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Old 05-21-2016, 04:19 AM   #1
John Novak
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Default Funktion - A minimal theme inspired by Logic 9 and Janne2015

UPDATE 2016-08-13: Uploaded v1.1 that contains two small bugfixes.


Funktion v1.1

A minimal theme inspired by Logic 9 and the Janne2015 REAPER theme.

Download here: https://stash.reaper.fm/theme/1792/Funktion




This theme grew out of my dissatisfaction with REAPER themes in general; I've tried a few dozen, but as longtime Logic 9 user, none of them could match up the clean minimal elegance of the Logic 9 default theme, which I consider to be the pinnacle of all DAW user interfaces. So I just kept going back to the 4.0 default theme, which I think is still the best, given the alternatives (including the 5.0 theme). But even the default 4.0 UI is just too busy for my taste--there's just too much visual clutter, too many bevels, lines, buttons and whatnot...

Then I found Janne2015 which is a step in the right direction. I liked the general concept but I thought this could be done even better. Nevertheless, I thank the author for his work, as without it I would probably never have started on the journey of designing my own REAPER theme. Also, I didn't start from scratch but used Janne2015 as a template for my own work, so quite a few elements in mine are actually modified versions of Janne2015.

My aim was to come up with a dark and flat(ish) design that is easy on the eyes and contains minimal amount of clutter, in the spirit of the Logic 9 UI. There aren't many customisation options, it is really intended to be used as shown on the screenshots. Including every possible feature was not the goal, as I've done this theme for myself to fit my needs. I record very rarely, most of the time I'm dealing with MIDI based composition and mixing, so this theme is optimised for that. But that stands for 90%+ of DAW users nowadays, so I think others could potentially find this theme useful too.

There's an even more minimal variant of the MCP panel included, which omits value displays and buttons that I personally very rarely use (so they can be substituted with keyboard shortcuts). I'm finding that having no value displays really encourages to mix by ear, not by numbers.

A matching SWS color scheme is also included (as seen on the screenshots) with the accompanying EvilDragon toolbar icons.

I've made screenshots of my Appearance preferences if someone wants to replicate my exact setup (recommended).


Credits

The theme uses the following components of other themes:

Reaper 5 Default Theme: toolbar icons, scrollbars, transport icons
Reaper 4 Default Theme: vol thumb images
Janne2015 / Janne2015 Compact: some icons & general inspiration


Short pan label texts

If you want the pan labels to look like on the first screenshot ('C' for center and omit the '%' and 'W' signs), here's how to hack reaper.exe with a hex editor. I have only attempted this on Windows, so maybe the instructions would work on the Mac version too, or maybe not...

You can also try and nag the devs to implement my FR about per theme customisable pan & width labels which would make this hack unnecessary:
http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=170258


*** WARNING! THIS WILL DEFINITELY VOID YOUR WARRANTY! ***

Only read further if you know what you're doing! If you don't know what a hex editor is, just skip this part...



All instructions below assume using Frhed (http://frhed.sourceforge.net/en/)

'center' to 'C'
Code:
Find (match case):  <bh:00>center<bh:00>
Original value:     00 63 65 6e 74 65 72 00
Change to:          00 43 00 00 00 00 00 00
Omit 'W' (width control)
Code:
Find (match case):  <bh:00>%.0fW<bh:00>
Original value:     00 25 2e 30 66 57 00
Change to:          00 25 2e 30 66 00 00
Omit '%' (pan controls)
Code:
Find (match case):  %d%%%.10s
Original value:     25 64 25 25 25 2e 31 30 73
Change to:          25 64 25 2e 31 30 73 00 00
All this will change the pan labels not just in the mixer view but in most dialogs too, but I don't mind that, at least everything's consistent.

Changelog

1.1 - Small bugfixes:
  • add missing clip envelope image
  • add missing disabled I/O button image
1.0 - First public release
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Last edited by John Novak; 08-13-2016 at 12:58 AM. Reason: Updated to v1.1
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Old 05-21-2016, 04:58 AM   #2
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Wow, looks great! Off to try it out...

Thank you!
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Old 05-21-2016, 05:53 AM   #3
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Good work!
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Old 05-21-2016, 06:25 AM   #4
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Wow, it's such a great theme! I have a little bug: Transport controls don't want to stay in the center. Could you change the minimal height of TCP(tracks)? It is too large for my screen.
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Old 05-21-2016, 07:41 AM   #5
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Neat work !

Looking beautiful on my macbook 2015 Retina and even the item label font is looking sharp and not blurry :0)

One of the very few Themes i've experienced which has a sharp item label font on mac , woohaa !
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Old 05-21-2016, 09:06 AM   #6
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Awesome Work Here !! Looking very good
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Old 05-21-2016, 10:27 AM   #7
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Beautiful theme. More layout especially for the mixer, would be nice. And new envelope panel vertical fader too. Thanks.
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Old 05-21-2016, 12:45 PM   #8
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I really like what youve accomplished here. Nice and clean.

Regards J
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Old 05-21-2016, 01:08 PM   #9
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Very, very nice piece of work! Well done!

May I suggest 2 things:

First: Who needs the master fader? The position of the fader is shown in the numbers below the meters. Could you get rid of the fader and use the number-field below to move the fader? There is a theme called Beatwing where the master fader is consequently not there.

Second: You could get rid of the knobs of the channel faders and replace them with a simple line. That way everything is non-realistic and functional. In Beatwing the guy who made the theme did this also.

Maybe if you want to have a look at Beatwing:

https://stash.reaper.fm/theme/1459/Beatwing%20v2.5.zip

BTW: I love your master meters!
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Old 05-21-2016, 03:22 PM   #10
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Thanks for the positive comments guys, I'm glad you like it. As I said, this is a personal theme I did for myself, but then I thought, why not release it anyway, some people might find it useful as it is. So it's not even trying to be everything to everyone, the primary reason for its existence is to please me, hence the lack of alternative layouts etc.

Having said that, if someone has a great idea that I like, I might implement it if I can find the time, but at the time being it's pretty much a take it or leave it affair. But nothing is preventing you from customising it or using it as a starting point for your own theme It's not that hard, this is actually my first skin I have done for any application ever.

haervo: I've checked out that Beatwing theme but I just don't like that faderless master thing. I did a quick mockup for the abstract MCP faders idea you suggested, but I found it breaks the overall design and feel of the theme. I just prefer faders, I guess!

Janne83: I'm glad you like it and thanks for your nice themes again!

mamazai: See above, I'm happy with it as it is.

vanhaze: That's good to hear that it looks nice on a MacBook too!

vitalker: The transport controls are centered is the screen width is greater than 1610 pixels (e.g. on a 1920x1080 screen), otherwise they just snap to the left. So that's on purpose. The TCP layout includes some margin so things won't look too cluttered with many tracks, it's unlikel that I'm going to change this.
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Old 05-21-2016, 05:24 PM   #11
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Pretty cool!

One thing you could adjust is the background colors of MIDI editor (which is too bright, and carries over to Project Bay, FX browser, etc.). If this is matched then everything will look even more consistent. I like the general direction of the theme! It just needs (a lot) more layouts for various use cases...
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Old 05-21-2016, 08:49 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by EvilDragon View Post
Pretty cool!
Cheers man! Glad you liked it! Thanks for the color toolbar thingy!

Quote:
Originally Posted by EvilDragon View Post
One thing you could adjust is the background colors of MIDI editor (which is too bright, and carries over to Project Bay, FX browser, etc.). If this is matched then everything will look even more consistent.
I wasted about a day experimenting with that, but in the end this was the best compromise I could come up with. The problem is that it's not possible to set the background color of the MIDI editor only. I dislike dark themed dialogs, and they look like pure crap with unthemed Windows controls. I know there's a Windows theme hack, but I'd rather not mess around with that... Also, my brain processes dark text on light background much easier, so it will stay this way.

Quote:
Originally Posted by EvilDragon View Post
I like the general direction of the theme! It just needs (a lot) more layouts for various use cases...
As far as I'm concerned, this is finished, as it already covers 100% of my use cases That is, MIDI composition with a few audio tracks, very rarely recording a few mono tracks, and no multichannel stuff, just stereo. As I mentioned, it's a personal theme that I decided to release, because why not, but I've burned enough time on this already...

If there's considerable amount of interest for some alternative layouts (say more than 5 people ), I might spend a day or two on that sometime. But for that to happen, you guys will need to specify exactly what you want, because I'm in the dark there. I never had any need to use anything else than the default layouts that come with the 4.0 default theme, so I just have no clue what use cases those alternative layouts are good for... Also, my general approach is to

So it's not ruled out completely, but I'll only do that if there's an actual need for it and you'll nag me about it
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Last edited by John Novak; 05-21-2016 at 08:58 PM. Reason: typo
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Old 05-22-2016, 01:58 AM   #13
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I understand. Was worth a try.
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Old 05-22-2016, 02:57 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John Novak View Post
I wasted about a day experimenting with that, but in the end this was the best compromise I could come up with. The problem is that it's not possible to set the background color of the MIDI editor only. I dislike dark themed dialogs, and they look like pure crap with unthemed Windows controls. I know there's a Windows theme hack, but I'd rather not mess around with that... Also, my brain processes dark text on light background much easier, so it will stay this way.
Cool, no prob. It just looks very brash and too much in your face on a dual monitor setup where MIDI editor is docked on the second monitor and visible all the time - and the arrange is comparatively darker. Too much contrast.
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Old 05-24-2016, 01:09 AM   #15
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Excellent work, it looks real neat
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Old 06-05-2016, 06:05 PM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by user_one View Post
John Novak Hello! Great theme!
I used your idea with visible lines beneath volthumb in MCP, which is very cool)) for modification of RADOv4 theme, and want to ask you, did you find out how to get rid of that line masking?
When stretching your theme - artefacts become visible, i have even bigger problem, because in my theme MCP isn't static, when i change color of the track the mask become visible, i'm not good in WALTER, maybe there is some way to align volthumb to bottom and stretch the line, i don't know...
Sorry for the late reply, haven't noticed the forum notification for some reason...

In short, I'm afraid you can only do this volthumb trick with fixed-height MCP panels. At least, I could not find a way how to make it work with dynamic heights...

Have a look at mcp_vol_label.png, that's how I did it. Basically, that image has some parts that extend over the normal volume label rectangle, and those parts prevent the volthumb line from showing below the fader. You'll also need to set up the drawing z-order appropriately with 'front' in WALTER, of course.

Actually, now that I think about it, there might be a way to do the variable-height behaviour with WALTER, but I personally settled for a fixed-height MCP early on. That made many things much simpler and I don't really need a variable-height MCP, to be honest... Good luck!
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Old 06-06-2016, 06:40 AM   #17
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John Novak, what a great theme you have designed!!! Thanks a lot!

This is my Default theme now! Great work! I wouldn't mind to pay for it if you had charged for it! Thanks again!
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Old 06-06-2016, 02:01 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by scatman84 View Post
John Novak, what a great theme you have designed!!! Thanks a lot!

This is my Default theme now! Great work! I wouldn't mind to pay for it if you had charged for it! Thanks again!
Thanks, I'm glad you like it!

Well, I certainly don't want to ruin your day if you're in a donating mood; just head over to http://music.johnnovak.net/ and download one of my albums plus enter some optional amount you'd like to pay
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Old 06-28-2016, 07:07 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by EvilDragon View Post
Cool, no prob. It just looks very brash and too much in your face on a dual monitor setup where MIDI editor is docked on the second monitor and visible all the time - and the arrange is comparatively darker. Too much contrast.
Hey dude, I'm actually contemplating doing a dark background version to fix the MIDI editor ugliness, but for that to happen I'd like to sort out the default Windows controls theming thing first.

Can you help me in that area? How did you solve that problem? I'm hoping there's a solution to override the appearance of the default Windows controls for REAPER only and leave every other app on the system intact.

Cheers!
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Old 12-05-2019, 10:36 AM   #20
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Hello John,

I's just discovered your theme and love it ! But got an issue (well, I guess it's an issue), I can't use folders in MCP (can't find the icon to open/close folders in MCP). Coult you help me ?

regards
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Old 12-06-2019, 02:40 AM   #21
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Thanks, I'm glad you like it! It's the only one I use I just tried it with the default v5 theme and you cannot open/close folders in MCP view either... Or at least I haven't found a way. If there's such a functionality and you explain how it works with the default theme, I can add it (plus anything else that I missed... I just did the skinning for the things that I use regularly).
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Old 12-06-2019, 04:04 AM   #22
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You can use folders in MCP by right clicking in the Master track or in a empty zone in the MCP and click "clickable icon for folder tracks to show/hide children"

see here : https://imgur.com/a/7z69QMB

and you will get a little arrow (the same as the TCP one) in folder track letting you show/hide :
https://imgur.com/a/Ht7ILqw

I'm heavily using for scoring (film/advertisment), and as soon as I get a big project mix.
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Old 12-12-2019, 12:04 PM   #23
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Hi John,

I love your theme but I need some tweaks to fit it to my needs, so in addition to the folder issue in the MCP, I'd also like to change button order in TCP, I looked at the rtconfig but can't figure how to acheive this on my side and I'd really appreciate some instructions, directions from your
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Old 12-12-2019, 12:48 PM   #24
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Damn, this one might be the nicest theme I've seen yet. Well done. I'll have to install it later tonight and poke around!
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Old 12-13-2019, 01:24 AM   #25
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I'm gonna be sitting tight with this one as it combines my love of the flatter themes with a nostalgic desire to use W95 again.

Having seen the flurry of the post 6.01 themes that are being offered up, I need to do some homework on the following:
  • hex coding
  • customising toolbars and icons
  • where the hell do I save my toolbar?
  • saving a theme with a dark fx browser background as default
  • spreading my love for interlaced meters

Cheers for posting your work, it is much appreciated
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Old 12-13-2019, 08:27 AM   #26
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@john : Sorry, my folder problem doesn't come from your theme but from a mod by Grim jim (https://stash.reaper.fm/theme/2353/F...ReaperThemeZip)
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Old 12-16-2019, 02:02 PM   #27
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Hi John,

I finally decide to make a mod of your theme. You can find it here : https://stash.reaper.fm/theme/2418/F...ReaperThemeZip
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Old 12-17-2019, 02:45 AM   #28
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Really nice try, It is a pity that the transport area is too similar to Reaper's default (specially the buttons). Anyway Ty for this

I think you might not intend this:

image upload
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Old 12-17-2019, 12:43 PM   #29
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@vagalume : I don't use transport . Regarding the issue you seem to encounter, please post more details in the dedicated thread :
https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?p=2218769 I can't reproduce it from my side :-/
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Old 12-18-2019, 02:25 AM   #30
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Don't worry about it
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