theme Mercury RS

[Colin Nicholls]

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)

Edited December 24, 2021 by Colin Nicholls

[Colin Nicholls]

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.)

[sjoens]

2 hours ago, Colin Nicholls said:

(Oh - and consequently I found a UI bug.)

(Do tell, do tell.)

[Colin Nicholls]

1 hour ago, sjoens said:

(Do tell, do tell.)

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

[Colin Nicholls]

Updated to 1.0.1

[Starship Krupa]

Looks great! I like your solution to the "play row" button fakeout issue in Step Sequencer.

The only thing I don't care for is leaving Global/Drop unchanged (as a down arrow). I like the 3-bar hamburger, but if you don't care for that, maybe there's another symbol that will fit better?

Probably an oversight: your Mix Module PDC buttons are stock. I like what you did with the FX button, seems like that would work for PDC. Feel free to swipe my 1X/2X button for upsampling.

I make cell #4 of Step Sequencer/Play into a "stop" button (which is the same convention Cakewalk uses in Media Browser).

Also, in places where a preset can be deleted, like Plug-in Properties and Media Browser, I like to show a "-" rather than an "x." (I see now that I missed that on some of mine so I'll touch them up).

Re: up and down arrows vs. turny triangles on the folders. My thoughts on it are if they were canonical, I'd solidly prefer turny triangles. I'll use them until I see something I like better. Either is better than the stock "+/-."

Edited December 24, 2021 by Starship Krupa

[Colin Nicholls]

2 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

The only thing I don't care for is leaving Global/Drop unchanged (as a down arrow). I like the 3-bar hamburger, but if you don't care for that, maybe there's another symbol that will fit better?

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.

2 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

Feel free to swipe my 1X/2X button for upsampling.

I considered this, and will probably do it in the next update.

2 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

in places where a preset can be deleted, like Plug-in Properties and Media Browser, I like to show a "-" rather than an "x."

Agreed; I knew they'd still be some places left to clean up.

2 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

Re: up and down arrows vs. turny triangles on the folders. My thoughts on it are if they were canonical, I'd solidly prefer turny triangles. I'll use them until I see something I like better. Either is better than the stock "+/-."

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.

2 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

Probably an oversight: your Mix Module PDC buttons are stock.

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 🙂

[Colin Nicholls]

Updated to 1.0.2, Mix Module button changes.

[Starship Krupa]

I hear ya about the consistency, but to me, they're different contexts.

The Finder/Explorer convention is that the t-t's are used on the left side to open subfolders. So in my way of thinking, okay, we're opening subfolders, and the button for that is on the left side, so, turny triangles.

When I tried using them anywhere else (except ProChannel), it didn't look right, so I backed it out.

In any case, the arrow is an improvement over the +/- for sure. Much easier to see.

Hmm, there's gotta be some way to have that Drop button be something that's consistent (rather than being the only burger in the UI) yet not a down arrow, which as you point out, is used to signify opening and closing panels. I will meditate on this.