Re: hardware vs software - this time from a blind man's view (was "Re: two little guitar loops")

[Mark Sottilaro <zerocrossing@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 2:52 PM, Jean Philippe<jp.rykiel@orange.fr> wrote:
> Hi Mark,
> You know, what I would really like is f... three position mechanical
> switches.
> But they won't do it because it's too old-fashioned. And the thing is it
> would probably be cooler for you sighted folks to because you could be
> looking at something else or even inside yourselves while playing.
> Meanwhile I would be glad to talk to your man.
> Cheers,
> JPR
> http://myspace.com/jeanphilipperykiel
>

Well, I'm not sure if I'd call him my man... he's a rouge....
maverick!   He is a good friend though.

As for 3 position switches, are you sure they're not that as well as
having the LEDs in them?  Again, I've never touched one so I can't
tell. Having them be that instead of having lights wouldn't help much,
for me at least.  I'm a graphic designer and one thing you learn is
that the more glaringly obvious something can be, i.e. obvious light
color changes ends up being less noise than something subtle.  The
APC40 is actually quite nicely designed from an information standpoint
as something that was just 3 position switches would cause you to have
to shift focus from making music to interpreting a slight height
difference on small switches. It's probably the complete opposite of
how you'd best like it, but that's how it goes.  Instead of a chance
to "look inside" it would just be frustrating. Mobius is ugly as hell,
but it's still a successful user interface because it's pretty big and
clearly laid out.  No cool shading to suggest fake depth or bevels,
just simple bright shapes on a dark background.

I'll fwd your email address to my friend.

Take care,

Mark