Smaller UI

[Ronald Claessens]

Hello,

I'm using Cakewalk since Cakewalk 7 and I'm very satisfied with it, I guess I use it around 25 years.

My question is: is it possible to make the UI smaller than it is now. Nowadays the monitor size is much larger (I think 24"inch for DAW user is the minimum). I think that the UI can be smaller than it is now. Wouldn't this a great product suggestion?

Greetz, Ronald

[Brian Walton]

I use two 24 inch monitors with Cakewalk at 1920x1080 and think it is a good size with this setup, I wouldn't want it smaller and it wouldn't really want it smaller.

Many people use it on a single monitor, and while the trend is towards larger monitors - however, the vast majority of monitors in use are less than 24 inches - you can bank on that.  

If you buy a 4K monitor and run it at 4K kind of resolution, the DAW becomes smaller in certain respects...you might want to check this post, I have a feeling this is the type of thing you are looking for, which already exists with the right monitor and settings.

 

 

 

[Ronald Claessens]

Hi Brian, 

I'm using also two 24" monitors at 1920x1080 but from my point of view the UI should be a setup where you can choose the size of the UI.

If I look to other DAWs like Logic or Protools they have a smaller UI with zoom functions, I think with this kind of solution everyone can setup his UI like he wants.

Of course I can buy two  4K  monitors but for a hobby it is expensive and I think for Bandlab it is not a very big issue.

 

[User 905133]

Are you talking about making the font(s) smaller? re-sizing the modules in the Control Bar? re-sizing windows/panes?  resizing instrument and FX plug-ins?

[Ronald Claessens]

Yes user905133: I mean everything of the UI. I mean a scalable UI like pwalpwal said. I think it's time Bandlab redesign the UI otherwise  I think they gonna lose market share.

 

[Brian Walton]

On 11/14/2020 at 7:27 PM, Ronald Claessens said:

Hi Brian, 

I'm using also two 24" monitors at 1920x1080 but from my point of view the UI should be a setup where you can choose the size of the UI.

If I look to other DAWs like Logic or Protools they have a smaller UI with zoom functions, I think with this kind of solution everyone can setup his UI like he wants.

Of course I can buy two  4K  monitors but for a hobby it is expensive and I think for Bandlab it is not a very big issue.

 

Well I have the same "setup" as you and think the UI is "just" right.  All the tracks can zoom horizontally and vertically making them microscopic or huge.  The Console view has  various width settings so you have have narrow strips if you want to see more tracks in a view.

Scaling the UI is really only needed if you are dealing with a higher resolution and larger monitor where you would be losing detial of fonts as you blow it up.  On two 24s this isn't an issue at all, and is basically optimized for that kind of setup.

 

I don't follow ProTools, but I actually don't think it scales and is a complaint in the community for 4K users that don't want everything to look tiny.  

Edited November 16, 2020 by Brian Walton

[sjoens]

I have a 17" 4K laptop monitor but for CbB I run it at 1920x1080 to match my 2nd wide screen, which to me does more for a DAW than 4K.

Aside from resolution there's also text scaling from 100 to 350% which affects the whole screen.

[alirezaarnam]

On 11/15/2020 at 9:31 PM, Ronald Claessens said:

Yes user905133: I mean everything of the UI. I mean a scalable UI like pwalpwal said. I think it's time Bandlab redesign the UI otherwise  I think they gonna lose market share.

 

its true ,  i think should be  make it possible to change type and the font size for  name audio track and instrument and ... , It will be very good If this happens 

Or if they do not allow this, at least the  bandlab team will design a new font or UI for the program

Edited November 26, 2020 by alirezaarnam

[puddy]

On 11/15/2020 at 8:01 PM, Ronald Claessens said:

Yes user905133: I mean everything of the UI. I mean a scalable UI like pwalpwal said. I think it's time Bandlab redesign the UI otherwise  I think they gonna lose market share.

 

This is true and I can't agree with you more, it's amazing how I think this is the least of priorities.

I ended up buying studio one artist (it's not even extremely affordable where I'm from, about R1 200.00 black friday) cause I tried but gave up tolerating the UI.

I'll surely keep an eye on cakewalk cause the fundamentals and feature sets are okay.

 

 

[Jean]

On 11/26/2020 at 5:03 PM, alirezaarnam said:

 i think should be  make it possible to change type and the font size for  name audio track and instrument and ... , It will be very good If this happens 

I agree and have asked for the same in the forum at some point. It’s the element that makes Cakewalk by Bandlab a tad old fashioned looking. The track name font needs an update and I too would like the option to be able to make the font size of the track/instrument names smaller enabling the minimum track size to be reduced so more tracks can be viewed simultaneously. It would really freshen up the UI.

On another aspect of the UI, I count my lucky stars that the tracks in the UI can be manipulated vertically and horizontally at will with all the track information there to hand … meters, effects, sends, phase, peaks, solo, mute, archive, freeze, ins and outs etc. When I tried other DAWs during the demise of Sonar Platinum, I was astonished that none of them offered this flexibility.

[RobertWS]

Scalable fonts is an extremely tricky and awkward thing to do.

When fonts get bigger do you...

1) let the container expand horizontally pushing other elements to the right*

2) wrap the text, expanding the container vertically and pushing other elements down*

3) clip the text, meaning you can't see it unless you hover over it with a mouse

*And when those elements move, what happens to their neighbors?

You can imagine all the scenarios, the nightmare of testing each one and no matter which one you choose, somebody is going to whine.

 

If it ain't broke...don't fix it.

 

[alirezaarnam]

On 12/1/2020 at 7:04 PM, RobertWS said:

Scalable fonts is an extremely tricky and awkward thing to do.

When fonts get bigger do you...

1) let the container expand horizontally pushing other elements to the right*

2) wrap the text, expanding the container vertically and pushing other elements down*

3) clip the text, meaning you can't see it unless you hover over it with a mouse

*And when those elements move, what happens to their neighbors?

You can imagine all the scenarios, the nightmare of testing each one and no matter which one you choose, somebody is going to whine.

 

If it ain't broke...don't fix it.

 

HI thanks ,   You may be right and it's not easy because you do not see this in other Daw , but I think the bandlab can do a review again and change the font and replace a good font, because I have seen more places that are not satisfied with this font cake walk ,(Some say it's big font, some say it's small font, but I'm talking about changing the gender of the font) And maybe a general change in the GUI, too, although cake Walk is really very flexible due to the editor theme that other Daws do not have, thank you

Edited December 3, 2020 by alirezaarnam

[Brian Walton]

54 minutes ago, alirezaarnam said:

HI thanks ,   You may be right and it's not easy because you do not see this in other Daw , but I think the bandlab can do a review again and change the font and replace a good font, because I have seen more places that are not satisfied with this font cake walk ,(Some say it's big font, some say it's small font, but I'm talking about changing the gender of the font) And maybe a general change in the GUI, too, although cake Walk is really very flexible due to the editor theme that other Daws do not have, thank you

While the font type doesn't seem to be publisehd anywhere.....it seems to be a very close cousin of Ariel, which is one of the most widely used and beloved fonts.

The UI is one of the best ones on the market when you factor in the ability to customize it.  

It just seems so odd to me to criticize some of the features that make it better than the other applications on the market.   Yes, if you could vectorize fonts and UI elements to never show limitations of screen size or resoltuion that would be intersting.   There is a reason why others are not able to do that, and if you are using A nice dual monitor setup, frankly I don't exactly see a whole lot of need for it if you just buy corrective eyewear.

 

 

[alirezaarnam]

On 12/3/2020 at 7:09 AM, Brian Walton said:

While the font type doesn't seem to be publisehd anywhere.....it seems to be a very close cousin of Ariel, which is one of the most widely used and beloved fonts.

The UI is one of the best ones on the market when you factor in the ability to customize it.  

It just seems so odd to me to criticize some of the features that make it better than the other applications on the market.   Yes, if you could vectorize fonts and UI elements to never show limitations of screen size or resoltuion that would be intersting.   There is a reason why others are not able to do that, and if you are using A nice dual monitor setup, frankly I don't exactly see a whole lot of need for it if you just buy corrective eyewear.

 

 

Thanks , In fact, I do not see any problem with other daws, even with a much smaller font , Of course, this is not an argument that someone wants to change DAw because of this case or can not cope with it (no problem), and of course not bad font , but this case that I say is for the just Track name, and elsewhere Font Cake Walk for the mixer and the FX part and ... very good Yes, but why should the track name be a little not very good than them? , I think changing the font just for name track is easy for cake walk itself and its test is not harmful, Thanks again

Edited December 4, 2020 by alirezaarnam

[sjoens]

Cakewalk uses system installed TTF fonts listed in the String files of the TTSRES file.

MS San serif, Tahoma, Arial, Times New Roman, & Courier New, are listed with Arial being  Track Name and Control Bar fonts.

You can change the font face using a resource editor with mixed results, but I haven't found a way to change size.

Lyrics view allows you to change font face & size.

Snap & Screenset button text is painted on graphically.

Edited December 6, 2020 by sjoens

[Barry Seymour]

On 11/14/2020 at 4:00 PM, Brian Walton said:

I use two 24 inch monitors with Cakewalk at 1920x1080 and think it is a good size with this setup, I wouldn't want it smaller and it wouldn't really want it smaller.

Many people use it on a single monitor, and while the trend is towards larger monitors - however, the vast majority of monitors in use are less than 24 inches - you can bank on that.  

If you buy a 4K monitor and run it at 4K kind of resolution, the DAW becomes smaller in certain respects...you might want to check this post, I have a feeling this is the type of thing you are looking for, which already exists with the right monitor and settings.

 

 

You can adjust the scaling of windows 10: go into Settings and search for 'Make Text Bigger.' Drag the slider to change text size, then close Settings, log out and back in. That'll affect everything in Windows, including Cakewalk. On a 4k monitor I'm guessing it could have a profound effect.

[Barry Seymour]

On 12/2/2020 at 7:39 PM, Brian Walton said:

While the font type doesn't seem to be publisehd anywhere.....it seems to be a very close cousin of Ariel, which is one of the most widely used and beloved fonts.

The UI is one of the best ones on the market when you factor in the ability to customize it.  

It just seems so odd to me to criticize some of the features that make it better than the other applications on the market.   Yes, if you could vectorize fonts and UI elements to never show limitations of screen size or resoltuion that would be intersting.   There is a reason why others are not able to do that, and if you are using A nice dual monitor setup, frankly I don't exactly see a whole lot of need for it if you just buy corrective eyewear.

 

 

Arial is actually a tired old font from the 90s, IMHO. Starting with Windows 7, Microsoft used more advanced fonts that worked with Cleartype, and changed the default system font to 'Segoe UI', specifically designed to work well with ClearType (subpixel rendeering) and to look good at small sizes.  If I had the ability to set the global font for Cakewalk, that's the font I'd choose.