Can't Find a Theme I'm 100% Happy With

[Stimulus]

Hi All!

Has anybody else had this problem, I can't find a theme I'm 100% happy with.

You've got:- the TCP, the Arranger (especially the look of the waveforms), the Transport, the Icons, the Midi Editor, the Mixer and the Media Browser, so 7 elements to get looking good. Every theme I've tried has at least 1 or more that doesn't look good or is fiddly or something where as other parts look great.

These are the ones I've tried, all the defaults, Default Commala 4 and 5, iLogic Next and Logic 3.80, FLogic, FL Studio Beta 4, Imperial Theme, Echolot 1.8, Hyrda Iz Lighter, Clearview, Janne2016, Mammoth, Classic 1x, Fusiommala, RADO VS ARTEK, INQUASAR Dark Matter, Superior Theme Beta 2 and Smooth and Smooth Light Blue.

My favourites are:-

Logic 3.80, Smooth Light Blue, Superior Theme Beta 2, FL Studio Beta 4 and Echolot 1.8.

The Logic 3.80 (3.90 is available) is great in all - love everything about it but the Media Browser let's it down and the piano in the midi editor could be better (but I can change that can't I?) oh and the TCP not being coloured in the actual tracks (on the left TCP part itself.)

FL Studio Beta 4 - love everything apart from the midi editor piano (but that's in keeping with the FL Studio look) and the Media Browser is nice but a bit dark. Oh and the TCP colours are a bit faded looking.

Superior Theme Beta 2 - Not bad but then the lines on the outside of the parameters aren't to my liking, the arranger looks horrid, midi editor is ok but could be better and Media Browser ok but needs improving.

Echolot 1.8 - like everything but the arranger isn't nice and the midi editor is just ok.

Smooth Light Blue - Now this is probably the best looking theme of all for me (especially the graphic on the midi editor piano) but the transport is too narrow / small and fiddly. I like to tap tempo for guitar bpm's so need this to be more prominent and easily clickable which in Smooth isn't.

Anybody else have this "finding a theme they're totally happy with" problem?

Would it be much work or hard to adapt the Smooth Lighter Blue theme to my liking (the Smooth Lighter Blue has been adapted from a previous one by Bose already so it's allowable)?

[synkrotron]

design your own, from the ground up

easier than you think

worse thing you can do is try to get your head around someone else's code

[Phazma]

Yes it is common practice to take the theme you like most and adapt it to your likings. It can be pretty time-consuming to wrap your head around but it pays off.

You can have 3 levels of customizing appearance:

- Theme tweaker (found in action list): this is responsible for colors and transparency of Reaper-drawn elements as well as some of the fonts and a few settings (like interlaced VU meters). If for example the grid lines are too black you can search for grid lines and change it to a brighter color or make them more transparent. Instead of searching I suggest however you take some time and scroll from start to end and try out what every option does (by changing to some extreme color) so you learn to find things in future and know what is there. Some options are named ambiguously so it can be hard to find them. If you don't save the theme you can just reload it at any time to revert your changes.

- WALTER: this is responsible for positioning and resizing UI elements which are supplied to Reaper in form of images, as well as some fonts and colors can be found there. This is a bit more difficult to get into compared to the theme tweaker and you will have to read up on it.
However to give an idea in a very oversimplified manner: you have transport (trans), track (tcp), master track (master.tcp), mixer (mcp), master mixer (master.mcp) and envelope (envcp) areas on which you can "set" various elements in the rtconfing text file to appear on the Reaper interface. You give them coordinates for [x, y, w, h] in pixels (x & y define upper left corner of element and w & h stretch it out). There are possibilities to define more things with more numbers, as well as conditions, but you should really read up on that if you want to give it a shot. With WALTER you can easily do things like swap positions of tcp buttons of the same size, for example mute and solo, by swapping out the coordinates.

https://www.reaper.fm/sdk/walter/walter.php

- Image editing: In your theme folder you will find many png images which are used by Reaper and positioned by Walter. You can change those with images you make or edit yourself (via Photoshop, GIMP etc.) or images from other themes. Here a list of images you can use:

https://www.reaper.fm/sdk/walter/images.php

A common thing to do (at least for me) is, I like everything from one theme but the transport from another theme. So I copy all transport images from the one theme and paste them (and replace images) in the other theme. I also replace the WALTER code for the transport from the theme which I want to use with the one from which I steal the transport.

Important: when swapping out images but you want to keep the WALTER code, make sure that the new images are of the same dimensions as the old ones, otherwise they will be stretched which looks bad. Images and WALTER need always to be taken care off together in order to obtain the intended results.

Have fun theming All this may look a bit intimidating at first but when you understand a few basic principles it really isn't that hard to just mash together the best of various themes with a bit of your own twist. The hardest bit is to understand the complicated Walter that some themers write; often the easiest is just to erase it and rewrite it to show only what you want to see, where you want to see it and organize the code how it makes sense to you.

[richie43]

I love that we have the luxury of using a DAW software that a thread like this can even exist about.

[New Aquarius]

Totally with you. I reluctantly took to customizing something for myself because I had no other options. I really don't want to spend my time designing interfaces, but alas...

It's the green, the overall darkness and the way the controls jump all over the place when you resize the TCP that drive me the most crazy.

It's easy to say that you can completely re-theme the app, but a. you have to be willing to sacrifice the time you'd rather spend creating recordings and b. without a reasonable default, customizing sends me into rabbit holes about obscure functionality. "I didn't know about that feature. I'd like to try that, but first, I need to incorporate that UI in my customization, if I can find where the color/graphic/WALTER lives." Before you know it, weeks pass. Not cool.

[n997]

Originally Posted by richie43

I love that we have the luxury of using a DAW software that a thread like this can even exist about.

I think so too, sincerely.

Like many of us, I had to customize REAPER's user interface in the beginning, which involved a lot of forum searching and a good deal of tinkering.
But as a result, I got a DAW tailored for my workflows.

In a way, the learning stage one goes through with a new DAW was, with REAPER, more of a customization stage for me. Whereas with other DAWs I had to adapt to the DAW, in case of REAPER it was the DAW that ended up being adapted to me, to surprising extent.
The experience made me realize that since we can customize our physical studio spaces, instruments and computers, the same should ideally apply to DAWs - and beyond that, software in general.


So I'd also encourage the original poster to boldly tinker with themes and other things Themes are easy to backup and restore, and for general customization, portable install allows backups of entire app setups - so it's always easy to go back to last working version.

[User41]

I have a few themes I switch between from time to time but I’ve had the best luck with starting with Default 6.0 and changing the colors for different elements via the theme tweaked.

[martmix]

i do also 'matching' themes combined..

[Quasar]

Originally Posted by synkrotron

design your own, from the ground up

easier than you think

worse thing you can do is try to get your head around someone else's code

This is what I did, though I'm not sure what "from the ground up" means. I started with the default, because the idea was to still be able to track the changes back that way, though now it's customized to an extent that I doubt I could tweak it back to default without a bunch of hassle. But the point is you don't have to learn someone else's system and way of thinking. If it's your own layout it's virtually certain to be intuitively friendly for you.

I've borrowed and stolen freely from other people's theme elements. Though I don't pretend that it's a great theme in terms of universal appeal, it works great for me and I'm very happy with it.

[georgemickel]

Originally Posted by synkrotron

design your own, from the ground up

easier than you think

worse thing you can do is try to get your head around someone else's code

You're absolutely correct synkrotron. Btw, I listen to your music via youtube almost every day.

[synkrotron]

Originally Posted by georgemickel

Btw, I listen to your music via youtube almost every day.

you are very kind

thank you

[synkrotron]

Originally Posted by Quasar

though I'm not sure what "from the ground up" means

I started with a totally empty rtconfig file

then, using the various help files, I added sections one at a time, starting simple and adding more and more stuff, one piece at a time

I also created all my own images

it is nothing special, but I am still using it over a year later

there were a few hurdles, but I really did find it easier than tweaking an existing theme


when you are building a theme for yourself you don't have to worry about all the "tweaker" code which would enable other people to change how a theme looks

If it's your own layout it's virtually certain to be intuitively friendly for you

that is pretty much what I mean

[synkrotron]

Originally Posted by New Aquarius

you have to be willing to sacrifice the time you'd rather spend creating recordings

that is true... I took around a solid month out of creating sounds and instead did some simple graphic design

but to be honest, I enjoyed that as much as I enjoy making sounds


I would like to say that the guys in the theming sub forum are very helpful and anything that I learned at the time I documented there and also helped where I could, with the simple things

it was time well spent in my opinion

[Ann-82]

I don't want be rude and i love Reaper but it looks literally really ugly no matter which theme you use, everything get messy soon. If you like a clean design forget it. Even Ardour looks way better.

[talustalus]

Agree with the above, most Reaper themes look ugly but it's not the theme developer's fault.

It's the architecture of Reaper that is based on vintage style fonts, buttons, windows. I don't know about it technically, I can just see it with my eye. Most themes suffer from the same annoyances, that I am guessing you are spotting as well.

Compare with Studio One / Ableton, you can tell they use entirely different graphical types. Again, it's not my area so I don't know the correct terminology.

I recommend Flat Madness theme as this looks the cleanest to me,but it may not be your cup of tea.

[foxAsteria]

In a single day I was able to learn enough WALTER to cobble all my favorite bits together. Well worth the effort since everyone's needs are slightly different. Also not difficult.

I'd suggest starting with your favorite and just edit or sub out the parts that don't work for you.

[Andriu]

Hey, Smooth Light Blue creator here : ). I'm really not an expert on theming, but I hope this could help:

I had the exact same problem and that's how I ended up creating Light Blue using elements I loved from other themes. So far and without getting into Walter at all, you can pretty much take everything from other themes in the form of PNGs, and if you know a little photoshop you can do wanders with that (and if not, you can get great results anyways). My advice in this case would be:

- As I said I'm not into Walter, so the only things that wasn't able to change at all were the TCP and the MCP (at least the distribution of the elements. You can still do something with the colors). You could start off by choosing a base theme with Tracks and Mixer panels that you like and stick with that one.

- Everything else -icons, colors, great part of the transport, midi editor, etc - can be borrowed from other themes by searching into the ReaperThemeZip files and using the pngs there. The midi editor on mine was made with a lot of elements from RADO, imo the best piano roll out there.

- The big thing that I found while making that particular theme, is that I used the colors from other DAWS instead of the ones in other Reaper themes. The arrange background for example is the exact same as in Cubase 7, and I'm planning to get some icons like Studio One in the future.

- One last thing, on windows at least, is that I patched the computer to change the look of the text and the Windows with a Dark Windows Theme. That helped a lot to get rid of those ugly white screens

Hope you can create a theme that makes you stick with Reaper, it's totally worth it because it's such a fantastic DAW and, as someone stated above, in no other community you will find a thread like this one : p

[Pink Wool]

I've tried almost all the themes out there but finally settled on Instrument by Kusakanaka. I've also modded it to fit my needs but the base and design is perfect for my eyes.

But yeah, I encourage you to try making your own! I know White Tie always says to start with an empty rtconfig file but man, it's just too tempting to mess with other peoples code! Plus, if you DO get lucky and find a theme you really like (well, most of anyway), there's very little coding involved to make it perfect for you!

Also, if it's just a simple "transport is too small" type of a thing, I'm sure someone here would be able to make it for you. But then you miss out on the coding-it-yourself part...

[martmix]

i started with this one L1-Goldielocks,and from there i picked some elements from others themes

the original,




my mod

[White Tie]

Originally Posted by Pink Wool

I know White Tie always says to start with an empty rtconfig file but man, it's just too tempting to mess with other peoples code!

On the contrary, I encourage everyone to crack open existing themes and start messing with stuff. Go nuts, have fun, nothing bad is going to happen, there's a high chance you'll be able to make meaningful changes that satisfy you. Reaper theming has always been full of this kind of modding, and I do my best to include as many easily mod-able elements as I can in any theme I make.

...however...

...if you want to learn, to actually understand what's going on perhaps because you want to do more complex stuff, then I do indeed absolutely, 100%, fiercely recommend that you start with a blank theme. Just for an hour or two, no more, just to figure out how things fit together. There have been a hundred people here who have ignored this advice, they spend MONTHS struggling with the difference between a theme, walter and preferences, they get horribly misdirected by trying to deal with behaviour that is specific to the theme they are looking at rather than Reaper theming in general, then they as likely as not will post about how Reaper theming is too difficult and they are giving up. Its a long bad road, and I will continue to caution anyone from travelling down it, even as they always start out with a smile and a cheery "its fine, I know what I'm doing..."

[Pink Wool]

Originally Posted by White Tie

On the contrary, I encourage everyone to crack open existing themes and start messing with stuff. Go nuts, have fun, nothing bad is going to happen, there's a high chance you'll be able to make meaningful changes that satisfy you. Reaper theming has always been full of this kind of modding, and I do my best to include as many easily mod-able elements as I can in any theme I make.

...however...

...if you want to learn, to actually understand what's going on perhaps because you want to do more complex stuff, then I do indeed absolutely, 100%, fiercely recommend that you start with a blank theme. Just for an hour or two, no more, just to figure out how things fit together. There have been a hundred people here who have ignored this advice, they spend MONTHS struggling with the difference between a theme, walter and preferences, they get horribly misdirected by trying to deal with behaviour that is specific to the theme they are looking at rather than Reaper theming in general, then they as likely as not will post about how Reaper theming is too difficult and they are giving up. Its a long bad road, and I will continue to caution anyone from travelling down it, even as they always start out with a smile and a cheery "its fine, I know what I'm doing..."

Hear hear!

[rncwalker]

@Stimulus,

Find a Theme that you like the best and slowly change it to what you like.

I did that with WT Imperial theme, so far it's been evolving over 3 years now.
I have used some Images from other themes and also made my own.

Here's White Ties Imperial



Here's what it looks like now!



Just change 1 thing at a time slowly......

Robert

[rncwalker]

Originally Posted by White Tie

...however...

...if you want to learn, to actually understand what's going on perhaps because you want to do more complex stuff, ...."

I found that every theme is done differently in Walter, from more complex code to simpler code. I picked Imperial and slowly made changes to my liking.

As you also can see below what I did to help me Remember what is what, that because sometimes months go by before I change something again.



Also here what the Master looks like when selected



I want to give credit where I can! (even tho it's just for me)

I call my theme Imperial BlackHawk

Robert

[Tobbe]

How about these: https://cincikat69.wordpress.com/modern/

[rncwalker]

Here's my Folders Closed



Here it is Opened



Select tracks





Robert

[Swi]

Hey there rncwalker
andy chance you would share that Imperial BlackHawk?

[rncwalker]

Swi,

Check you PM
Robert

[fwrend]

Hi rncwalker, I would love to try your theme as well if you'd be so kind. I really like the contrast.

[Stimulus]

Originally Posted by rncwalker

Swi,

Check you PM
Robert

I wouldn't mind checking out your theme too if you didn't mind sending me it.

What do the arranger, transport, midi editor and media explorer look like?

[Jaap aap]

Hi there,
Difficult subject because you cant debate taste. Its personal.
Like most here said already, i also ended up using parts from multiple themes and molded it together in one theme that i like. i did the same as Smooth Light Blue creator. i ended up using a mix between (LCS flat MBE) and (MyTaste)
I edited the rtconfig file a litle bit to get it to my needs.
Copy/Past the PNG files and thats it.
I didnt design any of this, so all credits goes to lucas_LCS and Martonovics, i just altered it to my needs.
I use two screens but you can easy make it fit to one screen.
Let me know if your intrested. i can upload the theme
Cheers.

https://i.ibb.co/KWRVMWv/1.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/QQqms82/2.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/GPNBFdW/3.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/8d0jjr5/4.jpg

[GlowTone]

I've been using the REABORN 2 theme by Nick Moritz for years now and haven't really made any custom changes except creating my own toolbars, track colours, and basic templates. My workflow is pretty much the same (and very basic!) so I haven't dallied with it too much.

For me, the theme is clean, tidy, easy on the eye and gets the job done.

I have tried using other themes, but find myself going back to REABORN 2!

One thing I would like to be able to do is colour the MCP panels the same way as seen on the post above for the White Ties Imperial theme. The original REABORN theme had these MCP panels coloured, but not so in the REABORN 2 theme.

[bladerunner]

Originally Posted by Stimulus

Hi All!
.Anybody else have this "finding a theme they're totally happy with" problem?

I've had this at various times. One suggestion (that I've done at times) is to take the time to learn the various ways one can edit a theme and then slowly put together something that works for you. Be patient, download loads of themes and pick out the things you like about the ones that appeal.

You can: simply change colours of things; edit the image files in the theme folder with something like Paint; swap out image files from other themes; edit the layout with various text files.

It's very rewarding building your own theme that is functional for you.

[rncwalker]

I posted my theme "Imperial BlackHawk" with zips to download

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=258934


Robert

[OakleyRdStudios]

Originally Posted by White Tie

...if you want to learn, to actually understand what's going on perhaps because you want to do more complex stuff, then I do indeed absolutely, 100%, fiercely recommend that you start with a blank theme. Just for an hour or two, no more, just to figure out how things fit together.

This is the absolute best piece of advice: Just for an hour or two, no more.

I don't think this can be emphasised enough.

It's something I discovered, after spending far too many hours doing, and it ended up frying my brain. It really CAN end up with you falling down a rabbit hole, and taking you nowhere. So, limiting the time I spend - just assimilating it all - step, by slow & deliberate step, has helped me to absorb each part of the process.

[rncwalker]

I don't think this can be emphasised enough.

It's something I discovered, after spending far too many hours doing, and it ended up frying my brain. It really CAN end up with you falling down a rabbit hole, and taking you nowhere. So, limiting the time I spend - just assimilating it all - step, by slow & deliberate step, has helped me to absorb each part of the process.

Both you and White Tie are Correct!, But only if you are going to be a theme creator.

I reality, it will take you from a few months to maybe a few years to build such a theme.

In my case I started with WT Imperial Theme and slowly.....changed it a bit and at a time, while also using it in Reaper.

For example: I wanted all knobs to be the same size and a different color for Parameters, Sends & the pans on the mixer all the time (Does not change). I did that until I was happy with it. Sometimes after a change, I found that I did not like it, and went back and changed it again.

My theme currently is in it's 30+ revisions, going on 3 years changing it, all the while using it.


So if someone does not want to learn "Theming", I say find one that you like and very slowly learn how it was constructed and change it. I started with WT's (Also the creator of the Default themes), so I know that I'm starting with the Best constructed theme.


Robert

[synkrotron]

please bear in mind, though, that themes created for "normal" REAPER users there is a lot of code in there to allow those users to modify a theme without going into the rtconfig file and learning all that stuff

when you are creating a theme from scratch, purely for yourself, you do not need anywhere near the same amount of code

a month, to six weeks max, and you will have a theme which suits your needs exactly, I am sure

I don't think that this can be emphasised enough...

[poetnprophet]

I feel like we are truly lucky to have reaper with so many great themes available rather than having to conform to the DAW theme and maybe just change some colors.

I check this forum for new themes almost every day. I do have a couple themes I really like, have modified them very slightly with the tweaker but never really got the courage to delve deep into customization....although this thread is definitely encouraging. There's some things I'd like to try and merge from my favs into one glorious theme for me, might try that one of these days...

[sguyader]

I also suggest you to try the Flat Madness theme.

[huberkinky]

I think that most Reaper users, not all are spending more time on themes than on making music.
For this purpose Reaper is… free and many guys have a lot of fun.
But not many users understand a purpose of theme.
They are not for the beauty.
They are for the best way to see what we doing. And beauty does absolutely nothing, except a trouble with reading the theme.
Theme is for as easy as possible way to know, what is happening with your mix. What to do and I how to do it.
That’s the tool for someone, who is making the music.
Best themes are IMHO PTools, few others as well and usually they are designed to be as clear as possible.
Most of you don’t have to think what is this and that, what is on the track, what name of the track, one of the most important features, levels, etc.
While I don’t like PTools, they have the clearest. Others are not worse, I just love PT theme for clarity, but none of PTools themes behaving nice in Reaper.
Logic, Cubase and others have a similar principles and their themes are very well designed and even nice. People who made them are not wrong making as clear as possible theme. Nice but very clear.
But with Reaper…. I love two themes. Original 5. I love original 4 more, but letters are not big enough and they are a little hard to read for me.
Theme for 6 is horrible for me in any form. To cluttered.
Reaper is a tool and theme MUST be useful for making music. If you are fighting with themes, that’s not the tasks for Reaper. That’s wasting of the time as composer or mixer.
Find right colors you like and start working music! That’s what Reaper Ii made for.
And because most guys on forum are here for fun, they are not making music but wasting time of theme, which they can’t understand why is have to be more useful, not beautiful.
None of new themes does not come even close to clear two nice themes: original 4 or original 5.
Small work on Original 4 would be AWESOME. KISS….
Work on Reaper is intense and very complicated. There is not many Andrew Sheeps’s.

Reaper is a brilliant tool for making music. The best tool in the world for make a music.

You don’t need any trouble at all when you’re working and using such complex tool.

BTW. Never heard any negative comment about theme in other programs.

Now you can relieve your frustration on… me….

Hehehehehehehehehe

[rncwalker]

Originally Posted by huberkinky

They are not for the beauty.
They are for the best way to see what we doing. And beauty does absolutely nothing, except a trouble with reading the theme.

LOL.... Your are Right, but many would also argue that it does make a difference!
Everyone's likes or dislikes on how the UI looks does make a difference.

Originally Posted by huberkinky

Best themes are IMHO PTools, few others as well and usually they are designed to be as clear as possible.

Again some would differ with you on this!

Originally Posted by huberkinky

Logic, Cubase and others have a similar principles and their themes are very well designed and even nice. People who made them are not wrong making as clear as possible theme. Nice but very clear.

I just don't understand why users want to copy other DAW's, just use the other DAW!

Originally Posted by huberkinky

But with Reaper…. I love two themes. Original 5. I love original 4 more, but letters are not big enough and they are a little hard to read for me.

You can change the letter size bigger, if you want.

Originally Posted by huberkinky

Theme for 6 is horrible for me in any form. To cluttered.

LOL.... again, many would also argue that!
Do you know that you can change what you see or not see through the Theme Adjuster?

Originally Posted by huberkinky

Reaper is a tool and theme MUST be useful for making music. If you are fighting with themes, that’s not the tasks for Reaper. That’s wasting of the time as composer or mixer.

Here is where the beauty of the 'Theme' and theming comes in. Find one that you like the most, and Slowly... make changes to your needs.

Originally Posted by huberkinky

BTW. Never heard any negative comment about theme in other programs.

That's because other DAW's do not have Theming.

Other DAW's do not have the ability to theme like Reaper does. At most you can change some colors only.


For me I got the theme I liked best (WT Imperial) and slowly.... changed things over time (3+ years and still going)and it no longer looks like Imperial. In this way, I could keep making music and at times adjust the theme a little and then back to music.


Now let's go and make some Music!


Robert