Audiotool board archive

Hooray for being different!
Wooo

(1) I am full aware that I'm probably breaking your balls very often ;) :D And I also fully understand where are you coming from too; Audiotool isn't only just a DAW, but a statement from you and your team. A statement to be different, underground, rebellious, slightly anti-establishment and so on. I actually really like it that it has a personality. And this statement and personality express themselves in the app through its look, visual metaphors and interaction. For example, I absolutely love to connect devices in any way I want on two dimensions instead of having the usual stack of linear tracks containing a serial sequence of devices. Routing in Audiotool is as easy and direct as it gets.

But AT is also a production tool. There's a fine line between making a statement and interfering with a workflow. I know that it's very hard to hit the point between an interface that feels unique and full of personality, and one that becomes completely transparent and lets you focus exclusively on your work. I think that one can be innovative as long as the innovations demonstrably surpass the conventions. I also think that innovations and deviances from a standard should be considered individually, one by one. Blindly sticking always to convention and stifling creativity is as bad as considering in principle all standards an imposition to be rebelled against and doing always the opposite.

I personally see convention not as a boring rule or imposition, but as the result of many people having dealt with the same problem in the past and having arrived to the best solution so far. It's great if you can be innovative and -improve- on the existing convention. With time, your groud-breaking innovation might be the new standard. I also completely agree with you that some standards don't apply to all contexts, like your Audiotool/Windows desktop example.

(2) The app has good examples of this ongoing "battle" between the need to be functional and the need to be different. For example, unlike most other DAWs, your app doesn't have a mix window. You have the Centroid console on the desktop because that's what you'd have working with real, physical devices, but you have made the Centroid extendible, taking it one step into the direction of a mix window. It's like acknowledging that mix windows -are- useful and there's a reason everyone has them, but not wanting to be like everyone else. If you wanted to stay true to your philosophy, the Centroid would be fixed (maybe bigger) and you wouldn't even think of putting a note track on the Bassline ;)

I hope that you take my suggestions as just that. I know that we come from slightly different places, that some of those suggestions might go against the direction you want for AT and I don't expect them to be implemented. But I think that the debate between these philosophies is extremely enriching. I'd love to sit at that table. Your reactions to me also always make me think about what's best in this context and give me new perspectives. So, even when we don't agree, the discussion makes me learn and think a lot about all these topics as well, which is great. Thank you for your patience!

(3) Just another thought: The idea of being "different to everyone else" is only partially true. The DAW market is very competitive and everyone is trying to be different and have an edge. The fact that the big DAWs, strongly competing against each other, still implement some things similarly, actually proves the validity and utility of those standard ways to do things. There isn't really a better way, or it hasn't been found yet. Also, the way in which DAWs try to distinguish themselves from each other is usually not through a radical re-invention of basic rules, but through specialisation in a set of functionalities. For example, some DAWs are great for song-writing and composing, others are better at sound design, others excel at mixing and mastering. I'd say that your best aspects are collaboration, "real-feel" modularity, of course being in the cloud, and your time-line, which is great and better than that of many other DAWs. My point is not to think in terms of "us" the innovators versus "them" the conservatives. Everyone is trying to innovate by necessity and one can always learn from what the others do.

IIRC the min heights have been reduced some time ago. IMO those are now small enough.
Removing that snapping entirely might have undesirable side effects, like the whole desktop renderer still running when there's 1 pixel left of it.
I'd like to leave it as is.