My experience is that even after I select all the clips in the track and change their colors, the next clip I record requires the same selecting of the clip and changing the colors to match the ones previously set and on and on.  That takes a lot of time.
 
The value of X3 exceeds this nuisance factor.  However, it would be nice if it can be set so that all future clips in a track will have a particular background and foreground, even the next ones on the track being recorded.
 
THANKS for considering this.   This is not a deal breaker - just a friendly request.
 
 

Jlien X

sharke
Having to specify clip background color per clip is totally lame.

 
The option to specify the default clip background color for the track shouldn't have been removed (I personally don't need it, though).
 

sharke
I can't imagine anyone wanting different colored clips in the same track. I think all clip backgrounds should be the same as the track color by default, with the option to change that per track.
As much as I think Sonar looks head and shoulders above other DAWs in many ways (especially the console view with the ProChannel), I do feel a little jealous when I see the clip panes of DAW's like ProTools, Abelton and Cubase. If the color customization of tracks is an organizational advantage (which it is otherwise they wouldn't have implemented it) then surely the same applies to the clips pane. Having all clip backgrounds the same as the track colors (or whatever color you like) would be an enormous visual help for me and I'm sure lots of others. I really don't know why they took this out in X3. I'm not about to start coloring clip backgrounds individually, it's just too much of a hassle.

 
I have to disagree. I think the new implementation in X3 is VERY logical and more beneficial (at least for users like me who mostly record MIDI). First, it's very likely that users color-code track strips by instrument type. For example, I use red for all guitar tracks, green for the bass, etc. This easily tells you which instrument you're are editing, because the colored track strips are always visible in the Track view. How about when you do multi-track editing in the Piano Roll view? Wouldn't you want the colors of the note events match those of the instrument colors you specified in the Track view? This is why it's very logical to link the colors between the track strip, clip foreground and the note events. In addition, do you use linked clips? I use a LOT. I have several different groups of linked clips in a single track and the easiest and most efficient way to distinguish between the groups are to give each group a different clip background color. And the clips with the default black color indicate that they are not linked to any clip in the track. This is why I think it makes sense to adopt black for a default clip background color. The screenshot below explains everything.

 
PT, Live and Cubase might be able to the same thing (I know S1 and DP can't), but at least in X3 it only takes two clicks to change the color of the strip, clip foreground and note events at once, and this is probably one of my top 5 reasons I want to keep using Sonar as my main DAW.

Ideally though it should be up to the user to customize their DAW colors to suit their workflow. For instance: yes I do group tracks by color. I might for instance set all synth tracks to red. But the logic behind the colors I use in the tracks pane may well be different to the logic behind the colors I want for track contents (i.e. MIDI notes). For instance, making all my synth tracks red in the tracks pane and the console helps me when I'm mixing. It gives me an overview of the project and groups related tracks. But do I want all of those synth tracks to have the same color notes in the PRV? Personally no - if I'm editing 3 interweaving synth parts in the PRV simultaneously for example, I would much prefer if the notes were different colors so I can see what's what at a glance.
 
But I would also like the option to link clip backgrounds to the track color. Again, that helps me get an overview of the project when looking at the clips pane. When all the clip backgrounds are the same dark grey color, I'm getting less visual feedback about the overall shape and arrangement of my project.
 
You hit the nail on the head when you said you like unlinked clips to remain black. That's something which suits your workflow. So surely, the best of both worlds would be the ability to specify a default color for clips, to "follow track colors," or on another level, to set colors for individual clips which override all of the above.  

sharke

Jlien X

sharke
Having to specify clip background color per clip is totally lame.

 
The option to specify the default clip background color for the track shouldn't have been removed (I personally don't need it, though).
 

sharke
I can't imagine anyone wanting different colored clips in the same track. I think all clip backgrounds should be the same as the track color by default, with the option to change that per track.
As much as I think Sonar looks head and shoulders above other DAWs in many ways (especially the console view with the ProChannel), I do feel a little jealous when I see the clip panes of DAW's like ProTools, Abelton and Cubase. If the color customization of tracks is an organizational advantage (which it is otherwise they wouldn't have implemented it) then surely the same applies to the clips pane. Having all clip backgrounds the same as the track colors (or whatever color you like) would be an enormous visual help for me and I'm sure lots of others. I really don't know why they took this out in X3. I'm not about to start coloring clip backgrounds individually, it's just too much of a hassle.

 
I have to disagree. I think the new implementation in X3 is VERY logical and more beneficial (at least for users like me who mostly record MIDI). First, it's very likely that users color-code track strips by instrument type. For example, I use red for all guitar tracks, green for the bass, etc. This easily tells you which instrument you're are editing, because the colored track strips are always visible in the Track view. How about when you do multi-track editing in the Piano Roll view? Wouldn't you want the colors of the note events match those of the instrument colors you specified in the Track view? This is why it's very logical to link the colors between the track strip, clip foreground and the note events. In addition, do you use linked clips? I use a LOT. I have several different groups of linked clips in a single track and the easiest and most efficient way to distinguish between the groups are to give each group a different clip background color. And the clips with the default black color indicate that they are not linked to any clip in the track. This is why I think it makes sense to adopt black for a default clip background color. The screenshot below explains everything.

 
PT, Live and Cubase might be able to the same thing (I know S1 and DP can't), but at least in X3 it only takes two clicks to change the color of the strip, clip foreground and note events at once, and this is probably one of my top 5 reasons I want to keep using Sonar as my main DAW.

Ideally though it should be up to the user to customize their DAW colors to suit their workflow. For instance: yes I do group tracks by color. I might for instance set all synth tracks to red. But the logic behind the colors I use in the tracks pane may well be different to the logic behind the colors I want for track contents (i.e. MIDI notes). For instance, making all my synth tracks red in the tracks pane and the console helps me when I'm mixing. It gives me an overview of the project and groups related tracks. But do I want all of those synth tracks to have the same color notes in the PRV? Personally no - if I'm editing 3 interweaving synth parts in the PRV simultaneously for example, I would much prefer if the notes were different colors so I can see what's what at a glance.
 
But I would also like the option to link clip backgrounds to the track color. Again, that helps me get an overview of the project when looking at the clips pane. When all the clip backgrounds are the same dark grey color, I'm getting less visual feedback about the overall shape and arrangement of my project.
 
You hit the nail on the head when you said you like unlinked clips to remain black. That's something which suits your workflow. So surely, the best of both worlds would be the ability to specify a default color for clips, to "follow track colors," or on another level, to set colors for individual clips which override all of the above.  

deswind
My experience is that even after I select all the clips in the track and change their colors, the next clip I record requires the same selecting of the clip and changing the colors to match the ones previously set and on and on.  That takes a lot of time.
 
The value of X3 exceeds this nuisance factor.  However, it would be nice if it can be set so that all future clips in a track will have a particular background and foreground, even the next ones on the track being recorded.
 
THANKS for considering this.   This is not a deal breaker - just a friendly request.
 
 

After seeing Jlien X's post. I went ahead and changed my template and now it color coded. I have a very large template with lots of tracks and just delete ones I'm not going to use. So I already have vocal tracks, guitar tracks, piano tracks,, drum tracks, etc all there before i record anything. Wouldn't that solve your problem?

gmp
 
After seeing Jlien X's post. I went ahead and changed my template and now it color coded. I have a very large template with lots of tracks and just delete ones I'm not going to use. So I already have vocal tracks, guitar tracks, piano tracks,, drum tracks, etc all there before i record anything. Wouldn't that solve your problem?

The problem of having to change clip background colors on a per-clip basis? Unfortunately not

sharke
 
The problem of having to change clip background colors on a per-clip basis? Unfortunately not

You must have missed post #11. To recap:
 
You can specify background (and/or foreground) color for an individual clip, selected clips, or the entire track. To colorize all clips in the entire track:
 
1. In track view, click the Track number in the track header. This selects all the track's clips.
2. Choose the Inspector's Clip tab.
3. Choose your background and/or foreground color.
 
If only certain clips are selected, only those clips will be colored.

Anderton

sharke
 
The problem of having to change clip background colors on a per-clip basis? Unfortunately not

You must have missed post #11. To recap:
 
You can specify background (and/or foreground) color for an individual clip, selected clips, or the entire track. To colorize all clips in the entire track:
 
1. In track view, click the Track number in the track header. This selects all the track's clips.
2. Choose the Inspector's Clip tab.
3. Choose your background and/or foreground color.

If only certain clips are selected, only those clips will be colored.

Oh OK I understand, thanks. Still feels like a workaround though, and of course you would have to colorize any subsequent clips that you create. Would be far easier if we could simply specify a default background color for the track.

I still don't get the 50 shades of grey concept. Cakewalk moved forward as a program but went way backwards as a GUI.
 
8.5, last of the best GUI.

Guitarpima
I still don't get the 50 shades of grey concept. Cakewalk moved forward as a program but went way backwards as a GUI.
 
8.5, last of the best GUI.

Big +1 to that sentiment, Guitarpima.  Having lived through the X1 debacle, I knew I was in for a fairly miserable landscape when I finally gave in and bought X3, but now that I'm facing it again - I really can't get over how dreary looking it is.  8.5 was indeed last of the best GUI.
 
I'm still just a few days into using X3, so naturally I'm clumsy with it, often frustrated during the learning curve - so, at this point, I can't even know if I agree yet about Cakewalk moving forward as a program.  Everything new and/or different that I've worked with so far doesn't feel like an improvement - just, different.  Hopefully I'll end up content enough with this - I don't have a choice but to settle into it, because installing X3 killed my 8.5 installation.  It doesn't work now - earlier thread on that.
 
Randy

@sharke:
As I said in my previous post, I also think the option to specify a default clip background color for the track shouldn't have removed. So, as for the default black clip background color, I only wanted to mean that if we are not allowed to specify a default clip background color, black makes sense to me because Sonar offers the ability to group clips and its a MIDI user-friendly daw and the users are most likely to give different background colors to different linked groups in the track to distinguish between them (if there's a better way, I'd like to know that).

As for changing foreground/background clip colors using the Clip Properties Inspector, there are currently two issues:

1. If you select a clip with, say, a blue background and a light blue foreground and another clip that has, say, a green background and a light green foreground and then change the foreground or background color of the clips, the one you didn't choose (foreground or background) also changes (the foreground or background color of one of the clips overwrites that of the other clip). This bug has been confirmed by CW.

2. Even if you change the foreground color of the clip (using the Clip Properties Inspector) in the TV, the notes in the clip still indicate the TRACK color in the PRV.

So, if #2 is a bug, you might want to report it to CW and have it fixed so that you can give five different colors to the five synths in the PRV. I didn't report it because if issue #1 fails to get fixed and issue #2 get fixed, my PRV for multi track editing could get disastrous lol.

Guitarpima
I still don't get the 50 shades of grey concept. Cakewalk moved forward as a program but went way backwards as a GUI.
 
8.5, last of the best GUI.

 
I agree. One thing I really liked about their products was they were good about making sure there were never any lost features. That things were always moving forward with more and more features and capabilities. They had a respect that the users had unique methods and ways of using the program to fit their specific needs.
 
So losing features was a risky course for them to take, pissing off many long time users. Someone at Cakewalk thought that 8.5 had too much clutter with all the icons and tools and X1 was supposed to fix that. What they didn't consider was one mans' clutter is another man's useful tool.
 
My solution to the clutter was to get rid of icons and tools I rarely used, leaving the ones I used all the time. The result was I had a streamline interface with 8.5 that suited my needs perfectly. I still don't see why they can't let us customize the tools, icons, and colors like we used to.