musicroom


I want to be able to group sections of tracks and markers with colors. PT has the right idea around workflow on this one!

+ 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000   !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mystic38


There are significant studies that show a color scheme smilar to that on X1 provides the least eyestrain for use over extended periods...

 

Can you reference any of the studies so that I can read about them? That is a question bourne of sincere curiosity.

I remember reading about how aqua/toruquise "classic" desktop was determined to be useful through extensive focus group research. I'm not pretending that I know where to find a link to that but I remember reading it with interest 15 years ago.

Is there any info about the color scheme we are speaking of today?

If it was that significant, I have to wonder, why hasn't MS Office or Adobe anything adopted a similar color scheme?

I have a hard time believing that neon blue on a similar "value" grey background is universally accepted as causing the least eyestrain for the most people. I think it just looks cool to some folks and that's about it.

There's a reason most police cars in USA have bright neon blue lights that flash... they get your attention and keep your attention, and there is nothing relaxing about that color.

Neon Blue makes a great color for an indicator light because blue light travels further than any other color (except perhaps white, which is ALL the colors) but it is rarely nominated as a good color for lettering.

Speaking for myself, I pass hue/color interpretation tests 100% but I have vision issues with low light value and low and high contrast. So I'd like to optimize the GUI to suit my needs.

Plus I think that the X1 graphics just look ugly, especially compared to the sophistication of the well known examples that it is obviously a copy cat of. I admit that some of the grey/blue schemes are easier for to read than SONAR's but I'd still prefer a different color scheme. For me it shades of warm and cool greys and beige/tan with the warm colors used to highlight and lead you eye to something that is meant to float on a cool background.

SONAR's design is the exact opposite... the cool colors rest on top of a neutral grey. It looks like a tattoo parlor or a bar district in Bangkok.

It freaks with my Feng Shui and leaves me with great appreciation for my custom colored v8.5.2 package.


best regards,
mike

Significant studies have shown that most humans struggle to see the full range of 8 bits of value.

On a good day most eagle eyed folks can see about 240 of the 256 shades of grey a 32bit color system can display.

:-)

Don't ask me how I know.

:-)

best regards,
mike

I have a pretty good friend whom I begged to answer the color question. It seems like it's this mystical thing, yet we all wonder how guys like Panu can do it so easy, right? That was pretty much how I phrased my question.

The answer I got was a really good one and because this person is someone I hold in high regard and would trust whole-heartedly, it made a lot of sense to me to where I can understand the issues at hand. Granted, I feel there should have been some sort of game plan so that colors and customization WEREN'T ever removed from the start, but I can at least understand WHY they've been such a hassle to bring back.

I won't quote directly, but here's how I took it in my own words...if this helps.

You have to work in the company to see how it all comes together. What people think happens, doesn't happen at all unless you have lived on the side of the software business. You can't even read about it and claim you know the deal as every company has their own thing.

Next, guys like Panu and even Ben Stat when he was making mods can pretty much wash their hands of the whole thing after they create a mod. You "use it at your own risk" and can't be mad at them if they fail. Granted, Panu is amazing at trying to keep this stuff going as well as providing support for it and so was Ben when he was doing it. But to make this color thing work inside of Sonar the right way, it will take lots of dev time, QA testing, localization, backwards compatibility, customization persistence, installer changes, all the different Sonar versions and a mess of other things that we as common users don't even know about.

In a nutshell, though it may seem simple, because of how Sonar is built right NOW...it will be a huge job. Are there plans for colors to come back? That part wasn't addressed...but I would be willing to think they are since we have all cried out for them repeatedly. All we can do is hope and those that have filled out feature requests keep on filling them out.

If Panu busts out a mod that gives you problems, you can't be mad at the guy for trying to improve your Sonar experience. If Sonar does it and it fails, they'll get bashed until the cows come home. As much as I want colors and customization to come back, I honestly would rather have a great working Sonar that has the old bugs fixed as well as the newer ones that may have crept into the picture due to the X series. Yeah, it sucks for those of us who may have vision problems or just can't stand to look at it the way it is now. But I would *think* that the majority of us really want a killer program that is as bug free as possible. Once that is stable, maybe we'll get our colors and customization back.

Until then, I will embrace "Panu the Great" in whatever he can cook up for us and have faith that he will always be as kind and generous with his creations as well as his support for them.

So, not all is lost. :)

-Danny

Hi Danny,

It's a bunch of bitmaps compiled into SONAR... if you know how/where to look you can extract them and or replace them. The thing is, there are usually check sum tests run by the application and so if you make some small change to the exact file size it can freak the application out.

Hacking bitmaps in 3d games is an old time hobby for many people who like to make custom mods.

I'm thinking some of the guys you mentioned have some experience with building apps and so they knew how and where to look.

all the best,
mike

I usually changed up the color schemes in earlier Sonar versions when I was burnt out on a song and needed a fresh take (composing or mixing). Oddly enough I found it helped me get past that "stuck" feeling... Also, I have color preferences that don't exactly match with what's available in X1...

Whoever thought about taking the colors out was definitely not using his noggin' - I can imagine their thinking: 64 bit processing, customization and flexibility to boot, A MILLION AND ONE POSSIBILITIES - BUT let's give them ONLY 3 color schemes, all of them drab and boring :)

yeah, i would like full color customization, too. mainly, to tame the console into a darker gray. at night, it's like staring into the sun! it can kinda kill the mood.

overall, i like X1's ui design and color scheme. that said, it would be delightful to be able to change that blue, everywhere it occurs, to a different value.

also, it'd be super sweet if we could change the os parts of the app similar to what the new adobe cs6 does. i'd love to see a truly dark theme similar to photoshop's new dark theme. i can work all night in that thing.

cheers.

X2 is based on X1 so there will be no more color choices than you already have.
 
The GUI is made up of "prepainted" graphic files that would have to be extracted, repainted, then put back in to the resource file in order to be changed. - This is what Panu is doing.
 
The old Sonar had some sort of overlay function which allowed the user to change colors within the program file itself. X1 either removed all that or disabled it.
 
What is frustrating is having the "choices" still in the Preferences dialog when they do nothing. They should either be removed or reenabled.
 
my 2¢