[Ardour-Users] Freeze a track?

[Patrick Shirkey]

Arnold Krille wrote:
> On Thursday 01 January 2009 16:21:14 you wrote:
>   
>> Arnold Krille wrote:
>>     
>>> On Thursday 01 January 2009 12:28:11 Sampo Savolainen wrote:
>>>       
>>>> Ardour usually steers towards being "perfect" in cases like this. But
>>>> one could argue that in this case we outsource the risk. We could let
>>>> the user move the fader and just tell them in the manual that fader
>>>> movements on frozen tracks with non-linear post fader effects will not
>>>> sound like what it would sound unfrozen.
>>>>         
>>> Who reads manuals???
>>> Regardless whether "Freeze" freezes the state before or after the fader,
>>> don't rely on "its documented in the manual" to explain things. When was
>>> the last time you read the manual of a new device completely before you
>>> switched it on?
>>>       
>> That no excuse. Saying it's in the manual is a perfectly acceptable
>> response. Especially if followed up with a helpful pointer, explanation
>> and even offer to make things easier which Sampo has done.
>>     
>
> Its not an excuse. Its a question about creating software with high or low 
> threshold. Software that requires you to read the manual before you can use it 
> is not actually good software (or very specific software) and will gain less 
> users than software with sane defaults (that are possible to tweak 
> afterwards).
>
> I think in the situation sampo described, there are two possibilities: a) use 
> some "strange" default and answer every question about it (and there will be 
> lots!) with "its in the manual, read it there". Or b) use less strange 
> defaults and use the manual to describe a way to change these defaults for the 
> people who haven't found out by themselves.
>
>   

In this case the default was to follow the Ardour "perfect" solution 
methodology. However with Kevin providing useful feedback Sampo has been 
given a reason not to follow the methodology and is looking into 
correcting it by asking for more feedback. This is a reasonable way of 
developing as it should not be entirely on the developers heads to come 
up with all the best practice routines while they are programming every 
feature. It's a nice goal but is often not possible in reality.
>> - I vote for a dual option with a toggle in the control panel...
>>     
>
> And maybe even extensive tool-tips to give a first explanation?!
>
>   

To keep the ball rolling does anyone have a suggestion for what they 
could say?




Cheers.

-- 
Patrick Shirkey
Boost Hardware Ltd.