The series continues! My second Rack Extension art mockup is a slate-blue synthesizer with a colorful touchscreen and plenty of visible wear and tear from use.

Rack Extension art mockup #2 by Michael Mancuso (Click for fullsize)

Obviously, as stated when I posted the first mockup a few days ago, these don’t make any actual sound. While I’d be eager of course to jump on board with any developers wanting to implement Gelatin and Plum controls on their synths, this design itself is just an artistic exercise. Knobs and switches here were arranged primarily based on their appearance, given that they mostly have no actual functions assigned to them.

Though Propellerhead Software has yet to make publicly available the exact official specifications for interface design in Rack Extensions, I’ve given quite a bit of study to their own interfaces and aimed to model the lighting and general appearance of mine to match closely with their own work. I’m aiming to make each of these mockups a greater accomplishment than the one that came before it, so for the mockup I’m currently working on, I’m focusing more directly on usability by creating a Reason-styled interface design based on a popular plug-in that already exists as a VST.

Now, as a Reason user, I have to expound further on what excites me so much about the Rack Extension concept in the first place, because users and developers both will benefit hugely from it: Integration into the Reason rack will actually enable plug-ins to be combined in a way that makes them far greater than the sum of their parts. Continue reading →