THEME EDITOR - Oh FFS!

Please excuse my exasperation. I thought this would be the Saviour I had been waiting for but no.
Please refer to this thread I posted in the Features and Ideas section.
http://forum.cakewalk.com/Please-bring-back-coloured-strips-in-Tungsten-m3429609.aspx
 
I showed a mockup of what I need my SONAR to look like. It got massive support form SONAR users and absolutely no response from Cakewalk. The basic feature in a nutshell is to take the dark Tungsten theme and bring back coloured strips, which are absolutely essential in large projects, but those coloured strips would be darker than the pale versions in Mercury.
 
I thought that the new Theme Editor would solve this issue. Not only does this feature appear to be completely missing, but it's actually worse than that.
        
There is a big difference between Mercury and Tungsten, not only in colours and images. Mercury offers coloured strips and Tungsten doesn't. But I want my coloured strips to be dark and not pale like they are in Mercury (refer to the image I created in the aforementioned thread.

So it would appear that I cannot start with the Tungsten theme and add the strip colours.

So I thought "Oh well, I'll have to start with the Mercury theme which does have this feature and do a hell of a lot more editing to get the darker UI I need". Well that idea isn't going to happen either.

What I immediately discovered is that as soon as you make any change to the original Mercury theme however small, the resulting theme removes strip colours. WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!   WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN???
 

Please chip in this time Cakewalk and tell me I'm wrong and am missing something.
 
 
 
 
 

yes, without this it makes little sense to move away from original theme,
in dark theme ProChannel has no color indication of track selected which irritates me most

When/if they do bring it back (I'd bet on the former), it's already possible to make darker strips when using the original, unmodified Mercury theme so it would be possible to make darker strips in other themes as long as the strip colorization option exists.
 
As to no response from Cakewalk, they're not going to respond unless they have something definite. I do know they are aware that it's important to users to be able to do colored strips. However, apparently it's not as simple to implement as it might seem. I suspect like many of the features, there will be updates to the Theme Editor that reflect community sentiment (consider how many improvements were made to Mix Recall since its inception).

Hi Craig
 
You can't darken the coloured strips in Mercury in any usable way.
If I chose Black as my track colour then I can get a dark grey strip. However, now I have black wave forms on dark grey clip background. As you cannot change the default clip background colours from dark grey that would make the clips pane unusable. Changing clip colours can only be done after the fact. Completely unsatisfactory. I've been banging on about this issue for years too and still no joy. Can't think why we still can't have clip backgrounds respond to track colour.

Hi Reso...
 
I agree. I really do hope this is a bug and not deliberate.

How do I get rid of that terrible orange FX buttons in the FX bin? I can't find the target in the theme editor

RedSkyRoad
How do I get rid of that terrible orange FX buttons in the FX bin? I can't find the target in the theme editor

im also trying to figure that out.

that

chuckebaby

RedSkyRoad
How do I get rid of that terrible orange FX buttons in the FX bin? I can't find the target in the theme editor

im also trying to figure that out.

The color of the FX buttons are located in the Theme Editor under: FX Rack.  There are several different graphics used for the FX button color. 
 
The particular graphics image depends on whether the FX button is: active, clicked, mouse hovering over button, etc.  The "Name Background" controls the color when effect is on/off,  and "Name Background (ACT Focus)" when the button is highlighted.  I believe "Open Plug-in UI" controls the background when the FX button is selected or mouse is hovering.  I might have the image names reversed.  Also note that the "Open Plug-in" has three different shades. I'm not sure which shade is used in which context. There are some other less obvious graphics used for the FX buttons too (e.g. the on/off).
 
Using an image editor, I changed the FX button graphics for the Mercury theme to make an enabled plug more obvious.  It worked well.  As a test, I tried changing the FX Rack "Name Background" image for Tungsten to a gray shade, and that worked too.  
 
Hope that helps.
 
edit: clarified active/selected/hover images. 

I think you'll find an interesting quote from a baker at the end of this video that pretty much sums it up.
"I think it looks worse, but that's OK"..
 
 
 link won't post. try this
youtube.com/watch?v=431rpG4C7y4

I was hoping to be able to fix this issue by using the Theme Editor, and also change the colors of the buttons in the FX Racks. But, as the OP says, changing even a single color using the editor and saving the theme removes the full strip coloring capability from the Mercury theme (which is my favorite theme among all DAWs). 
 
 

zoffmeister
I've been asking for nearly a decade and ProTools had this figured out many many versions ago. I've been a Cakewalk user for 18 years, since Pro Audio 8. I'm loyal. But this has frustrated me for so long that I'm downloading ProTools First just to see if I like it. Hopefully I won't.

 
Any reason why you don't use Panu's Duckbar? Maybe it doesn't work in post-X3 SONAR versions? I've never used it, so I don't know. If it still works, I think it's better than switching to Pro Tools and learning everything from scratch. Btw, your claims are fully understandable. I don't find the thread negative at all.
  
 

noynekker
Thought I would keep it real simple, edit just one colour in this new Theme Editor. I was able to change the Track Text Name colour in Track View for all "Instrument Tracks". YAY ! However, when I change the Track Text Name colour in Console View to that same colour . . . it just doesn't work ? I've gone over it a number of times, but just can't get it to work.

 
I'm not sure because I don't use Simple Instrument Tracks, but can't the track text name color for SITs be changed via the Preferences' Colors page? Or maybe the issue I pointed to above also broke it??

noynekker
when you go to Preferences' Colours page you can only edit older themes (bright, dark, mono, normal), not the newer Tungsten Theme.

 
Ah, I see. The two different color-editing methods (one of which only works with one of the themes) will definitely confuse users!

RedSkyRoad
Figured it out - I have to go to Preferences --> themes and EDIT the Tungsten theme from there.  Not go to Theme editor directly

Glad you discovered the solution.  I wrote a couple of paragraphs and posted them just after your edit.  I removed my response to reduce clutter.  Let me know if you need more suggestions.  The Theme Editor is new to all. 
 
edit:  RedSkyRoad found a solution.
 

RedSkyRoad
Figured it out - I have to go to Preferences --> themes and EDIT the Tungsten theme from there.  Not go to Theme editor directly

Theme editor is not available to me at this location. Only under utilities. How do I get it to appear at preferences/themes ?
 
And, What is a "strip" and/or "strips" ?
Thanks

That's my point Tom. There is no "Edit" button. And yes, everything is installed that needs to be installed (at least according to command center). 

Thanks. that worked scook and Tom. I had clicked all the updates. I guess CCC missed one.