Reclaim Screen Space: How to gut the UI?

[Clovis Ramsay]

That which is highlighted in yellow needs to go.  It is empty, redundant, or useless space crowding the canvas and I would like to know if it is possible to get rid of it and end my suffering from claustrophobia.

thanks,
ur pal,

-clovis

[Colin Nicholls]

Frankly, it's pretty minimal framework but if it bothers you:

Undock/float; then close; then F11 for full-screen. That's it.

[Xoo]

And take a minimalist approach to the control bar and float it - that alone takes up more space than any of the yellow (which are often present for menus, tools, scrollbars or spacing so there is distinction between different areas).  Not that I wouldn't like somethings smaller (like track widgets), but I don't feel the yellow areas are eating too much space.

[scook]

2 hours ago, Clovis Ramsay said:

I would like to know if it is possible to get rid of it

no

[sjoens]

The Audio Scale (fat framed area between track pane & clips pane) can be minimized. Go to Track View > View > Display > Show Audio Scale and deselect.

[Clovis Ramsay]

Well sure when I am on desktop with dual monitors, I float this and that but when doing remote work, screen space matters.

you see, im also a graphic designer for websites but I specialize more in the customers ease of visual, navigation, and anything that can compel them to naturally navigate/scroll/select.  This is how you eliminate stress being associated with the brand/service/diner experience.  
 

Now with a demand for remote recording engineers, screen design matters and if you were actually measure the horizontal highlighted areas, it comes out to an inch or more of real screen space.  Thats actually a good amount of pixels and just the right amount to snap in the windows.  There is literally empy space in the center of the screen and you guys are like huh??  What?? Its fine dude its minimal as it gets bruh!

 

cakewalk bias.   I love cakewalk but empty non functioning pixals eating up an inch of screen matters on one monitor laptop remote situations.    Also, UI is now reaching 12 years ?  Im not here to file a complaint and im glad to know that I cannot do anything about it in the theme editor so thanks for that. 

[Lord Tim]

Your best bet is to use the Skylight interface the way it was designed. D shows/hides the Multidock. I shows/hides the Inspector. B shows/hides the Browser, C shows/hides the Control Bar (or Shift+C minimises it).  Or you can set a Screenset or Workspace to do that all with a single keystroke.

In the studio, I'm running a 5120x1440 main panel with a 1920x1080 secondary screen, so I have real estate to burn - I'm happy to have everything in front of me, spaced nicely so it doesn't feel crowded. When I'm out on the road and just using a single laptop display panel, I change to a more compact Workspace and show only the elements I care about when I'm doing the required task.

[Terry Kelley]

Do what I do - drink a lot. It helps with the claustrophobia.

Edited December 10, 2021 by Terry Kelley

[Starship Krupa]

I managed to get it down to this by using float/close and hiding the audio scale. Not everything you asked for, but maybe better? I think I could have gotten it even tidier by using a Workspace.

I sometimes use Cakewalk on a 14" laptop, and it helps a lot to make use of the D key, as well as Shift-D. I never really need to see the Track View and Console simultaneously, same with Piano Roll. Tap of the D key, the other view takes over.

As mentioned earlier, I and B take care of the Inspector and Browser. I just minimize them when I'm not using them, but the Inspector is really handy on a small screen for when I want to see ProChannel without opening Console View, as well as its usual functions of changing clip background colors, etc.

If you get cozy with Workspaces, you can switch between this and the full enchilada at will:

[sjoens]

These ideas aren't exactly what the OP wants, but another thing you can do is collapse the Control Bar "vertically" and hover over the module you want to use.

[msmcleod]

My old location recording rig was running on an old laptop with a 1280 x 1024 screen.

I used a combination of @Colin Nicholls suggestion and screensets, e.g:

ScreenSet 1:  No browser, No track inspector, track view fully maximised
ScreenSet 2:  No browser, Half width track inspector, console fully maximized with narrow strips
ScreenSet 3: No browser, Half width track inspector, track view fully maximized

For screensets 1 & 3, I used custom control manager settings to minimise widgets available.
 

[puddy]

On 12/7/2021 at 4:37 PM, Clovis Ramsay said:

That which is highlighted in yellow needs to go.  It is empty, redundant, or useless space crowding the canvas and I would like to know if it is possible to get rid of it and end my suffering from claustrophobia.

thanks,
ur pal,

-clovis

 

On 12/8/2021 at 6:44 AM, Clovis Ramsay said:

Well sure when I am on desktop with dual monitors, I float this and that but when doing remote work, screen space matters.

you see, im also a graphic designer for websites but I specialize more in the customers ease of visual, navigation, and anything that can compel them to naturally navigate/scroll/select.  This is how you eliminate stress being associated with the brand/service/diner experience.  
 

Now with a demand for remote recording engineers, screen design matters and if you were actually measure the horizontal highlighted areas, it comes out to an inch or more of real screen space.  Thats actually a good amount of pixels and just the right amount to snap in the windows.  There is literally empy space in the center of the screen and you guys are like huh??  What?? Its fine dude its minimal as it gets bruh!

 

cakewalk bias.   I love cakewalk but empty non functioning pixals eating up an inch of screen matters on one monitor laptop remote situations.    Also, UI is now reaching 12 years ?  Im not here to file a complaint and im glad to know that I cannot do anything about it in the theme editor so thanks for that. 

@Clovis Ramsay Your posts are valid, thank you.

I will not even get into "cakewalk bias", which to me borders into some sort of denialism...

[Colin Nicholls]

4 hours ago, puddy said:

 

@Clovis Ramsay Your posts are valid, thank you.

I will not even get into "cakewalk bias", which to me borders into some sort of denialism...

Dude.... you're on a Cakewalk User Forum. We're here because we think Cakewalk is the BEST. It's not denialism, it's the demographic.

[Colin Nicholls]

Also, @sjoens , I did not know about hiding the audio scale. Nice!

[Starship Krupa]

21 hours ago, puddy said:

I will not even get into "cakewalk bias", which to me borders into some sort of denialism...

Good idea.

[puddy]

On 12/15/2021 at 6:01 PM, Colin Nicholls said:

Dude.... you're on a Cakewalk User Forum. We're here because we think Cakewalk is the BEST. It's not denialism, it's the demographic.

Oww, I figure.

But all that you raised is irrelevant, as there was never any dispute to it.

Just makes me wonder if you DENY  the points raised on the original post.

Thank you

[puddy]

15 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

Good idea.

Indeed it is

[Starship Krupa]

18 minutes ago, puddy said:

But all that you raised is irrelevant, as there was never any dispute to it.

Just makes me wonder if you DENY  the points raised on the original post.

Ohhh, I see now. There's a disconnect.

Most of the people who posted replies are trying to help the OP make better use of the program, whether we agree with him or not. Not trying to make any points about whether Cakewalk is an inherently well-designed program or whatever. For the most part, it works well for me. I have no need to defend it.

I myself would like to be able to free up the space taken up by the closed Arranger, Tempo Track, and Video Thumbnails when a project isn't using them. At this point, I can't, not even with a custom workspace. If it were that important to me, I'd get around to making a feature request. But it's not, not even on my 14" laptop screen. I really like the Skylight interface, having compared it to several other DAW's. It took some time to learn to get the best use of it, but now that I have, I don't feel that cramped on my smaller single screen.

It's assumed that for him, what he said is true about the highlighted areas being "empty, redundant, or useless space." For the rest of us, that may or may not be true. The highlighted areas are there for one reason or other (I can't really give up scroll bars myself), and this person doesn't want them. Who cares whether he's "right" or "wrong?"

You seem to be here because you want to debate the layout of the program with a group of people whom you know to be dedicated users. This may not be the best place to begin ridding the Internet of hypocrisy and denial.

[puddy]

19 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

Ohhh, I see now. There's a disconnect.

Most of the people who posted replies are trying to help the OP make better use of the program, whether we agree with him or not. Not trying to make any points about whether Cakewalk is an inherently well-designed program or whatever. For the most part, it works well for me. I have no need to defend it.

I myself would like to be able to free up the space taken up by the closed Arranger, Tempo Track, and Video Thumbnails when a project isn't using them. At this point, I can't, not even with a custom workspace. If it were that important to me, I'd get around to making a feature request. But it's not, not even on my 14" laptop screen. I really like the Skylight interface, having compared it to several other DAW's. It took some time to learn to get the best use of it, but now that I have, I don't feel that cramped on my smaller single screen.

It's assumed that for him, what he said is true about the highlighted areas being "empty, redundant, or useless space." For the rest of us, that may or may not be true. The highlighted areas are there for one reason or other (I can't really give up scroll bars myself), and this person doesn't want them. Who cares whether he's "right" or "wrong?"

You seem to be here because you want to debate the layout of the program with a group of people whom you know to be dedicated users. This may not be the best place to begin ridding the Internet of hypocrisy and den

I am not understanding what you have written, not in its entirety.... but all that i had written was in honesty. and what you are thinking i dont care about. english is not my mother toun gue

[puddy]

18 minutes ago, puddy said:

You seem to be here because you want to debate the layout of the program with a group of people whom you know to be dedicated users. This may not be the best place to begin ridding the Internet of hypocrisy and den

No ... my stance was to support someone  who saw some shortcomings with the user interface... of which are glaring... otherwise  i like the program//software.

thank you