definitely looking good. the circles have grown on me 
offtopic, but what happened to you account?
porl
porl: I accidentaly deleted it when I actually meant to kick a bloody spammer :}
Mute, solo, rec buttons and stuff 
Holy crap, this is a sweet thread. I had no idea this brainstorming was going on. You are singlehandedly reinventing the routing matrix and mixer abstractions. I’m pumped to see the results in action!
cbreeze34: heh, thanks!
Continued:
i love the last mockup on matrix-12 (matrix_global_07_e.png). it is pretty much exactly what i had in mind the mute, solo and record buttons are spot on, i wouldn’t change a thing. the only (incredibly minor) thing i would suggest is to change the ‘right mouse’ cell highlight thingy from an old-fashioned looking dotted rectangle (reminds me of win9x days) to a slightly faded copy of the ‘normal mouse’ cell indicator thingy. the way they are now just seems to stick out in an unappealing way compared to the rest of the screen.
as i said though, this is an extremely minor issue - it is looking great
porl
edit: oops, i didn’t see the gain levels screenshot… i really like that idea, although i’m not sure paul will think it is necessary what about implementing that idea somehow in the arrange window? i still think there needs to be some sort of toggleable mini-mixer view with the arrange window (like sonar does, but not as elaborate, as there is the editor-mixer panel for more advanced work).
porl: The dotted line style should help to link the framed info text with the rectangle(s). A faded copy wouldn’t work for this. Plus the contrast can be kept high this way.
The gain levels are not exactly necessary
But the next thing right after solo/mute that could lead to other than the expected results when changing connections would be the levels …
I’m thinking about having (optionally) 2 mixer strips on the right for source and destination. Plus a cell cursor working like in a spreadsheet.
Let’s not get into the editor or any other window (except if it’s about some interoperation).
Thank you, porl!
i think the 2 mixer strips is a great idea. maye have the input on the left of the matrix dialog and the output on the right? or what about having the gain levels show in the matrix cell somehow, since the ‘gain level’ is really only valid for one output, not sends etc. maybe some of the ideas you tried in the midi mockups for velocity could be adapted?
porl
Yet another one:
i think keeping the label sections on the bottom but doing the top-aligned text (as in the second shot) is the best of the four, but i like the suggestion of rdoursenaud on your blog to try sources on the top and destinations on the right. i think this feels more familiar to someone used to an analogue desk, with the input channels running top to bottom, and sending the outputs (aux sends etc) towards the groups/busses etc to the right. in fact now that i think about it it feels kind of weird not seeing it like that it would also save screen space, with the top labels leaning into the space above the right labels.
keep it up!
porl
Finally the missing layout variant: