documentation Young Lady's Illustrated Primer to Theming Cakewalk

[Starship Krupa]

9 hours ago, Colin Nicholls said:

I use "Lock Module Order and Centered" all the time, and the control bar background color is definitely coming from the theme's medium custom background.

I'm also a "Lock Module Order and" man, and I think it only works when you're using one of those two modes. When not locked, or just locked and not centered or justified, it uses the default dark chocolate background.

[Colin Nicholls]

27 minutes ago, sjoens said:

... at the time I was. But trying it again it's now doing exactly what you describe. 

 

If I recall, if you put a border/transparent row of pixels down the left edge, it stops this behavior - maybe you accidently did that?

[sjoens]

All evidence of yesterday's rat killing has been destroyed, so I can neither confirm nor deny.

BTW, Cake's "Lock Module Order and Centered" isn't exactly. I get 79 pixels on the left & 103 on the right end of the CB with 20 between modules.

Edited June 26, 2021 by sjoens

[sjoens]

On 6/25/2021 at 4:23 AM, Matthew White said:

Here's one that's listed as 'Not yet identified' in YLIP, Page 48- Track view / Track View Menu Bar Background. As far as I can tell, it just affects the corners at the top of the track pane.

On 6/25/2021 at 8:05 AM, Colin Nicholls said:

 Wow. Incredibly good catch. THREE INTERNET POINTS to Matthew.

I'll update the YLIP with this crucial information. ?

On 6/30/2021 at 7:25 PM, sjoens said:

Useful in squaring up those worn corners.  

Edited July 1, 2021 by sjoens

[Starship Krupa]

Here's one I just noticed:

Track view/Track Pane/Show/Hide Take Lanes is a button we've discussed at length. Turns out it had one last behavior to reveal, which was what impression 5 was used for. It's displayed when the track is frozen.

[Colin Nicholls]

33 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

It's displayed when the track is frozen.

Hmm, you might want to double-check that.  My research indicates that impression 5  is used when the track is Archived.
Frozen tracks show impression 6.

However, I do see that the YLIP doesn't reflect this, so I'll update the doc, and award you 1 internet point.

[Starship Krupa]

12 minutes ago, Colin Nicholls said:

you might want to double-check that

Let's see....okay, weird, on my main DAW, both Archived and Frozen are showing impression 6. This persists through re-loading the project and restarting Cakewalk. This may be one of those flukes of theming, where it won't appear until the UI needs to load some other resource.

Maybe you could try it again and see what you get?

I guess the bottom line is that at least sometimes impression 5 is used to indicate that Take Lanes can't be opened, and should be treated as such whether it always works or not (so when you're theming for public consumption, don't leave a placeholder image there like I did).

Ah, the treachery of images....

[Starship Krupa]

Got another: Piano Roll View/Muted MIDI Clip Data is the color used when displaying the notes in muted clips, when View/Hide Muted Clips is not selected.

The default color is bright white, the same color that is, of course, used by Cakewalk to display selected notes, so it seems a recipe for much confusion if someone a: has muted clips with data in them and b: turns off Hide Muted Clips.

Why the default color is set to be that way is a mystery to me, and it also may explain why it took me months before I could trust that the notes I was editing in the Piano Roll were the ones I wanted to be editing, and also why sometimes I'd be in a situation where "selected" notes couldn't be altered (or deselected).

From here forward, my themes are going to use 5C5C5C grey for this color.

[Colin Nicholls]

14 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

Let's see....okay, weird, on my main DAW, both Archived and Frozen are showing impression 6. This persists through re-loading the project and restarting Cakewalk. This may be one of those flukes of theming, where it won't appear until the UI needs to load some other resource.

Maybe you could try it again and see what you get?

Okay this took some time to figure out. Using a new empty project:

A new, empty track will show Impression 1. When you Archive it, it will show Impression 5.  (You can't Freeze it, no clips)

Recording a clip into the track with show Impression 6.

A second, new empty track shows Impression 1 (of course). If you drag a clip from another track into it, it shows Impression 6.

Archiving or Freezing these tracks will show Impression 6. 

So, I think this is explicable, expected behavior, and we can document it as such. 

 

HOWEVER. 

I have my Theme-testing project that, when I open it in Cakewalk, shows an Archived track, with clips, showing impression 5:

If I un-archive it, it shows Impression 1 (but it has clips!!!!) If I freeze it instead, it shows Impression 5 again! This is the only track that behaves that way.

So, for some reason Cakewalk is confused about the status of the track and is using take lane button impressions as per an empty track.  I'm gonna go with "Cakewalk is confused about this specific track. See above for normal, expected behavior".

 

I guess YLIP needs another update. Thanks for keeping me honest.

 

 

 

[Colin Nicholls]

5 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

Got another: Piano Roll View/Muted MIDI Clip Data is the color used when displaying the notes in muted clips, when View/Hide Muted Clips is not selected.

Confirmed. Document updated to reflect, and uploaded.

Take as many internet points as you can hold in your fist, from this narrow-necked jar.

[Starship Krupa]

2 hours ago, Colin Nicholls said:

Confirmed. Document updated to reflect, and uploaded.

Take as many internet points as you can hold in your fist, from this narrow-necked jar.

May I redeem some points and humbly suggest/request that you add my note about changing Muted Clip Data to something other than bright white? I'm actually going to FR that and another color change.

I've seen too many people express exasperation about juggling takes in the PRV, and now I know this is one of the reasons. Any idea whether Cakewalk has Hide Muted Clips enabled by default?

[Colin Nicholls]

1 hour ago, Starship Krupa said:

Any idea whether Cakewalk has Hide Muted Clips enabled by default?

I think it is on by default. I have an almost-default-install of Cakewalk on my laptop and it is set to Hide, there. 

UPDATE: it isn't even persistent between launches of the application. You have to chose to in-hide mute clips, each time you run Cakewalk. 

 

The default white is actually more-than-adequately visible in Tungsten, almost too obvious. And in Mercury, it is just visible but, yeah, could be more obvious. So grey would be a good compromise and work in both default themes, to boot. I'll add a recommendation.

Edited July 3, 2021 by Colin Nicholls

[Starship Krupa]

My big issue with it is that it's the same colour as selected notes, thereby leading to confusion and consternation if the user happens to turn off Hide Muted Clips.

I've submitted a feature request regarding this, along with a request that Clip Fade Lines respect the Custom Color setting when the clip is selected (instead of none more black).

[Colin Nicholls]

26 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

My big issue with it is that it's the same colour as selected notes

In TUNGSTEN, yes. I think that is worthy of a feature change request.

In MERCURY, no. It is quite a reasonable default for the light PRV.

[Starship Krupa]

12 minutes ago, Colin Nicholls said:

In TUNGSTEN, yes. I think that is worthy of a feature change request.

In MERCURY, no. It is quite a reasonable default for the light PRV.

Now I'm confused (not an unusual state).

I just tried switching around different themes to see what colors I got for different states. With Tungsten (and my own Tungsten-derived themes) selected notes are white. In FLIGHT DECK and Mercury, they seem to be a slightly darker version of the track color.

Where is this color/behavior for selected MIDI notes set?

[sjoens]

15 hours ago, Colin Nicholls said:

Okay this took some time to figure out. Using a new empty project:

A new, empty track will show Impression 1. When you Archive it, it will show Impression 5.  (You can't Freeze it, no clips)

....

FWIW, Here's what I get with Mercury:

1. Take Lanes = OFF - w/NO clips & NO Take Lanes

2.  Pressed

3.  Hover

4.  Take Lanes = ON - w/clips

4.  Take Lanes = ON - w/NO clips

5.  Take Lanes = OFF - w/No clips Archived

6. Take Lanes = OFF - w/clips & Take Lanes

6. Take Lanes = OFF - w/NO clips & Take Lanes

6. Take Lanes = OFF - w/clips & NO Take Lanes

6. Track Frozen (take lanes won't open)

6. Track Archived (take lanes won't open)

 

Edited July 4, 2021 by sjoens

[Colin Nicholls]

35 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

Now I'm confused (not an unusual state).

I just tried switching around different themes to see what colors I got for different states. With Tungsten (and my own Tungsten-derived themes) selected notes are white. In FLIGHT DECK and Mercury, they seem to be a slightly darker version of the track color.

Where is this color/behavior for selected MIDI notes set?

When the LUMINANCE value of PRV Grid Background changes from 119 to 120, the selected note colorization behavior changes polarity (White to Dark) .

I believe it is built-in coded behavior.

[Starship Krupa]

Good lord, how on earth did you figure that one out?

[Colin Nicholls]

1 minute ago, Starship Krupa said:

Good lord, how on earth did you figure that one out?

Experimentally. And a hunch.

[Starship Krupa]

Odd, I just tried walking it up from my PRV Grid Background color and it switched at 7F7F7F, which is 127.

I wonder if it's influenced by the black keys background.

I also wonder whether it takes its cue from R, G, or B.