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Stock instruments with new GUI


Musician-X1

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54 minutes ago, Musician-X1 said:

Im wondering do you guys think well ever see a new gui for instruments such as Sculpture and ES2?

They may be reimagined as different instruments, rather than simply re-skinned.
While dated visually, ES2 is actually easy to understand/navigate, so probably not the first candidate for a makeover.

Sculpture is a difficult instrument to understand - conceptually - for a lot of users, so the UI could be rejigged to make its power more accessible. The iPad version's amalgamation of certain parameters might be a bit of an indicator of where this might go....not visually, but from a user-interaction perspective.
Sculpture's an incredibly good tool for creating analog synth sounds, but has unfortunately been pigeon-holed in the minds of many as an evolving pad/film score/weird and random sounds instrument.

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1 hour ago, oscwilde said:

They may be reimagined as different instruments, rather than simply re-skinned.
While dated visually, ES2 is actually easy to understand/navigate, so probably not the first candidate for a makeover.

Sculpture is a difficult instrument to understand - conceptually - for a lot of users, so the UI could be rejigged to make its power more accessible. The iPad version's amalgamation of certain parameters might be a bit of an indicator of where this might go....not visually, but from a user-interaction perspective.
Sculpture's an incredibly good tool for creating analog synth sounds, but has unfortunately been pigeon-holed in the minds of many as an evolving pad/film score/weird and random sounds instrument.

I agree ES2 is very easy to navigate no matter how it looks. After cleaning out my plugins folder and starting to use more stock sounds I see there's a lot plugins that need a facelift or just need to be removed if you ask me. 

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37 minutes ago, Musician-X1 said:

I see there's a lot plugins that need a facelift or just need to be removed if you ask me. 

Yep....although a lot of plugs are maintained for legacy projects and GB compatibility....so I think they'll remain (at least in a legacy submenu).

I'd love to see EFM-1 expanded/made over as Logic needs a deeper FM synth. Retro Synth's FM engine (and other engines) are essentially enhanced and reskinned versions of the basic ES synths/ES1....with the Wavetable engine  an expansion/re-use of the Digiwaves found in the ES2 and elsewhere.
A full on wavescanning/wavetable synth would be great...as it's lacking in Logic's arsenal - despite the sophistication/power of Alchemy.
Ultrabeat was always aesthetically the child that only a mother could love...but it is slowly fading into the sunset with DMD/Drum Synth/QuickSampler/Step Sequencer filling the void and changing the working paradigm.

As far as FX go, Logic could do with a few new plugs to round things out, but not sure I'd get rid of too many - and the blue/grey UI's are clean/functional/modern, and don't need bling, IMO.
Visually, the EVOC plugs definitely need some love, as do Multipressor and Ringshifter.
I think the pedal emulations are pretty good and work exceptionally well on keyboard and drums, as well as guitars. MultiFX are heaps of fun and sound great (or disgusting, as required).
The amp sims could always be better but you can get decent tones out of them (also great for vintage keyboard sounds) and there are zillions of third-party options in this space....so probably not worth the development time from Apple's perspective.

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22 minutes ago, oscwilde said:

Ultrabeat was always aesthetically the child that only a mother could love...

🤣

I agree!! The feeling I got when I first opened Ultrabeat was a strong urge to close its window. 

Still would be nice if they could rehaul the interface and give us a one voice instrument (Drum Synth Pro? 😉) with osc1, osc2, the noise generator and ring modulator, two LFOs and 4 envelopes we could use along with DMD and Step Sequencer. 

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12 hours ago, oscwilde said:

Yep....although a lot of plugs are maintained for legacy projects and GB compatibility....so I think they'll remain (at least in a legacy submenu).

I'd love to see EFM-1 expanded/made over as Logic needs a deeper FM synth. Retro Synth's FM engine (and other engines) are essentially enhanced and reskinned versions of the basic ES synths/ES1....with the Wavetable engine  an expansion/re-use of the Digiwaves found in the ES2 and elsewhere.
A full on wavescanning/wavetable synth would be great...as it's lacking in Logic's arsenal - despite the sophistication/power of Alchemy.
Ultrabeat was always aesthetically the child that only a mother could love...but it is slowly fading into the sunset with DMD/Drum Synth/QuickSampler/Step Sequencer filling the void and changing the working paradigm.

As far as FX go, Logic could do with a few new plugs to round things out, but not sure I'd get rid of too many - and the blue/grey UI's are clean/functional/modern, and don't need bling, IMO.
Visually, the EVOC plugs definitely need some love, as do Multipressor and Ringshifter.
I think the pedal emulations are pretty good and work exceptionally well on keyboard and drums, as well as guitars. MultiFX are heaps of fun and sound great (or disgusting, as required).
The amp sims could always be better but you can get decent tones out of them (also great for vintage keyboard sounds) and there are zillions of third-party options in this space....so probably not worth the development time from Apple's perspective.

Man you really hit a nerve mentioning ultrabeat lol. Im on record many times saying logic needs a better plugin for drums and while DMD is better it’s still not what it should be. Reading your post I realize just how much seems unfinished in logic…seems pretty common for this software. 

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2 hours ago, Musician-X1 said:

I realize just how much seems unfinished in logic

Dunno about unfinished, but it's always been a work in progress - like most DAWs, I guess.
I think because it has so many plugs (and under the hood elements like the Environment) that have been around in various guises for 20+ years that it is a mix of old/new - visually and technically.
Only Cubase and PT have a similar history....but neither offers the number of plugs that Logic ships with....so it's a more complex/bigger beast to handle.

The catch for Apple is that they need to keep up with the competition/invest resources in new features.....so legacy items get pushed down the priority list.
It's clear that if things are functional, then they aren't in need of a "fix"...so eye candy improvements - while appreciated by users - aren't going to motivate folks to hop online and buy a copy.
Where things aren't functional, resources need to be directed here.

I see a similar approach from Ableton, which looks like a DOS program - but it is functional. Same goes with PT....looks like ass but does the job.

All in all, I think Logic is the prettiest DAW, which makes legacy items like UB (which was always hard on the eyes) even more jarring.

 

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