Brandon Ryan [Cakewalk
]
1) You wouldn't cover every square inch of your wall space or floor space in your home with objects would you?
I don't walk on my computer screens.
Every inch of the counter tops and tables packed with objects ready to be used at a mere whim? If you did it would probably look a lot like those hoarder's homes you see on TV.
This is a good point but it seems the balance has moved too much towards Spartan for some of us.
SONAR has been widely criticized over the years for putting too many controls and buttons and text in a given space contributing to a somewhat overwhelming and claustrophobic feel at times.
While this is absolutely true, I think a very large part of that could have been dealt with by changing the default look without actually removing anything from the tracks. On the other hand, the icon bars at the top of the Sonar window certainly needed work and I really think they were the biggest cause for the clutter complaints. (And let's be honest, those icons would never win any artistic prizes).
I think the Control Bar concept is an improvement. Augmenting it with two or three modes to allow it to be more compact and also enhancing the actual modules with some of the suggestions I have made would make it amazing.
The Tracks headers though still need some work IMO. One thing I would certainly do is make the FX bin resizeable.
2) The stylized icons for expand collapse are simply that - stylized - and they suggest the behavior just fine. I think this is pretty nit-picky and is an "argument" leaning toward total utilitarianism.
No Brandon. It might seem like it is nit-picking but it really isn't. This change is bad. It goes counter to all windows GUIs which does not make it a good idea. It isn't so much the actual icons but the fact that one button is removed! THAT makes it unintuitive.
I asked if people had accidentally hit the layers icon by accident for good reason. That is where people expect to click when they want to minimise/restore a track. If a GUI element does not do what one expects it to do, it is by definition badly designed. Every time someone accidentally clicks on the layers icon, their creative flow is broken while they go "Huh? What? Oh... yeah... Duh". This really is a bad thing. And frankly any software feature that makes it's user feel like an idiot for even just a millisecond should be fixed immediately.
This is a very good example of fixing something that is not broken and coming up with something that is worse than the original.
3) The abbreviated text in X1: Now here's something I agree with. To me the text could be scaled down in size and hopefully the garbled names could return to something more intelligible.
Agreed although I am not sure that there is much room to scale the text. If for instance you look at the vertical bar in the number 1, it is only two pixels wide. Not much room to manoeuvre. So it seems the only real solution is to make those widgets bugger again.
On a different note, I find that having the Track I/O looking essentially like the Edit Filter makes it less obvious at a glance what is what. (Especially with all the dynamic placement). It is a tiny thing but it slows things down just a little bit.
From memory, I really liked the way the Sends look in X1. It is clear what they are (text info aside) and they have the level and pans built in. Nice and clear. I think it would be very intuitive to have the Track I/O work in a similar way. The Input would have the Gain Fader and the Output would have the Volume and Pan Faders.
I'll get a friend to mail me some screen-shots and try and make a mock-up with my limited graphic skills.
4) The fact that the FX bin goes away too soon when reducing the track control area horizontally: I also agree with this and it's no doubt a bit frustrating. It should allow you to collapse more of that empty/wasted space before it disappears. I can't see any reason for it to be the way it is and it's got my vote as something to tweak/fix. But it is just a tweak and I don't think it could be characterized as something that contributes to an entire UI design failure (I'd say the same for the font tweaks as well...)
My main issue when I used X1 was that the bin was too narrow. A resizeable bin would be nice. Or at least it should grow more before it stops growing when you drag out the track header.
5) The interleave and phase buttons: I'd say we should give these back as an option, on the track controls if people really really want them.
Great. If people don't like them, that's what the Track Control Manager is for isn't it?
Having said that I find it just a bit odd that one would really miss these buttons all that much. You could look at the console if you needed to see a lot of them at one time.
Brandon, I haven't opened the Console View in Sonar for over a decade (For actual work that is. I have looked at it from time to time out of curiosity). I find this suggestion reveals that those widgets really need to be returned. Anything that forces one to open a view that one never uses can not be an improvement. DAW 2.0 remember, we don't need no stinking Console View in 2011!
The problem is that the more controls you make available in that area, the more track control configurations you have to account for visually and it makes keeping clutter under control and a tidy look that much more difficult to achieve.
Oh come on. It is just another couple of lines in the Track Control Manager. Now it is you that is resorting to hyperbole!
One final point I'll make that is personal and subjective: Regardless of the arguable problems with the picture on the right, I personally find it quite a bit more attractive to look at.
I tend to agree. The new design certainly has it's good points! It just needs some tweaking.
Now... let's see what we can do with GIMP...
UnderTow