Colin Nicholls

It's a short way of referring to "The Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" to creating Cakewalk themes. I think you've already found it 🙂

@Sridhar Raghavan, Clearly something isn't right, because the behavior you're experiencing isn't normal. We'd like to help you resolve this but I think we're going to need more information. Could you share some screen shots? I'm thinking something like Cakewalk's Preferences > File > Folder Locations page; The contents of C:\Cakewalk Content\Cakewalk Themes These may show up something we can drill down on to find the root cause.

@David Thiel, I want your keyboard.

Is that equivalent to re-opening Cakewalk, or does it still have the problem where some theme elements aren't refreshed correctly in the UI? Not meaning to be "that guy" but curious.

Have you reached your attachment limit? Check your usage under your account > My Attachments in the upper right corner.

Hi there, welcome to the forum. Themes don't completely replace the existing graphics of Cakewalk; they just give it a "flavor". So, your expectations of what is possible through Cakewalk theming may not be met. I did a quick comparison between the latest "Logical" theme and some screen-shots of Apple Logic, and I think it would be possible to get closer to Logic's look and feel, particularly in the area of the Control Bar. But it would be a lot of work, and wouldn't change the basic widget shapes and placement from what they are in Cakewalk. I recommend trying a few different themes and switching between them, and you'll soon get an appreciation of what is possible, and what is not. "Same spouse, different clothes" is one way of putting it (okay I read that on a forum somewhere and it stuck with me)

ZIP updated with version 2021.12.3 which includes some cosmetic changes imported from the Revised Standard Editions: Track and Console Phase Expand/Contract iconography Mix Module button polarity

Updated to 1.0.2, Mix Module button changes.

@Starship KrupaWait, what? You've recanted the heretical Turny Triangle creed? Oh, I see. retained it for folder expansion. Okay. I can accept that. Still not fan of the hamburger, but, again, I see where you're coming from. This is a very nice looking theme. Seeing it come to life here, I think I will change what I'm doing with the Mix Module button polarity. Re: Mix Module: Mouse-over on Read Automation doesn't behave the same way as FX and PDC. Intentional? Re: Show/Hide Bus Pane An extra line below the triangle? Why?

I left that as stock because it is used elsewhere to indicate "click here to show a drop-down menu" (i.e., Track Pane Edit Filter, I/O, etc). And that's what it is. I get that the Bakers used the down-triangle based on Windows combo/list widgets, and I'm okay with that. So my argument for that is consistency. I considered this, and will probably do it in the next update. Agreed; I knew they'd still be some places left to clean up. I was prepared to implement the turny-triangles, but then I saw the "Show Bus Pane" and thought, hang on, we have a seriously under-used precedent for "expand/contract", how would it look if I propagated it? And I really liked the end result. So I ran with it. I may have missed the reasoning behind changing this. I'll review. Also, now I'll take a look at Tungsten RS, now that you've released it 🙂

Challenge accepted. See Mercury RS.

Updated to 1.0.1

False alarm. It's one of those "restart the app to see the actual change in full effect" type problems. (Global > Dockbar Left)

Quick shout-out to @Starship Krupa, this is not a direct copy of Tungsten RS - there are going to be some differences. There could be some cross-pollination between the themes but even after that I don't think it will be a 1:1 match. And that's fine. For example, my choice for a consistent "expand/contract" metaphor isn't the same as yours, Naturally, I prefer mine. (Oh - and consequently I found a UI bug.)

Ah, the humble Mercury theme. The first, and some might say, the most boring. It doesn't get a lot of love, does it? Not since Tungsten arrived on the scene as the default Cakewalk theme. Here is a version of Mercury with many of the tweaks and polishing for consistency and clarity, including some not seen before, all without violating the Mercury-nature. Ideally, if you use this theme, you won't even notice the changes. Here is Mercury - the Revised Standard edition. Mercury_RS.zip What are the changes? Skylight: Dock/Undock icon for Inspector/Browsers Track View: Synth/Instrument Track Icon Swap Ruler +/- Take Lane +/- Scroll Bar Zoom, flyout Pre/Post Send Phase Folder Open/Close triangle Track Pane Expand/Contract Synth Rack: Delete Synth (uses a - instead of x) Control Bar Mix Module: Button polarity/clarity Control Bar Transport: Record Button Text, for clarity Console View: Pre/Post Send Synth/Instrument Track Icon Swap Console Lock/Unlock linked channels Level Meter Backgrounds for clarity Step Sequencer: Expand/Contract button no longer looks like "play" Delete Row (- instead of x)

@Starship Krupa, that link to Tungsten RS is empty so you might want to double-check that

On reflection I'm thinking +/- is not the best choice here, and something with > < might be better. <> >< . I dunno.

Nice! Beat me to it, @Starship Krupa I volunteer to create Mercury RS. (Although, Blue Ice is pretty damn close... I'll start there) Then we can compare and cross-pollinate. Ideally we can agree and incorporate suggestions from the community without experiencing multiple schismatic sects. "EVA01 IS THE ONE TRUE THEME, ACCEPT NO OTHERS"

This was maybe the second theme I worked on, so it's not surprising it's missing a few tweaks. If only there were more hours in a day, and more days in a week.

I realize that for everyone the end goal would be different, but I'm very tempted to create a Mercury-Fixed and Tungsten-Fixed (King James Revised Standard) that incorporates all the tweaks and "corrections" that theme designers have introduced over the years, . I know I have some... and @Starship Krupa even more. How far is too far? Do you think we could agree on which to include, and what they should look like? Pre-Post button Instrument/VST icon reversal Console Link Lock button Expand/Contract panel iconograpy Add/Remove iconography Dock/Undock/Options Record Button Text (OVR/SOS/STEP) -- this is a controversial but personal favorite Track Phase (not sure if this is a thing) I'm sure there's more but I'm not at my DAW right now...

I encouraged the user to look inside themselves and their own system for the cause of the problem.

Fixed that for you. Whatever it is, it's not endemic.

I've uploaded a fresh export of the Young Lady's Illustrated Primer to Theming Cakewalk, refreshed for 2021.12 and also to address some inexplicable image distortions that found their way into the previous version. Sorry about that.

I see this too. Sometimes it's fast; sometimes it takes 10 seconds. I've reported it but it is one of those "not happening here" problems. Hard to reproduce on demand. Almost certainly it's something funky in the Windows File System API.

I re-saved the theme to remove the change warning in 2021.12. Updated (and renamed) the ZIP file. Enjoy!