A few thoughts on REW UI & UX

[bvocal]

Hi John,
First, love the software and use it to learn and explore, so thanks.
A few thoughts for your consideration;
1. I would love to have a standard saving convention,( i.e. hit CTRL S and it overwrites the current file). Because REW does not even identify the file you opened/are working on, the situation arises quite often where I end up overwriting the wrong file. From my years doing computer graphics I am a constant saver, as in every time you get something right... save...
2. I think it would be swell to have the smoothing choices in the settings panel for the 'all SPL' panel be buttons instead of a drop down list. Save a lot of mouse clicking.
3. It is possible I am not using the GD info correctly, but it seems like it would be handy to be able to compare a reading or more on the same chart, like the all SPL chart allows.

Thanks for everything.

 

[John Mulcahy]

1. REW isn't a file based application like Word, say. It allows multiple measurements, which can be a mix of newly measured data and data loaded from multiple files, to be examined at once. If a measurement is from a file the filename is shown on the measurement panel directly below the measurement name. Ctrl+S is the shortcut for saving the currently selected measurement in a file and Ctrl+Shift+S is the shortcut for saving all loaded measurements in one file.

2. 11 buttons is a few too many to add to the All SPL controls, it is already a crowded panel. The existing smoothing shortcuts could be applied to all selected measurements rather than the currently measurement when on the All SPL graph, but I'm very reluctant to have a shortcut behave differently depending on which graph is open.

3. The Overlays window allows GD and other info from the loaded measurements to be compared. All SPL was pulled from the Overlays window into the main window some years back as a convenience, though it does run counter to the structure.

 

[bvocal]

OK, right on, good to hear your explanations, excellent in fact. I didn't get the overlays window, it seems, when I looked at it many moons ago, but it is my new happy place.


thanks!
b