sharke
Which DAW's have better looking menus?

I'm pretty sure the OP is referring to menus inside the daw, like for picking a bus to send to and not the main menu bar.  
Here's a shot of submenus in both - Cubase on the left, Live on the right.
The bakers have been making the entire gui skylight-themed, including the changes to graphics for autosnap in the platinum release, so this might be an area to improve as well.  

The main pull-down application menus should be left well alone. There's a reason MS recommendeda standard approach. Once upon a time I had to use Lotus Notes and 123, which used their own menu system that was quite unlike the Windows standard and made switching between applications more confusing than it should have been.

I've also used custom-built software where the developer chose, for reasons unknown, not to stick to Windows hot keys, to break things like tabbing between data input fields, ignore the Windows API regarding right mouse button clicks and all sorts of strangeness. User friendly that approach is not.

As for the menus for assigning track inputs and outputs, I couldn't really care what colour they are. I'd much rather the development time was spent arranging for audio inputs to be shown in a better way than the confusing "left number1, right number 1, stereo number 1". Applying the way MIDI inputs can be named to audio ins and outs would be a more useful thing to change than the appearance of the menu,

If they were to do something like this, I'd like to see it more akin to "skinning" the dropdowns that are presented by Windows than replacing the menuing system with a custom one.  WindowBlinds has done this over the years for a ton of themes that really look pretty cool - if that's your sort of thing.
 
Breaking the Windows conventions would be a terrible idea though.  For example, in our new helpdesk system, the drop down menus require that after we select the item, we click a little blue check mark to confirm the drop down menu choice.  I almost forget to click that every time and it means that the drop down closes without my selection.  It doesn't really serve a purpose, since you could just click the dropdown menu again and make a different selection.  It's not like the GUI takes that selection from the dropdown and immediately acts on it - it just populates the selection anyway.  So it's a waste of time and outside of the normal flow of how every other application treats a drop down menu.
 
Skinning would be the answer here, and I've got to imagine that it isn't that terribly hard to do.  I DO have to say that I don't believe it's terribly necessary though.

I've long thought that one of the key strengths of Sonar, way back to when it wasn't even called Sonar, is that it's truly Windows native. If you can use WordPad, or MS Paint, you can, at a core fundamental level, use Sonar. That's what it has - on the Windows platform - over the multitude of DAWs that have their roots on Mac. Not saying either OS is better or worse than the other, but if you're a Windows user, then the fundamental Windows-ness of Sonar is a really positive quality.

To give a different example of what I don't like: Izotope make some wonderful products, in terms of what they can do with audio. Ozone and RX are absolutely indispensable to me. However, not only do they have wacky non-standard UI, every Izotope product has a different wacky non-standard UI, and they change the non-standard UI of every product with every update. They're always beautiful looking, but it's a madman's breakfast, in terms of repeatable workflow.

well then oops. should not have mentioned it as the dinosaurs have spoken. oh wait, dinosaurs don't talk :)

Hmm.

It's okay to mention anything. A lack of universal agreement doesn't make anyone a dinosaur.

John T
Good god no. There's an OS-wide standard for menu form and function. A special Sonar-only menu system would be both a colossal waste of development time, and inevitably less complete and easy to use than the standardised Windows one.

js516
If you have used the latest of Microsoft products, you'd notice that menus have been replaced by ribbons and quick access toolbars. So as far as "Windows standard" goes, old style drop down menus are no longer it.

Exactly there are multiple UI's for the developer to call upon which are standard. You can have old style Win 3.1 if you want ;) Let's forget the metro UI shall we ;) Think sales ladies and gentlemen..!

Of course there are better things to do first, and like I said if a UI improvement makes things worst then there is no point.Pretty and usability should come hand in hand otherwise it's a #fail. That means don't make it pretty and make it less usable otherwise it will be a big screw up. However it is perfectly possible to make it pretty and easier to use. There is certainly a lot that can be done to improve the UI and usability.

The big issue as everybody knows is people hate change (check this thread) and people hear more about bad UI changes rather than good ones, and people hate UI's that slow down their workflow that is a given. Some touchscreen UI's are a crime...because they screw the workflow.

Old customers are perfectly happy I'm sure (like me) but Cakewalk needs more new customers.. Customers are looking for an experience nowadays It's not enough for instance for a phone to make one generic ringing sound. Yeah your Nokia was great but somebody else now sells more smart phones than anybody else... And the nearest rival also sells a shed load..

Splat
Pretty and usability should come hand in hand otherwise it's a #fail. 

True... now which is more useful from an insert fx on a track operation...

swamptooth

Splat
Pretty and usability should come hand in hand otherwise it's a #fail. 

True... now which is more useful from an insert fx on a track operation...
(Image removed)

Have to agree. But a lot of the problem in SONAR is the organization of the content of the menus. I was just working in ACT - the menu to assign a control to a controller is just a mess. A big, seemingly haphazard list, somewhat organized by type - none of which I can exclude or filter in any way - so I select the same item 8 different times by scrolling down a menu bar to an approximate location down the list, search, select, repeat.
I don't care what the menus look like personally - but the content and organization are critical. Function over form, IMO.