I don't see a problem
 

Did you seen the last sound on sound???
Did you seen the Cubase mixer gui???
One word......a toy
Bad meters colors.....bad sliders.....very ugly!!!
Sonar mixer is very real...
i like so much the ssl knob style for instance....
It's just my opinion.
Best

BobF
I don't see a problem

Well, if I close my eyes going through an intersection I might not see a car wreck, either. (I'm on my iPad and can't seem to access the smiley-winkey emoticon I would like to use here.)
I'm not going to play post the video. Guessing you don't use ACT. (It's easy to check it in SONAR), but Swamptooth's example of the plugin menu is another example too.
I bet there are some menus in SONAR you'd like to see up dated too.

Totally agree. I don't use the click insert fx much now, just dragging from the browser is way more convenient. I rarely do anything via context menus or the main menu at all - it's pretty much all hotkeys and media browser actions.

Brando

BobF
I don't see a problem

Well, if I close my eyes going through an intersection I might not see a car wreck, either. (I'm on my iPad and can't seem to access the smiley-winkey emoticon I would like to use here.)
I'm not going to play post the video. Guessing you don't use ACT. (It's easy to check it in SONAR), but Swamptooth's example of the plugin menu is another example too.
I bet there are some menus in SONAR you'd like to see up dated too.

:)  I posted that limited view of menus expecting something more specific than was originally posted.  As we've seen, a broad-brush statement about menus needing to be updated isn't very helpful in terms of thinking about specific plans of action.
 
BTW, I only use ACT just enough to get the xport buttons on my MPD26 working.  Like the Drummap Manager, friendly port names. plugin manager and a few other things, I find ACT to too twisted to bother with.  Collectively, having better (meaning straight-forward) *functionality* in these things would represent a large improvement to Sonar, in MY opinion.
 
A wholesale menu beautification project would be much less beneficial to me.  I say this in reference to the OP, which was ALL about appearance.
 
So if it's OK with you, I'll keep my eyes open when I drive thru the intersection - all the while less concerned about the color of the other autos than I am about their attempts to occupy the same spot on the road as me, while I'm still in that same spot 
 

I agree with Brando in function over form. Some items can use a nice overhaul, but not to make them prettier.

BTW... Don't use your iPad while driving, it will cut down on the accidents at intersections that you drive through. :D

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

I don't see what's particularly "dinosaur-ish" about not seeing a problem with standard Windows menus in an application. I asked you for an example of a DAW which has better looking menus, I would expand that request to include examples of any app at all which has "better menus" which not only look more pleasing but have better functionality. Menus are menus, there's nothing really exciting about them and changing them won't help you make music. If you're getting your creative spark from different colored menus then hey what can I say, I'm glad to be a dinosaur 
 
What others have said here is true man, there's a reason why apps use standard Windows GUI elements for some things and that's because a) they were developed by people who really know how to make clear, functional GUI's and b) there's absolutely no need to change them. 
 
I guess you'd like a spruced up file picker too? Personally I hate it when developers have used non-standard GUI libraries for things like menus and file pickers. It almost always looks and feels awful. As much as I love Melda plugins, they have that non-standard look about them. Same thing with Jamstix. I freaking hate the menus in Jamstix, they don't work the same as standard Windows apps. The bottom line is that there are some elements of an app's GUI that you can go creatively nuts with, and others that are best left to Microsoft for a good reason. 

Sharke you hit the nail on the head with that comment about the Melda preset menus. Welcome to the dinosaur club!

I'm happy with the menus. The Plugin and Drum Map managers, on the other hand...

I more or less like the menu structure but it can be simplified and made more logical. Especially helpful for new users and does nothing to slow down workflow.

I don't have Sonar in front of me right now, but from memory, a classic example is the INSERT menu. And yet we have other INSERT functionality embedded elsewhere away from the INSERT menu. If you put on the logic goggles it's not consistent. Just subtle changes needed... It's just a matter of a little refining...