PTLE's appearance

[basschair]

This is a question that I should have asked about a year ago:

With PTLE and 98se, I've noticed something regarding appearance. The wave edit window looks a little "blocky," and when I bring up plugin windows, they look really bad. In other words, everything looks pretty low-res. The input readouts (green-yellow-red stips...it's early and I can't remember the name) look fine: it's the other stuff. Is this just part of using Win 98se? And if so, will it look better with Win xp and a dedicated video card?

I know that it's purely aesthetics, and the program functions well otherwise, but it's frustrating to know how it can/should look, but doesn't. Hopefully that makes sense.

Any comments are appreciated!

paul

[J. FO]

updating shouldn't make a difference. function over fashion.

[Alex T.]

This will all change with 6.0 in Feb. For now PTLE just uses an outdated UI.

[basschair]

Originally posted by J. FO:
updating shouldn't make a difference. function over fashion.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I figured it probably was, though I wasn't ready to pass it off on Digi. I figured it might be due to the onboard video on my mobo. Well, I can wait for 6.0, as long as I don't have to pay $200 for the update. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[marcusb]

I love the ProTools UI. It makes the best use of the screen to display all the useful information.

I personally HATE all the toy interfaces like SX and to some degree Logic. The developers seem to spend so much time making the app look 'cute' you end up having to open 200 windows just to manipulate and insert, or tweak and EQ. Real hardware looks like real hardware, I really don't see the point of making software look like real hardware except for the old folks that can't quite get a grip on the computer age. Half the reason most audio software is such a pain in the ass to use is because it doesn't embrace the computing paradigms and insists on emulating control surfaces that take up half a room.

Nuff or my rant. I don't really dig on the PT 6.0 look much myself, but I guess they have to keep with the OS-X look and feel.

One of the most important points in this debate however is the simplicity of the PT interface makes it VERY comfortable to use for extended periods of time in the studio. When you are working on 12-14 hour sessions the PT interface is much less fatiguing than the graphic designer's wet dream interfaces [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

Cheers,
Marcus

[Vegadark]

can you by anychance take a screen shot of this so we can see if it looks normal or excessivly blocky / lo-res?

maybe you do have a problem and dont know it...

[riffing]

Two things can affect your display: color depth and resolution. Try running at 16-bit color depth (High Color) and at least 800x600 resolution or better yet, 1024x768.

[basschair]

Originally posted by Vegadark:
can you by anychance take a screen shot of this so we can see if it looks normal or excessivly blocky / lo-res?

maybe you do have a problem and dont know it...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I'm not sure how I'd do it.

I'm currently at 800x600. I tried 1024x768, but PT was giving me error messages immediately. I'm pretty sure that there's something mentioned in the users manual that says that 800x600 is to best resolution it will work at. I'm not sure what the bit depth is, but I'm sure it's at 16, as all other apps and the desktop look normal.

I too really do like the user interface of Pro Tools. I'm definitely not arguing with its intuitive nature. I'm wondering if it's just my computer, or if the plugin windows look that way for everyone.

Here's an example: if I bring up the 4 band EQ (or any plug with sliders w/text labels), the text labels for each slider overlap with the slider itself. Then, when I move a slider, the overlapping section of the text disappears. I think it's pretty odd, but I've gotten used to it, as I've had it that way since I got the program about a year and a half ago. Does anything like this happen for others? Here's some more info:

mobo Intel D815EEA with onboard video
Win 98SE

The only thing I can think of that would affect the "look" of the plugin windows (assuming that something is actually wrong) is that the onboard video is slow, or that it can't handle the higher resolution needed for a better functioning appearance. Then again, I'm talking out of my rear-end, as I'm better at putting computers together than interpreting the detailed functions of software.

Again, it's not a complaint about the UI, or even a complaint in general. The only time it has an affect is when it messes up the text on a slider to the point that I can't recall what that slider's function is. At any rate, this whole thing may resolve itself with a new computer, video card, and updated OS. Then again, maybe not...I won't get hung up over it. Thanks for the suggestions, and any others are welcome!

[murph16]

I'm sure you will notice more detail and better overall appearance at 1024x768.

TrueColor24bit.
It shouldn't affect performance at all.
It was a night and day difference to me and I never went back.
I also removed my 32 meg/32bit video card and I'm going with the Intel stock video settings.

I think the addition of a high-performance video card will adversely affect your PTLE performance before the 1024x768 setting will.

[David Sumich]

Also, something that helps is using the ClearType font smoothing option. You do this by right-clicking on the desktop and choosing "Properties" from the popup menu. Select the "Appearance" tab and click on the "Effects" button. In the Effects dialog, check the option "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts:", and from the combobox, select "ClearType". This really improves the look of the fonts in ProTools, which can look very blocky without this option. [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]