Identify the Neural Capture with colored icon

This is definitely cleaner, and I think my design - which was a quick hack job could be simplified by just removing the borders and keeping the icons, which would possibly allow 4 pips across. My reasoning behind using the icons rather than a positional abstraction is that it’s been mentioned that time-based FX could be added as part of a capture at some point, so using the icons allows you to express the entire range of what might end up “in” a capture. And if there are enough items you could move to two rows and it would still be clear what was contained. I kept the borders mostly for the color coding aspect as I suspect over time that will just become ingrained in most users minds - orange is X, red is Y - you could just color -code the icons themselves and remove the borders and this would likely still be intuitive while allowing every possible device that can be captured to be supported.

All that being said - all of the design work you do for your suggestions is top-notch! haha and your design aesthetic dwarfs anything I’d do, but in this case there was reasoning behind the icons vs true “pips” in that sense, and I wanted to explain the thought behind it.

Well, or so:
capture_4
the difference between the amplifier and the preamplifier is denoted by different icons, as in Helix. In general, you can also add colors, the main thing is not to draw full icons with frames, it’s too cumbersome
capture_5

13 Likes

Yep, pretty much that, with color-coding as an option as there are a few things that have similar waveform icons that could be confusing when squished down that far but that’s the idea

What I had in mind
AMP:
image

Amp with Cab
image

Drive:
image

Amp + Cab + Drive:
image

8 Likes

This FR has 2 goals in the end:

1- make it easier to work with the grid, knowing what is on it easily - especially on a preset you did not make yourself but got from the cloud.

2- get some order in the growing amount of captures out there and ‘‘force’’ people to sort them out.

While this coding method is less intuitive than additional icons or dots (you still need to remember the color coding), it certainly better retains the concept of pure QC design. To tell the truth, I can’t even decide which of the options I would prefer :slight_smile:

P.S. No, though, after adding the half dot that denotes the preamp, the dotted option is my favorite. Of course, it does not allow deferentiating various effects other than distortion, which may appear in the future, but for now this is all just a fantasy and we can ignore them.

+1
Uploading png / jpeg or svg icons would be a cool feature.

3 Likes

I still think a better method is to have check boxes (drive, preamp, poweramp, cab) inside the capture settings or name details page. This gets stored as metadata and is searchable and viewable on the app. These check boxes show up when you click on the capture block.

1 Like

One concern I have with using colors is its impact on Gig View. Color is an important cue about the function of the switch in Stomp Mode and, given the limited palette, having the color vary by type of capture either

  1. Results in color collisions with other block types
  2. Results in inconsistency between the color of a block on the grid vs. the color of the block in Gig View

As a result, I much prefer the idea of icon variations rather than simply different colored versions of the same icon.

My $0.02, IMHO, FWIW, YMMV, etc.

3 Likes

I’m strongly against this approach, this looks to me like a broken slideshow navigation. There has to be the needed information at a glance without the need to transfer from another very cryptic set of iconographic language.

2 Likes

And what is cryptic about it, the Dots simply symbolize typical capture blocks in their typical locations in the chain. The left dot is the effect, the middle dot - amp, and the right dot - cabinet. Any other variation of the arrangement is unlikely to be in great demand there. Or will it be?

1 Like

The information that is least important is that it being a capture, the most important thing is what type of gear has been captured. the “scribbled globe” icon is taking most of the place but has the least information. This is also enforced by your and other approaches. i want to see distinct icons for type of device (e.g. gain/dist/overdrive/fuzz/preamp/clean channel/crunch/high gain channel/cab/combo, also modulation and timebased for the future). Typically there is one or two device captured, so even showing two icons could be feasible for a block, or you use a combined icon for the most important combinations (e.g. amp and cab). Furthermore chains are not more important than what single devices are used in my opinion.

3 Likes

I would believe the colored capture would replace a block of the same color (in most cases) maybe except for drive.

but, if you have an amp or amp with cab capture, I would believe you do not have an amp block in your chain. So in the end, the ‘‘red block’’ would be replaced by another ‘‘red block’’ I tend to see this as less confusing (IMO).

Also, I tend to not assign amp, or cabs to stomps in stomp mode, so the gig view and its colors would not really apply. Maybe I’m the only one for this. If I have more than one amp, I’ll use scenes which are not colored.

again, you have your use case, and I have mine, and others have their. But it is really good I think that NDSP gets them, it will help them consider this FR and how to solve it.
I still think Captures need to be sorted out (I think we all agree) the question is HOW

1 Like

If we now summarize all our reasoning, we need come to the following:
For individual capture, we need to use the icon of the corresponding group, adding some sign to it to understand that this is a capture, for example:


This will preserve the familiar pictograms and color coding of the blocks.
More aesthetic options:
2. The cleanliness and symmetry so delicious!

3. Box

4. Frame

For combined capture, considering two and more icons make it clear that we are seeing a capture, we can really abandon the globe icon, and accommodate up to 4 well-readable icons:
capture_7
version with globe, less clean:
capture_5

layout

…the initial color of the captures blocks is gray, аlso interesting:

17 Likes

Great Ideas. Let us not wait too long :slight_smile:

This is a really nice solution and is intuitive enough that you can remember it once you know what the dots represent. Its also exactly the categories that need to be asked to finish a new capture, before being able to save it.

1 Like

Been a while I came on the Forum, it’s not much but I have some pride knowing my FR is the one with the most votes!

I’m pretty sure NeuralDSP can come up with a good solution in terms of visual, but let me just remind you that 10% of male (and a bit less than 5% of female) guitarists and bassists are color-blind.

Appears that Icons for Neural Captures are here in 2.0!