fundamental
commented
3 years ago Just as a general note since I'm going through anything which has a copy either in my inbox or in the github notification feed: With many small UI/UX issues, the ideal outcome would be some suggested changes followed by some patches making the changes. Otherwise these issues do have a tendency of falling through the cracks. As it stands the coding workflow with the fusion GUI isn't entirely trivial, but I am quite interested in making it easier to contribute to.
Some thoughts / feedback about the new interface and specifically the addSynth window.
As far as I can see does he global tab match with the old Zyn interface. Clear for me.
Then I go to the next tab voice, but then choices seems less consistent to me. The new interface puts stuff that is in the old interface in the same window, on a new tab for each and does that on the same level as 'global' and 'voice', but they belong to voice I think.
It would appear more logical to me if they where placed in the 'tab system' below.
So main tab | global | and | voice |, to start with.
That | voice | tab has several 'sub-tabs', namely:
| Amplitude | Frequency | Oscillator | Filter | Modulator | Modulator Oscillator |
(now it only has Amplitude, Frequency and Filter).
(Unison should be a section in the Voice Frequency tab I think, not modulator)
Then you have these main tabs left:
| Global | Voice Settings | Voice List | Resonance |
In the old interface, the wave form is (also) visible in the | Frequency | tab and the modulator waveform (also) in the | Modulator | tab. I think that's because they belong together. (For Frequency it might be able to display that oscillator/waveform when clicking in the Frequency - general area. Actually this might also possible for Modulation)
Now I feel that a clear structure is somewhat missing or lacking, that some parameters are in the wrong place (unison) and that switching from the old to the new interface is harder then it could be. I think it's also good to follow the design of the original author where possible.
Of course, I'm more or less new to Zynaddsubfx, but after working with the old interface for two days and then switching to the new one, this is what I see. I must probably dive into Zynaddsubfx deeper to know if these suggestions are indeed good ones.
hth
edit1: added suggestion for place to display waveform with frequency and modulation. edt2: the modulation tab looks confusing. Minor thing: also the interface displays the voice parameters first, the next tab is the voice oscillator. For Modulation, first the modulation oscillator tab is displayed then the parameters, this seems inconsistent, but they're in the wrong place anyway, if my theory is correct. edit3: Voice - Amplitude - General: Bypass GL filter, belongs to Voice - Filter- General.
edit4: For the envelopes I think it is more logical to put set the VALUES (val) first and then the TIMES (dt). This is also how it's done in the original GUI. For instance this is how it's done in SuperCollider: http://doc.sccode.org/Classes/Env.html edit5: Global - Frequency - LFO -> sync is 'Continuous LFO' (C) in the old interface? It's not clear what sync exactly is, the tooltip message says 'shape of LFO'. edit6: Global - Amplitude - Envelope, the button 'lin/log' is unclear to me. In the old interface it's linear. Now it looks like I can choose lin or log, but how can I choose when the knob seems to select lin and log? edit7: Global - Amplitude - General: Strength, Time, Stretch belong to each other. But in the new interface Stretch is set apart. Confusing. Do I miss P.vel (Punch velocity sensing) there, or is that Yoshimi specific? edit8: Global - Amplitude - LFO: why not keep the original ordering and switch the Delay and Str (stretch) button? Why use Str, while it's been called Stretch in other parts in the GUI? edit9: Global - Frequency - General: Fine knob seems to be the 'frequency slider' in the old zyn/yoshimi. Then I don't understand the belonging numbers. 0 should be, no detune. Minus x should be detuned to the left/low, plus x should be detuned to right/high. Correct me if I'm wrong.
edit10: Global - Filter - General: Again, knobs have different order then the original zyn/yoshimi. I think the original designer of the synth put them in that order for a reason. Why would you change it? edit11: Global - Filter - General: in the old zyn/yoshimi, there is a option to set the scale from 0 - 200. I don't find this option in the new GUI. edit12: Voice - Amplitude - General: I do miss the options 'minus' (phase) and random pan (random + width) compared to old zyn/yoshimi. edit12: Voice - Frequency - General. I do miss the options bend and offset (compared to old zyn/yoshimi) edit13: In the old zyn/yoshimi interface I can set the phase of the waveform with a slider (voice parameters window: local osc / waveform / phase). Afaik phase is or can be a important factor to consider when doing sound design / synthesis. edit14: Oscillator tab (which should be under voice I think): In the old interface both graphs / waveforms are next to each other to compare. The new interface puts a block with parameters between them. I would keep both graphs next to each other and put the parameters block on the right from it. | original graph | new graph | parameters | edit15: Oscillator tab: Parameters: Filter : Pre/post button -> This knob has the same confusion as 'lin/log'. I think it should be called Pre, with the tooltip message saying that it's a post/pre button switch. edit16: Oscillator tab: Clear All button is not affecting the the first slider of the 'harmonic magnitude'? settings. While in Yoshimi it sets that first slider to '0'. edit17: Modulation tab (which should be under the voice tab I think): There is a knob 'Normal'. I don't know what it does and I can't select it. edit18: Modulation tab: The knobs Damp and Sense are reversed compared to the old zyn/yoshimi (reversed in place, I hope not in function :) ). edit19: Modulation tab: I'm completely missing the Mod frequency section, compared to the old zyn/yoshimi(?) edit20: Modulation oscillator: In the old zyn/yoshimi interface I can set the phase of the waveform with a slider . Afaik phase is or can be a important factor to consider when doing sound design / synthesis (see edit21)._ edit21: Ah! I found the phase settings for both the oscillators (edit13 & edit20). Nobody will find those, doesn't seems to make sense to put them there imho.
edit22: In the old interface it's made clear which knobs belongs together with colors and lines. In the new interface this much less clear sometimes. (For example: Global - Amplitude - General: stretch, strength, time, are just placed next to other knobs (without clear structure), while they belong together as a block).
As a general note, I think it's wise to follow the original design as much as possible (that doesn't mean you end up with the same GUI as the original). That guy made the synth and the GUI. He has a reason to put knobs where they're, because it makes sense to his synth design.
for reference: http://lac.zkm.de/2005/papers/nasca_octavian_paul.pdf http://lac.zkm.de/2005/slides/paul_octavian_nasca_slides.pdf