Please add colour customization at least for PRV

[Maria P]

I've already made another post about this some months ago. Also contacted support back then. Other users have posted about it as well. Please make it your priority.
It's about simple colour files, nothing fancy so we can adjust background colours etc  to our convenience without messing with the existing themes. Is it really that difficult or complicated to add this feature to the next update?

Unfortunately I have to repeat myself, this is the reason why I've kept using CbB though I have a paid version of Sonar. Now this option is going away....and midi editing is going to be very frustrating.

Edited August 5 by Maria P

[Starship Krupa]

Thank you for posting again. The more people who request a feature, the greater the chance the devs will implement it. If the request scrolls off into nowhere, they may get the impression that it's not so important to us.

I have impaired vision, and with the CbB custom color feature I was able to set colors for my beat and measure lines in Track View. That really helped.

Between custom colors and Theme Editor, I could get the track background pitch black and use green or blue for beat lines and red for measure lines. Also red for Aim Assist, which helped. I could also change the color of text in various areas. I didn't realize how much the contrast between a truly dark background and colored (not just shades of grey) elements helped until it was taken away.

From what I can tell by looking at the the current stock schemes, it is possible to change button colors, background colors, and at least some text colors. So if users get access to all of those I will be a very happy camper. At minimum with my vision issues, color for the grid lines, text, and Aim Assist. When Sonar first shipped, I couldn't even see Aim Assist in the PRV with lighter schemes. I'm grateful that they adjusted that.

[rocstudio]

On 8/4/2025 at 6:00 PM, Maria P said:

I've already made another post about this some months ago. Also contacted support back then. Other users have posted about it as well. Please make it your priority.
It's about simple colour files, nothing fancy so we can adjust background colours etc  to our convenience without messing with the existing themes. Is it really that difficult or complicated to add this feature to the next update?

Unfortunately I have to repeat myself, this is the reason why I've kept using CbB though I have a paid version of Sonar. Now this option is going away....and midi editing is going to be very frustrating.

Great Idea! I hope it happens!

[Starship Krupa]

The colors I most need to be able to set are:

1. Measure and beat grid lines.
2. Clip pane background (goes with the above)
3. Text (in as many areas as possible)
4. Aim Assist line
5. Button image (esp. note values in PRV)
6. Button background (goes with the above)
7. Browser text (incl. Notes)
8. Browser background

These are all colors that vary between the various factory schemes, so I know it's possible to change them. In the case of the grid lines, Aim Assist Line, and (I think) Clip Pane Background, those colors could be changed using the existing Customization/Colors dialog. The dialog is still there, but those settings have been removed.

Please add them back.

[aleo]

I do a lot of composing and editing with MIDI tracks and Instrument tracks and often you have a situation where two tracks have notes of the same or nearly the same color.  This presents some confusion when working in the Clips Pane, but much more confusion when you're working with both tracks in PRV.  It's easy to solve the problem in Track View using Track Inspector and changing the Note or foreground color in the clips in one of the tracks.  Unfortunately, the note color in PRV remains the same.  It would be very helpful if a track's note color in the Clips Pane could be synced with track's note color in PRV. 

[Starship Krupa]

It was called to my attention that CbB's Theme Editor was originally created by end users who reverse engineered SONAR's resource files and figured out what images and color settings were stored there and how to alter them. It wasn't a product of Cakewalk until Cakewalk bought it from the end user who had published it.

If some intrepid user(s) could figure out where/how Sonar is setting/storing its color settings, it might be possible to do something similar for Sonar. A Sonar Color Editor would be much simpler, because it wouldn't have to deal with images, just be able to read the color settings and change them.

My (current) abilities in this department aren't suggesting where the color choices might be kept. It wouldn't be in the EXE or DLL files, because I don't think you'd want to be rewriting those whenever the user changes color schemes.

The first big question is where does Sonar keep its color schemes? When Sonar switches color schemes, are the factory schemes stored in one of the executables and your selection of which one of them to use is written to the registry or wherever? That would be my first guess.

[Salvatore Sorice]

I'm fortunate that my aging eyes still work fine so the paid Sonar is workable. BUT, I totally agree that being able to customize (not "theme") colors of basic things as mentioned above would be helpful for most of us.

I'm not a programmer, but as @Starship Krupa mentions, the color options seem to be there and just need to be made available to us. I think the Bakers are doing a  great job, are very responsive, and likely aware that this is of great interest to a significant number of users, so hopefully it is on the ToDo list...

Edited August 8 by Salvatore Sorice
typo

[Starship Krupa]

7 minutes ago, aleo said:

It would be very helpful if a track's note color in the Clips Pane could be synced with track's note color in PRV. 

You mean clips' note color, right? Because unless I'm misunderstanding, PRV currently uses the tracks' foreground color for a track's notes. Doesn't it?

I change my colors up all the time, both clip background and track foreground. I'd be very sad if I couldn't set clip background colors for PRV. As far as clip (not track) foreground....I wouldn't use that, but I can understand why some might want it.

[Starship Krupa]

9 minutes ago, Salvatore Sorice said:

hopefully it is on the ToDo list...

If they don't come through for whatever reason(s), it could possibly be put on other parties'. There are some great 3rd-party customization tools for CbB. It's too bad that the hardcore customization gurus seem to have moved on (probably to Re: Purr).

[Maria P]

When I was using Sonar 8.5, there was colour customization in preferences. (Also in Sonar 7). The default PRV view colours, especially in the background were very helpful if I remember correctly. I missed all next versions and went to straight to CbB. I didn't prefer the default PRV colours, so all I did was  transfer the prv colour file from Sonar to CbB. A simple case of .clr files. No theme editor or any other complicated tool. Just that. There is already a list of colours in preferences but it's too small with very little or no choices.

It should be available from within new Sonar and not some third party utility. I understand that transferring such files now from CbB to sonar is impossible due to graphics incompatibility.  But that's not my request. I'd really like to know if what i'm asking is really difficult or  just "not a priority". For us working and editing a lot of midi this truly is a priority though. And for any other visual part of the DAW that is disturbing workflow

Edited August 8 by Maria P

[Amberwolf]

8 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

My (current) abilities in this department aren't suggesting where the color choices might be kept. It wouldn't be in the EXE or DLL files, because I don't think you'd want to be rewriting those whenever the user changes color schemes.

The first big question is where does Sonar keep its color schemes? When Sonar switches color schemes, are the factory schemes stored in one of the executables and your selection of which one of them to use is written to the registry or wherever? That would be my first guess.

The EXE or DLL could have the schemes built in, but the choice itself is probably stored in the windows registry.  Unfortunately, it could literally be anywhere in there, under any name, value, clsid, etc., depending on the developer's choices.  (it *should* be under the registry section specific to the program it's for, but in my years of registry-poking for various things, I've found many programs scatter stuff all over the place.

 

To find out what is being read or written to the registry, to see if this is where the setting is, you can use Regmon or other similar utilities.  Start the monitor, then Sonar, then stop the monitor once it's loaded and see what it accessed.      Since it may not be named conveniently for the user, you may have a lot of data to wade thru.   It might be possible to narrow it down by starting the monitor *after* Sonar finishes loading, and then change theme in Sonar, then stop the monitor and wade thru *that* data which should be mostly stuff relevant to the accessed menus, etc., if it's doing things in a typical fashion from things I've had to troubleshoot in other programs. 

 

If the theme data is actually in the registry (not just the user choice of which theme, but the actual color data), I'd guess from other programs I've dealt with over the years that you would see a (set of) unlabelled numeric values, probably as a set of really long strings of hex values, each set probably being for one theme.   

 

No guarantees on any of the above, and it's probably completely inapplicable to Sonar.  

 

[sjoens]

AFAIK colors are stored in the EXE file and upon opening Cakewalk writes only the colors available in Preferences to the registry.  If you delete the registry entries, Cakewalk rewrites them next time it opens.  You can't change colors in the registry.

Theme data are stored in the theme file itself (FTH, STH).  The EXE file reads from it, TTSRES, and TTSImage to display the GUI.  I think the registry only documents which theme was last used so it can reload it next time.

Edited August 10 by sjoens

[Starship Krupa]

From the official Cakewalk Reddit sub and Discord server:

"We’re introducing expanded color customization and theming controls to give you more flexibility in how the DAW looks and feels."

Let the celebration begin!

[Mark Morgon-Shaw]

1 hour ago, Starship Krupa said:

Let the celebration begin!

[happen135]

16 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

From the official Cakewalk Reddit sub and Discord server:

"We’re introducing expanded color customization and theming controls to give you more flexibility in how the DAW looks and feels."

Let the celebration begin!

 

[happen135]

Compare the colors of the channel bars，
this is CbB，When there are a large number of tracks, this color makes it easy for me to distinguish which track I have chosen.

 

this is New sonar。The new sonar made me stare wide eyed at the very narrow color in the bottom left corner, even causing me to accidentally operate it。

 

[Steveau]

I wholeheartedly agree! I've been starting to do a lot more Midi orchestration, and the PRV color scheme is pitiful,  only the blownout whitish scheme shows a significant  difference between selected notes and unselected notes. and measures and beat lines are barely discernible. I know I should get Cubase for this type of stuff, but I've been on Sonar since it began, and it's gotten too comfortable to change.

If Sonar wants to be a contender in the Midi orchestration market, they need to glean some more usability features from the top competitors.

Please...

[matt]

On 8/8/2025 at 10:12 AM, Starship Krupa said:

The colors I most need to be able to set are:

1. Measure and beat grid lines.
2. Clip pane background (goes with the above)
3. Text (in as many areas as possible)
4. Aim Assist line
5. Button image (esp. note values in PRV)
6. Button background (goes with the above)
7. Browser text (incl. Notes)
8. Browser background

This is a good list, I need most of this!  Especially clip pane background and ALL text.

+1