Hi all,

I've been thinking for some time of starting this thread in the hope that manufacturers of gear who peruse SoS might be helped to design better gear by the knowledgeable readers of this excelllent publication. To get it kicked off, here are some of my kudos and brickbats for good and bad features.

Good:

1) Front panel headphone jack. There is nothing worse than troubleshooting an audio problem from a misbehaving module than having to scramble around a rack and sussing which input is for the headphones. It adds another link to trouble, ie are the headphones even plugged into the correct jack or did you miscount and plug them into an unused footpedal jack?

2) Silkscreening the rear panel connectors' layout ON THE FRONT PANEL! Again, it's all about helping to ease set up and troubleshooting. Also, it's practically no cost: if the manufacturer is silking part of the front panel, just make the silkscreen a little bigger and add the above info.

3) Excellent presets. I know the ideal is to create all our own patches, but let's face it: most people want to make music, not create sounds, and any synth that comes with duff presets is just shooting itself in the foot. Given that many people who work at synth companies are synth enthusiasts (that's why they went into synth design, after all) it shouldn't be too hard to get good presets in house. Barring that, do what Emu used to do: have a cadre of outside synth programmers (Emu used, among others, the members of the Residents) to come up with cool presets. Economizing on preset design is just shooting yourself in the foot in you're a manufactuer.

4) Excellent manuals a/o translations. This should be obvious but again it isn't. Too often when development projects go over budget a/o schedule (ie, always) the product manager will cut costs by cutting back the manual effort. A good tech writer is worth his/her wait in gold and far more valuable than another software feature. The best manuals I can think of were those Sequential Circuits produced. Stanley Junglieb was a good writer and a synth player (released a CD in the 90s called "Music for the Inner Film", here's a shout out for you, Stanley!). His manuals for the Prophets were tuturials on synthesis.

Bad:

1) No headphone jack at all. I have a small Tascam line mixer with no headphone jack. None. Nada. Bubkiss. Simply astounding omission on a mixer, almost as inexcusable on a synth. Saves what, maybe a $1 off the selling price?

2) No volume knob. This can range from an inconvenience to a disaster, depending on circumstances. Examples that come to mind in the Yamaha TX81Z and the original Waldorf Microwave (in its day a very pricey bit of kit). If you're performing live or you're in your studio with the amps cranked and the synth gets a stuck note/bad note then this can be a fatal flaw. At the very least you're sent dashing for your mixer to zero out the offender. Can be remedied with a volume pedal but it's expensive ($50+ for stereo pedal) plus messy (four longish audio leads to and from pedal). Again, what's saved off MSRP? $2? The worst offender, btw, was probably the Yamaha TX802 (I think that was it) which was 6 DX7s on cards in 1 19" wrack module - no volume knob, not even for the stereo out. Cost multiple thousands when new. Truly insane cost saving.

3) Bad contrast between front panel color and silk screen ink color. Most of us like at some point to dim the lights in our studios a/o when performing live, and few things suck more than having the artisitically pleasing color of the silk-screened writing fades into illegibility. Especially for older players (don't laugh, youngsters, you too will discover the joys of prebyopia at some point in the aging process). You're reduced to pressing your face two inches above the front panel and squinting, and sometimes even that doesn't help and you're reduced to a flashlight. Manufacturers: this is totally unnecessary: choose contrast and readability over hipness every time. BTW, my worst offender on this is the Novation Supernova II, which uses pale blue writing on a dark blue background. At some point, just don't bother with silk screening and use raised Braille type instead, it would work better ;-).

I'll stop here and open the floor other SoSers to praise a/o damn their favorite gear. Anyone from a manufacturer who wants to chime w/comments or questions is welcome as well.

Cheers,

d

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"Patsy had the drug tolerance of Keith Richards and the moral rectitude of Brian Jones." - Dr. Walter Bishop, "Fringe"

Metering, yes please (even a simple signal present LED is better then nothing), and in general it is better of you DONT do digital peak meters, they are seldom what is needed, and encourage newbies to run way too hot. VU or PPM are much more useful for every day things, as long as I am not about to run out of headroom, I really don't care where 0dbFS is(Knowing roughly where a weighted RMS is relative to -20 or so is however useful)!
On that subject, I know 1980s cassette machines had discreet LED bargraphs, this does not mean you need to emulate them on a high res monitor, stop being silly and give me the resolution the display is actually capable of.

If you are going to put an IEC input on a bit of rack kit that may travel to gigs, a cable retaining clamp is a really good thing, failing that, use a powercon.
On that subject an earth point for a parallel bonding conductor is also appreciated.

Please don't insult me by sticking 'warranty void if broken' stickers on a desk with user configurable jumpers inside for setting the direct out feed point, also 'No user serviceable parts inside' is often seen as a challenge.

AES48 is a good and happy making thing (and not at all difficult), get it right people.
On that subject, please test your gear near an AM radio station, and by waving a cell phone around it, it is not done until it remains silent (Powered monitor speaker manufacturers, and builders of cheap desks, this means you).

I know Wire is a 4 letter word in mass production, but please if you are going to use A gauge or 3.5mm jacks on gear intended for live work, fix the connectors directly to the PCB, it keeps me in beer money re soldering the stupid things.

Wall warts, if you are going to use them, please put a bridge rectifier immediately after the input to the gear so that either polarity will work (or at least a diode so getting it wrong does not let the smoke out).

If you are building a speaker management system, NOT having it put out a full level thump on all outputs when it looses power would be good don't you think (DBX, looking at you)?

To the authors of VSTi instruments (and the like), having the nominal output at about -20dbFS by default would be a good thing, otherwise the things need turning way down to get them where everything else in the mix is (And it hurts when you forget while wearing headphones), this also goes for sample library players and the like.

Also, please forget the idea that just because some code is supposed to emulate some classic box which was 2U of rack with a meter, a knob or two and half a dozen switches on it, the software should necessarily take up half my screen with a picture of same (See also the next two).

On that subject, the machine has a standard, familiar, GUI toolkit, please use it! Nothing worse then some custom widget set that ignores the OS conventions for how controls are supposed to operate (You know who you are, all of you).

Also rotary knobs in software user interfaces, wrong on so many levels, there are about 4 mutually incompatible ways to implement an on screen 'knob' and NONE of them are satisfactory, use a slider instead.

Regards, Dan.

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Audiophiles use phono leads because they are unbalanced people!

For rack gear - please do NOT put switches on the back unless they really are set and forget.
Climbing round the back of a rack to switch phantom power on for a mic pre is not conducive to keeping the flow of a session.

Edited by Jumpeyspyder (28/09/10 11:37 PM)

Excellent idea for a thread Dubbman, ten out of ten.

I am sure I'll come up with some other suggestions, but top of my list is simple. Never, and I mean NEVER, forget that the manual is supposed to provide useful and important information to enable the user to make the most of the equipment. And NEVER let your marketing people get anywhere near the writing process.

And I am looking at you Marshall. You are a prime culprit for making manuals completely worthless by filling them with adverts rather than information.

If your product has a socket on it labelled FOOTSWITCH, I expect the manual to tell me what footswitch is needed. Momentary, latching, non-latching... If it says PEDAL, I want to know if it is tip +ve or tip -ve and what impedance it is expecting. I do NOT want a reference to your model XYZ footswitch or ABC pedal as the only information on what to connect.

Oh, and if you use any connector that isn't defined by an existing standard the manual should give the proper name for the connector and the pin outs.

And while I'm at it... I'll second the suggestion that if it is designed to be rackmountable the power switch should be on the front. No excuses whatsoever.

Oh, and another thing now I'm into the swing of things...

How about establishing a standard for rack units. Power supplies on one side, inputs and outputs on the other, and controllers in the middle. Then we can keep our power cables nice and tidy and well away from signals.

And finally. Never supply a guitar with an Allen Key for the truss rod. It only encourages people to try adjusting it themselves. It's a job that should be done by someone who knows what they're doing, and you can be certain that they'll have the right tools for the job.

Ahhhhh... I feel better now

Andy

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When the going gets weird, the Weird turn Pro.

Amen!
Also, if it talks MIDI, include a midi map in the bloody book.

On the manual thing, agree totally, also no or nc for sustain pedals, so aggravating to get wrong.

On software, please note that your software is buggy, my software is buggy, everyones non trivial software is buggy, fact of life (So stop denying it on your 'support' forums). When you get bug reports, please have a public bug tracker so we can check if some odd behaviour is us or known to be the software, marketing types will have hives, but the users will love you.

If you are going to try to sell me a loudspeaker system, please put the specs in the four colour glossy, not just weasel words, it is annoying, and if you are specifying at 1/4 space loading, please SAY so, in fact give me a third angle projection, the weight, the power requirements, the frequency response and dispersion plots, leave the weasel words out entirely.

Also if you specify a box as say 101db/W@1M and 1KW peak handling, at lest make the peak output lie consistent with the above sensitivity and power handling lies (139db for example is going to cause serious raised eyebrows).
Dispersion plots on the 4 colour glossies would be a nice touch as well (Give me DATA damn it, I don't really give a rats arse who endorses your product or how that hole in the crossover region, where your electronics guy screwed the phase shift calculation, is euphonically designed (Yes, really, apparently)).

In short, if you are selling to sound ENGINEERS, don't be afraid to write spec sheets for Engineers.

Regards, Dan.

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Audiophiles use phono leads because they are unbalanced people!

Resizing of GUIs and outlaw wall warts.

Manuals written by post pubescents.

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Samplecraze
Stretch That Note

Just what I need at 9am on a miserable wet morning - a good whinge.

As an addition to the request for front mounted power switches, how about a power switch full stop. I have a couple of pieces of gear that not only use wall warts but do not have an on/off switch.

Plus, on the wall wart front - ban the ones that take up more than one mains slot. You plug them in and lose a socket on either side.

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So many drummers, so little time.

Edited by LeeTurner (29/09/10 08:06 AM)

If you *must* have inputs on the front of rack-mountable interfaces, ADAT expanders and the like, please duplicate them on the rear and allow the option of accessing at the back of the rack. A 6-way loom at the back and a pair round the front makes a messy job of a tracking session.

Also, if you're making USB/Firewire mixers, there's some conversion going on already, right? So let's see proper digital outputs that you can interface with any digital equipment and not just a computer...

My single biggest request:

I like to use the KEYBOARD to flick through presets on virtual instruments. Like the up/down arrows or whatever. NOT the mouse on a couple of up/down on-screen arrows. AND really, really NOT several mouse clicks in nested menus etc. That is what eats my day up...

Great thread -- really enjoying this... keep it coming!

Hugh

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Technical Editor, Sound On Sound

Quote dmills:

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Also rotary knobs in software user interfaces, wrong on so many levels, there are about 4 mutually incompatible ways to implement an on screen 'knob' and NONE of them are satisfactory, use a slider instead.

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Agree with all of these, except.....this one! I like soft knobs (cue whatever pun it takes), they help me think in an 'analogue' way!

Just from the list above I'd give a big shout out to;

Standardised ins/outs/power supply positions on backs of rack units, PITA trying to keep power separate from audio.

Wall warts that keep themselves to themselves, no hanging over to other slots.

Power switches on the front and NO speakers killing thumps if you lose power!

Re-sizable GUI's for plug ins and Cursor control for preset selection (HATE menu diving with the mouse)

I'm sure i'll think of some of my own but just wanted to agree with others on the most obvious ones!

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Ready Eddie?
Bingo Gringo!

Quote dmills:

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I like soft knobs (cue whatever pun it takes), they help me think in an 'analogue' way!

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If i'm using a rotary encoder, knobs are fine by me. But there should be a standard for mouse use. I'd say keep everything slider like for mouse use.

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Ready Eddie?
Bingo Gringo!

Edited by StuartBallingall (29/09/10 09:52 AM)

Gear that sounds lovely when you drive the input, but won't let you record the results because the signal's too hot for your A-D converters and there's no way to attenuate the output.

(Not a major one, I agree, but most of the biggies have been covered. Ban rear-panel On/Off switches!!!)

Feel the love:
Multi-voltage power supplies.
Settings in dB, Hz, etc. Kurzweil - you got it just right.
Keyboards with polyphonic aftertouch – count ‘em on one hand.
USB powered anything.
ADC.

Feel my wrath:
Wall warts - take ‘em all out and burn ‘em!!! I don’t care that it saves costs – I’ll pay the extra.
USB connections for cameras and the like, with yet ANOTHER different teeny connector!
Microphone response charts drawn by one of the marketing team with a ruler.
Devices with:
- connections on the front (stand up Behringer ADA8000)
- critical controls on the back (SSL SuperAnalogue Channel’s clock selection – DIP switches at that!)
Mic’s without pads.
Stereo processors with non-ganged controls.
ADAT S/Mux.

That’ll do for now!

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An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

Quote The Elf:

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Wall warts - take ‘em all out and burn ‘em!!! I don’t care that it saves costs – I’ll pay the extra.

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I would usually agree with most on this but on cheaper gear with no wall-wart they really do cut back on the internal PSU...and after a year or two it buzzes like crazy and well if it's not a regulated one and a switch mode one it's prob already gone up in a cloud of smoke lol
And thats without the induced RFI
At least a cheap wall wart is easily replaceable

Not trying to diss Waldorf but has any one seen the inside of a big Q keyboard? It's funny as hell....they just got their wall wart and mounted it inside the huge empty case, then the lead from the wall wart is just a standard jack type thing that plugs into the mainboard

Edited by vinyl_junkie (29/09/10 10:27 AM)

A design feature I absolutely hate is those little four-pin Firewire connectors you get on laptops. One tiny movement and everything is lost.

Also: buttons that look the same whether they are in or out. Headphone sockets on mini-jacks. Gratuitous blue LEDs. Sockets that are too close together.

USB bus power is great if it works. But please allow us an input for a wall wart (or in-line wart) so we can use it on any USB port.

Don't listen to the Elf... I like the flexibility it affords and its easy to set up.

If you include EQs in a product that's more than an EQ — mixers, channel strips etc — please include a bypass button. In fact, on all processors, please include a hard bypass so I don't have to keep re-patching when ABing.

Plug-in developers (or DAW developers): Please include a wet/dry control on all plug-ins or on all insert slots.

Quote Mixedup:

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Plug-in developers (or DAW developers): Please include a wet/dry control on all plug-ins or on all insert slots.

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If you want wet/dry shouldn't it be in a Send FX slot?

Quote StuartBallingall:

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Quote dmills:

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I like soft knobs (cue whatever pun it takes), they help me think in an 'analogue' way!

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If i'm using a rotary encoder, knobs are fine by me. But there should be a standard for mouse use. I'd say keep everything slider like for mouse use.

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I can't remember what VSTi it was I saw this on, but it had rotary knobs but when you clicked on them a vertical slider would appear with which to make the change. The knob would also turn as you moved the slider. It struck me a very workable compromise.

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* Soundcloud *
* Bandcamp *

Quote LeeTurner:

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Plus, on the wall wart front - ban the ones that take up more than one mains slot. You plug them in and lose a socket on either side.

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Bloody right! Seconded, thirded, fourthed and fifthed!!

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* Soundcloud *
* Bandcamp *

Quote Mixedup:

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Don't listen to the Elf...

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Why, I oughtta...!!



You're not my wife, are you?

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An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

I'd like to see a more comprehensive and standardised ctrl z / undo function for third party plugins & soft synths that run inside a host sequencer.

How many times have I been tweaking away at something and then thought, you know what, no, I'd like to go back a bit ...

D.

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www.thirdfloormusic.com

Quote rich_h:

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I can't remember what VSTi it was I saw this on, but it had rotary knobs but when you clicked on them a vertical slider would appear with which to make the change. The knob would also turn as you moved the slider. It struck me a very workable compromise.

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I don't know why softsynth/sampler developers don't use the mouse's scroll wheel for that. We did it at Akai for ak.Sys - when the mouse pointer is over the control, the scroll wheel sets it. It's so intuitive, I don't know why it hasn't been more widely adopted. It's easy to do as well, I am told.

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Website / Music Lab Machines / Blog

If any manufacturers ARE reading this...

How about we standardise the voltage requirements and physical connectors for all wall-wart-y gear?

Then you can sell me a 1U (universal AC voltage!) power unit with 20 little power sockets on the back and one big mains cable.

I'm happy because I don't have to find space for another wart behind my racks of gear and you're happy because you don't even have to provide a power supply with your gear.

We're close to this with guitar effects pedals, so why not other gear?

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An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

Quote dubbmann:

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No headphone jack at all. I have a small Tascam line mixer with no headphone jack. None. Nada. Bubkiss. Simply astounding omission on a mixer, almost as inexcusable on a synth. Saves what, maybe a $1 off the selling price?

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I guess that's me and anyone else with a £30k Audient ASP console put in our place then. And I suspect it's at best an option on most SSL, Neve, API desks...

What's wrong with a mixer that lets you add your own choice of headphone amp (yes, you need an amp behind the $1 socket), whether it's a £5 mp3 player or a boutique Grace Designs M902 reference amp for £1,895?

Funnily enough, most mixers' headphone amps fall slightly short of that standard.

You seem to be arguing about giving the user freedom of choice in the matter.

P.S. Nothing personal, and yes - excellent thread!

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Dynamite with a laser beam...


Edited by Steve Hill (29/09/10 01:07 PM)

Sockets at the rear of speaker cabinets always to be recessed so the jackplug does not break off when someone "helpfully" pushes it as close to the wall of the pub as possible to give you a bit more room onstage.

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Dynamite with a laser beam...

don't promise features then not deliver, and don;t fit anything you're not going to implement a decent use of....

example, certain midi controllers fitted with encoders AND knobs./... except that on most DAW's the knobs are functionless..... because they insist on using out dated things like HUI mode....

MOST irritating, especially if an earlier version DID work...... on it's own terms.

Quote rich_h:

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I can't remember what VSTi it was I saw this on, but it had rotary knobs but when you clicked on them a vertical slider would appear with which to make the change. The knob would also turn as you moved the slider. It struck me a very workable compromise.

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It is -- and the SADiE DAW has done that since it's first version back in 1995...

hugh

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Technical Editor, Sound On Sound

rear mounted power switches.... = bloody stupid.

i also get mildly irritated by equipment with no power switch....

FW800 sockets.... inherently less robust than FW400 in terms of connection reliability.... piss poor mechanical design....


wireless 2.4GHz remote devices using bespoke transceivers instead of bluetooth..... or Wifi. dumb.... and expensive......

using Red LED's for anything that isn't a warning.... EG, it's a good choice, for say, top range of meters, clip LEDS etc, phantom power status, ... but a dumbass one for anything else.... just irritates me, especially if they flash..... like say, in time with midi clock signal , or every time there's a MIDI event,

wall warts..... well.... i'm actually undecided.... after all.... there's something to be said for threading DC supplies between audio cables, in the back of a rack instead of AC .... given that power inlet sockets are still not standardised in location...




Valve Mic PSU's.... ferchrissakes at least standardise the rail voltages and transformer types..... getting replacements for some of these things is harder than finding gold plated rocking horse droppings.

Quote Exalted Wombat:

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Quote Mixedup:

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Plug-in developers (or DAW developers): Please include a wet/dry control on all plug-ins or on all insert slots.

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If you want wet/dry shouldn't it be in a Send FX slot?

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No. That's great for when you want to send several signals to the same effect, but if I just want to set up a simple parallel compression function, for example, and then process the result, I have to create a send, then create a group/bus, then process that result. With the wet/dry approach you avoid all of that hassle — which is why more plug-ins (and hardware units) now are including wet/dry controls. Compression's just an example: I can think of other scenarios where this sort of routing would help.

Quote dubbmann:

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Hi all,

I've been thinking for some time of starting this thread in the hope that manufacturers of gear who peruse SoS might be helped to design better gear by the knowledgeable readers of this excelllent publication.

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Absolutely excellent thread Dubbmann.

If there was any rating, I would have given 9.5/10 to this thread.
What an amazing thread Dubbmann.
I was actually trying out something loosely similar to this in this thread., but this seems more acurate to hit the meaning. Good job mate. I have few ideas that I'll compile and shoot up here soon.

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SoundCloud

any chance this thread could be sticky'ed and then SOS can refer manufactures to it if they fall short of the mark?

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Ready Eddie?
Bingo Gringo!

Quote dubbmann:

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Hi all,

I've been thinking for some time of starting this thread in the hope that manufacturers of gear who peruse SoS might be helped to design better gear by the knowledgeable readers of this excelllent publication.

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If there was any rating, I would have given 9.5/10 to this thread.
What an amazing thread Dubbmann.
I was actually trying out something loosely similar to this in this thread, but this seems more acurate to hit the meaning. Good job mate. I have few ideas that I'll compile and shoot up here soon.


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SoundCloud


Edited by AuralSerenity (29/09/10 01:47 PM)

Headphones should have detachable, replace-able cables. And they shouldn't use stupid non-standard-sized jack plugs to attach to the phones end either.

Quote Hugh Robjohns:

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Quote rich_h:

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I can't remember what VSTi it was I saw this on, but it had rotary knobs but when you clicked on them a vertical slider would appear with which to make the change. The knob would also turn as you moved the slider. It struck me a very workable compromise.

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It is -- and the SADiE DAW has done that since it's first version back in 1995...

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Cubase does this too - if you can find the setting in the Preferences dialogue, which is worded in such a way that you'll never guess it does it!

Whenever I create a new PC system I once again have to hunt around for it... which I did successfully last week, though off the top of my head I still can't remember the wording!

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An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

+1 for wet/dry mix on plugins. it cant be that hard to include in the coding!

another thing that bugs me, eqing is quicker when you've got a graph to drag dots around, why can't plugin companies just implement this rather then knobs? i know its supposed to look like the unit on the interface but it doesnt alway have to

Quote StuartBallingall:

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any chance this thread could be sticky'ed and then SOS can refer manufactures to it if they fall short of the mark?

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I'm thinking it could more usefully and effectively form the basis of an article in the magazine along the lines of 'wot annoise our readerz most'

hugh

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Technical Editor, Sound On Sound

Quote Hugh Robjohns:

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wot annoise our readerz most

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and some more which apply to logic (and maybe other daw's)

- why can't track tempo information in logic be sent out through the plugins like in cubase? this would make using plugins like waves tune and melodyne easy rather than a pain in the ....

- an easy way to reorder plugin parameters so that they line up where i want on my mcu c4. theres a long way round, but its VERY annoying and time consuming