Time for an overhaul of the UI?

[Machinate]

All the black sections in the plug - ins, for eg the EQ4, what about having some visual feedback as to what the effect is doing. Wouldn't it be great seeing the eq curve, and how your settings effect it?

Please tell us all that you are not interested in such 'distractions'.

I will tell you I am NOT interested in that. That kind of graphics requires some degree of FFT analysis, and is too cpu demanding.

I want the software to be lean. If I want bloat I'll turn on my max-patch

[sweetjesus]

All the black sections in the plug - ins, for eg the EQ4, what about having some visual feedback as to what the effect is doing. Wouldn't it be great seeing the eq curve, and how your settings effect it?

Please tell us all that you are not interested in such 'distractions'.

I will tell you I am NOT interested in that. That kind of graphics requires some degree of FFT analysis, and is too cpu demanding.

I want the software to be lean. If I want bloat I'll turn on my max-patch

i think you will find the barrier is with live's graphical engine.

many apps show graphics in realtime.

what i'm not cool with is how companies are not from my knowledge using things like Direct X and Open GL to reduce graphics load off the CPU. Thi could be revolutionary.

[even]

i love live's ui to death since the first second i saw it. if you ask me it's good for another 5 major releases at least.

i too, love the flatness of it. raised buttons? bah. they're ghey

[sgx]

Have any of you used Project5 2.0?

I like it's UI a lot. That program is quite similar to Live in the way workflow and windows are set up: Groove matrix is a lot like session view, there's the arrange pane, pattern editor window, and instrument/effects chain window. P5 can let the user detatch a lot of these windows so dual monitors is really nice. Plus you can see both the groove matrix and arrange pane at the same time (even without detatching windows) which is something I see a lot of Live users ask for.

I think its got a really nice look too. It's white/light blue/grey with a clean look that's a bit 3D also.

[Angstrom]

i think you will find the barrier is with live's graphical engine.

many apps show graphics in realtime.

what i'm not cool with is how companies are not from my knowledge using things like Direct X and Open GL to reduce graphics load off the CPU. Thi could be revolutionary.

I guess OpenGL would be the more likely because of x-platform issues.

[anarchicluv]

It's interesting that I come on here today and see this topic, as it's been one I've considered starting up for some time now (I'm lazy, I know).

Please Abe's, DO NOT UPDATE THE UI!! I absolutely love the look, its simplicity, its "form follows function" philosophy. There is no point in going with ugly raised buttons or semi-photo-realistic design.

Keep it simple, keep it beautiful, keep it Ableton!

[scientist]

We're talking about visuals really not the actual UI which everyone here likes. The stye is distinctive and you can change the skin under the preference options.

sorry, but the idea of 'visual interface' being separate from the 'user interface' is simply not true. a user's interaction with an interface is directly informed by how they relate to it via its visual appearance. a good example would be to look at the difference in visual appearance of reason and live. when looking at reason a layman can easily say "that's a knob" because it looks like a knob on a car dashboard, or espresso machine, or stereo. the visual of a knob in live is on another layer of abstraction...a layman may well have to ask "is that supposed to be a knob?". thus, how something looks has a direct impact on the concept of how something is used and what it is used for. it is simply taking the traditional concept of human factors in 3d industrial design and translating it into a 95% visual arena (the other 5% being the use of mouse/button/stylus to make adjustments to the visual component).

live to me has the best interface of any app that i've ever used. hands down. recently i've had to jump back into using photoshop and illustrator and its laughable how bad the interface is. for fuck's sake they shouldn't even be separate programs. and although i think reason and other's with the same visual cues have their place (like they're very easy for novices to learn because of the familiar real world look), quite often that visual style just gets in the way. the back of the reason rack is a mess, and makes it difficult to figure out how to do anything. to me live's look isn't outdated. its timeless because its the essence of function before form: the function is so intrinsic to its look that form will stand the test of time. lots of great improvements suggestions in this thread for sure though: multi monitor support, and getting rid of the 'land of a 1000 faders' for vsts would be great.

[AdamJay]

sometimes the UI is TOO minimal.

The midi notes displayed in the piano roll whilst editing a midi clip are too thin, and are difficult to get your mouse pointer on. Folding the notes isnt always an option, esp. while you are trying to audition different pitches for a particular chord. You'll highlight the notes, try to get the mouse pointer on one of em to drag them up or down, then you end up clicking off of them, having to repeat the process a couple times until you click on the note.

this is probably the only thing holding me back from using Live as my main DAW. Until thats fixed, Reason has my money.

not sure if I understand you correctly,
but you are aware of the fact that you can zoom in aren't you?

and if you don't want to zoom (maybe you have too many notes) you can just expand the roll by dragging it up into the rest of the interface...

like THIS

and it only occupies that much interface when you click on that particular midi sequence. (i.e. the midi clip remembers its own piano roll size)

[AdamJay]

and back to the original topic.

i dont think Live's look is dated at all. It looks like nothing else out there, so how could you date it?

Its timeless.

If they really wanted to make it look dated, they would follow suit with all the other DAWs with raised buttons, photo realism, and all the other crap that eventually gets UPdated.

The cheese stands alone.

[kennerb]

If it ain't broke don't fix it.

I'm tired of a world where everyone is trying to simplify process by adding steps, layers, and enhancements.

[Poster]

and if you don't want to zoom (maybe you have too many notes) you can just expand the roll by dragging it up into the rest of the interface...

like THIS

and it only occupies that much interface when you click on that particular midi sequence. (i.e. the midi clip remembers its own piano roll size)

did you really think i would enable directory listing?
pffffffff.

that one is good!

.

[Martyn]

The most information, put across in the simplest and most efficient way, has to be the best way. Live's interface has been evolving steadily over the years (check screenshots of older versions), and in a good, logical way too imho. I still wish we could alter the colours ourselves, but then I am a notoriously picky bastard.

Anybody who seriously wants to see 3d sudo hardware bollocks in 2006!!!! simply has their head so far up their arse that they'd get an echo if they shouted "shiney 3d knob"

Ableton's interface design is so far ahead of the game that it's actually changing the paradigm of how software should look.

It's time to let go of the hardware! it's a computer screen, and those shiney knobs are little pictures from photoshop for fks sake! Get over it.

I understand how Robert Henke feels, it makes me hyperventilate too, the sheer bullshit of 3d interface design

[Angstrom]

and if you don't want to zoom (maybe you have too many notes) you can just expand the roll by dragging it up into the rest of the interface...

like THIS

and it only occupies that much interface when you click on that particular midi sequence. (i.e. the midi clip remembers its own piano roll size)

I've started using the piano roll at full screen and tabbing between the arrangement and the piano roll using shift+tab
I think it was Adonis who suggested that.
obviously Tab goes between session (or 'mixer') and arrange so shift+tab to pianoroll fits quite nicely.

[mercyplease]

I am quite amazed how defensive most of you guys are at the suggestion of improving the UI?

Im not in the slightest. I hope Heineke doesnt read these posts and credit validity to their responses. These users here are the most opinionated and restrictive to ideas people on any music forum I read. I cant help getting annoyed every time I come here. In another forum this would be debated for the good or bad but here all you see iare statements saying its the perfection of perfect. If Ableton seriously are going to believe the people here who I dont believe are the standard type user then thats up to them but thats simply basking in false glory.
The gui is fine but of course there is room for improvement. Its the functionality that could be improved but that would mean subtle changes to the user interface. I could list but theres never any point.

[mercyplease]

interesting no one mentioned pro tools for its simplistic two screen. its been around a decade before live. go on comapare live to pro tools and then tell me which one is the most simple to use combined with functionality. Were talking guis here not how much it costs so the comparison should be made.