X1 UI and it is entirely the intellectual property of Cakewalk. Cakewalk can do whatever it wants to the UI, but changes take development time.

FWIW, many poeple do like the UI- me included - and have said so on this very forum. Anytime you overhaul something like this you have to go back and make some tweaks and you do this partly based on what some poeple feel like is missing from the old way. But I wouldn't say "so many people don't' like it" as many people really do like it.

Bub


Serious question for you guys, I joke and kid a lot, but I'm being serious about this ...

What's so bad about the display? The screenshots I've seen look really good to me. Is there some work flow that has been inhibited by it or something missing that I'm not picking up on in the screenshots? I'm mainly an audio, not midi, guy so maybe I don't know what I'm missing so to speak.

For example ... this screenshot looks really nice to me ... Click Here

Thanks,

Bub

FWIW I don't have a problem with the "look" either.  Other problems, yes (bugs) but the revamped GUI is actually improved in some ways.

And "look" in this case means the overall look.  The individual issues others (and myself) have brought up about font sizes, lack of customization I consider separate issues actually.

I think it looks ugly.

But besides that I think it breaks very basic design guidelines that have been handed down for apprx. 18 centuries of 2d design.

My specific criticism is that the contrast between many of the buttons and the backing color is greater than the contrast between the buttons and the text that sits on top of them.

Furthermore it completely ignores the opportunity to build depth with color temperature so as to steer the eye to important features. The blue looks great... but blue goes in the background. It's one reason the design is so fatiguing... because in this design the blue is associated with high priority info.

Josef Albers sort of breaks this down for anyone that doesn't get it.

I'm glad that we don't know who designed it... that way it can be clear that I am not being personal when I say that a design decision such as that is a stupid idea. It's almost impossible to imagine something so tiring to view would make it past a qualified committee or focus group without comment.

I understand that sound for picture people working in mix theaters might want a screen that is essentially black... so that should be an option.

Other users deserve the opportunity to view a lower contrast easy on the eyes comfortable design... so that they can stay fresh for hours and hours.

Furthermore, persons with unique needs such as color insensitivity issues should be free to make every adjustment that helps them see the screen the best.

It really doesn't matter if some people like the current look... it's draconian to force such an ugly and irritating high contrast design upon the rest of us folks that don't want to decorate in late modern vampire.

best regards,
mike

yorolpal


As I said in a previous post...I like the look of the new GUI as well.  I just want to be able to select different colors for different aspects of it.  After working with it this weekend I don't find any great fault with the layout or the design BUT the inability to really get in there like we've always been able to do and personalize it is a burr under my saddle.  I guess what I don't get through my thick skull is why...if we were allowed so much freedom to customize Sonar in previous iterations...has that been taken away from us?  I've still not heard a definitive anwser from anyone as to that.  Why take that feature away?  Just a straight answer, please.  Why did Cake remove the ability to customize the color palette??  What was the reason?
 
 
PS:  And thank you Brandon for responding to such "an idiotic question". 

Ok, now I am getting worried.. Remembered upgrading to Home Studio 7 from HS4 sometime ago and wondered, what happened here? It's not the $200 (+$29 Boxed) it's going to cost me to get to X1 PE.. But having that feeling of LOST when I installed HS7 sometime ago. Shoot, that's why I upgraded to Studio 8..... At least I had an option to go to Studio 8.. But, where does one go after feeling that LOST in X1 PE.  
I have read Cakewalk's commitment to improving X1. I think I will have to wait and see what this first patch does before I upgrade..  

I'm going to try it with sunglasses tomorrow.

Thanks Bub, good suggestions.

My monitor is set to the sRGB color profile... and it's set the same way I set up my dedicated graphics machines. I could purposefully turn the contrast down... but that will actually make to low contrast lettering harder to view... and of course all my other programs would look worse just to make up for SONAR.

I'm really speaking of the specific use of light values withing the design... the use of hue, for cool to warm is a second tier decision but heck, I'd think a building full of musicians would have some inherent understanding of how music, harmony and arranging directly relate to 2d design.

2d designers rely on color, harmony, dissonance, rhythm and dynamics to steer the eye around a design in an effective manner.

A building full of musicians ought to be hip to that concept.

Good design; It's not hard, but it's not easy... and it's often impossible for a designer to do what they know is best when their supervisors or clients are obstinate about some arbitrary and perhaps stylistic interest.

best regards,
mike

F@ker


it's been long enough time for me to say the X1 design is excellent. c'mon peeps, move on...

Yeah, but you might say the layout of the features in that there avatar are excellent enough to show us all, but if you were 'wedded' to those features you may have a different view, no?

Especially if you is one of those control types that tell people when to move on and stuff, why that would be like the record button pressing itself.

I guess I'm saying the way you want to see features laid out likely doesn't constitute the perfect marriage partner for me or no one else.

Being able to choose from a wide range of options would be kind of like swinging, wouldn't it?

noldar12


Bub, for the record, since you asked for comments...

For my, admittedly uncommon situation, that "soothing screenshot" would fatigue my residual eyesight out in under five minutes, between the vast amounts of light grey/white coupled with the low contrast blue print.

As mentioned in the other thread... standardization: fine, so long as one can fully customize things as and/or if needed (not unlike all the tools that are hidden within, yet potentially available, in the Windows O/S).  What works great for one person's eyes may cause real trouble for someone else's.

I didn't realize that the color scheme is not changeable. I find that very hard to believe and would think they would have to change that if it is in fact the case. I'm still waiting for X1 to arrive in the mail so I haven't tinkered with it to know first hand, and there's been so much mis-information flying around the forums lately I don't know what to believe.

Thanks ...

Bub

PRO CHANNEL...USE IT.

yorolpal

"there's nothing to be done"

I'm beginning to come around to that opinion. All my life I've tried to put it from me, saying, "Candle Nine, be reasonable, you haven't yet tried everything." And I resumed the struggle.