Any way to adjust the UI colors in T5?

[frankvg]

Did Tracktion ever have a proper colour designer? Perhaps Philip in the old days.
Actually Tom summed it up rather nicely (in another thread):

You get high contrast and strong colours for menu buttons but very low contrast and pastel colours for the stuff you are actually working on - your audio and midi, the browser etc.

Then you go to the rack filter window and suddenly you are in a whole other country. Black background, everything very dark and again the main focus is on buttons, not on the nodes.

[kueneman]

I think bitwig and those super high contrast models are not ideal for long sessions for the majority of the population. People working at Avid (while I hate the skeuomorphism in that interface) have spent actual time and research dollars looking into what colors and contrast settings look and feel comfortable for the average user. Doesn't mean they get everything right, but frankly the majority of user designed skins for reaper, as well as the user designed schemes for tracktion were just hideous.

[ThomasHelzle]

I better don't comment on Avid as a company - they sometime spend money on the most curious things you can imagine but if you look at High End Compositing Applications, Photoshop CS6, Lightroom... many very professional tools have those dark interfaces so your eyes can concentrate on the content, not on the GUI.

But I wouldn't even insist on a dark GUI, I worked for a long time in Live with the default Skin and was just fine with it, although I prefer Bitwig a lot.

My comment frankvg reposted above is the problem I personally see.
Part of it is user preference of course, but part of it is GUI 101.

What is the more important thing in Tracktion, GUI Knobs or Audio and Midi.
Where are your eyes drawn first in Tracktion 5?
...

Cheers,

Tom

[Scoops]

Hello kueneman

Jules and the T Team will decide what is most important for T and historically T has been frequently requested by users to beef up its MIDI capabilities.

Hope you get what you need as soon as possible.

Regards,

theoldguy

And this is not what the old way was, and this is why Im ditching T5 for something alot more useful.

Ashame, it had promise

[jabe]

Hello kueneman

Jules and the T Team will decide what is most important for T and historically T has been frequently requested by users to beef up its MIDI capabilities.

Hope you get what you need as soon as possible.

Regards,

theoldguy

And this is not what the old way was, and this is why Im ditching T5 for something alot more useful.

Ashame, it had promise

I take it you missed the one about them creating a selection of themes some time this year.

[theoldguy]

@ jabe and other positive commenters: I see from a lot of the comments on this thread that a lot of T5 users are thinking in terms of skins and the overall appearance of T. After reading my own comments I realized that I have not expressed what is bothering me in a way that someone could offer me a solution.

I don't have a problem with the appearance of T. At present I use it exclusively to edit audio so I don't often get into the other areas and don't actually know what they look like.

My (Windows 7 user) problem is that when I select a color for a track I don't get the same colors that are displayed in the color palette in the panel at the bottom of the screen. What I get are very diluted pastels and none of the colors on my tracks look like the ones in the palette. I'm not talking about the buttons, window shading or any of the other aspects that contribute to the look of the program.

I have loaded T5 on three different machines, two with integrated video and one with a decent video card and they all look the same. Logic tells me that if my video can display the colors on the palette it should be able to display the same colors correctly on the tracks but that has not happened yet. I don't want to edit colors on the whole shebang, I only want to apply colors to the tracks. Any suggestions from other Windows users? If you don't color your tracks could you try it and see if you get the same result? I'm curious as to whether it is just me and my three machines or if that is just "the way it is."

[jabe]

That's what happens with mine too, except for the Marker track. The video on your assorted machines is fine. I've just re-read your posts on this thread too. Up to a point the track colours chosen have to be a bit watered-down (very diluted pastels) to act as background for MIDI editing and so forth. But I certainly see what you mean. Perhaps there could be a contrast(?) setting for the track colours so that they can be adjusted to make them brighter. A feature request...


Given that the TSC team are very reactive to our wishes I really don't understand those like Scoops who opt to junk T5 because they don't like a typeface or something.

[theoldguy]

Thanks for a quick reply jabe.

Not using MIDI yet I didn't understand the need for a light background for working in that medium. On the other hand I use colors like red to group multiple takes of bass tracks and yellow for guitar, blue for vocals, green for bass drum etc. it gives me a quick visual reference and helps me stay organized.

Perhaps when there is more time to deal with it TSC can make the stronger track colors available to those who need them and leave the pastels in place for MIDI editing. There's a lot I have to learn about this business and I had not even considered that anyone would desire pastels, let alone need them. Thanks again for enlightening me.

Regards,

theoldguy

[jabe]

As a temporary work-round, perhaps you could add your own track icons in your preferred colours? You can use any picture you want to (or you could - I just clicked the Set Image option and nothing happened...). I used a small picture of me and a local hedgehog (named Spike, appropriately, for longer-standing viewers).

[Scoops]

Given that the TSC team are very reactive to our wishes I really don't understand those like Scoops who opt to junk T5 because they don't like a typeface or something.

Actually, It's a series of events that are driving me away. My computer blew up, and I had to rebuild. I had T3 which was working just fine for me. Allow me to enumerate the issues I encountered

1) I could not re-register T3. Was told by TSC to purchase new version. OK I did
2) Loaded T5, mackie plugs didn't work. Without asking my platform TSC said I have to update my plugs. Alluded to the fact that I have to get with the times.
3) Posted an issue with plugs crashing T5. again, TSC didn't ask Q's just said "read the FAQ. I eventually found the issue to be related to UAC setting. No mention in the FAQ's about that
4) During the short period of usage, I would experience many random "poof" crashes.
5) Discovered that the color editor no longer existed. Was told that have to have a group outcry.
6) Functionally i find the color scheme forced down my throat to be difficult to use. It's too bright, and works against workflow.
7) The change in the racks is incredibly stupid. Here are the things wrong with the "new" rack
a) The color scheme just plain wrong,
b) The way it functions is also wrong. When I open the rack, it opens a rack window. when I click on a VST instance in that window, that instance is placed behind the rack window. If I close the rack window, it closes the instance. So this "new" "Improved" rack says I have to open the rack, open the instance, move the rack window out of the way, and then work on the instance. Again, works against workflow.
c) When I place an instance in the rack that has multiple outputs, The output at the bottom of the instance are below the view line. I can't move the instance, or get to the lower outputs. In T3, i could move the instance.
8 Community here has died. I looked at the forum, what 6 or 7 posts since I posted my departure?

So the bottom line is that I've moved on because in my opinion, Tracktion is dead, or at least the team is trying to kill it off for good. I don't have time to sit and wait for a fix that "might" come. Jules and the team have taken a good app, and modified it into something that is no longer "easy" to use. The workflow has added multiple bumps in the road that I find offensive to use. Perfect example is of course the racks.

There are other apps that are way more refined, and just as cost effective.

Bye Bye

[frankvg]

Bye Bye

Although I can really understand your frustration after some problems, most of them really are a legacy of the Mackie debacle. And I think you very much underestimate Jules and the team in their work to bring Tracktion back on track. On the other hand, you have some concerns that are shared with others in the Tracktion community (racks, for instance) and I feel there will be more discussion and feedback to steer it to the best possible future. Hopefully you'll be back when things have settled down.

[chico.co.uk]

Bye Scoops!

We'll miss your cheery contributions to the community. Still, onwards and upwards. Good luck with your new sequencer, that's exactly the colour you need to make music.

[jabe]

Given that the TSC team are very reactive to our wishes I really don't understand those like Scoops who opt to junk T5 because they don't like a typeface or something.

Actually, It's

Bye Bye

Illuminating interpretations indeed. I wish you a happy new DAW.