Emulator DJ skin, is it a reality?

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windcrest77
Posts: 399
Joined: Sat Aug 07, 2010 12:28 pm

Emulator DJ skin, is it a reality?

Post by windcrest77 »

Does the Emulator DJ (like) skin for MM4 exist anywhere for download? Or is it just an idea at this time. I would really like to use that skin if it is available. With it's big click targets it looks like a great skin for a touchscreen and an excellent skin for DJ.
DreadM
Posts: 1018
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2008 1:09 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Emulator DJ skin, is it a reality?

Post by DreadM »

Sorry for the confusion, it's just a design draft based on your suggestions .
inspired by Emulator for Traktor Pro http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVD_Lvv4UOI
maybe we can work out what's necessary for a good Dj player ,
windcrest77
Posts: 399
Joined: Sat Aug 07, 2010 12:28 pm

Re: Emulator DJ skin, is it a reality?

Post by windcrest77 »

DreadM wrote:Sorry for the confusion, it's just a design draft based on your suggestions .
inspired by Emulator for Traktor Pro http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVD_Lvv4UOI
maybe we can work out what's necessary for a good Dj player ,
This is impressive. For MM, and in most practical DJ work all the special effects, scratchers, tempo changing, etc. are not needed. In fact I find that annoying in a club, I'd rather the DJ let the tunes play without effects but know his audience instead. So a skin that just emulates emulator DJ's nice big click targets but leaves MM's basic purpose alone would be nice. By basic purpose I mean the fact that MM is a great database program too. A skin like this would provide big click targets, and put the basic functions of DJ'ing up front. Hopefully the skin can even make the rows of the grid bigger so that MM will work well with a multitouch panel like that guy had (fingers are much less accurate than a mouse). But even without all the effects, a single deck DJ skin with library and now playing grids styled in a way that is big and obvious would be very cool. The Emulator DJ look is a good design to clone. I especially like the big volume sliders up the middle, his is a 2 deck setup, a MM skin would be for a single deck. Most of the stuff on there are not applicable for MM, but the transport controls like the play/stop buttons are really nice, they light up too like a hardware mixer would. It looks like he can toggle the whole bottom half between library and the effects controls. For MM it would just have the library in view always with the now playing.

If you do this project maybe people can off suggestions on a thread here as you go. I'd be glad to help test.
DreadM
Posts: 1018
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2008 1:09 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Emulator DJ skin, is it a reality?

Post by DreadM »

On the theme we can't do much,lets focus on player layout .
Ok, what you think about this player ,
it's a working player with a size from 160 x 1200 pix , ( if you want large controls you need big player :wink: )
also i find a way to make a stretchable seekbar with markers :)

Image
windcrest77
Posts: 399
Joined: Sat Aug 07, 2010 12:28 pm

Re: Emulator DJ skin, is it a reality?

Post by windcrest77 »

DreadM wrote:On the theme we can't do much,lets focus on player layout .
Ok, what you think about this player ,
it's a working player with a size from 160 x 1200 pix , ( if you want large controls you need big player :wink: )
also i find a way to make a stretchable seekbar with markers :)

Image
This is good, is it possible to also show time remaining? Like: "elapsed / remaining / total" so for this example: "0:57 / 3:53 / 4:50". Also I think the BPM tag should be displayed somewhere, maybe after the bit rate. I suppose the play button is big enough, at least in this photo my finger seems to fit nicely over each control without the threat of touching an adjacent control by mistake.
How would the library grid, library tree and playlist look? Can those rows be made double height?

Thanks
DreadM
Posts: 1018
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2008 1:09 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Emulator DJ skin, is it a reality?

Post by DreadM »

Here is a first test player :
Emulator_0,1.msz
store it in your MM skin folder.
windcrest77 wrote:This is good, is it possible to also show time remaining?
click on time display and you have a different time view.
windcrest77 wrote:Also I think the BPM tag should be displayed somewhere
It's done right under the time display.
windcrest77 wrote:How would the library grid, library tree and playlist look? Can those rows be made double height?
like i wrote before on theme we can't do much,
just MM standard text high option in the tools / Option menu.

player comes with the neutral Glided theme,but player can be bundled with any skin / theme you like,
just copy Player.mskn and player.ini into the skin you prefer .

if you have any suggestion for the player layout , i can try/make the changes ,
when we have a good layout we can talk about the colors.
windcrest77
Posts: 399
Joined: Sat Aug 07, 2010 12:28 pm

Re: Emulator DJ skin, is it a reality?

Post by windcrest77 »

DreadM wrote:Here is a first test player :
Emulator_0,1.msz
store it in your MM skin folder.
windcrest77 wrote:This is good, is it possible to also show time remaining?
click on time display and you have a different time view.
windcrest77 wrote:Also I think the BPM tag should be displayed somewhere
It's done right under the time display.
windcrest77 wrote:How would the library grid, library tree and playlist look? Can those rows be made double height?
like i wrote before on theme we can't do much,
just MM standard text high option in the tools / Option menu.

player comes with the neutral Glided theme,but player can be bundled with any skin / theme you like,
just copy Player.mskn and player.ini into the skin you prefer .

if you have any suggestion for the player layout , i can try/make the changes ,
when we have a good layout we can talk about the colors.

Wow that was fast DreadM you've outdone yourself! This is so easy to use and see, the position slider and volume controls feel like I'm driving a Lexus instead of a Ford Fiesta very smooth, the tick marks are great. My desktop has a 24 inch HDTV as a monitor and this fits real nice and there is still plenty of room for the rest of the program grids. I upped my font to 14px, anything larger than that causes the toolbars to get creepy looking overlaying stuff in Glided. I wish the grid row height was adjustable to be higher. I'm using the time remaining option for the clock. I just noticed that you used a percent figure when the slider is moved, this is a nice touch for navigation when I'm giving lessons.

The colors of the player are great, why mess with all the expensive research and development that the Emulator company already paid for.

I think the Emulator color scheme should be carried over into the overall theme. Most music DJ's would probably not bother using the art and details pane. In my dance studio I have the tree on the left, the big grid in the middle and the playlist on the right all three top to bottom full height. Because other people use the program too. It would be nice if the Emulator theme separated the various panes with thick borders, because with Glided right now the playlist pane and the main grid seem to "blend into" each other not distinct enough. Same for separating the tree pane. I dont know what Emulator uses but maybe the orange color of the song text can be used to thick border each pane so that each pane is very distinct and purposed. If the drag targets of the panes can be wider that would be great too. As for the other colors of the theme maybe white or very light gray text over the darker shade of gray you are using in the player (you use 3 shades of gray plus black in the player so maybe the darkest or middle shade for the theme background to all the grids)? I think having the theme use an all black background would be too dark. You be the judge, this is so excellent already I'm sure it will look great. I'm excited to see the theme for the remaining panes. Maybe looking at Emulator itself will help, but I think you already have all the colors you need in the player, just repeat them in the theme. Buttons have that real blue flourescent display of hardware and green of an old-school LED. I woul say anything in the main theme that is functional should use these colors similarly. The font of the theme should of course match the player, it will probably look good at 14px being simple. The Glided icons are kind of dated, maybe just reuse a more modern icon set from a different theme? But it woul d be nice if the icons followed the player colors blue flourescent, orange, green, grays, etc. simple, distinct and with obvious funtionality is best for a skin like this. I dont know how much I can offer, but I, (and I'm sure the MM community) appreciates this. Emulator is a very hot product and a good candidate to impersonate.
windcrest77
Posts: 399
Joined: Sat Aug 07, 2010 12:28 pm

Re: Emulator DJ skin, is it a reality?

Post by windcrest77 »

windcrest77 wrote:
DreadM wrote:On the theme we can't do much,lets focus on player layout .
Ok, what you think about this player ,
it's a working player with a size from 160 x 1200 pix , ( if you want large controls you need big player :wink: )
also i find a way to make a stretchable seekbar with markers :)

Image
This is good, is it possible to also show time remaining? Like: "elapsed / remaining / total" so for this example: "0:57 / 3:53 / 4:50". Also I think the BPM tag should be displayed somewhere, maybe after the bit rate. I suppose the play button is big enough, at least in this photo my finger seems to fit nicely over each control without the threat of touching an adjacent control by mistake.
How would the library grid, library tree and playlist look? Can those rows be made double height?

Thanks

Here is how the 14px text looks now.

Image
DreadM
Posts: 1018
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2008 1:09 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Emulator DJ skin, is it a reality?

Post by DreadM »

It was a pleasure for me to make this player based on your suggestions,
i use very simple graphics and it was not so much work, :wink:

but sorry to develop a hole theme or even a hole new iconset ( actual more than 180 icons ! )
i have really no time / power at the moment ,
maybe you can search for a already existed and matching theme and iconset ,
and merge them together.

Or one of the other Skinners can bring your ideas in the right form :) .
DreadM
Posts: 1018
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2008 1:09 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Emulator DJ skin, is it a reality?

Post by DreadM »

What you think about this overworked version ?

Image
djmt99
Posts: 153
Joined: Sat Jan 31, 2009 2:36 pm
Location: Worcester, MA

Re: Emulator DJ skin, is it a reality?

Post by djmt99 »

Good work! Any further updates on this skin, or are we still using the Emulator_0,1.msz link above?
Disc Jockey (DJ & VJ) ; AV & Lighting Tech ; Music Lover of all types
MediaMonkey Gold - Proud Lifetime License holder, Since Aug 2008
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