Old GUI

I've had Sonar Pro over a year now and I still work a lot faster using 8.5.3. I only use the new one for new features in editing. Is there any way to make it look like and work like Sonar 8.5.3?

Basically no.
 
And 8.5 is no longer supported by Cakewalk, nor is it being updated.

Unfortunately, Jonesey's correct. The answer is "no". You can, of course, customize colors and appearance so it superficially looks more like 8.5, but program behaviors are baked into the executable and for the most part cannot be changed.
 
As a longtime holdout for 8.5 myself (I skipped X1, X2, X3 and the first 2 years of X-whatever-this-is-now) I too found the switch awkward at first. But as I no longer had 8.5 on my new computer I had no choice but to commit to the new paradigm. The good news is that now, a year-and-a-half later, I have fully adjusted and no longer feel the least bit encumbered by the new environment.
 
And I'm an old man who still keeps a DOS window open at all times - if I can adapt, anybody can!

I'm exactly the same story as Bitflipper. I ended up with a copy of X1LE and the whole take lanes and editing drove me nuts,, so I held on to 8.5 up until X3e. At that point this forum was now reporting a stable version. I saved a lot of money skipping those nasty X versions and I think within a week or so I sorted out X3. I still have no clue about take lanes and just ignore there existance. 
I was keeping good ol' 8.5 installed for a long time but now I only use Splat without any desire of ever wanting 8.5 back. I also run Home Studio on a laptop and often will miss a Splat feature even doing simple stuff. 
 
Just forget 8.5 and spend more time with Platinium you'll soon, like all of us, forget 8.5 even existed. 
But yes, the dark look of the new Sonars is depressing. I just suck it up as messing with trivial things like that takes away from my fun. 

☺

MDI Is never coming back, sadly.
You can blame mobile and our fat fingers.
 
Onward and upward.
 

I jpetersen,

The "real-estate" was better with S8.5, as well as rhe "vividity" of the colors. I jump on the X train when it came out and felt the difference right.

Note that "real-estate" is something that popped when microsft office application went "bubbly".

ooh but you can "roll the banner up and down"...the call that a feature. Yoo bad the don't have a feature to make the wondow's side narrower.

ok it's not a microsoft groupe.....but pverall it's a very approach to gui implementation. But what do I know, I'm an old guy that doesn't have a smart phone, has never sent a texto, tweet, instagram, or pictures of a meal I'm eating....cheers everyone.....(-:

mariogag
The "real-estate" was better with S8.5, as well as rhe "vividity" of the colors. I jump on the X train when it came out and felt the difference right.

Note that "real-estate" is something that popped when microsft office application went "bubbly".

ooh but you can "roll the banner up and down"...the call that a feature. Yoo bad the don't have a feature to make the wondow's side narrower.

ok it's not a microsoft groupe.....but pverall it's a very approach to gui implementation. But what do I know, I'm an old guy that doesn't have a smart phone, has never sent a texto, tweet, instagram, or pictures of a meal I'm eating....cheers everyone.....(-:

Perhaps that's why you can't use sonar efficiently?