My top 10 (excluding software instruments):

01 FabFilter
02 IK Multimedia
03 Native Instruments
04 Klevgrand
05 Valhalla
06 Audio Damage
07 Audiority
08 iZotope
09 D16
10 Overloud

What do you think?

Please be kind to each other, this is very subjective

 

Spectrasonics

 

that's easy. haribo...
sorry, thought you meant GUmmies

depends if you mean pretty or functional or ugly or bright or dull or dysentry yellow, lime green, flourescent vom, big, little, wide, tall, photo realistic, lots of controls, few controls, number of pages, menus, clear labelling of same, etc...
you're right man, it's very subjective, if not meaningless.
I'd best stick to haribo. but even then, there's so many to choose from

 

Last edited: Jan 30, 2019

IMHO a good GUI offers a pretty color scheme, readable fonts, understandable signal flow, a fast workflow, resize or scaling options and no need to RTFM. Maybe someone could tell MeldaProduction

 

Goodhertz - https://goodhertz.co
Black Rooster Audio - https://blackroosteraudio.com/en/products
Tone Empire / Beatskillz - https://tone-empire.com

AND DEFINITELY NOT WAVES WITH THEIR PIXELATED LOW RES NON RESIZABLE PLUGINS
ooph sorry had to let that steam bro

 

N.A.S.A.

 

Sugar Bytes
Fab Filter
Black Rooster Audio
Izotope
Voxengo
XLN Audio
Sonnox
Sonic Charge
Softube
Overloud
Native Instruments
Klanghelm
IK Multimedia
Goodhertz
Eventide
d16 Group
Cableguys
Arturia
Acustica Audio
Accusonus
U-he .........

 

How about best GUI while sounding horrible? Sure No 1 goes to Slate. LOL

 

Every company that uses "form follows function" (Valhalla, Audio Damage, Kazrog (although not lately...).

I like using stuff like the bx_consoles and Iron looks gorgeous but honestly: I prefer clearly readable stuff any time.

But in the end it's the sound that matters. Except if a missing or too fancy GUI gets in the way. Don't remember which one that was but I tried a reverb last year and it was a mess.

 

I wouldn't call it company but I really like the GUI designs from:

PureAV



satYatunes



and
Scott-Kane

 

Beside these, I think u-he gets a special mention, too. Talking about both easy on the eye looks and functionality. One without the other is just crap IMO.

Then Voxengo and PSP. Both easy on the eye and easy to use.

Airwindows, GVST, bkFX, MDA plugins also... I'm a fan of GUIless plugins when they have up to 5 or 6 controls. They're absolutely easy to handle and take up next to nothing of RAM. Just pure DSP, and they make you listen instead of watching the knobs and pretty graphs!

 

It's probably very much a matter of taste which company makes the best UIs, but there is no doubt who makes by far the worst UIs in human history:

Microsoft.

 

Honorable mention to vps for their work on avenger. Its not the world's most beautiful plugin but they managed to get a shitload of functionality into a limited amount of space without making it unintuitive or cluttered. That arp is a masterpiece.

 

Toontrack .. Superior Drummer 3 UI is great and has a lot of useful tools

 

Fabfilter.

 

Fabfilter and Izotope for me.

GUI means graphical user interface, i.e. something a user can interface with it. A good GUI should provide an intuitive interface which adds to the user experience. Putting a good image does not make a GUI better.

See how Fabfilter and Izotope relate the limiter threshold to a good representation of what happens to an audio signal.



Or how Softube Weiss show compressing very intuitively:

Compare these to Oxford limiter which although may sound good but the GUI is old, sluggish and only shows gain reduction



By the way, Native Instruments is one of the worst, I am not sure why it is 3rd in your list. ( just remember small editor in Kontakt, sluggish old Massive synth GUI, awful Solid mix plugins GUI, etc)

 

Last edited: Jan 31, 2019

UAD because it mostly looks like the hardware, which I never owned
FabFilter yes, SoundToys perhaps (I like it dark)
Valhalla? well, can't agree on that one, very simple GUI's
Same with Plug & Mix .. and does someone remember Beta Bugs Audio?
https://www.kvraudio.com/developer/betabugsaudio

 

Well, gotta toot my own horn here.. Ill say.. on a strictly "pretty to look at" basis.. audio aside.

Audiothing.net
Studiolinked.com
Beatskillz\Tone Empire.

If im judging others.. then IK Multimedia, Toontrack, Spectrasonics, Izotope and some NI.

 

while i like all the ones mentioned D16 and Fabfilter imo are some of the coolest looking, but i think we are forgetting ImageLine
and Antares where really ahead of their time DXi times, tube changing color depending on warmth, ,VB303 though not a company reminds rebirth style ,and of course Arturia and Roland have amazing gui's