Klaus
The Console View is my main view during mixing and these little changes already improved my workflow because now I can see faster i.e. which plug-in is enabled, disabled or in focus/selected or which channel is muted, soloed, etc..

 
I really, really like what you did with the FX Racks. Any chance you could upload your theme for those of us who want to "reverse engineer" what you did?

Klaus
I didn't creat a whole theme but changed a lot of items, like MSR buttons, FX Rack, Pro Channel pre / post, etc. to make them more distinguishable for me and easier to catch the different states of a button at a glance.

Here is an example of what works really well for me:
 

 

Hey Klaus, that's really nice! Um... any chance of sharing your theme so that others may enjoy?

TranceCanada
I typically stick with my own Green Glow theme.

I've been digging your Green Glow theme also. Thanks for sharing!

Custom theme here - based on the Dark Theme, but more dark purple.
It's unfinished because when creating 3D buttons, some come out sketchy - which means needing multiple layers in PS to get them to look right. Trial and error for a rainy day project.
 
...and some of the areas are non-customizable, so there some off patches of color that don't match the theme. 

Anderton

Klaus
The Console View is my main view during mixing and these little changes already improved my workflow because now I can see faster i.e. which plug-in is enabled, disabled or in focus/selected or which channel is muted, soloed, etc..

 
I really, really like what you did with the FX Racks. Any chance you could upload your theme for those of us who want to "reverse engineer" what you did?

stickman393
 



Hey Klaus, that's really nice! Um... any chance of sharing your theme so that others may enjoy?

Sure!

The reason why I didn't share it before, is - well, it's not a complete "Theme" like those contributed by other forum members.

But if someone wants to use elements from my "theme" - feel free, I'm glad to share! 

Here's the link:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17710706/Jukebox.sth
 
Best,
Klaus
 

Still using Mercury here as I like the colored console and track strips.
 
I have poked around in the Theme Editor to see what it could do but that's about it. If I could do a theme with the strip colors then I would likely create my own.

I haven't played with the theme editor myself - hard enough to find time to actually make music these days! - but have tried out a few of those generously contributed by various members and sometimes change them up just for a bit of visual variety. I tend to like a dark look so variations on Tungsten get a lot of play - I like the Tuncury Light Green one a lot - but I do miss the fully coloured strips in Mercury a lot and hope that someday the theme engine will support something along these lines, given the many suggestions that were floated early on when Tungsten first appeared with its more uniform colour concept. 

∞

davec69
I use the custom theme that mixes the dark Tungsten background with the lighter Mercury buttons.  I do miss the colored channel strips though.

This is me too

Not for me. I do spend time just messing with stuff but theme editor is irritating.
 
 

I use custom themes all of the time now. I switch quite a bit, generally I use one of the darker Tungsten-based customs, but sometimes use the lighter color Tungsten-based themes. I haven't used a Mercury-based theme in any way since Tungsten has come out, however (unless one considers Mercsten or Tuncury to be Mercury-like; I consider them more Tungsten-oriented).

User themes go in "Cakewalk Content\SONAR Themes"
The default location is "C:\Cakewalk Content\SONAR Themes"
 

No, not me.
I really like Tungsten, tho. In general (and in saying this I don't mean to criticize all the brave souls who roll their own, on the contrary I applaud them) it seems to me that custom themes are made to fit the creator's needs and workflows or are more experimental; stunning to look at but fatiguing to work in after the WOW factor wears off. Tried a few, always went back.
 
I also think that opening part of the architecture of the program to customization might slow down the evolution of Sonar.
Example: The new trend is to have the mix window with channel strips in vector graphics. It's a great feature that really makes a difference in workflow (resizable, repositionable, etc..) and I happen to think that Sonar could benefit from it.
Now, let's assume Cakewalk wants to update the mixer window. What's someone who spent hours customizing their own channel strip to say? Probably they wouldn't be happy because the hours they put into creating their own GUI are useless now.
What would you do, go ahead and upset them or respect those users and not evolve?
 
Then again, many people are perfectly happy with the custom themes and the mixer window; this is just my personal opinion, respectfully expressed.

I would love to load custom themes, but cannot figure out where to put them or how to subsequently load the custom ones.  I remember following some instructions at some point, but it didn't work.  Would appreciate any guidance.

I love these poll threads where someone asks a question and before you know it people are explaining their family history