why is the WL7 GUI so bad?

Is it just me or is WL7 just horrible to work with form a GUI point of view? Cubase 6.5 and Nuendo 5.x have a nice coherent user interface that looks distictive and modern but wavelab looks like something from windows XP.

does it look better on OSX, is that the reason?



MC

Philippe Goutier is the developer of Wavelab. AFAIK he is the ONLY developer of Wavelab. Steinberg distributes it, but Mr Goutier is the soul and the heart of the program. Seems as if he’s not the best graphics designer on the planet, but… where’s the problem? It’s simply the best audio editor that was ever coded. And at this point I think that Steinberg acts very wisely to not put their oar in development of Wavelab more than absolutely neccessary. Let Philippe do his thing, he does it right.

It is for this reason alone that I am still using WL6 on my Win7 MacBook Pro and probably will until they take the mouse from my cold dead hands :wink: I was blazingly fast with the GUI in WL 1.5 through WL6 and WL7 ground my productivity to a halt, so I just don’t use it anymore. In WL7, nothing seems to intuitively be where it should as it was in WL1.5 through WL6. I dread the day that WL6 no longer works in a future version of Windows and I will be forced to use WL7 (which I paid for just to keep up to date in my upgrade path). I don’t use WL7 in front of clients because it just takes too long to figure things out. I still use WL6 when it needs to be done right the first time, it needs to be done quickly and I don’t have to question how to get something done or dig through the manual…oh wait, what manual. That’s probably why I know WL 1.5 through WL6 so well – I was able to peruse through the manual to learn things as I went along :wink: Anyway… I think it’s a shame that WL7 didn’t keep the same flavor as WL6 and its predecessors :frowning:

PS - I must admit that I do use the Inject Audio feature in WL7 but that’s THE ONLY THING I USE IT FOR!

I guess everyone has slightly different expectations but it’s a matter of taste and how you work.

Personally, I really like it. I am pretty sure I’m quicker now than I was in previous version.

It took me a long time to get used to WL7, but it’s OK now. I think 6 and 7 both have their own quirkyness, and in my view, in v7 the various locations of where functions can be found is still counter intuitive. So many menus I’ve been through to find something that I thought would be under the other header… At least in v6 we had much more under the mouse right click - and ofcourse a proper manual. That’s been the main problem with WL7!

WL7 is a new program. You need to learn new things to use it. Once you’ve done that, WL7 is better than WL6.
The GUI is fine. WL7 has not the most modern look but it works for me.

Hey Arjan
Your post makes me feel a lot better – it looks like I am not the only on that took an hour just to find the “Create Basic Audio CD” tool. The PDF manual told me that this tool existed but didn’t tell me where to find it. Where was it? … in one of the sub menus under the Workspace tab of course!

I still have a hope that PG would revert to W6 type of working. Too many menus, quirky and confusing, lack of handy things from W6 as: label setting, file seeker and its’ playback option. Still don’t like it and probably never will…


cheers

trito

label setting, file seeker and its’ playback option

What are you talking about more exactly?

PG, this was discussed when W7 appeared, in old forum. Unfortunately there’s no search option but I found this topic regarding labels:

http://forum.cubase.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=140366

You promised to rework it in future updates…

Maybe You have the possibility of searching by my nick (I don’t have too many posts :wink:) and find our conversation about player. In W6 I think the Windows one was used which was handy, now I have to make several clicks to use file selector and play the files…
This what I miss the most was ONE window with everything I needed within single click…

found it :slight_smile:

http://forum.cubase.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=140919


cheers an thanks


trito

The file player capability is available in WaveLab 7, from the file browser tool window. No need to “open” a file browser like in WaveLab 6.

For the Label editor, I must admit this is not on the top priority list.

I feel deeply sorry for that ;(

cheers

trito

I am for a overhaul of the GUI, it is quite antiquated…and in some cases… hard on the eyes when everything else you are looking at has been updated with hi-res icons and textures e.g.Win7 and OSX.

For those of us on OSX, it is really noticeable… the overall OSX GUI is beautiful… then when you start up WL7, it is like playing super mario for nintendo on an HD Television.

It really doesn’t seem like it would require all that much effort to either hire someone who can take the time to make the cosmetic adjustments for this day an age… or for PG to take the time to update the GUI with some HIRES images and so on.

I don’t care for any type of eye candy (well, in software, that is): my biggest problem was in the GUI functionality and it not being intuitive. Not to mention the complete culture shock coming from WL6, and then without a manual.

Guys,

We have gone up, down and around on the GUI like a million times. PG has been very clear that he has no plans of ever buffing up WL in any way to make it look like it belongs to the Windows 7/8 era.

Probably best to just let that one go…:slight_smile:

But - if you want to really see the fireworks on the WL GUI - just check out a few historical posts on this very topic…like this one in particular…

VP

There will be “skin/style” improvements, and improved workflow. But the basic workspace concept will remain.

:smiley: True
It’s a pity for such a fine program

Not a Mac guy but I have to agree. I can easily see a typical Apple user - after being used to some of the best user experiences out there - getting a serious shock when starting up their new purchase and getting such an odd, antiquated experience.

Mind you - like an other Mac software - perhaps they just think that a good UI is part of the purchase until they actually buy it and find out it’s just as crude and wacky as our Windows based version…

VP

Poor OSX people! I feel so sorry for them. They deserve so much better. :wink:
Sorry guys, I use WL7 on both Win and OSX and I don’t see the Mario effect at all.

if you look at say the new versions of cubase/nuendo and Halion 4 and then the way Adobe products have transformed,they’ve all gone with a Darker grey theme which seems to make a good visual working envirnment from everything to waveforms/ editing to photo/graphics work. When looking at a screen all day long the GUI becomes very important.


I’ve been using Wavelab since V1 so am a big advocate of the program,just not happy with the new GUI since v7



MC