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Do You Also Feel Performance Samples GUI is Ugly?

A lot of us are visually oriented people, and there's nothing wrong with a good UI. Spitfire for example went from a really clean, compact layout where everything was on one page, to a sprawling, multi-page disaster with tons of empty space and illegible fonts. SINE is also a much worse UI than their Kontakt libes.

In that regard, I am genuinely pleased by the Performance Samples UI if anything! It's clean, simple, and offers few parameters that are all easy to understand and access. Cinematic Studio has the best UI in the game, in my opinion, but I don't mind that Jasper is focused on his sample editing and not UI design.
 
I'll just register here how passionately I just don't care.

The SF plugin is as beautiful in its exquisitely designed minimalist as the PS is ugly. And I just as passionately don't care about this either.

Because wow, both of these instruments (say, Vista and Appassionatta) have such amazing sounds and form gorgeous, expressive instruments under you fingers. And this I feel is where the real user interface lives - between fingers and keys. There are times when I appreciate graphic user interfaces. The AudioBto guis have a lot of significant functionality relevant to the expressiveness of the instrument, for instance and I appreciate that the huge investment in ux and ui it represents. But for instruments like Vista and Appassionata, for instance, the gui matters very very little. And I sometime feel we fetishize the digital artifacts of user interfaces when what matters is the interface between fingers and keys.

So I really could equally care less if the gui is beautiful and award winning design or if pokes you in the eye with an aesthetic fork so long as it sounds as good - and feels as good under your fingers - as these instruments do. :)
 
Aesthetics and theming too often get in the way of functionality.

If the product doesn't have much in the way of functionality (such as grooves, ensemble builders, and word-focused choirs), then I have no issue with the Performance Samples approach. Make it easy to access the mics and make it easy to route.
 
ism said:
how passionately I just don't care.
Click to expand...
[!mind asplode!]

I really like your point. The audio and responsiveness are paramount.

I’ve not been bothered by PS’s lack of UI, but that might be because I have no background using kontakt. I thought the knobs were part of the PS design!
 
super ugly but the logo is really good so it still has personality in spite of the vanilla-ness
Don't really tweak much his libs so on a daily basis I don't even notice the GUI that much
 
It might not be as nice and flashy as the GUI for Spitfire Appassionata or Heavyocity, but I like the minimalistic approach from Performance Samples. The less things I have to click to make things work, the less intimidating it is to use the library. I wouldn't mind a color scheme option but overall, their GUI is fine.
 
Sure, it's ugly.

Sure, I would appreciate a simple redesign.

But in the end, it matters very little, since you rarely look at a library's GUI once you get everything dialed in. As long as it is functional (which it is), it's fine.
 
I really do not care. It is functional and if I would miss anything it would be functions and features. Above all, the sound and the usability is what conts. Wait, is it really necessary to even say that? Well, I suppose it is …
 
There is something to be said for using just the built-in Kontakt GUI elements. There is no chance of there being UI issues when loading a patch, because all the UI elements (except the background wallpaper) are all the standard Kontakt UI elements.
 
Interesting takes... but for those of you who said you don't care... well, to be frank, I have a hard time believing that.

Here's why. Let's just take your PC for example and the changes that you've made to your desktop's appearence since the day that you first got it. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that it's the coding that matters. It's the speed of your PC that matters. That the way your desktop looks shouldn't matter to you at all as long as your computer runs fast and does what it's supposed to do. If you've EVER made a change to how your computer or phone looks, I have a hard time believing that the appearance of ANY GUI, amongst the programs that you use frequently, is something that doesn't affect you at least a little bit. Because by changing the appearence of your desktop, you're demonstrating that you actually do care about what you're looking at when you're using computer software.

Now what I will say is that I only recently just got my first Performance Samples library. So obviously, since the library is new to ME... I'm going to be looking at the GUI more than those of you who have already hardwired it into all your relevant templates.

But yeah interesting discussion. It's still ugly. But we'll get through it together.
 
My theory is that those enjoying Performance Samples' UI are Windows users and the other ones are team Apple (don't hate me pls)
 
One addition, it would be nice if they used one of the other default Kontakt fonts

The standard font is the small blocky font shown in that picture in the first post. There are other fonts that are slightly larger, more rounded, and easier to read than that one. I think $CONTROL_PAR_FONT_TYPE = 1 looks nicer (if I'm remembering the right number)
 
I’m a graphic designer and when I see UI’s like this it just makes me think that it’s an incomplete product. I know it has absolutely no bearing on the sound but I’m not sure I’d even listen to demos if it was a library that was recommended to me. That might come across as shallow, but all I’ve done for 30 years now is take information and present it in a welcoming and functional way. For some, its perfect, for me, it’s a dealbreaker.
 
I am a Graphic Artist, but here I don't care as much.
Because I understand the pain that is Kontakt.

My only issue... I don't like the pre-alpha grey.
It never looked good coming from NI, not even as a placeholder element.
All it does do is show the age of Kontakt.
It looks painfully outdated.

I can't really fault Performence Samples for using the Development tools they were given.
In the end it is not really up to them to make the Kontakt factory tools pretty.

But a dark texture could do wonders.
 
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PancakesBear said:
Interesting takes... but for those of you who said you don't care... well, to be frank, I have a hard time believing that.

Here's why. Let's just take your PC for example and the changes that you've made to your desktop's appearence since the day that you first got it. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that it's the coding that matters. It's the speed of your PC that matters. That the way your desktop looks shouldn't matter to you at all as long as your computer runs fast and does what it's supposed to do. If you've EVER made a change to how your computer or phone looks, I have a hard time believing that the appearance of ANY GUI, amongst the programs that you use frequently, is something that doesn't affect you at least a little bit. Because by changing the appearence of your desktop, you're demonstrating that you actually do care about what you're looking at when you're using computer software.

Now what I will say is that I only recently just got my first Performance Samples library. So obviously, since the library is new to ME... I'm going to be looking at the GUI more than those of you who have already hardwired it into all your relevant templates.

But yeah interesting discussion. It's still ugly. But we'll get through it together.
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I think it’s ugly and I particularly dislike the massive graphic on the right.
As for making changes to your desktop, that’s about functionality more than aesthetics for me.
I do turn off animations which might be the equivalent of hiding the graphic on the GUI.
The GUI does remind me of some ancient SA Kontakt libraries.
Just a downer really.
 
Release said:
I’m a graphic designer and when I see UI’s like this it just makes me think that it’s an incomplete product. I know it has absolutely no bearing on the sound but I’m not sure I’d even listen to demos if it was a library that was recommended to me. That might come across as shallow, but all I’ve done for 30 years now is take information and present it in a welcoming and functional way. For some, its perfect, for me, it’s a dealbreaker.
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But why?

There’s an adage about videos/films: you can have a pristine image with a great script, but if your audio is painful to listen to, people won’t watch.

I agree with this, I think seemingly outside factors can influence your experience. But I have 400 channels in my template and I’m not staring at the UI of the patches I’m recording as I’m writing music/making mock-ups.
 
Go To 11 said:
I don't mind that Jasper is focused on his sample editing and not UI design.
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Yes, this.

I think by now, we already know he is a perfectionist in terms of sample editing/development.
He already has lots on his plate and his recent releases has been delayed multiple times.
I'd rather want him to fully focus on making the sample library great. And by that, I mean the parts where it directly affects the end result.
 
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