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Old 12-19-2014, 07:27 PM   #15
chip mcdonald
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Join Date: May 2006
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ivansc View Post

I have mixed feelings on doing a dumbed down beginners version of everything.... sort of leads new users to just ignore the rest of reaper.
And no real incentive to go further if it works well.....
If the new user is intimidated or confused, they'll never use it at all.

Packaging of features is the most important thing in the 21st century. It's not enough to offer features; you've got to hold the (perhaps dumb)(probably dumb) users hand.

I was just looking at the Ozone 6 thread. There isn't anything particularly special in it that I don't think you can accomplish using a couple of other VST's - for a sum total that costs a LOT less than $999. BUT - they've put it all together in a very coherent and work flow friendly form.

That's not a very exciting thing from a developer's standpoint, but it's kind of all important. The guy that does the Melda plugins I think suffers kind of in that way, he's got his plugins laid out in a very specific way he obviously likes, but who has heard of "Melda Software"?

Contrast that with Valhalla: a very lean UI, very "dumb" controls almost - big large labels, big controls, straightforward nomenclature.

I think of the two developers, Sean Costello is probably doing better than Guy's Name I Can't Remember with Melda.

I think you could probably do with Melda's plugins everything Ozone 6 does - dynamic eq, M/S eq, spatialization, metering, except he's got those features broke out into separate VST's and his GUI uses multiple different controls, tiny labels, things are buried on screens you have to click down to, some screen items are tiny, overall Melda has a lot of stuff going on screen wise compared to Ozone 6.

Effectively, Ozone 6 succeeds in seemingly having put some effort into optimizing the actual interface/ui itself.

Garage Band is very, very popular with kids. From what I understand, it's even being taught at Full Sail for "some" reason. The 21st century is about both user expectation of a completely pre-thought out ui, AND.... a bell curve that *does not allow for intellectual curiosity as impetus for problem solving*.

Add to that a new generation that expects everything to have both a touch-sensitive interface AND icons/buttons instead of a menu, the DAW that does not adapt to that is going to die.

Which is why I again say - Garage Band is probably the winner in the end, unfortunately. That doesn't mean I like that, but I've watched/observed enough people and kids try to get around in Reaper and have seen where they decide to give up and why. Maybe they need the popularist catchet of the name "Pro Tools" to make them see things through, but I see a future of imbeciles "doing productions and making beats" with Garage Band and the bozo light-up-button triggers, while a small cadre of actually intelligent engineers will remain the gate keepers of actually making recordings - if it's still deemed necessary.

/ $.10
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