Anyone else tired of GUI's that try to emulate hardware?

[World Wide]

I'm not talking about emulating the SOUND of hardware... I'm talking about the look/interface.

I mean when software first started getting popular... I got it. It made it an easier transition for those who were used to working with hardware.

But now its 2013. It's time to take advantage of some of the benefits of software over hardware. GRAPHICAL interfaces that are able to change or update in real time... we don't need fake 3D renderings of knobs anymore!

Its one of the reasons I love Ableton Live... the built in FX are everything you need, nothing you don't.

But yeah... just wondering if anyone else agrees with me on this one. NO MORE FAKE HARDWARE RENDERINGS!

 

[bandcoach]

The thing with a gui is that it is meant to make the interaction between the user and the software intuitive or at least natural.

This is the main reason just about every daw is based on the linear tape model of presenting recorded data whether it is audio or a MIDI data stream. Cutting a track, making a copy (known as duping in the days of hardware) and splicing that copy in later in the piece, are all imitations of the actions of a tape machine complete with cutting block and splicing tape.

I cannot think of a viable alternative method for presenting the ability to manipulate variables within a synth or fx unit other than to mimic the real knob-style interface. Maybe using a slider instead of a rotary knob is a reasonable, and is some cases, preferable, alternative, but beyond that we need to change values using some indicator that shows the degree to which a variable has been altered.

I'd be interested to discuss this at length as it is still an area of much debate and research in the human interface design community

 

[Xabiton]

I like knobs even pics of them but some companies do have your stance on the matter. Izotope comes right to mind. A lot of the stuff I use are hardware emulations anyway.

 

[World Wide]

I just know that for me personally, in 2013, THIS: and THIS:

make SO much more sense, and give me so much more information about what is actually happening, than, say, THIS: