Nice Knobs

[Søren Knudsen]

> In software, I generally dont like knobs because the motion of the
> control is unnatural.  You cant really 'twist' a virtual knob, so you
> are either moving the mouse up/down or left/right to
> increment/decrement.  Sometimes, they do the WORST THING EVER and
> actually make you have to rotate a point on the dial.  Whatever you do
> DONT do that..

I fully agree.

> Given that, I think Massive is the best example of knobs in a soft
> synth.  The colored rings around them that represent the modulation
> amounts is probably one of the best software interface design concepts
> I have seen in a soft synthesizer.

I am not that familiar with the Massive knobs, but as I understand it, the colored rings around the knobs indicate the amount of modulation from envelopes and lfo's - is that correct?

If so, then it is somewhat different from another very useful information conveyed by a ring around the knob in Ableton Live: to indicate the real-time parameter change.

I can see advantages of both ideas. Maybe it is possible to include both types of information?

/Søren