Do Themes Not Work in Sonar Now?

[johnegenes@gmail.com]

Hello,

Just getting my feet wet with Cakewalk Sonar Ver 2025.07  I'm a longtime user of Cakewalk, going all the way back to floppy disks. My go-to version has mostly been Sonar 8.5, but I do have X2 and Platinum, along with the Bandlab version. My new version, 2025.07 is the full subscription version, so I have the Cakewalk Product Center installed and have installed various plugins, etc. 
From what I've read, I should be able to import Themes into Cakewalk, but it doesn't seem to be able to do that. I see no listing for "Themes" in the Preferences area (under "Customization"). I've attached a snapshop of my Prefs window. 

I can import Colors, from my old Sonar 8.5, but the results aren't very good. I really don't like the themes that come with this program and would like to change them. I do have the Cakewalk Theme Editor, which works in Bandlab, but not in Cakewalk Sonar. I guess at this point I'm just a bit confused. I thought I was UPGRADING from Cakewalk Bandlab to the paid version of Cakewalk Sonar, but I don't really see much improvement, except for some plugins (most of which I already had). 

So, my question is: how do you re-skin the paid version of Cakewalk Sonar? Thanks. 
--john

[Colin Nicholls]

Hi John, unfortunately that is correct. Themes are not supported in the new Sonar. It uses an entirely different graphics/display engine (vector based, not bitmaps) as part of the High-DPI support.

It's early days, though, and BandLab/Cakewalk haven't ruled out bringing back some form of user-customization for colors in Sonar. 

I fully expect to see some kind of theming back in the product in the near future but it won't be based on the previous theming engine, and those Cakewalk themes will not be compatible. 

The built-in themes (more than just Tungsten and Mercury!) do a good job and being generally acceptable to most people but of course there's always something that, if only we could tweak slightly, would make it perfect 🙂

I hope that helps.

[Dave C]

My first time back in the forums since Sonar X1-2. Been using Cakewalk since Pro Audio 9.

I get that the custom themes had to be removed to go to vector graphics. Not an issue.

The removal of controls to set some very basic colors on the interface is however, very frustrating. If I cannot customize piano roll background, track names, etc, or the main highlight color in a theme (orange? purple? come on thats not going to work for everyone) it is not just annoying but makes visual use of the software fatiguing and slows workflow.

Cakewalk, please step up and put this basic feature back ASAP, or at least provide more default themes like Mercury but with a dark PRV like Tungsten has, and please let the highlight color be set by user. I think most would be happy with some basic control here, and not sure we need another total theme editor, just let us pick major interface colors again! New Sonar coming from CbB should not have been released with this removed in my opinion, especially when it is advertised as the same or better but is not in a couple aspects. I was actually surprised to find this change when I installed and realized this ability was gone, since I am not sure how colors that were not part of theme editor before CbB were not removed.

I am not thrilled about the subscription model, but I hope it is worth it to invest in this future for Cakewalk, and that we get some updates in a resonable time, while Next is also likely consuming a lot of resources.

 

Edited July 13 by Dave C

[dougalex]

1 hour ago, Dave C said:

New Sonar coming from CbB should not have been released with this removed in my opinion, especially when it is advertised as the same or better

I totally sympathize and understand those who have need for color tweaking... HOWEVER
There are also many of us who have never once customized any colors. I have always just picked the canned theme I liked the best and got right to work.
After all, someone on the programming team took some amount of time to find something that works well. I know I am not going to do any better, particularly when it already "works fine for me" and "I want to make music rather than tweak colors".
So... I am glad they released new Sonar. I'm like, yeah! Let's GO-O-O-O-O-O!!!!!!😃

Edited July 13 by dougalex

[gmp]

I agree. This needs to be addressed pronto. I turned in a bug report about the Colors not working at all. they're working on it. Check out my detailed post about the Themes and Colors today 7/13

 

[Dave C]

On 7/12/2025 at 6:59 PM, dougalex said:

I totally sympathize and understand those who have need for color tweaking... HOWEVER
There are also many of us who have never once customized any colors. I have always just picked the canned theme I liked the best and got right to work.
After all, someone on the programming team took some amount of time to find something that works well. I know I am not going to do any better, particularly when it already "works fine for me" and "I want to make music rather than tweak colors".
So... I am glad they released new Sonar. I'm like, yeah! Let's GO-O-O-O-O-O!!!!!!😃

I'm very late responding, but I hear where you are coming from. I agree the programming team found a few themes that are not hideous, and I actually find Sonar quite attractive compared to many DAWs, but to me that still doesn't mean the color combos work well for everyone.

For some users, certain colors are not pleasant or can even be hard to see. I've been able to fix that with a few clicks on over a decade of Cakewalk versions until now. I try to ignore cosmetic changes and get to work myself after updates, and I also and don't obsess on customization, but bright oranges, reds, purples, white backgrounds, etc are hard on my eyes. I like dark greys for interface elements and blues/greens/muted yellows for highlights as I can see them easier. None of the canned themes combines all that.

I think the views that are substantially bright or dark should be pickable whatever the theme (dark piano roll for example is far easier on my eyes) and the main highlight colors such as sliders on tracks and the toolbar should let us choose the color. No need for a crazy customization, just a few choices.

Edited yesterday at 05:07 AM by Dave C

[Terry Kelley]

I think the developers will ultimately come up with customization tools within the limit of vector graphics. That feature just needs to be pushed back while they focus on functionality.

Give them some time.

Edited 19 hours ago by Terry Kelley

[gmp]

To me it's not esthetics at all. It's workflow, being able to find things quickly to make adjustments. With the current color schemes, it would help immensely to be able to use elements of one color scheme in another one, because some schemes are very good for one thing, but bad for another.  I hope they address this and agree, this should not have been released, saying it was better than CbB. 

Even with Platinum and CbB the Theme editor wasn't able to make Volume, Gain, and Pan different colors like Cakewalk 8.5, which made it so easy to quickly adjust these parameters. To me Sonar fails miserably with the color Schemes. I'm pleased with everything else. Here's my CbB theme

 

[Mark Morgon-Shaw]

Interesting point on White Sea Studio's new video today about UI/UX design of DAWs

 

 

[Bass Guitar]

Im using 4 other Daw’s and I have absolutely never paid attention to the graphics. I just open them and get to work. 
 

The new Sonar has me squinting to find things I used to have no problem with before. I keep making mistakes when working because even the mouse doesn’t respond accurately. 

[Amberwolf]

5 hours ago, Terry Kelley said:

I think the developers will ultimately come up with customization tools within the limit of vector graphics. That feature just needs to be pushed back while they focus on functionality.

Colors and customization is *essential* functionality for various users (the percentage of which I wouldn't begin to guess), including myself.

 

People wouldn't be asking for it if they didn't need it.  

[AB99]

Maybe this color and customization issue should be a sticky on this forum perhaps with a summary of what can currently be done and what is likely to be developed in the future.

Obviously, the Bakers must be aware of this issue with so many posts about it.   And obviously it was important at one time since there was a theme editor, etc.   I do trust that improvements on this will happen in the future.   As for me, my biggest issue is the little print on the markers, which I have brought up before on this forum.  I am hoping they will develop a way to make that print larger or create something so if the mouse hovers over the marker, a popup with larger print occurs.  

[Jeremy Oakes]

19 minutes ago, AB99 said:

Maybe this color and customization issue should be a sticky on this forum perhaps with a summary of what can currently be done and what is likely to be developed in the future.

Obviously, the Bakers must be aware of this issue with so many posts about it.   And obviously it was important at one time since there was a theme editor, etc.   I do trust that improvements on this will happen in the future.   As for me, my biggest issue is the little print on the markers, which I have brought up before on this forum.  I am hoping they will develop a way to make that print larger or create something so if the mouse hovers over the marker, a popup with larger print occurs.  

Colour customisation will no doubt come - in the future.  Patience is required however. Just because you don't like the colour schemes, doesn't make for a show stopper.

The markers police size has been mentioned before, you're not the first to ask for an increase in type face size...... I'm not keen on your idea of a pop up - it could obscure the place where you're trying to put a marker !

J

[AB99]

I might be the one who mentioned the marker size before!

And by the way, I am a happy Sonar user and highly recommend it to anyone.

 I patiently await improvements on the color possibilities, though frankly waiting is not difficult for me as it is not an urgent need of mine.  I do however empathize with others that write about it.

As to the best marker solution, I bet the Bakers come up with something!  And I can wait for that too!