Ableton GUI : (

Veracohr · Post by **Veracohr** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 4:31 am

I just got Live, and the difference in GUI is one of the first things I noticed. I don't much care about GUI - I wouldn't use something if it had no GUI, but otherwise textures don't matter to me as long as the useability is there. However, it did cause me to wonder how much of a processing difference textures make in comparison to Live's non-textured GUI.

Does anyone know? I use Digital Performer and Universal Audio UAD-1, both of which have textured GUIs.

djsynchro · Post by **djsynchro** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 4:43 am

On a modern computer it doesn't make any difference but I will tell you this:
Work on a track to meet a deadline and look at your monitor for 14-16 hours with only a 10 minute break for a coffee and a sandwich. The minimal interface will be a lot kinder to your eyes!

SubFunk · Post by **SubFunk** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 8:35 am

djsynchro wrote:It's beautiful and minimal,
To change it would be criminal!

+1 they already screwed up with the splash screen.

LeifonMars · Post by **LeifonMars** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 8:53 am

1. I am the Lord your GUI, who brought you out of the land of PTs, out of the house of slavery; Do not have any other GUIs before me.
2. You shall not make for yourself a GUI, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your GUI am a jealous GUI, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
3. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your GUI, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
4. Remember the Black Sabbath day and keep it holy. For six days you shall labour and do all your beats. But the seventh day is a Black Sabbath to the Lord your GUI; you shall not do any beats—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.
5. Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your GUI is giving you.
6. You shall not kill.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
10. You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s PT, or male or female slave, or OSX, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.

abort · Post by **abort** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 9:11 am

Well, I'm definitely still going to love my neighbor!!!

but I will pray to no one!

Your GUI says I'm going to hell anyway so whats the difference!

I wanted sparkles. I wanted glitter. I wanted shame!

Pasha · Post by **Pasha** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 9:32 am

leedsquietman wrote:Coming from the relatively glossy interface of Cubase SX3 to Live was a bit of a culture shock - but in the 2+ years I've had Live, I've really grown to like the interface a lot.

I say leave as is and concentrate the programming on the many other features and functions that are a priority.

Exactly. Well put. For example I would expect :

Batch Freeze : you select al the tracks you want to freeze and take a cup of tea..
Batch Cleaner : when you want to get rid of the unused recorded clips (errors..

) in several projects at once. This would improve my workflow a lot and it's only a menu item away...

- Best
- Pasha

Pasha · Post by **Pasha** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 10:04 am

djsynchro wrote:It's beautiful and minimal,
To change it would be criminal!

A Dutch poet...

xherv · Post by **xherv** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 5:52 pm

Pasha wrote: Batch Freeze : you select al the tracks you want to freeze and take a cup of tea..
Batch Cleaner : when you want to get rid of the unused recorded clips (errors.. ) in several projects at once. This would improve my workflow a lot and it's only a menu item away...

Batch Freeze is possible, although not obvious . . . I discovered this by accident a few weeks ago (I hardly ever freeze tracks). Just select multiple tracks and choose to freeze.

Batch Cleaner is I think possible with the "Manage Files . . ." dialog, the manual has a section about it (chapter 5.11). It can generate a list of unused samples which you can select all and delete. I haven't used this, I'm not sure it's exactly what you're looking for. (edit) Across multiple projects is possible too, it's described in the manual.

djsynchro · Post by **djsynchro** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 11:27 pm

xherv wrote: It can generate a list of unused samples which you can select all and delete.

Nice one! will read that section - again this is useful.

doc holiday · Post by **doc holiday** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 11:52 pm

estevan carlos benson wrote:It may just be your opinion. They're GUI in my opinion is the smartest, most practical around. I personally don't like my audio applications to visually mimic the look of either the real instrument or the traditional hyper chrome, gaudy, thing. No bevel. No shade. little chrome. thank you.

agreed the live gui is perfect

Dalski · Post by **Dalski** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 12:28 am

Work on a track to meet a deadline and look at your monitor for 14-16 hours with only a 10 minute break for a coffee and a sandwich. The minimal interface will be a lot kinder to your eyes!

Although I believe the fonts could do with sharpening up somewhat - they all seem a bit blurry on my lappy screen on highest resolution (1440 x 900) Either they ARE a tad blurry or my eyes are on the blink...no pun intended!

Apart from that, i'm with the 10 commandments!

Corn Swabler · Post by **Corn Swabler** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 1:30 am

abort wrote:Just MY opinion, but anyway....

your opinion sucks

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 3:16 am

Hi Veracohr - good to see you go into live, I know you from the DM forum.

You will have lots of fun and it plays well with DP. You will soon find yourself accustomed to the GUI and it will seem 'right' after a little while. I use Cubase and have for years, and I prefer Live's look now.

Cone · Post by **Cone** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 12:00 pm

The GUI is fine with its minimal approach, with no faux hardware knobs -- but: don't you think it's a little on the small side with a regular monitor? I mean, on a 13" MacBook it's OK, but on a 19" LCD with 1440 by 900 resolution it seems kind of silly to be tweaking the instruments and clips in a postage stamp sized area at the bottom of the screen.

So, the GUI should be scalable, but that's probably pretty hard to achieve, as it appears Ableton have done everything themselves, from fonts on up. That's what I can't stomach with music software in general, and everybody does that; for crying out loud, the OS already has decent UI widgets and all, why not just use them (and create custom views as necessary) and concentrate on the actual music making features? But then it wouldn't look exactly the same on various platforms, so there.

six_o_clock_crow · Post by **six_o_clock_crow** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 1:55 pm

A 'Live GUI' thread appears on pretty much every other software forum, y'know. Why? Because users of other software are always crying out for a Live-esque GUI, because they appreciate how 'clean' and conducive to a good workflow it is. It's no coincidence that users create Live-style skins for their other software.

However, I can appreciate that this view isn't shared by everyone, and people should be free to request this as a feature. Having the option to alter the GUI would be fine with me... but I'd argue that Ableton should only look at developing this once all the other bug fixes and feature requests have been implemented. Development time is precious, I'd say.

On a related issue, I personally HATE software that tries to look like hardware. Software doesn't have to conform to the limitations of what can be achieved physically. Software GUI's that imitate hardware just look so tacky and childish.

Ableton GUI : (

Re: Ableton GUI : (