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   !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yorolpal


It is interesting that ever since X1 so many of the active forum members have so vocally complained about losing color customization and so ardently asked to have it back and still...it ain't happenin.  I'd just like to know definitively from a Baker who knows why on earth this useful feature had to be removed and why it cannot be brought back.  Would it be that much of a programing challenge?  Because it seems it is definitely a sore point with many long time users. 

I'm paraphrasing here, but a wise man once said that there are none so deaf as those that don't want to listen. The  X1 track view looks ok, but the console view is awful - I'd take the 8.5 "darkside" scheme all day every day over that. I too have been hoping that they would put right this FUBAR this time round, but sadly I have had confirmation from a CW employee that it's not happening, though no reason for why it was ditched. If as some have said that it's because of the skylight thing, then I'd happily give that up - it's just a fancy version of the tabs in 8.5 anyway as far as I can see.

Thanks to Freddie for bringing this up again, finally I can agree with him on something ;) Colour customisation - it really matters !

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

64 bit colour!!

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

mike_mccue


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.

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

 
 

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

I suggest is that you make a test strip of each value of grey, "0" thru "255" and see how well you do.

You can save a lot of time by just working on the "0" to "30" range and the "230" to "255" range.


Here's a square, a true strip is a better test because there are less adjacent squares that provide "clues"




It's a lot quicker than sitting at a GUI for 12 hours to find out what happens.

:-)

best,
mike

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

mike_mccue


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 test 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

Hahah, yeah Mike, that's pretty much how Panu explained it to me when we were talking a few months ago about this. I'd actually love to try and do some of this stuff to be honest. But...time is not my friend, unfortunately. Panu told me he had to experiment quite a bit at first to figure this stuff out. But now that he has a good handle on it, it's easier for him. Then we change versions and he probably has to experiment all over again. Uggh...the things this guy does for us. :) His mods work well enough for me to where I really don't worry as much about the color thing. What I'm really worried about is whether or not Ben's mod will work with X2. I love the way that works and will be lost without it.
 
-Danny