Personally, I'm more interested in how a program works than what it looks like, but I do find that some people are seduced by fancy graphics. This means that for those of us using PT in a commercial environment, where the customer is watching you work, it's tempting to load in a plugin which looks impressive, rather than one which works well but looks basic.

If you compare the PG plugins to, say, the Antress Modern range, or the PT mixer to the SSL-style mixer in Reason, you'll get an idea of what I mean.

I feel bad asking for what is purely a cosmetic make-over, but I do feel it could help PT gain a better position in the commercial world.

Any comments?

ROG.

Just like a car, looks do influence our opinion of things.

I changed what I could in RB, and there were rumors of it becoming 'skin'-able at one time.

ROG, I have raised this issue about the website images, the graphics on the manual, and the graphics of the programs - to attract more customers - and normally the statements are either derided or ignored.

As it pertains to plugins, I personally don't pay close attention; I go more for function - for example, knobs on plugins that have to be 'rotated' with a mouse is a huge hassle when sliders fit with the easier mouse movement.

Function and information over flash. For example, I love the GVST series of freebie plugins that really help newbies to grasp the concepts of compression. The controls directly affect the input/output graph and there's a zoomed out view of what it does to the signal. Excellent.

If I was in your situation, where clients are watching over my shoulder, that would just plain be a hassle.

I think by using something plain may just show your genius to your clients. For example, one of the key mistakes I used to make was to forget to employ and still have to remember, is to high-pass filter just about everything except bass and kick drums. I think it's the single most important and most overlooked easy-peasy way to take a mix that sounds like it was done at home, and step it up a notch. Needs no fancy GUI, just a control for the cutoff frequency.

But there certainly is a portion of at least the plugin user community that are dazzled by GUI.

Some of my favorite plugins don't even have a GUI. My favorite reverb for unique sound is Ariesverb by Ariescode. The version I have just uses the host's GUI controls. The whole MDA series of freebies are very usable and they just use the host's native GUI.

Tweakbench's plugins are also favorites. Couldn't be much more plain. Easiest to use mellotron simulation plugin that is out there is from Tweakbench, and called Tapeworm. http://tweakbench.com/tapeworm

I used it in this song, written, composed and recorded at my kitchen table, one night in February 2008 http://rockstarnot.rekkerd.org/fawm2008/Scott%20Lake%20-%20Time%20To%20Clean%20My%20Room.mp3

-Scott