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Old 09-18-2017, 03:08 PM   #24
earlevel
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Posts: 331
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bozmillar View Post
I consider this to be the hardest part of plugin development. You come up with a plugin that does tons of cool things, but in order to make it usable, you have to start seriously gutting and neutering features, which really really hurts. Especially when you know the potential of what a control can do, but you have to simplify it to make it usable.

You really have to remove yourself emotionally from the plugin to be able to view it from an outsider's point of view when it comes time to productizing it. The switching back and forth between "I can do all these things!!!" and "It should only do these things" is really hard, but necessary.
It is a tough balance, for sure. Ultimately, we have to remember that, most often, a musician is using these things. The more you make a musician think, the less they can make music—you pop them out of creative mode. Most instruments have a very simple user interface...pipe organ may have a lot of controls, but in the end you can pick one and keep playing. Cars are one of the great user interfaces of all time.

There is certainly room for intuitive controls and lots of flexibility—I think Isotope Neutron does a good job. But you expect such a plugin to not be so simple. And they don't try to add things like delay and reverb—in fact, they pulled that sort of thing out of Ozone 7 (but let you add such a plugin of your choice within the chain). Those plugins are something you typically use after recording, and that's something to keep in mind too—things like delays can be important int he music-making process, and that's where you especially want to keep to the intuitive level.

And there is the option of hiding the deep features—I worked on the OB8, where we had a lot of new software-control options over the OB-XA; already limited by the existing knobs and buttons, Michel had the bright idea to put fun stuff in "page 2".

Just scattered comments...
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