Products · Broad category
VST plugins
Raised as a usability problem by 7 people on Hacker News over 14 years (2013–2026), in 9 threads.
This is a broad category rather than one product, so its issues aren't ranked on the home page.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Round knobs are fiddly and hard to control with mouse or touchpadUnreviewed
20132026- Round knobs are fiddly and hard to control with a mouse or touchpad2026-09-01
- Simulated knob requires awkward circular, horizontal or vertical cursor dragging to adjust2026-03-21
- Knobs need different mouse gestures in different plugins, so users can't predict how to turn them2021-07-14
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 9 complaints
- Round knobs are fiddly and hard to control with a mouse or touchpad2026-09-01
- Simulated knob requires awkward circular, horizontal or vertical cursor dragging to adjust2026-03-21
- Delay effect plugin UI takes up half the monitor, too much space2022-08-28
- Knobs need different mouse gestures in different plugins, so users can't predict how to turn them2021-07-14
- Cluttered and hard to understand, with many hidden features and menus2020-12-24
- UI elements too small and hard to read, unusable at high display resolutions for users with poor eyesight2017-11-24
- VST plugin windows are unusably small on high-resolution displays and look ugly2016-08-22
- Skeuomorphic knobs and buttons hurt the user experience versus simpler designs2013-07-16
- Knobs behave as sliders, which confuses users2013-05-05