*UPDATE #2* Sonar 8.5 theme

So I've finally gotten what I feel is a good base for a Sonar 8.5 theme.  There are still a few elements I didn't touch such as the sequencer, the matrix, the staff view and other (I feel) minor areas.  I will slowly complete it though and post my updates here.
 

 
You can download it here:
 
https://www.dropbox.com/s...bvo1e/Sonar85.sth?dl=0

That's awesome. Thank you.

Every once an a while I open 8.5 which I still have installed, to look at something to help someone on the forum here and I'm always amazed at how much "brighter" it was. Way easier to see etc. good on ya mate.. 

Thanks, Jeremy!
Yet another nice one 
All the best.

gmp
Good job! 8.5 had several different looks, some better than others. With 8.5 I spent a lot of time really getting everything very clear.
In my screen shot below, check this out:
 track 1 - Vocal. Notice how clear the audio clip is, and the envelope nodes and lines. The different clip color for track 2 - Harmony. On this track notice the colors of the volume slider - blue, pan is red, trim is violet. In Platinum these are all the same color
 
Track 4 - Tr Mix. The clip is selected and is so easy to spot and the waveform is still very clear
Track 5 - the track is muted, so the clip is dim
 
The color coding of the track names is nice too. Audio is white, midi is blue, midi source is green.
 
Thanks TranceCanada for trying to resurrect the 8.5 theme, I hope my screenshot gives you some ideas on further improvements
 

 
That definitely helps.  I never had Sonar 8.5 and so I had to rely on what I could find on google and I couldn't find any screen shots to see the tracks as well as this, so I'll I'd love to make some touch ups using this screen shot.
 
For the color coding of the names backgrounds, theme editor doesn't allow different backgrounds for each type of track, it only uses the same one for all

Without trying to sound like I am dissing Trance Canada, (which I am absolutely not intending to do), I waited a long time for a dark theme in the X series and still prefer Tungsten to everything else out there including Panu's dark themes. Having said that - I am amazed at how accurately TC has been able to recreate the look and vibe of 8.5. Very, very impressive.

gmp

TranceCanada

gmp
Good job! 8.5 had several different looks, some better than others. With 8.5 I spent a lot of time really getting everything very clear.
 
Thanks TranceCanada for trying to resurrect the 8.5 theme, I hope my screenshot gives you some ideas on further improvements
 
 

 
That definitely helps.  I never had Sonar 8.5 and so I had to rely on what I could find on google and I couldn't find any screen shots to see the tracks as well as this, so I'll I'd love to make some touch ups using this screen shot.
 
For the color coding of the names backgrounds, theme editor doesn't allow different backgrounds for each type of track, it only uses the same one for all

Man this is the best news I've had in a long time. I'm so glad you're wanting to do this. You can see my posts referring to 8.5 in the "How Many Are Using Custom Themes?" thread. I hope you can change the clip colors closer to my 8.5 theme. I like your bright colors, but I think the softer ones will do even better. A big point for me is the color coding for the sliders in the Track Pane. It's so much easier to find pan, since it's red, whereas volume is blue and then trim is violet. I'm going to give you several more screen shots very soon. Thanks for all your hard work and efforts. I know many will appreciate this.

Thanks man, the more screenshots I get the closer it'll become.  There are still limitations with how the new Sonar is coded for color though, from what I can tell the pan/volume/trim sliders are now all run through the same color just the the track name backgrounds.  The clips I should have no trouble changing though.  I do also still plan to complete the sequencer, prochannels, and the matrix along with whatever else I have left out so far.  if you could get a screenshot of the old sequencer (since I didn't have 8.5 I'm only assuming it had a sequencer) that would be gold for me

 

TranceCanada

gmp
 

Thanks man, the more screenshots I get the closer it'll become.  There are still limitations with how the new Sonar is coded for color though, from what I can tell the pan/volume/trim sliders are now all run through the same color just the the track name backgrounds.  The clips I should have no trouble changing though.  I do also still plan to complete the sequencer, prochannels, and the matrix along with whatever else I have left out so far.  if you could get a screenshot of the old sequencer (since I didn't have 8.5 I'm only assuming it had a sequencer) that would be gold for me

 
Right I understand those limitations. I hope Cakewalk sees this post and gives us more flexibility with this. I'll go to work on some of those additional screenshots. Feel free to ask for any screenshots or clarifications.

I found a mistake in the piano roll and and have fixed it, also updated the track colors.  Will continue to update and notify of newer versions available

gmp
 

Here's 10 midi tracks so you can see all the 10 different colors
 

 

Here's 10 audio tracks so you can see all the 10 different colors

That's perfect thank you, was there a sequencer in 8.5? and maybe the console view too, please

Yes it is the original link, but I'll re-post the link with the next major update I make

Thanks so much for your hard work, you really have some skill with this stuff!

TranceCanada, thanks for the nice 8.5 template.  One small item........maybe I'm missing something, but I can no longer find the settings access button on the control bar.

It would be the metronome settings button on the lower right to tempo and meter key signature.  Actually you have included the button and it was my oversight.  I've been in the habit of using that button to access the preferences menu and I didn't recognize it at first.  Thanks again for all your efforts.

gmp
Do you think Cakewalk is planning on fixing the Theme Editor so that we can still have colored track strips? I do miss them

Well despite it being mentioned about a thousand times by about 300 different people in 100 different threads, nobody from CW - to my knowledge - seems to have jumped up and said it's planned, or not planned (or why not). It seems really weird, since Mercury can still be loaded, with working multicolour strips, into the theme engine. But I gather from various people that do theming that if you change anything, and try to save a new theme, the strips go uniform. Maybe Mercury bypasses the theme engine in some way that allows it to still use multicolour strips, but it seems odd nevertheless... and stranger still that no-one from the company ever seems to acknowledge it in any way (correct me if I'm wrong, I may well have overlooked something).

It's obviously something a fair number of people want to have, and hard to understand why it would be *that* hard to code (though not being a programmer, I could easily be very wrong about that too). Are they just hoping if they ignore it for long enough people will stop talking about it and it will go away? Not trying to be obnoxious or float conspiracy theories, just honestly wondering what's up with that. 
 
End of tangential meander, back to the 8.5 theme, which looks great - I'm about to take it for a spin! Thanks!