Track Icons resizing?

Hello all --

Long time lurker, first time poster :)

Haven't been able to find any info on the web about this, but I find the Track Icons feature extremely useful. Thus, I've created a bunch of custom icons for use on my track templates. I've noticed that when I save a file or track template with these icons, all sorts of odd things start happening:

1) I hope I can explain this clearly... a couple of custom icons are copied and stored in subfolders (once the template is saved) other than the ones from which they were inserted. For instance, I created an icon for a Waldorf Micro-Q that was originally in a subfolder called "synth". I then moved the icon to a folder called "Synths" and rebuilt my template... including Loading the icon from the new Synths folder. However, on save, SONAR recreated the synth subfolder with the Micro-Q icon in it. If I deleted this folder, the icon would still appear in my project, and SONAR would recreate the subfolder. What's weird is that no other icons I created and moved from the original directory manifest this behavior. Instead...

2) Many of the icons seem to copy themselves from the subfolder in which they're stored and "move up" a directory into the Track Icons root folder, meaning I now have 2 copies of every icon (although in different directories) after saving a track template.

3) Finally, the icons seem to be resizing themselves in the Track View. I'll insert them, and they look good. If I save and close the project, upon reopening, "some" of the icons will be smaller, surrounded by a grey box. What's weird is that it doesn't happen to all of them, even though they were all created with the same parameters from the same file. (128x128 bitmaps -- the same size as many of the stock icons).

Anyhow, has anyone else encountered similar issues, or is there something that I'm missing in this process?

Thanks in advance! (By the way, if anyone would like copies of the images, I'm more than happy to share -- they *did* come out nice, if I do say so myself :) There's ones for: Roland XV-88, XP-50, JUNO-106 and Fantom XR, Casio CZ-1000, Waldorf Micro-Q, DSI Evolver, KORG Legacy Collection, M1 and padKONTROL, Alesis SR-16, NI Komplete collection, Arturia minimoog v and CS-80v, AAS Lounge Lizard, and probably some others I'm forgetting.)

t.p

Let this serve as a BUMP and a request...

I'm still getting all kinds of weird behavior with the size of Track Icons, so I tried the following.

I created a single audio track in an otherwise blank project and loaded one of the default icons -- one of the acoustic guitars. I saved it as a track template called 'Test'. I then inserted the new Test template numerous times and found that it will either: display the icon on the newly inserted track at the wrong size (sometimes), or it will affect the size of just some of same icons in the existing tracks. I watched the icon on Track 3 slowly shrink away to nothingness as I continued to insert additional tracks from the very same template. What's going on here?!

Anyhow, if anyone has a couple of minutes and can confirm this phenomenon using the procedure above... well, at least I'll feel better about myself :) I know it's no big deal, but clearly, something doesn't appear to be working as it should.

Strangely, I created an elaborate template for Kontakt and nary one of the icons there misbehave.

I sent a reply but I'll also add here :)

The 128x128 size is the recommended size according to the SONAR manual which is why I starting experimenting with the stock icons -- what I found seems to be related to track templates, and not the graphics files. *Any* icon I insert into (and save with) a project file works fine, but if I save a track template that contains icons, I get the random behavior described above -- this includes the stock icons, not just the ones I created.

Another thought: I generally reorganize my SONAR directories so that my CAL files, Templates, StudioWare, etc. are in individual directories rather than jumbled all together in the default "Sample Content" directory. I don't remember if the track icons resided here by default as well, but perhaps moving them to a new directory has such an effect?

ORIGINAL: TagPass

I sent a reply but I'll also add here :)

The 128x128 size is the recommended size according to the SONAR manual which is why I starting experimenting with the stock icons -- what I found seems to be related to track templates, and not the graphics files. *Any* icon I insert into (and save with) a project file works fine, but if I save a track template that contains icons, I get the random behavior described above -- this includes the stock icons, not just the ones I created.

Another thought: I generally reorganize my SONAR directories so that my CAL files, Templates, StudioWare, etc. are in individual directories rather than jumbled all together in the default "Sample Content" directory. I don't remember if the track icons resided here by default as well, but perhaps moving them to a new directory has such an effect?

I don't remember if the track icons resided here by default as well, but perhaps moving them to a new directory has such an effect?

That has no effect as I've moved all my files that are shared by the various versions of SONAR into a directory structure called Shared folders. I got tired of losing my preferences and set ups because I get a whim to uninstall or reinstall a past version.

ORIGINAL: Mod Bod

Send them to me at icons@plasticsamerica.com and I'll add them to the compressed collection that I host there.

You can get to these icons at http://www.plasticsamerica.com/Company/icons.htm

Thanks, Dave! I just downloaded and checked them out. I'll be loading these in. I'll send you some new icons I've created as well.

Great stuff!

Corey

Thanks much for all your help, Dave -- I appreciate it. I will try to convert to 96dpi and see if that makes a difference; however, it still doesn't explain why I'm finding the same behavior with the stock icons.

Ah, I didn't pickup that you where having the same problem with stock icons. Try doing ALL stock icons on a project and see if the problem manifests.

ORIGINAL: gnie

I've had some weird things happen while making icons too. Backgrounds would disappear, for instance. I found I could make 128x128 as long as the space was completely surrounded by a border [I used black].

When I make my icons, I start out with the stock blank icon that SONAR contains. Then I paste the image I want onto that blank icon and merge the two. I always make sure I leave the upper left hand pixel unchanged so that it blends properly.

Yes -that's how I use them
forgot how I got it to do that
But I have NO icons, and no other way to tell it's S5 except by
the little triangles

ORIGINAL: Steve_Karl

Speaking of track icons ... is it possible to opt not to use them and have the track collapsed to the size that they are in 4.0?

tia

Take a look how I used track icons that I customized to give me even more space in the Track clips pane.

http://www.plasticsamerica.com/Company/icons.htm

ORIGINAL: Mod Bod

ORIGINAL: Steve_Karl

Speaking of track icons ... is it possible to opt not to use them and have the track collapsed to the size that they are in 4.0?

tia

Take a look how I used track icons that I customized to give me even more space in the Track clips pane.

http://www.plasticsamerica.com/Company/icons.htm

Hey Dave....

Good work on that.

Steve

ORIGINAL: lazarous

ORIGINAL: Steve_Karl

Speaking of track icons ... is it possible to opt not to use them and have the track collapsed to the size that they are in 4.0?

tia

You know, when I first heard about the track icons, I thought "Oh great... let's all try to look Playschool like GarageBand!"

Now I find them indispensable...

YMMV.

Corey

Hey Corey,

thatks for the info.

Now with (about a 4MB) video:

Wacky Icon Behavior

This pretty much illustrates my original issue, probably better than I could describe. As you can see from the video, it even happens with the icons that Cakewalk supplies (in addition to some of my own).

If anyone can shed any light... well, I'm all ears!

It's midnight and I just had to fire up the DAW and check this out. I followed your recipe several times and could not get it to reproduce that effect.

What screen resolution are you using? What color quality? I want to set my computer the same and see if I can get the same results.

I saw this very same thing happen in another program. I was trying to draw something in Windows paint when I got to a point where I needed more tools to complete the drawing. I imported the bmp drawing into Ulead Photoimpact. I cropped the pic and added a bit of text. When I merged the text into the drawing, I sat and watched as the drawing started to shrink. It's now shrinking as much as it's somehow causing Ulead to display it in 1/16 size. I can't get it to stop behaving this way. It's strange. Just wanted to let you know that it might not be your hardware settngs.

I will check into this. I'm not aware of anything else running EXCEPT -- there is the possibility that something in my ShuttlePro setup could be the culprit (?).

By the way, I was wrong in my previous posts -- the icons are resizing regardless of the track templates. I opened one of my current projects, and the icons I had placed were all screwy.

The only other thing I can think of is that there's a problem in one of the .ini files. There was some useful info in the online help about entries in WINCAKE for large and small icon default sizes (by the way, that's where the info is about the transparency and the upper left pixel thing you mentioned). I checked my files and could not find these entries, so perhaps adding it will fix it (if it's not the ShuttlePro thing).

I don't know... other than that I'm all out of ideas.

I'll let you know what I find out.