Drum machine UI showdown: GPT-5.6 Sol vs Claude Fable
A developer building a drum sequencer VST plugin pitted (Ultra) against (Max) in a head-to-head UI design test. Both models started from the same base UI and got identical prompts: a vintage/classic console style, a fun/retro style with a teenage-engineering vibe, and two designs of their own choosing, with full creative freedom to build custom controls, UIs, and SVGs or overhaul the template entirely.
Fable's two free-choice designs were named Blackout and Phosphor; Sol's were Blacksite and Abyssal Bloom. Overall the two models landed at a similar creative level.
Sol was more willing to overhaul the layout, which was a plus, but fell short on execution details — text spilling out of and icons misaligned across the fun/retro design in particular. Fable delivered noticeably more polished, consistent results.
Key points
- (Ultra) and (Max) were given the same drum sequencer VST UI design task
- Compared across 4 styles: vintage/classic, fun/retro, plus two free-choice designs each
- Both models showed similar creative ambition
- Sol was bolder about overhauling layouts but had text overflow and icon mis issues
- Fable produced more polished, consistent results overall