Difficult to explore effects

[repsej]

I find it difficult to find the right effect - there are simply too many to choose from :D

From what I read (*) there are these categories of audio effects:

• Dynamics (compressors, limiters and noise gates)
• Distortion
• Time Based (reverb, delay and echo)
• Filter (Wah Wah, equalizers, Low-pass and Hi-pass)
• Modulation (chorus, flanger, phaser, ring modulator, tremolo, and vibrato)
• Pitch / Frequency (Pitch-shifters and harmonizers)

I suggest to either:

a) Present the effects in a folder structure based on the category (only works if each effect always belong to just one)

b) If this is not possible, then instead: tag each effect with the categories it belong to and have toggle buttons for what you want to see.

(*) here http://blog.dubspot.com/understanding-audio-effects-an-overview/

[musikBear]

👍

[tresf]

The current state of the FX/effects browser (LADSPA, VST...) is in dire need of an overhaul. It's not only difficult to find an effect, but I feel the names can be quite confusing for a newcomer, and they're displayed in a dialog that seems alien to the rest of the software, as well as hindering to the composition process.

Most daws have effects in a browsing system more closely resembling our sidebar, and offer a live-preview of the effects. Of course we don't allow live-previews without adding the effect first and the status of our sidebar... well that is in a bit of disrepair too (the fact that searching the sidebar only actually searches what's already expanded #760)

Furthermore, we don't have effects presets browsable (ready-to-go effects presets to the likes of "concert hall" or "distortion pedal", etc -- instead we have instrument presets with these effects embedded and some of us use the instrument as a shortcut to the effect... very bad for productitivy!)

The answer will sound like a broken record, but the only thing keeping this from being started is knowledge and time, which we do NOT have a lot of. 🍂

If you or someone you know can help, please do, otherwise, this will be added to the long list of usability improvements that won't be here for several versions while we take a tunnel-vision approach of the things we ARE working on... 😃

[diizy]

On 08/31/2014 06:44 PM, Tres Finocchiaro wrote:

The current state of the FX/effects browser (LADSPA, VST...) is in
dire need of an overhaul. It's not only difficult to find an effect,
but I feel the names can be quite confusing for a newcomer, and
they're displayed in a dialog that seems alien to the rest of the
software, as well as hindering to the composition process.

Most daws have effects in a browsing system more closely resembling
our sidebar, and offer a live-preview of the effects. Of course we
don't allow live-previews without adding the effect first and the
status of our sidebar... well that is in a bit of disrepair too (the
fact that searching the sidebar only actually searches what's already
expanded #760 #760)

The answer will sound like a broken record, but the only thing keeping
this from being started is knowledge and time, which we do NOT have a
lot of. 🍂

If you or someone you know can help, please do, otherwise, this will
be added to the long list of usability improvements that won't be here
for several versions while we take a tunnel-vision approach of the
things we ARE working on... 😃

That, and patches are of course welcome.

[tresf]

@diizy do you mean effects patches? Do we have any that ship with the software (or a place to browse them)?

[diizy]

On 08/31/2014 06:48 PM, Tres Finocchiaro wrote:

@diizy https://github.com/diizy do you mean effects patches? Do we
have any that ship with the software (or a place to browse them)?

No, I meant patches to the software, as in, if anyone wants to improve
this functionality, they're welcome to submit patches (as pull requests,
preferably).

[tresf]

No, I meant patches to the software

👍

[Sti2nd]

Category = tags = labels = needed!
Could labes be implemented just once, let's say for samples, and then presets and effects could use the same code?

[tresf]

@Sti2nd, it depends. We use LADSPA and VST for many of our plugins, and that would depend on the API, whether or not the plugins have a place for this in their meta data area.

As far as samples and presets... Presets are invented and maintained by us, so expanding that is certainly possible.

Samples would rely on meta data, which is not mandatory on an OGG file (for example) and may not be present at all on other formats. It would take some careful consideration. A shorter term solution (and more viable in any reasonable amount of time) would be to fix the behavior we already have today and offer better searching through the meta data that we have available. The rest really depends on who takes charge and how big they want the feature to grow.

[tresf]

I find the effects quite easy to navigate especially after 5c0b359 was merged. There's still room for improvement from a category perspective but the plugins don't necessarily contain categorical information and they're nearly all provided by 3rd parties. Closing.