I don’t always think designs on front panels are arbitrary but these photo’s are interesting to look at… Somebody made a nice looking stand for 0 Coast and CTRL with felt dust covers. If I look at the top photo with the covers on and just imagine the in & out ports labelled in a clear small white font then that would make me very happy…
Nevertheless, I do like the design of both of these devices as they are and I do think it add’s something in terms of interaction / feeling creative. When I first saw the 0 CTRL I thought it was horrendous but it’s really very simple and brilliantly laid out - everything where it should be and it makes total sense to me.
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I’d guess they don’t see it as difficult. I don’t see it difficult, just annoying and inefficient.
I think most Octatrack concepts are very simple, definitely some things are less than intuitive when starting out, and a bit clunky once learned still, possibly some of this is down to ambiguity of terminology and some of it is down to menu diving, and some due to connections/assignments/settings being both potentially numerous and also not easily seen in overview. MK2 is better in panel/control utility than MK1 IMHO.
Anyway, I think it is an interesting topic you started.
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Yeah, difficult probably isn’t the right word.
I guess I see those sorts of interfaces as obstructive more than difficult.
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reminds me an early draft of random flowchart i occasionally draw in my sketchbook.
for early draft, it’s perfectly acceptable.
for a finished product … meh
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COMPLETELY agree. Make Noise and other companies like Noise Engineering make designs that are painful to look at. Other manufacturers get around complex interfaces with clarity and style, even down to the font choice.
This-
Versus this-
Makes a huge difference IMO.
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I work with kids with asperger. If I had shown some of them a few of these modules I would quickly find myself on the business end of a hissy fit
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That’s an interesting tangent. I am as well (and also work in educational neurodiverisity support like @Fin25) which definitely makes me hyper-aware of design aesthetics. My borderline obsession with white gear is part of that… it just makes more sense and feels more inspiring to me, by only changing the color.
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Problem is, you know the rule.
If you’ve met one autistic person, then you’ve met one autistic person.
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Indeed.
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Amen. But then again, those glyphs at the top of Clouds - secrets of the ancients or…?
@actuel and I used to fight about the T-Res. He loved it. When he let me play with it I couldn’t even get any sound out if it. 
For me part of the interface mystery is age: I am older now and have far less time to decipher inscrutable interfaces. I need to get in and get on with it!
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I know nobody’s picking on MN but I’d like to point out that not all of their designs are insane. I find these pretty easy to grasp. in the sort of manner of: yeah, you need to at least consult the manual for some details, but not literally have it open next to you constantly to know wtf is going on. or you need to stick a cable in here and there and turn a few knobs, then you’ll know what’s up.
but then this one just never clicked with me. if I didn’t use it for a couple weeks it was “wtf is the difference between a gene and a splice again…?”
but Strega… there’s very little that’s intuitive about the interface. if I didn’t know what it did, I’d need ten minutes staring at the interface to even give you a basic guess, and it’d likely only be half-right. and I’ve had years with most of their modules. that’s bad design, IMHO.
my bigger issue with MN is that modules like Tempi and Rene really have a lot of hidden details and button combos you need to memorize to get the most use out of them. but… now I’m picking on Make Noise 
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dat font tho
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Some commonalities, wildly divergent personalities.
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Probably not a coincidence it is used primarily with the Soundhack collaborations?
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Pretty neatly sums up my marriage, that.
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Function density is a whole ‘nother fascinating topic: when the knob is left, the button does this, when the knob is right it does completely the opposite. When it’s in the middle, it’s Tuesday.
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This is beautiful to me,
it just needs another button on the left for symmetry
and how can you not put the first step on the 12 o’ clock?!?
Lunchtime, innit.
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