Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Linux DAW: Help Linux musicians to quickly and easily find the tools they need

linuxdaw.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 125 posts

Re: Linux DAW: Help Linux musicians to quickly and easily find the tools they need

#21

Post by mjr00 »

cpuguy83 wrote: post #3

Just an fyi to anyone making or thinking of making one of these: Turning a knob with a mouse is the worst interface I can think of. I don't know why audio apps/DAWs fall so hard on skeuomorphism here when the interface just doesn't make sense in the context.

> Turning a knob with a mouse is the worst interface I can think of.

I'm racking my brain thinking of what a better interface would be for selecting a number between a range of values, where the number is a point on a continuum and not any specific value, and can't think of one. The equivalent "traditional" UX for webapps would be a slider control, but that's functionally the same and you'd be going against many years of domain-specific common understanding for not much benefit.

Re: Linux DAW: Help Linux musicians to quickly and easily find the tools they need

#22

Post by ofalkaed »

cpuguy83 wrote: post #3

Just an fyi to anyone making or thinking of making one of these: Turning a knob with a mouse is the worst interface I can think of. I don't know why audio apps/DAWs fall so hard on skeuomorphism here when the interface just doesn't make sense in the context.

A 20 pixel knob has considerably greater resolution than a 20 pixel slider with its max resolution of 20. I don't think I have come across a digital knob that you have to turn with the mouse since the previous century, just drag up or down or left or right.

Re: Linux DAW: Help Linux musicians to quickly and easily find the tools they need

#23

Post by lukaslalinsky »

cpuguy83 wrote: post #3

Just an fyi to anyone making or thinking of making one of these: Turning a knob with a mouse is the worst interface I can think of. I don't know why audio apps/DAWs fall so hard on skeuomorphism here when the interface just doesn't make sense in the context.

Unless the implementation is really bad, you actually have more control over these knobs than you would have over sliders. You could technically remove the knob completely, replace it with just textual number you click on and move your mouse, but the knob is easier to read.

Re: Linux DAW: Help Linux musicians to quickly and easily find the tools they need

#24

Post by jrm4 »

mjr00 wrote: post #21
cpuguy83 wrote: post #3

Just an fyi to anyone making or thinking of making one of these: Turning a knob with a mouse is the worst interface I can think of. I don't know why audio apps/DAWs fall so hard on skeuomorphism here when the interface just doesn't make sense in the context.

> Turning a knob with a mouse is the worst interface I can think of. I'm racking my brain thinking of what a better interface would be for selecting a number between a range of values, where the number is a point on a continuum and not any specific value, and can't think of one. The equivalent "traditional" UX for webapps would be a slider control, but that's functionally the same and you'd be going against many year…

Is it fair to assume most mouses have a scroll wheel? Hover and use that? Do they do that?

Re: Linux DAW: Help Linux musicians to quickly and easily find the tools they need

#25

Post by ofalkaed »

mjr00 wrote: post #21
cpuguy83 wrote: post #3

Just an fyi to anyone making or thinking of making one of these: Turning a knob with a mouse is the worst interface I can think of. I don't know why audio apps/DAWs fall so hard on skeuomorphism here when the interface just doesn't make sense in the context.

> Turning a knob with a mouse is the worst interface I can think of. I'm racking my brain thinking of what a better interface would be for selecting a number between a range of values, where the number is a point on a continuum and not any specific value, and can't think of one. The equivalent "traditional" UX for webapps would be a slider control, but that's functionally the same and you'd be going against many year…

I personally prefer the good old number box but they have their problems and you actually have to read each and ever box to see what the state is, with sliders and knobs we can see the value of a great many controls at a glance.

Re: Linux DAW: Help Linux musicians to quickly and easily find the tools they need

#26

Post by [deleted] »

drabbiticus wrote: post #6
giancarlostoro wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the entire idea that you hook it up to physical hardware?

No. MIDI controllers have their place, but many people work without one, or only use one for live performances. There are often also way more knobs in the various FX chains in a DAW than you would reasonably want to map to a controller, but still want to touch at least a few times while making a song. Knobs are confusing when converted to a mouse paradigm because there can be a few strategies to control them (click+d…

[deleted]

Re: Linux DAW: Help Linux musicians to quickly and easily find the tools they need

#27

Post by kgwxd »

cpuguy83 wrote: post #3

Just an fyi to anyone making or thinking of making one of these: Turning a knob with a mouse is the worst interface I can think of. I don't know why audio apps/DAWs fall so hard on skeuomorphism here when the interface just doesn't make sense in the context.

The amount of time it takes to have 1 debate about the choice is more time than I'll spend in my entire life figuring out how all the specific "knobs" I'll ever touch work. It's just not a real problem.

Reaper has a standard UI for controlling plugins you can use instead of the VST UIs, other DAWs probably do too. It's an awful, lifeless sea of sliders and check boxes that hurts to look at, and instantly drains one of all creativity.

Re: Linux DAW: Help Linux musicians to quickly and easily find the tools they need

#28

Post by harvey9 »

sroerick wrote: post #16
londons_explore wrote: post #8

The real-time low latency multi channel audio streaming needed for musicians is awfully similar to the real time low latency multi channel audio streaming required for telephony. Yet somehow the two industries have pretty much entirely different tech stacks and don't seem to talk to one another.

This is a very interesting thought. I'm not super experienced with low level audio and basically completely ignorant of telephony. I feel like most people doing audio in music are not working at the low level. Even if they are creating their own plugins, they are probably not integrating with the audio interface. The point of JACK or Pipewire is to basically abstract all of that away so people can focus on the instru…

Regarding Zoom, music lessons 1:1 online are still pretty common. I would guess this won't hold up with multiple musicians.

Re: Linux DAW: Help Linux musicians to quickly and easily find the tools they need

#30

Post by gkhartman »

This is great. Makes these tools much more discoverable. I can help but notice the drop in plugin ui quality one you click the foss filter checkbox. Something in me wants a foss plugin to come with a cool skin like the free ones do, but I know that's silly.
Post reply on HN