Anyone else hoping for new look for PT6?

[ckevperry]

Since OSX support is most likely a sure thing....wouldn't it be nice to give PT a lil' more eye candy? It has always had a very utilitarian look. Why not a few Aqua-style enhancments?

After plugin delay compensation of course...

[[email protected]]

Having moved from cubase to PT several years ago, I had the same thought about PT's mono-tone gray look when I first starting using PT, but in time I found it to be better... there's less eye distraction. The focus is on the meters when using the mix screen, and the waveforms when in edit...

There's probably market research and GUI studies that companies like Microsoft can afford to do when they are designing their software and having to decide what works best... if you think about it, Excel, Word, Powerpoint, Access all have stayed with similar mono-tone, gray styles since their original releases...

I like eye candy, but the current look maybe the best approach, given the number of hours I stare at a PT screen..

[Nexxt]

Don't need or want the eye candy to get the audio job done. Some of the other packages out there are so distracting you literally cannot decide where or how to proceed.

PT is simple and straightforward. Am in agreement with nhwilson that you become more focused on the tools and the tasks at hand.

A little X look is fine, but exploding colors, blacks, greens and reds all over....NO! This ain't AOL for them asses. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[Lee Blaske]

If it's any advanced notice, Emagic didn't do any radical changes to the Logic interface for OS X, but under Aqua, it comes out looking much more refined. Quite beautiful, really.

I think there's a greater chance that the next major version of PT might have quite a different look, especially if Digidesign finally gets around to adding all the things that have been lacking for so many years, i.e. MIDI features, folder architecture, greater possibilities for on-screen mixer display, etc.

A lot needs to be added, and to accomodate it, the GUI needs some adaptation. As it stands, the current GUI is inefficient at displaying large numbers of tracks, and grappling with large projects. Then again, it must be remembered that PT has been around for ages, and it was essentially a four track application when it was first released.

I would think the introduction of the OS X version would be an excellent time for a very significant make-over to bring PT up to speed with dealing with the large amount of data we now have.

I think a greater concern is going to be what Digidesign decides to do regarding trying to have a unified look under OS X and Windows. You can't do Aqua under Windows, so there is going to be some difference between the platforms. Also, since audio and midi services are intelligently integrated into OS X at a low, system level, it's probably not going to be necessary to compromise graphic display capabilities under OS X the way we used to have to do under OS 9. That would make some very fluid, beautiful displays do-able on the Mac platform. On the windows side, however, I believe most manufacturers are still recommending compromising display capabilities to improve audio performance.

It will be very interesting to see how Digidesign reconciles the cross-platform disparities which will now be greater than they were previously. Since Emagic discontinued PC development, they don't have that constraint.

Lee Blaske

[shadowbox]

I think the interface could be improved. I don't have a need for more eye candy. But a simple, easy to read layout can be helpful for sessions that last into the wee small hours.

[Lee Blaske]

I don't have a need for more eye candy.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">If the computers can handle it, I see no reason to opt for austerity.

The interface can be made to look a LOT nicer without becoming gaudy, or adding to eye fatigue.

Lee Blaske