Step Sequencer / Step Button decoded

[Starship Krupa]

As all themers know, the Step Sequencer is just behind Matrix View as one of the first Cakewalk elements to attack when one sets out making a custom theme.

Or maybe not.

Well, in case you ever want to really make that theme unique and do up the Step Sequencer, I have decoded all 12 cells of the Step Sequencer / Step Button image.

The Step Sequencer divides things into odd and even measures. Each step sequencer step can have 6 different states depending on whether it is in an odd or even measure, whether it's active (meaning you've clicked it to make a note sound), inactive (empty), and then whether it's highlighted because the playhead is currently over it. So if there are only 6 states, why do we have 12 cells?

This is so rows of contiguous active steps can have rounded corners at each end.

So in addition to all of the above, we also have images for the leftmost, middle, and rightmost active steps in a row, plus one for a single isolated step. This adds 3 button shapes plus their highlighted forms.

Without further ado, I present the different cells of this button and what states they represent:

Cell 1: Empty step in odd measure
Cell 2: Highlighted empty step in odd measure
Cell 3: Empty step in even measure
Cell 4: Highlighted empty step in even measure
Cell 5: Isolated step
Cell 6: Highlighted isolated step
Cell 7: Leftmost step in row of contiguous steps
Cell 8: Highlighted leftmost step
Cell 9: Inside step in row of contiguous steps
Cell 10: Highlighted inner step
Cell 11: Rightmost  step in row of contiguous steps
Cell 12: Highlighted rightmost step

[Colin Nicholls]

Haha, that's awesome. There's a bit of a backlog of things to go into the YLIP, I know. I recently started a new full-time job and it's been crazy

[Matthew White]

I have only edited the first six in my themes as I've never seen the others being used, how do you get them to display?

[sjoens]

By merging notes: https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR X3&language=3&help=Views.21.html

[Starship Krupa]

14 hours ago, Matthew White said:

I have only edited the first six in my themes as I've never seen the others being used, how do you get them to display?

It's subtle, I guess, but they show up when you have contiguous notes in a row. Plop down one and you get cells 5 and 6. Put two next to each other and you get cells 7 and 8 on the left and 11 and 12 on the right. Put down three and you get the aforementioned left and right, plus 9 and 10 in the middle.

If you check out the shapes of the individual cells it gets clearer still.

I hope this clarifies it. I figured it out by numbering each cell and then examining them closely. It helps if you slow your tempo way down. The hexagrams make it harder to see, but it's possible.

[Matthew White]

7 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

It's subtle, I guess, but they show up when you have contiguous notes in a row. Plop down one and you get cells 5 and 6. Put two next to each other and you get cells 7 and 8 on the left and 11 and 12 on the right. Put down three and you get the aforementioned left and right, plus 9 and 10 in the middle.

If you check out the shapes of the individual cells it gets clearer still.

I hope this clarifies it. I figured it out by numbering each cell and then examining them closely. It helps if you slow your tempo way down. The hexagrams make it harder to see, but it's possible.

Thanks, got it sorted, I never even knew you could merge notes/steps lol.

[Starship Krupa]

I've only seen it when importing clips I started in Piano Roll View. If you work entirely in Step Sequencer, you're more likely to just see 5/6. I got lucky, I just happened to have a clip loaded with the contiguous cells.

The variance in the button shapes is so slight, what really matters is that 5,7,9, and 11 should share the same color, and 6,8,10 and 12 share another.

I just use the default Mercury or Tungsten images as a template and paint bucket in the colors I want.