IMO shrinking the instrument is exactly the same as increasing the size
of the event because it is all relative. Currently we have 77px height
for the event, but this is entirely arbitrary.
Also I think the popup volume widget that totem uses would be good for
saving space. This widget is no
Well, I guess the most obvious alternative is to just place the volume
slider above the buttons, but again this still adds space. One solution
would be to shrink the instrument image so that the overall space is
identical to the space taken up before the volume slider was included, but I
imagine th