Do you remember Winamp? Maybe you remember its tagline, “Winamp: It really whips the llama's ass”? Launched in 1997, Winamp was one

Why are there so many knobs in GarageBand?

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2021-06-14 21:30:07

Do you remember Winamp? Maybe you remember its tagline, “Winamp: It really whips the llama's ass”? Launched in 1997, Winamp was one of the earliest ways to listen to MP3s, making it possible to easily enjoy music on the desktop PC. It also had a completely skinnable interface, opening the door to some truly heinous fan-designed skeuomorphism.

Skeuomorphic design, where user interfaces emulate the appearance of physical objects, has been popular for pretty much the history of personal computing. The ideas of “files,” “folders,” and the “recycle bin” in Windows could be considered skeuomorphs, intended to help transition early computer users from analog to digital, as could the idea of an “inbox” and “outbox” in email and the paperclip that symbolizes attachments. More recently, a lot of early iOS apps were famous for their heavy-handed skeuomorphic elements, with felt textures and chunky drop shadows.

But no area of computing has so thoroughly gone for it more than audio software. The first Billboard #1 single that was recorded to a hard drive instead of tape was “Livin’ La Vida Loca” in 1999; 18 years later, in 2017, most audio software still looks like the designers attempted to replicate physical equipment piece for piece on a computer screen. Faders, switches, knobs, needles twitching between numbers on a volume meter — they’re all there. Except you have to control them with a mouse.

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