Anderton

Lynn
I ask for only one thing regarding colors.  Please make the contrast between the background color and the writing (text) greater regardless of which color scheme is used!  PLEASE  How hard can that be?

Meanwhile, consider bumping up contrast and/or brightness on your monitor. 

And it's also worth trying to adjust the Gamma Settings of your graphic card driver.
With every monitor I used in the past the default setting of 1.0 Gamma was always too bright for my taste.
Reducing Gamma on all channels to 0.85 or 0.80 helped a lot.
 

I am a big supporter in a color customizing changing from the battleship grey to something more customizable.
BUT...with that being said, colors are a very small part of what the software is used for, the color customizing in preferences is very in-depth. you can change a lot of things if you take the time to get in to it.
but Sonar is not photoshop, its not a graphics editor, its meant to do a few things and do them well. Record music, Use Synths, Plug ins, Amp sims, exc.
 
there are options out there like Duck bar but what I found is the more I get in to customizing (changing all my colors),
i get distracted and further away from the thing I sat down to do in the first place.
Make Music.
 

sonarman1
As for plainly the interface, its a matter of personal preference, where would you like to sit and mix(do not get into the technical details just think of the place you would like to sit)

here



or here




I will go with the second one.. Unless I am remixing a club song. 

 
I wonder if the day will come when the  interface/graphics look just like those pics..like a photo, that would be pretty cool I think...The ability to customize the look to where it actually looks like a real photo..I've noticed plugpins have gotten real snazzy almost to the point of photo realism for some...that is cool!

 
As cool as that is, I kind of hope it goes the other way and moves away from old school realism (by which I refer more to the second photo than the first!)  As digital computer based audio continues to develop capabilities that analogue equipment didn't have, we could move away from emulating old technology and think only of functionality, developing entirely new interfaces.

I actually like both consoles too, but agree that things should progress beyond the console. Is home studio work, like old rock n rollers, predominately made up of the older generations who like things the good 'ol way ??  Just asking.
 
I actually really like the layout, and colour, of Tracktion. It's come a long way in recent years and certainly taken off in it's own direction. Sonar is unique too, but Skylight is getting along in age.
 
But honestly, when I'm working, couldn't really care what it looks like as long as I can find my way around easily and it does what I need it to do. That matters most. And Sonar, for me, wins on that score.

ye

MacFurse
I actually like both consoles too, but agree that things should progress beyond the console. Is home studio work, like old rock n rollers, predominately made up of the older generations who like things the good 'ol way ??  Just asking.
 
I actually really like the layout, and colour, of Tracktion. It's come a long way in recent years and certainly taken off in it's own direction. Sonar is unique too, but Skylight is getting along in age.
 
But honestly, when I'm working, couldn't really care what it looks like as long as I can find my way around easily and it does what I need it to do. That matters most. And Sonar, for me, wins on that score.

 
yea, ultimately it IS about the sound/useability.....,but, after staring at it for hours daily writing/recording/learining...the look matters to me....maybe some new paradigm would be in order too....it doesn't necessarily have to mimic real hardware....if it was simplified but with a high res, 3d look..yea, that might be cool...what that paradigm is though, I don't know

sonarman1
I personally like it that way. It's a color that wouldn't hurt your eyes even after long time exposure. Also a colour like grey doesn't influence you into liking particular kind of sounds. Colours matters a lot. 

 
I agree, but I think there are people who want a color that is more suitable for a particular kind of sounds/music they make. For example, heavy metal composers probably desperately need black.
 
 

trtzbass
Example: Cubase, not to name names. Terrific program with a fantastic audio engine and great workflow. I can't look at the damned thing for more than 30 minutes without wanting to switch it off. The colour gradients are an eyesore and give the screen a bit of a Fischer - Price vibe.

 
In my case, it's the look of their mixer view rather than the color gradients that discourages me from trying the software. It just looks so childish and unprofessional... 
 
 

trtzbass
I can tell what bothers me about the Sonar GUI as well (it's fair to move critiques to all the players in the game).
The menus still have that Win 95 look to them and the same you can say for the quantize window and the such.
I find it spoils the awesome high class polished vibe of Skylight. 

 
Yes, it's terrible especially when you use the Windows Classic theme (I'm on Win7, and use a custom theme created from the Classic theme just because I HATE the fat title bars in the new themes). 

The recent versions of Cubase are really designed for star trek . I had demo'd them out of curiosity, everything's clean, too clean yet for some reason i couldn't bear working in that interface.
Must have inspired Hanz Zimmer in creating interstellar though. 

I agree, but I think there are people who want a color that is more suitable for a particular kind of sounds/music they make. For example, heavy metal composers probably desperately need black.
 

Yes agreed. Take the first picture I posted Wouldn't it be bang on to sit there and do a remix or dub-step or what ever something that evokes a night life experience. Its something indeed!

On the other hand, I think sonar's interface gives a neutral balanced feel. Plus the Dark, Bright, mono colour templates in colour tab in preferences window really helps. Also I believe while looking at the colour like grey we perceive the sounds for what they are, while the influence of some fancy colours does change the way our brain perceives the audio. Yes! precisely they colour our perception. It seems..  A grey or some something like that is like having a colour that helps our brain for flat perception.

sonarman1
On the other hand, I think sonar's interface gives a neutral balanced feel. Plus the Dark, Bright, mono colour templates in colour tab in preferences window really helps. Also I believe while looking at the colour like grey we perceive the sounds for what they are, while the influence of some fancy colours does change the way our brain perceives the audio. Yes! precisely they colour our perception. It seems..  A grey or some something like that is like having a colour that helps our brain for flat perception.

 
Yes, I totally agree. I hope the current GUI will be either the default or one of available themes in the upcoming UI update. A small minority of Studio One users really liked the look of S1 version 2 (although I always found it dull, boring and depressing), but they lost it in version 3.