Is it just me...

…or do all the new Native Instruments plugs look like they were made in Reaktor? Obviously, it’s wise for a company to have a common look/feel amongst its products, something we’ve been struggling at with the AD line since the beginning.

There are two schools of thought to plug-in UI design. I, of course, am of the firm opinion that if there’s a real-world analog for a particular plug-in, the plug-in should look exactly like the real-world device. This solves two problems. First, a customer can tell what a product does just by looking at a screenshot. Even with a small screenshot of Reverence, it’s pretty obvious as to what it’s all about, and we don’t have to spend much time explaining it. Second, the customer already knows how to use the product as soon as he installs it, and the only reason he’d have to consult the manual would be for a technical explanation of a feature, or to learn how to use any “secret” things we’ve added.

When something looks like FM7, you know what it is, what it does, what it sounds like, and how to use it from the git-go. When something looks like FM8, given the screenshot above, at the _very_ least you have to read a couple paragraphs of liturature to even figure out what it is in the first place, never mind whether it’s something you need or not. The only thing you can really tell for certain is that it’s a synth, and it probably uses FM.

These are just my opinions. Your mileage, as always, may vary. I already know that there is a fairly even split between people that prefer modern UIs versus those that prefer the hardware look. I wouldn’t turn down some thoughts on the matter, if you feel like typing them out.