Dave Smith Instruments SYNTHESIZERS

Hi Dan,

Thank you very much for your comments; both critical and kind. 

I had a chit chat with programming and here is a summary of the 
conversation:

1) The slider/knob debate is an odd one for us. I believe we wil 
stick to our guns on that one by keeping radial it as default but 
color and mouse movement will go to a 'preferences' section (not 
sure on implementation they will come up with) - each user will be 
able to choose one or the over.

2) Actually we have developed the very first resizable editing
screens for MIDI editing software as far as we know: (see Software 
for the Moog Voyager) so we are familiar with this concept. It is 
labor intensive so it may be recreated in the DSI editor later on.

3) that's better than restarting the app...

4) Good point. We will reset the window caption.

5) Will check.

6) We just followed the PEK panel coloring. I would not be a good 
idea to alternate blue colors for 4 oscillators because then someone 
would rightly point out that OSC 1 and 2 (analog) are different than 
OSC 3 and 4. Highlighting all of them with different color would be 
a little too much.

This should be dealt with starting today.

Thanks again and best regards,
Derek
www.soundtower.com


--- In DSI_Evolver@yahoogroups.com, "tremorcore" <tanklogic@...> 
wrote:
>
> Hi Derek et al,
> 
> I spent some time with the 4.0 beta this morning (XP 32-bit) ... it
> looks to be a great update.  The wave-draw screen is nice, and the
> sequencer window is much friendlier.  Thumbs up.
> 
> I use a Wacom tablet for just about everything that's GUI-based 
(mouse
> = RSI)so my experience may be a bit different than others. 
> Regardless, I'm going to chime in on a few points:
> 
> 1) Yup, linear knob control is a must.  As it stands, your
> implementation of the "circular" method is usable/not awful, but
> "linear" is the standard for a reason.
> 
> 2) I was surprised by the dimensions of the 'flow' editor.  It's 
1680
> pixels wide, and *just* fits on my 22" monitor.  I like it this 
size,
> but I can see where it'd be a pain on lower-rez screens.  A 
scalable
> UI would be nice.  (Synth1 is a free VSTi that has a fully scalable
> UI.  They, too, sacrificed 3D render'd beauty for better usability.
> http://www.geocities.jp/daichi1969/softsynth/)
> 
> 3) "Generic" view doesn't show any window at all when I select 
it.  I
> have to switch back to "flow" and then hit the "edit program" 
button
> to get the edit window back.
> 
> 4) I understand why the LFO & Sequencer "Destination" uses the pop-
up
> window, and I don't mind it at all.  However, the window itself 
should
> be labeled with the destination function we're choosing.  In other
> words, if I leave the window up and click around the editor's
> different "destination" points, the window title bar should 
indicate
> what destination I'm editing.  Right now it says "destination" 
only.
> 
> 5) The Continuous Controllers panel isn't vertically re-sizable
> (though the cursor changes to the "resize" icon). 
> 
> 6) I don't mind the envelope color :)... but if we're being picky, 
the
> brown in the bank select and program genetics window is pretty 
puke-y.
>  I think the OSC section could be a little more visually
> differentiated.  A darker (or lighter) horizontal band behind the 
2nd
> and 4th oscillator knob rows would set each oscillator apart.
> 
> That's it for now.  Great stuff.
> 
> - Dan
>