Originally Posted By: GHinCH
So far everybody in this thread is talking about an idea with hints to other software. But most everything I have read here is wishful thinking in the sense of "if it was better". Please don't think that I see the GUIs of BIAB and RealBand as the absolute optimum. I already have said that I wish that those two and all other PGMusic programs should have the same look and feel. I don't think that the Adobe suite has the best of all GUIs available, but the GUIs are very similar; they have the same look and feel despite their totally different functionalities. What I read is: "It should be better." That is o.k. but not quantizeable.

So I read this interesting thread with one thought in mind: "Where's the beef?"

What would you think a great GUI for BIAB should look like?
Could you provide a sample GUI?

Maybe others of the great minds in this forum then have constructive ideas to hint PGMusic to develop the greater than Great GUI.Guido



GHInch did you see my post on "reimagining the song panel" I went into quite a few specifics, regarding how to enhance it with hover over technology whilst keeping essentially the same.

There is quite a bit that could be done to make this screen educational. Via the use of hover over, hover off/disappear corners (think like folding over tiny corners of a page), one could show educational information about a chord or sequence of chords. For example offering chord substitutes, or providing information about chord voicings, what notes are in the 'mode scale' and what are not.

Other programmes (sequencers and biab is a sequencer in many senses) have incorporated melodyne-esque tech which allows the analysis of melodic audio files into MIDI - with editing options. I hope here, but often feel 'never' which is sad.

Thinking about songs, we don't have any live vocals in BIAB yet, Obviously there would be issues. Probably it would be better to work in four bars rather than single bars, maybe a whole song. I am thinking about Jazz standards perhaps. Just brainstorming. Would be great for learning how to accompany. I can see no reason why in certain circumstances, that is with particular (possibly solo, possibly vocal) files, that BIAB could not insist that the "Lego Brick" inserted is kept within a range of keys or number of bars. This way it would be possible to have real soloists and real vocals.

East West have a business model where the Player is free and universal, and the packages are paid for individually, its a common practice.

I want to say again that there are many things to admire in BIAB too.

More on the GUI: I like as little visual clutter as possible, plus context sensitive relevance. Ideally I should like to have dockable windows *(dual screen capable), for things like the MID and the MIxer and even the Notation.

I notice with the present GUI (2015) we have names of instruments, but my electric piano sound (HEPNO85.STY says piano not electric piano. At present the sax is called a guitar again (after I changed it to a guitar and then back).

It would be good to have tooltip/hover over info about the (correct) instrument names including in some cases the pitch and maybe even type of guitar/cab etc..

The 'sequencer' window thing I find very odd.

If you look through the drop down menus a lot of it is very antiquated. I am not saying the options should not be available, but Do we all need to have "Reset Roland GS" as the first item on the GM menu? Should there be an option called "Run Windows Control Panel?" As part of a general sort out, perhaps a lot of this info can be confined to a MIDI pop out type menu similar to the piano roll, but so as we could see both MIDI and Notation or chords as we choose.

There is much to like about the new mixer, its simplicity but when you are not using it, its simply taking vcisual space whereas it would be better to use this space for the current purpose - therefore it should be a pop up.

I notice that the only time the Mixer 'piano' window (which can actually be any instrument - better 'piano roll') that you can see the notes being played is when the song is in motion. It would be much more informative if you could see the voicing of the given chords when the song is stationary, so - you could hover over a particular chord and immediately see how its being voiced.

Right click customisable menus (with a 'show all' option) would be good too for saving real estate. Show hide for menu bars, on right click.

Some of the once MIDI only option suych as 'play chord' should only be offered on a MIDI track or be able to play a wav. Otherwise its confusing when you hear nothing.

The idea of having esoteric meanings like green for real track and underline for something else, is OK -ish, but better to make it clear to the ininitiated.

Piano role window could be enhanced in many ways - see the major sequencers.

You asked for specifics..


smile



Z





Last edited by ZeroZero; 12/09/14 06:42 AM.
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