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FLAT_WHITE (2021.12)


Colin Nicholls

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Who doesn't enjoy a nice flat white in the morning? I know I do. It's about the only type of espresso coffee drink I can make on my machine. However this theme doesn't really have anything to do with coffee, except maybe if you look at the "select/focus/OLED" displays and say, yeah, I have a desire to lick the crema out of an espresso cup right about now...

I've been chasing the goal of the perfect non-3D "light" theme for some time and this is my latest effort. I want a theme that is clear, un-distracting. If you don't like grey, this probably isn't the theme for you.

 

FLAT_WHITE.ZIP

Previews:

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Updated 2021.12:   refreshed Folder Archive button

Edited by Colin Nicholls
Updated for 2021.12
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Thank you very much Colin!  This theme may save me quite a bit of time.  I work a lot with MIDI tracks and often those MIDI tracks include drum-kit tracks with multiple drum kit sounds/notes on the same track.  Whenever the current Cakewalk by Bandlab identifies one of these MIDI drum-kit tracks (presumably they are identifiable because in my master.ins file each drum-kit has its own corresponding list of sounds in the .Note Names section), it forces all of the MIDI notes in the drum-kit clips to be a black foreground color and does not allow me to change the black foreground color.  Since most themes have some sort of dark gray or charcoal gray default MIDI track background color, then the result for my drum-kit tracks is an unpleasant-to-view black on gray.  If I want clips that are pleasant-to-view, then I must manually change the background color for the clips to a lighter color that will contrast with the impossible-to-change black foreground MIDI notes color.  Your theme's solution is much more elegant and doesn't require me to change any clip background colors.

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@Brian Nixon, interesting. I'm glad you are finding the theme useful. I have not finalized the clip colors yet but by default I am definitely aiming for a dark waveform/MIDI on a light clip background.

I'm not sure why you're having trouble with this:

>> it forces all of the MIDI notes in the drum-kit clips to be a black foreground color and does not allow me to change the black foreground color. 

Are you talking about Clips in the Track View/Clip Pane, or are you talking about the Piano Roll View? If I use the Mercury or Tungsten themes, and create a new project and add an instance of, say, SessionDrummer, then when I open the MIDI track in the Piano Roll View I see orange/brown notes on either a white or black background, but the notes are perfectly legible. Even if I then assign a drum map and view the notes in the Drum Pane, they are still visible.

I'm not sure why my theme would make a difference to this.

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Colin, sorry I wasn't clearer.  My problem is not with your theme, my problem is with CbB.  I am referring to the Clips in the Track View/Clip Pane.   If I import a MIDI file with numerous tracks, CbB will let me change the foreground colors of all of the various instrument track notes with one important exception.  CbB will not let me change the foreground colors of the notes on any track if the track points to a complete MIDI drum-kit (various percussion sounds mapped to various notes) to be played by one of my MIDI instruments, for instance a Roland GS Drumset with 0=Standard Kit, or 16=Power Kit, or 32=Jazz Kit, etc.) associated with a list of .Note Names for each drumset (...36=Kick Drum, 37=Side Stick, 38=Snare Drum, etc.).

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I actually do, mostly when I'm on a single screen machine (usually I have a 1920x1080 laptop screen AND a 3840x1080 main screen so real estate isn't a big deal here, but sometimes I'm using a 1366x768 single screen). It's a little frustrating because you don't have a clear indicator of which recording mode that you're in like the Large module does.

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*SWISH!* 

Yeah, that's killer! It's the simple things, hey? :) For a while there I was doing something similar to the stock Tungsten theme myself, but once all of the new features started rolling in that needed more and more upkeep, I just learned to live with it.

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OK, I've updated the ZIP (See URL in top post) and I'm calling it. This is version 1.0.

I've left the clip colors as-is, even though head and tail fade curves are possibly on the hard-to-see side.

Updated top post description and preview images

Edited by Colin Nicholls
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One of the best themes I've tried.

Normally I'm on the dark spectrum, but this one is going to be the "go-to" alternative for something brighter.

Love the flat buttons/layout and color palette is excellent for a lighter theme (and yes, I'm a huge fan of grey).

 

 

Edited by Brian Walton
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@Colin Nicholls CbB is like Henry Ford.  It will only allow me black notes in the situation that I described.  If I want light colored notes for a theme with black or dark gray clip backgrounds, CbB will only let me have black MIDI instrument drum-kit notes.  I want the same color for all of the MIDI instrument drum-kit notes, but I want choices other than black only. 

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2 hours ago, Brian Nixon said:

@Colin Nicholls CbB is like Henry Ford.  It will only allow me black notes in the situation that I described.  If I want light colored notes for a theme with black or dark gray clip backgrounds, CbB will only let me have black MIDI instrument drum-kit notes.  I want the same color for all of the MIDI instrument drum-kit notes, but I want choices other than black only. 

Something isn't right here. Can you post this in the main forum with steps to reproduce using Mercury (or Tungsten) ? I'd be willing to help you figure this out but I think this thread isn't the right place.

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Although I love the bright white Ruler background, it does have some drawbacks (aim assist text for example), so I tweaked the colors slightly and gave the themes a tinted ruler background. ZIP updated last night.

Hopefully no more changes for a while. (But we all know how that works out... sigh)

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