About the Project

The purpose of this project was to streamline the recording process for musicians who opt to record in their own homes. 

What is a MIDI Controller?

MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface.  A MIDI controller is a device that allows a musician to control several parameters of a sound clip, file, or sample.  MIDI also refers to a compressed file format that allows for the rapid communication between the controller and a computer.  Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) are audio editing programs that allow a musician to quickly arrange multiple instrumental parts within a composition, these programs have been instrumental in the proliferation of electronic music in today's music industry. 

An audio interface is a recording device that converts an audio signal from analog to digital.  This device is essential to any recording musician's workflow.  While many products exist in this space, the Focusrite Scarlett is currently the industry standard audio interface as it boasts the highest quality at the most competitive price point.  

VST stands for Virtual Studio Technology.  VSTs are software plug-ins that can digitally emulate various pieces of musical equipment from analog synthesizers to tape delays, studio compressors, or grand pianos.  As emulation technology improves, VSTs are gaining popularity - especially in small studios.

Musician Profiles

The musicians I interviewed for this project all had different areas of expertise and different needs based on their recording and practice regimens.  The most important information I gathered from our interviews were their instruments of choice and their familiarity with different recording practices and their preferences between analog and digital instruments. 

Design Brief

The objective of this project is to reduce the footprint of an audio interface in a home studio, and make high quality headphone practice more accessible for musicians.

My initial exploration focused on identifying all functions I wanted to incorporate into the device.  I focused mostly on mapping the functions onto a device that reduced the footprint of current recording devices and improved usability.

After my initial form explorations, I evaluated my five concepts based on six criteria that I created through feedback from my interviews with musicians.  The evaluation criteria gave insight into the most successful concept and from this point I began exploring new form factors for my fifth concept.

My initial concepts focused on identifying the essential functions that I hoped to include in the interface.  After evaluating these concepts, it became clear that a larger screen would vastly improve the usability of the interface.  At this point, I began designing concepts that included a larger screen and began exploring options that reduced the number of auxiliary buttons included on the interface.  In order to reduce buttons outside of the screen, I explored some concepts that incorporated touchscreens.

After a second round of concept generation, I compared my concepts again and evaluated their form and functionality based on a new set of design criteria.  Based on my evaluation, I determined that my fourth and fifth concept met all four design requirements.  At this point, I brought both concepts to the musicians I interviewed during the research phase and after discussing the concepts and analyzing their feedback chose to move forward with the fifth concept.  

Because I chose to use a touchscreen, an intuitive interface became a crucial element of the product.  My initial drafts (left column) used colors that were not necessarily indicative of a particular function and used gradients that made the text less legible.  My revised user interface (right column) featured less background saturation and used color only to indicate selected items. 

The primary functions displayed on the user interface remained the same, the left hand column featured the primary functions; Mode (Practice, Solo, or Ensemble), Bluetooth Pairing Indicator (indicates pairing with computer - used to record within a DAW project), Sync (with other audio interfaces - only available in Ensemble mode), Load VST (syncs plugins from computer), Metronome, and Tap Tempo.  The Record and Playback functions are displayed below the menu and to the right, the audio waveform from a user's recording.