Picking Fingers in Your Language: Twenty Languages, One Experiment in Supporting People Properly
Picking Fingers 1.1.0 has a LANG key in the header. Every bit of text that exists to help you, the privacy notice, the support and unlock messages, the survey, now comes in twenty languages. The dials stay exactly as they are, because BITE is BITE everywhere and nobody needs a translation of ATTACK.
馃嚞馃嚙 馃嚚馃嚦 馃嚠馃嚦 馃嚜馃嚫 馃嚝馃嚪 馃嚫馃嚘 馃嚙馃嚛 馃嚙馃嚪 馃嚪馃嚭 馃嚨馃嚢 馃嚡馃嚨 馃嚠馃嚬 馃嚛馃嚜 馃嚫馃嚜 馃嚨馃嚤 馃嚦馃嚤 馃嚝馃嚠 馃嚭馃嚘 馃嚠馃嚛 馃嚬馃嚟
English, Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, French, Arabic, Bengali, Portuguese, Russian, Urdu, Japanese, Italian, German, Swedish, Polish, Dutch, Finnish, Ukrainian, Indonesian and Thai.
Why the support text and not the dials
Bass players everywhere already read a plugin the same way: the dial names are the shared language. Where people get stuck is the text around the plugin. What is this consent notice asking me? What does this support message want me to do? Where do I send a bug? That is the text that decides whether someone feels looked after or brushed off, and it is the text that was only ever in English. So that is what got translated first.
It is an experiment, and a first pass
This is me finding out how to support people properly when English is not their first language. The translations will have rough edges, and I would rather ship them and fix them than sit on them. If you pick a language and something reads wrong, the lightbulb in the footer sends it straight to me, in whatever language you like. I will keep improving each language release by release.
What I am measuring
The plugin already counts anonymous usage, with a clearly labelled opt-out in the SYS panel and a notice that asks before it starts. From 1.1.0, the language you pick is stamped on those counts as a two-letter code, never who you are, and the plugin sends an hourly snapshot of its dial state so I can see what actually gets used. Between the two I can see which languages people choose and whether the support text is doing its job. Where a language gets picked, that is where I go deeper next: more depth in the text, and eventually the same treatment in every plugin. Right now the honest number is zero, because the feature is hours old, and I will publish what it says once there is something to say.
Everything else in 1.1.0
- Five voices: PICK 1, PICK 2, FINGERS 1, FINGERS 2 and OFF, with AUTO-GAIN so switching compares character, not volume.
- A PRESET key with factory presets, your own presets, and Load from URL.
- Pro Tools: PACE-signed AAX in the macOS installer and a signed Windows AAX.
- Signed Windows builds, a resizable editor, the LISTEN menu, the lightbulb and the ear.
- The REAPER unload crash is fixed. Sound unchanged at the same settings, sessions carry over.
It is free, for any use, commercial productions included. Get it here, and if it earns a place on your tracks, here is how to support the work. You'll hear Box Of Rules plugins on Box Of Rules songs.