Colin Nicholls

@Noel Borthwick, Pros: The text is definitely crisper Con 1: The text is rendered smaller than when the config setting is 0. It maybe just goes under the threshold of comfort, for me personally. At my normal scaling of 125% I find I prefer to turn off this feature. Con 2: There is some kerning issues with bold text. Probably nothing you have control over, font scaling is tricky. See below, specifically "gr" "it", "at" etc.

@Herbert Zio, huh, you're right. If you pull the Bus Pane separator all the way up so that it fills the space (hiding the Track Pane) and then press the Show/Hide Bus Pane button, the separator line is not re-drawn. The reason I called it a bug fix is because I don't recall the separator line being shown at all in earlier versions of SONAR/Cakewalk. Thanks for taking the time to prepare the visual.

Snap Offset or Disabled AudioSnap markers?

That's a Bug FIX for me

@KurtS, are you sure it isn't the new waveform outline feature you're seeing? Try turning it off (see the release notes)

I'm experimenting with this look for Mil-Spec Alpha R3: As for color customizing, you can tell from the latest new features that the Bakers are doing their best to deliver functionality without impacting theme designers or requiring supplemental work on supporting theming, and I can't say that I blame them. It's a fine line and I applaud it, so far.

Interesting. I totally missed this in the EA release notes, but now I've set it to 1 to see what effect it has. I run my monitor at 3840 x 2160 and Scale 125% and I definitely can tell the difference, to the greatest degree in the Track View dropdown menus (View, Options, Tracks, etc). Also the TOAST notification text is crisper. I have not noticed a difference in the "Add Instrument/Plugin" menu structure; it looks the same as it did with the value set to 0. I haven't noticed any negative effects yet. I'll run like this for a while and see how it goes.

Some custom themes provide this, or you can roll your own

>> Is there a way to change the background color of the bus pane, as well as the inspectors and browser through the theme editor? @Herbert Zio, Nope.

Works fine for me. What Sub-palette are you referring to? The "Other..." Windows color picker? Something else?

You need to rip the audio from the CD to a file. An Audio CD does not have a file system you can drag and drop from without software assistance. EDIT: Well, today I learned something. See below.

How large is the normal application menu text in comparison?

Is there a way to do this already? I haven't found it. If I select multiple WAV files to import into an audio track, Cakewalk creates a new track for each file and aligns them starting at 0:00. It would be nice if we had the option to: Import the files sequentially into one track Cakewalk created Arranger Sections for each file, with the file name

Updated 2021.04.28 I've incorporated documentation on Color Preference values that are not included in the Theme Editor, but may still be useful to folks who want extra "fit and finish" in their theming. Bus Pane Clips & Clips Pane Piano Roll View Staff View Event List

I feel bad that my document didn't describe this behavior more clearly. I'll rectify this in the next update.

The Theme Editor hasn't changed. It is still 1.2.0.14. And I can still edit the Browser/Plug-in Browser/PlugIn Types/* images, and save them in themes, it's just that they are not used by the Cakewalk application, not since a long time back - before I was creating themes. In my document, I've marked them "Not yet identified" since the beginning. The only way I know of changing plug-in icons is to alter the Plug-in Browser / Plug-in Tree Icons strip. As for the theme compatibility warning, that's not a bug, it's a new feature. Old themes have always worked (for the most part) in new releases, and this is still true.

See Plug-in Browser, I don't believe the behavior has changed (outside of the changes to the insert menus in 2021.04)

The work-in-progress continues to, um progress. Updated 2021.04.27 Refactored the introductory chapter to include a section on Preferences > Color Customization and how they interact with customized Theme elements. This is preparatory work so that we can start including references to un-themeable UI elements that are customized only through color preferences.

Do you at least see that the menu option changed from a sub-menu to a "Soft Synth..." ellipsis? Here's what we are seeing:

Personally, I use this link: Cakewalk By BandLab Reference Guide (PDF) and use Ctrl-F to search for stuff.

Keep fighting the good fight, @jonathan boose

Updated 2021.04.25 Minor changes relating to obsolete theme items; console EQ plot backgrounds; and Tempo View.

It's not time-consuming once you know what you are doing but there is a learning curve. For your specific issue, have you tried changing the option under the Track View menu: View > Display > [X] Display Track Separators I usually run with that option un-checked, as this specific UI element - Track Separator - is not affected by Theme customization, there just isn't an option for it. Also, color customization is complicated by an older feature in Cakewalk that interacts/overlays the Theme options. Basically you can load a custom theme, but then any changes from "Normal" under Preferences > Customization > Colors that you've made will overlay or over-ride the Theme elements. And there are some options under this Customization > Colors area that don't have a matching element in a Theme - the Track View Vertical Beat and Vertical Measure line colors for example. Regarding the clip colors, this is another case where the Theme sets the default but the Colors preferences can override. And of course, in any project you can then customize the colors on a per-Track and per-Clip basis, which take precedence over any Theme or Color Pref option. I get what you're saying about preferring pastel shades but you also have to be aware of how Cakewalk will tint, fade, or change these colors based on things that are happening in your project. I recommend reviewing this section of my guide: Clip Colors

Not @Keni, but FWIW I tested this using plugins from Applied Acoustics Systems which (on my system at least) have both VST2 and VST3 versions available. For me, the pick list definitely respects the checkbox in Preferences > VST Settings, [x] Hide Related VST2 Plug-ins When it is un-checked, I see both, and when it is checked, I only see the VST3 entries.