I read something in a different Theard and it got me thinking, we sould probably have a tread to discuss this before I hijack the other theard my accident with my curiosity.

in the thread below
https://audiosex.pro/threads/for-everyone-who-thinks-he-is-competent-enough.63290

mk_96 said
"Is it a bad thing though? A little deception for the sake of confort, maybe even productivity. Can a good looking plugin give you better results just because it invites you to do stuff, regardless of sound?...Is humanity even ready for such conversation?."

now this has got me thinking.

is a plugin that has controlls that look good and make you want to try things better then a plain functional tool.

The first audio software i used was soundforge so I've never really cared for how tools looked. For a while the Wave plugins annoyed me because of what seemed like unessassery flamboyance to the layouts, expecially when it would take me 10 minuets to figger out that 2 presets sound differant because there was a nob I coun't see.

So what I want to know is "Do you think a good looking plug-in give you better results then a plain functional one?"

Do distracting colours that make you click on things help? or hinder?

Also this is my first thread so if there's a spell check button, please let me know.

 

I think visual aesthetic "can" engage creativity and workflow

 

It depends, I love Renoise despite its obvious limitations and issues because it makes me breath music, its classy, its cool, its inspiring af to me, it makes me create music if you believe that... At the same time I find Reaper boring and ugly af, quite uninspiring if you'd ask me but what drives me, what I love about it is the feeling of freedom I have using it, I never had it with any other DAW hence why Reaper is my main DAW despite not looking "good".

 

something something something MELDA MXXX something something

 

Which one do you prefer?
Which one give you the better result?
Left or Right?

 

BUT consider the following. The one the left sounds better

 

In fact, I didn't even install some of the plug-ins, because the way they looked ,wasn't interesting to me

 

As long as it's intuitive to use, it doesn't much matter if the plugin is pretty or ugly to me. I don't like overly convoluted, difficult to understand plugins. But I'll use some simple DAW (Reaper, in my case) plugins, or I'll use more fancy looking ones.. as long I understand how to use it and it does the job well, it doesn't much matter to me. A good looking interface neither hinders or helps, IMO. Well, it's more likely to help, than hinder, in my opinion.. as long as it's done in a way that (again) is intuitive.

What I DO hate though is a VST/VSTi that looks nice but is hard to use or doesn't do the job at all. I've definitely used some of those.

 

People needa stop acting like looks don't matter, LOOKS MATTER! Aint nun if yall tryna buy an '89 Hyundai, when that Benz is across the lot!!!

That goes for looks on people too!

But at the same damn time, looks aint everything, all looks do is pull u in. U still gotta do ur diligence!

 

Honestly this discussion really could go both ways at the same time. Sometimes looks just make you look at a plugin differently and others you don't care at all because it get's the job done so well... so yeah thats what i have to say about it

 

I'd have to agree that it CAN cause some inspiration, some dedication to learning the finer workings of whatever plugin and maybe even to better results due to that deeper understanding. For instance I like working with plugins that emulate (visually) older consoles. I like to feel I'm working in a sort of similar way to the recordings that I love and that inspire me - older recordings by Hendrix, Cream, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Paul Simon, Led Zeppelin etc. Then the more realistic the plugin emulates that visual cue the more nostalgic I am and at least once I worked longer on a song than I might have otherwise. I'm inspired personally by beauty and art all the time, attractive, well designed plugins fit right in with that and add to the overall effect and feeling I get when being inspired and writing, recording, performing music. Ugly might work perfectly well but beauty in all it's many splendid forms (sound, taste, light) inspires more deeply.

 

Agree with Odious. Absolutely. I wouldn't be able to mix a whole song in Cubase as that whole interface reminds me of my Windows days (not a "dig", I still have a couple of Windows machines running here). I guess people are very different when it comes to this. For me, an inviting visual image will instantly get me to go to work, whereas a "dull one" (subjective, I know), will make me procrastinate.

 

You guys should try some plugins from AirWindows.com. They have no elaborate GUI, mostly just sliders for the parameters. They sound good and are lightweight. Plus, they are free. You want to know if a GUI influences how you use a plugin; that might be your best test of this. (plus you will get some nice sounding plugins).

 

A pretty chick sings better than ugly one.That's it

 

so 4k plugin sounds better than 1080p one?

 

There's a guy named Airwindows. He likes to say "In the mix, nobody can hear your screen", or something like this. Oh how I wish he'd be here right now.

Because people sure can hear the inspiration in the mix. And the interface can inspire. If it relays what the plugin's ought to do, both via parameter layout and aesthetics, then the end user will just understand and learn it faster. Disregarding this aspect is only putting unnecessary strain on your consciousness. One will actually have less time to be creative this way.
Oh, and I just realized I never heard any music Airwindows produced or mixed. That would've been interesting. Anyone got the leads?

 

Last edited: Feb 6, 2022

Maybe they are not the best example, but I think much of that has to do with them just being somewhat singular purposed. They each do the one thing they are supposed to, and then maybe it will have another functionality or spin on it.

But I will tell you, I would use them more if they had GUIs. In a busy project, you can pretty easily lose track of something that is not at least a little bit eye-popping against the background of your DAW environment.

 

I only use plugins that have 12D graphics (Quad 3D), and they sound amazing.

 

Last edited: Feb 6, 2022

For sure, aesthetics play a big role in creativity for me. The most important thing is the sound, obviously, but I do tend to gravitate toward better looking plugins.

My studio and DAW are all decked out. I use Reaper, I remember complaining to Jon from the Reaper Blog about how it was foolish of the Reaper devs to turn down the Imperial v5 theme White Tie did and he basically told me he didn't understand why anyone cares about aesthetics and how it didn't matter. A lot of people seemed to agree with him so I felt like the black sheep. I really can't understand the opposite train of thought though. If I'm gonna be staring at the screen for hours every day, why wouldn't I want it to be as inspiring as possible?

 

Last edited: Feb 6, 2022

Can a good SOUNDING Library/Plugin give you better results just because it invites you to do stuff?

You bet it does..