You have to be a bit creative, but eventually you can get MPT to look very good so you can be more creative!!!
You don't believe me? Watch this screenshot.
(http://www.lpchip.com/sharing/desktop%20mpt%20hl2.jpg)
The skin i used for this one is HalfLife2 skin, that can be downloaded from DeviantArt. You'll need StyleXP or the patch to install other styles and ofcource windows XP.
Don't have one of these? then try Windows Blinds, or set your appearance to windows classic and use the buildin color manager to make your own colors. You can get the colors quite close to what I have on the screenshot.
If I can find a way to export the colors from whitin MPT, I'll share them too.
Wow, that looks like old school 3DS max, and it doesn't break accesibility. Not bad :)
EDIT: StyleXP is for windowsxp/2K3 only, according to the website :(
WindowBlinds should work just as well.
Meh, I can't say I care about the appearance much. It's gotten pretty bad ever since an upgrade to Wine .9 decided to trash my saved font metrics and ignore Tahoma in favor of some terrible monospace font, but MPT's interface lets me get what I want done, without getting in my way.
(http://whatthebert.com/ihameed/crap/mptwine.jpg)
I never understood the importance that some people may place on the appearance of a program used to make music. Do you want to be able to make good music easily, or do you want a pretty program to look at?
I would place sound quality and ease of use above the interface, but that's just me. ;)
Different interfaces bring out different creative qualities in me, but thats just me :)
I can track any music with one simple interface, and probably everyone can. In order to do so, you have to have enough inspiration to do so.
If you alter the colour scheme though, different aspects of your creativeness brain will be stimulated and that allows you to boost your inspiration depending on what that set of colours does to you.
Required? no. But it will come in handy when you have a writers block!
I use a few programs to make music, Skale, MPT, Renoise, Reason, and all my works with each program have a theme common to other songs made in the same program, while each programs theme is different than the others. I think having a selectable colorscheme (like saving presents and such), that would help with people like me who need an extra boost for their creativity. Like one preset for dark ambient music, one for happy trance, and so on.
I only use color schemes/skins when I'm tired of the normal look, such as in Winamp or Psycle. But an overall more modern look wouldn't hurt OMPT, I guess 8) .
I never had an urge to change the appearance of MPT. It could do the job, fine by me. In that way I fully agree with MisterX (but that's just us), but I understand the point about different interfaces by Squirrel Havoc and LPChip.
The design of the interface indeed can have an influence on the process. But to me more on a functional level. Which options are directly available and for which ones you have to dig deep in some menu ?
I can see he trick with the different colorschemes to stimulate the creativity, but my idea when confronted with a writers block is different : Just go work on some other project and be confident that 'the urge to lay that egg' will come back. I don't like any artificial pressure on the creative process from the outside personally.
DMNXS mentions color schemes/skins. An indication of the dangers of a drastical need for change of appearance.
Color schemes : ok, it's a personal system-choice, nothing wrong with that. But skins is another story.
They often mean change of the interface itself, or loosing total control because of automatics.
Ask blind people about skins, where the buttons are bitmaps with a text on it.
A distinction should be made here between appearance of an Editor and a Player.
A Player can be modern (so with rounded corners nowadays), but an Editor doesn't have to.
i guess if you can be inspired by colors, then more power to ya, but i sure cant... the only reasons i can see for changing the colors is to make it less bright and easier on the eyes.
on this note tho, i just had to reinstall windows and had to reset the colors, would really be nice to have an export/import...
or just save in the ini file instead of the registry (yah, i know you are working on this rewbs).
I like white patterns of MPT. But now when I looke at what you guys did with the interface, I'll try new colors!
I think that the aspect may be important if you keep a lot of time working with the program. It is important to have contrast enough to help reading, and a dark background helps not to get your eyes tired too soon. But, of course, it is far more important to have a good funcionality.
r u sure dark background makes eyes less tired? I thought the green color makes eyes relax. Green shouldn't be dark.
I thought green made you smoke pot? :) :lol:
The Impulse Tracker preset is the only color scheme anyone could possibly need. :P
hmmm... i just remember my old FT2 color sheme :cry:
(http://home.arcor.de/bootybazz/ft2-666.jpg)
Imagine if MPT had sliders like FTII that would change background colors and stuff. that would be cool
To Luigi:
Well, at least that's what I have been told in the University. And it seems logical. Green is not too dark, but it is less bright than white, that is the usual background, and is the worst one. And the best in this aspect would be black (like when you write in a blackboard with a chalk).
Quote from: "rncekel"To Luigi:
Well, at least that's what I have been told in the University. And it seems logical. Green is not too dark, but it is less bright than white, that is the usual background, and is the worst one. And the best in this aspect would be black (like when you write in a blackboard with a chalk).
Mistery solved: Thats why everyone at school is sleepy :P
We had green blackboards at school. :shock:
Quote from: "Squirrel Havoc"I thought green made you smoke pot? :) :lol:
Quote from: "speed-goddamn-focus"We had green blackboards at school. :shock:
hmmm... this explains so much.
Quote from: "Snu"Quote from: "Squirrel Havoc"I thought green made you smoke pot? :) :lol:
Quote from: "speed-goddamn-focus"We had green blackboards at school. :shock:
hmmm... this explains so much.
no, i'm just a weirdo. ask my friends.
Quote from: "speed-goddamn-focus"Quote from: "Snu"Quote from: "Squirrel Havoc"I thought green made you smoke pot? :) :lol:
Quote from: "speed-goddamn-focus"We had green blackboards at school. :shock:
hmmm... this explains so much.
no, i'm just a weirdo. ask my friends.
The ones noone else can see? :twisted:
Quote from: "Squirrel Havoc"Quote from: "speed-goddamn-focus"no, i'm just a weirdo. ask my friends.
The ones noone else can see? :twisted:
No, those friends think I'm normal.
Quote from: "speed-goddamn-focus"Quote from: "Squirrel Havoc"Quote from: "speed-goddamn-focus"no, i'm just a weirdo. ask my friends.
The ones noone else can see? :twisted:
No, those friends think I'm normal.
I think you're a weirdo, and no one can see me.
Quote from: "rewbs"Quote from: "speed-goddamn-focus"Quote from: "Squirrel Havoc"Quote from: "speed-goddamn-focus"no, i'm just a weirdo. ask my friends.
The ones noone else can see? :twisted:
No, those friends think I'm normal.
I think you're a weirdo, and no one can see me.
Yes, but you are exceptional, and thus you are an exception.
we also had green boards. And even dark red boards. Both were fine for the eyes.
Here's mine:
(http://www.oocities.com/peshozmiata/modplug.jpg)
Does anyone still use the Modplug Player? ::)
2Squirrel Havoc
Any color can make me smoke. :)
2Pesho_Zmiata
I still do. As a matter of fact, it's my main association for these extensions to have a quick playback.
I have my questions about the upper half of your screenshot though. Where did that came from ?
Quote from: "Sam_Zen"2Pesho_Zmiata
I still do. As a matter of fact, it's my main association for these extensions to have a quick playback.
I have my questions about the upper half of your screenshot though. Where did that came from ?
It's the mixer controls. Just right-click on the lcd display-like thing that shows the song name and select it. You can increase/decrease the volume on the different channels, or change the pattern speed and sample pitch. It gets those old songs, that you got tired of listening to them to sound more new and interesting :)
2Pesho_Zmiata
Hey, this is nice ! All those years, I never was aware of this function.