Does anyone have a definitive list of what we can change in X2a without an exterior utility? That said, duckbar is working well here.

Screen capture of Track View Options
Active track background is a PNG image, not a solid color.
Set image editor in Duckbar preferences (File | Personalization | Paths). Any image editor that supports transparent PNG images will go (for example GIMP (free), Photoshop Elements (budget) and Photoshop CS6 (overkill). Windows Paint don't do the work.
If editing is too complicated, use some of the ready baked mods. Duckbar main menu | Customize | Mod Patcher. Dark Side Theme is the most popular and recommended mod to start with.
After that you can tweak colors further by EXE Colors. If you have 64 bit X2a Producer, there are 333 new colors available for tweaking. If that's not enough, you can edit over 600 Skylight graphics elements and make SONAR look perfect to your taste. 

Resonant Order


Does anyone have a definitive list of what we can change in X2a without an exterior utility? That said, duckbar is working well here.

Colors: all the other colors except the ones in the list above can be changed in SONAR preferences.
Bitmaps: only some FX Chain bitmaps can be customized. X1 and X2 Skylight bitmaps are not available for customizing in SONAR.

panup


You can use Duckbar to customize active track control pane background. Duckbar main menu | Settings | Track View. Right click active track bitmap to edit it.

Panu, once again you have made my life easier! Duckbar rocks! Thanks for everything you do!

Welcome back jsg 


Even if they don't give us colors, I wish they could give us some cool skins like Samplitude or Digital Performer offer their customers.

backwoods


Welcome back jsg 


Even if they don't give us colors, I wish they could give us some cool skins like Samplitude or Digital Performer offer their customers.

Thanks, but I am not sure I am really back.  I'm testing X2a on my office computer, I don't put programs my DAW unless I am reasonably confident I will use that program.  Leaving the color options that are not really options is so amateurish. Who made that decision?
 
Digital Performer for Windows will be out by the end of this month, possibly sooner and I am very excited about it.  Talk about color implementation, it looks absolutely marvelous!  I am having a colleague go over it with me at his studio.  Having been with Sonar for 17 years, I am not exactly one who flirts around with software unless I am serious about using it.  So I am not installing X2 on my DAW until I have a chance to work with DP for a few weeks.  Then I will decide to go with DP, load X2 or stay with Sonar 7.0.2. 
 
I really don't know what's is wrong with Cakewalk's implementation.  Cakewalk is a mass of contraditions, on the one hand Sonar led the way to 64-bit, has some great MIDI implementation and its audio has always been impressive.   And yet, I've never used a program that is touted as professional (i.e. photoshop, sibelius, sound forge, you know, top programs) that is so full of such obvious bugs.  All software has bugs, but some software takes a lot of work to find them.  Not Sonar, the bugs become apparent very quickly.  And some things like this really bizarre "improvement:  In staff view,  after selecting a group of notes we could always just right click on the mouse and get the process menu. Now, in X2, you have to press CTRL AND right-click! What genius thought of that? Why would they deliberately add a keystroke for no gain whatsover? Another bug? Weird design? Who knows? 
   
If Cakewalk becomes serious, they very well may once again become a maker of DAW software that appeals to film composers and orchestral composers.  There are many things to like about X2, but it still feels like (less so than X1) X2a is software that was rushed out the door before it really made sense.  
 
JG
www.jerrygerber.com