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Ableton Live Redesign

nenadmilosevic.co

61–70 of 94 posts

Re: Ableton Live Redesign

#63
If I was a UX student looking for something to redesign Ableton Live is one of the last programs I'd ever look at - it's a classic of UI design. If you want to show off your UX chops, choose something that's broken e.g. 95% of the software in the world.

Re: Ableton Live Redesign

#64

I'm really not interested in a flat UI from Ableton, this looks cluttered to me. What I want is proper modulation system, rather than the hacks you currently have to go through with Max for Live to achieve a result.

I only dabbled in Ableton Live a little bit many years ago, so I'm not familiar with some of the terms you mentioned. Can you describe what a modulation system is - what's your understanding? Also any examples out there that illustrate this, other apps that do it well? It's not like a node based shader system like in Houdini or like Fusion's compositing system?

Not the person you asked, but I believe he is referring to the lack of arbitrary modulation mapping in Ableton, where modulation is typically one parameter on a synthesizer, effect or other device being changed over time by an external source such as a Low Frequency Oscillator (LFO).

Many Ableton devices have features such as this on specific parameters like filter frequency but, without Max for Live, you can't map custom modulations from arbitrary sources.

Here is an example on one such Max for Live device, pitched as a 'general purpose' LFO: https://www.ableton.com/en/blog/lfo-20-free-max-live-device-...

Re: Ableton Live Redesign

#65
But what will the arrangement window look like. That is where I get most of my issues from when using Ableton (and I use it a lot). Really Glad to see that newer plug-in setup though - very similar to one of the things I love in ProTools.

Re: Ableton Live Redesign

#66
post #51
post #4

I like that he followed a process of gathering suggestions from real users and then testing his solutions with them. It's a big step above the typical "I redesigned X!" posts that look really pretty but probably aren't very usable. I wonder what kind of job one would expect to get from this. These tasks (gathering user feedback, doing visual designs) are probably divided between several people at Ableton already. Doe…

yeah... are their any success stories with regards to these kind of post? all the ways i play it out in my head don't seems great... 1. someone at exec/board/mgmt-level somewhat detached from product development process sees it and comes in with the "see! this is what it should look like, this looks way better, this guy gets it and he doesn't even work here! you should hire him / do this." which doesn't tend to be re…

Phillip Sackl landed a design-job at Mozilla by doing something similar. It wasn't as complex as a full redesign, though.

The application: http://readyformozilla.com/

The design-work: http://readyformozilla.com/panorama/

Re: Ableton Live Redesign

#68

If I was a UX student looking for something to redesign Ableton Live is one of the last programs I'd ever look at - it's a classic of UI design. If you want to show off your UX chops, choose something that's broken e.g. 95% of the software in the world.

It's much harder to make changes to an already good design. I don't think he was throwing out the baby with the bath water, they were fairly subtle changes overall.

Re: Ableton Live Redesign

#69
Really awesome project and research. I haven't used any music software for ages, but I think it'd be awesome if the author talked with some open source similar projects and actually got an interface implemented in some system.

Re: Ableton Live Redesign

#70
post #16

I don't really have a problem with the UI; I want Ableton to fix the other annoyances first: * Saving the project resets the undo history. A someone who frequently saves, this is super frustrating. * No normal zoom controls. You have to use the "minimap" at the top. * Only a single project can be open at once, which makes copying from old projects tedious unless you shuffle files around into your current project. * T…

> * Only a single project can be open at once, which makes copying from old projects tedious unless you shuffle files around into your current project.

You can drop entire projects from the Finder into open projects, which is clunky but does make things a TINY bit less tedious

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