Modular GUI

i have wrote about this across several theads, but there is no dedicated one, so im gonna start one. forgive my insistence...

a modular GUI would make SSL more user friendly and customizable. the more flexible is the software, the better. some users like a lot of displays and funky options, and others like it simple.

a modular GUI would allow to implement more and more plug-ins or features without being bunched alltogether in the same screen. this is one of the main problems with the current GUI. where are supposed to be the next pitch n time plug in? and looping controls? and bigger overviews? there is no enough space, im afraid.

this GUI would allow us to resize the main screen and change the orders of the modules (except the essential one). we could even turn SSL into a mini-player where only the overall wave views (and maybe internal mode controls if using internal mode) were shown!

IMHO, only the overall wave view, and track collection/crates display (and pitch/play controls when using internal mode) are really essential. the rest of displays could be hidden because they show us non essential information.

this is how we spin with real records. we only have the records (and the info that give us the color of the grooves) and our record crate. these two things would be translated when using SSL in two overall wave views (record grooves) and library/crates display (your music collecion or records crate).

mi idea is the following one:

several modules, from up to down. there would be switch buttons to hide/show the modules similar to the current preview/import... buttons.

as an example, some modules could be:

- Current track / bpm / time elapsed / time remaining
- Overall wave views (larger and horizontal)
- Partial wave views
- Spinning display (but way smaller please) / markers info
- Track collecion / crates / playlists (resizable)
- Import / prepare / review / browse
- Beat matching displays
- Internal mode pitch / play controls (horizontal instead vertical to save GUI space)
- Track list for deck A and B (to know what tracks have been loaded in each deck)

the rest modules would be plug ins and other features: pitch n time module, loop controls module, eq...

of course, maybe this suggestion only would be possible in a future SSL2, because it leads to a total GUI redesign...

what do you think mates?

I always support customization.

:-)

hehe sorry nik, you didnt get my point :) of course every display is useful... but not for everyone, and not everytime.

let me explain, i fully understand the "sticker technology" :), in fact, i use it even with my SSL records to find the first beat faster! (i have set the SSL offset to one minute and i have stuck a sticker next to the one minute record groove mark).

well, as you said, spinning displays are usefull to find cue points within the track, but NOT EVERYBODY needs that. for example, i know a lot of beat mixers will not use the spinning displays to find the cue. they will just use relative mode and jump to it using the keyboard. for those djs, spinning displays are useless.

and a lot of djs dont like the beat matching views. others, like me, love it (though sometimes i would like to turn it off to train my ears again).

some djs will need the track name to be showed; others would like to hide it...

you know, the point is customization, and to have the possibility to minimize SSL features to a minimum, or the opposite, to show all the bells and whistles.

I agree with you, the point is customization, and not everything is needed by everyone. I was just try to give an explanation why the spinning circles (despite of all the negative comments about it) are not only a fancy gimmick, butcan be usefull if you know how to use it _if_ you need it.

I wish we could shut the spinning wheels off too for a couple of reasons. For one, It uses processing power for something I never look at, The only time I look at SSL is when I load a track, the rest is done by ears and looking at the cd player or TT. The second reason is a couple of times I had guests of a party look behind the equipment to see everything I heard them talking and saying, Hey look, the computer does everything, it has 2 spinning wheels you just have to match up and then mix the song. I would love to shut off as much of the moving items (wheels, beatmatch, etc...) as possible so people don't think the laptop does everything for you. Plus it would probably save a lot of processing power and you wouldn't notice the 1 second screen freeze everytime i load a track

I think MGUI is even more important then video or midi, less sexy but more important, especially if it will conserve processing power.

i second that, customizable serato? damn!

So I understand the desire to customize and have the exact serato you want. But part of the nice thing now is that if you have to take your portable HD and play on someone else's laptop, at least you know where everything is on the screen. Is this important? Some DJs do this often and it would be difficult to walk up to someone's computer and start spinning if their wheels were off (for instance).

Would a modular GUI need to include a provision for templates or something that was stored on your portable media (like your crates) so that when you plugged it in your layout would come up? Would you then need some kind of hot-switch in case the laptop owner wanted to play while your HDD was plugged in? What kind of headache would this be for the Serato guys to implement?

www.scratchlive.net

bump m-gui

bump

I'd love to see this too. Just recently switched over from a 15" Mac to a 17" and the windows are smaller on the 17" if you can believe it. I would love to be able to resize the top half of the screen, I don't need to see all my crates at the same time. btw did try adjust screen res to make it bigger but it got too blurry and was even harder on my weary eyes.

bump

great idea, i'd love to be able to take the wave and beat sync displays off

I think the same way!! I moved to a widescreen monitor, but I can't use the vertical wavedisplay couse it is to small.

I would really love to be able to resize the top half of the screen!!

cheers!

happy new years!

i totally agree!

bum p

yes please

Yes Please Please have a customizable GUI. PLEASE

serato.... jump in any time!
i wanna see this feature. wicked idea! for all the above reasons!!

bump.
seriously, let us disable things that we don't need (like the thing in the middle of the two wave forms for example)

+1

defo down with this especially if it will allow me to reduce the load on my CPU by removing features i'd rarely use or prefer to scrap in favor of performance stability.

too bad this thread was started over 4 years ago with no response from the powers that be...

+1 and BUMP.

always liked this idea, I use a 13" Macbook which isn't very big. so if I can save several pixels extra by removing the spinning cicrles for example, that would be awesome. More room for tracks. I'd hate to have to buy a MBP 17" just for the extra pixels to show me more tracks at once.
This feature would be a moneysaver.

+1