THEME Overview and Intent:
This will be my first attempt at creating/modifying a Theme. The modifications for this theme will be intended not only for me but for similar DAW users who like myself are coming from a background familiarity of working in Sonic Foundry/Sony/Magix Vegas Pro, Acid Pro and Sound Forge Pro to help ease the transition process.
I belong to those user forums where I frequently observe Users having many frustrations with those apps, but what keeps them from jumping ship is they enjoy the simple to use similar interfaces and are willing to fight through the frustrations with a hopeful eye for something with a similar workflow to come along. The biggest grumbles with those apps tend to be along the lines of VST plugin issues, lack of hardware support, stability/performance concerns, bugs not getting fixed and a lack of feature development with each new release. Not to mention since Magix has acquired this suite of software they have actually removed previously promoted features.
I've recommended they try Reaper in multiple discussions and observed pretty common responses such as.
"Reaper is a good program but it seems like it was designed by scientists for scientists, where only the scientific types enjoy working in it which isn't me."
"Reaper seems like a good program but it's the ugliest DAW I ever tried out so far."
"I've tried out Reaper and the theming options makes it look much nicer on the surface but once you go below that surface skin and start using it, it's still an ugly Reaper underneath where the themes I tried
are like putting lipstick on a pig." "It's nice how Reaper can be fully customized but to learn how to achieve a lot of those customizations will take much more effort than I'm willing to invest,
I just want to dig in and create music, not spend a year on eventually customizing Reaper to where I feel it should be out of the box.
Most of these comments obviously come from a short trial initial impression experience with Reaper. I understand those perspectives, they were a lot of my more recent similar observations as well, but then I started to see the diamond in the rough of the customization possibilities. I therefore started to dig into learning more about these customization capabilities where I was finally able to envision a path that could provide me all the benefits of Reaper,while at the same time customize Reaper with enough effort to get the user interface closer to what I had been accustomed with the Magix apps.
With that all said, I decided to start with the Commala 5 theme for the following reasons.
1. It was a theme that looked very similar to the more recent Vegas Pro look/feel but better....not Acid Pro, that UI is so outdated it's ugly compared to everything else.
2. It was a theme that was more current, up to v5 theming capabilities where all the Vegas and Acid based Reaper themes I looked at where written in the Reaper v1-3 years.
3. My intent is not to make a lot of drastic changes but more so to focus on the little things that I feel could use some improvements to make it more user friendly to the Vegas, Acid and Sound Forge user.
4. I really like the Commala 5 theme, why not start with something you already like and is already 80% complete to meet your personal preferences?
SUMMARY:
In summary, my current plan is not to make drastic changes to the original Commala 5 theme but more so along the lines of tweak enhancements as well as including a lot of other Reaper customizations which seem to be outside of a standard theming focus and .ReaperThemeZip packages.
TCP
- Set White Fader Vertical Meter Layout as Default for better initial launch contrast.
- Set Pan knobs to match user select fader colors.
- Changed Pan and volume indicator line colors for better contrast.
- Change TCP meter text to turn RED when clipping has occurred for better visual indication of clipped audio.
- TCP folder indent increased to make child tracks easier identifiable.
- Renamed, reorder and rearranged Track Panel>Layout selections to be more organized with better descriptions.
- Updated inactive icons on TCP so they are easier to see (better contrast between TCP background and buttons)
- Changed volume/pan detent indicator line color so they are easier to see
- Custom Track coloring is now what you select is the color you get.
MCP Mixer
- Clean up, rename and organize MCP Layout options (There's too many=68, some don't work right, some are duplicates with different names)
- Updated inactive buttons on MCP so they are easier to see (better contrast between MCP background and buttons)
- Removed Envelope buttons on MCP mixer channels and replaced with updated phase button
- Changed volume/pan detent indicator line color so they are easier to see
- Phase button was given arrangement priority over monitor button when height reduced
- Wide with Big Meter set as default (visually more like Vegas, less like Reaper)
- Added Pan slider Layouts(now pan slider is Default Layout)
- Add expanding/collapsing "Expand on Selection"(EoS) FX rack Layouts(Default Layout)
MCP Master Mixer
- Updated inactive icons
- Removed Envelope button
- Gold Fader default so easier to identify in mixer view
TRANSPORT
- Updated transport buttons so all option selections are consistent with theme (no more mixmash of Default and Commala transport buttons).
- All Transport buttons are now rectangular for button layout consistency.
- Classic Tape Machine, Modern Controller, and Original Commala button arrangement options now available in small, medium, and large transport options.
- Renamed, reorder and rearranged Layout>Transport selection options to be more organized with better descriptions.
- Media Explorer transport buttons revised to match theme transport buttons.
ARRANGE VIEW
- Vegas Pro theme visual adjustments; track lanes,wave peaks and selected items, envelopes (provides overall more contrast).
- Timeline selection revised; easier to identify media items within time selection area.
- Media item selection updated to better mirror Vegas Pro Yellow outline and Group Selection Blue outlines
DOCKER
- Change light colored docker backgrounds and font colors to match Vegas. (Reduces bright white eye strain in Default Commala Theme when working in dark environments)
- Change Selected Tab color to better distinquish selected tab from unselected
- Selection of waveform in Media Explorer easier to see (better selected region contrast)
- *Change Docked Tab Names to match View Menu renames
TOOLBARS
- *Multiple custom toolbar and icons created to better communicate Actions.
- *Toolbar button balloon descriptions renamed to be more concise with descriptions similar to Acid/Vegas.
- *"Freeze/Render Track" Toolbar created to provide Acid Pro style TCP freeze button UI (Prefer button placed on TCP but not currently available in Reaper theming)
- *Freeze/Render Toolbar on TCP, leveraging SWS Extension. Activation= [Double LEFT Click on TCP]
- *"Media Switches and channels" Toobar created to mirror functionality of Vegas/Acid right click Switches, Channels, and Open in SF Functions.
Activation= [Shift+ LEFT Click BOTTOM half]of audio media
- *"Group & Takes" custom toolbar created to mirror/expand functionality of Vegas/Acid right click Group, Takes Functions.
Activation= [Shift+ LEFT Click TOP half] of audio media item
MENUS (Customize Menus to better allign with Vegas/Acid Pro Menus)
Renames
- *View>FX Browser = Plug-In Manager
- *View>Media Explorer = Explorer/Trimmer
- *View>Project Media/FX Bay= Project Media
*= Items currently not included in "Commala in Vegas on Acid.ReaperThemeZip" package file
Media item edge color, Razor
FIXES:
- Condenced MCP Layout volume knob overlap issue when MCP height was reduced
- Phase button distortions in MCP Mixer section
- MCP "Wide" option button jumping when MCP height was reduced
- Fixed MCP Mixer Layout Pan knobs which got broke in v.2
TCP
- Create Vegas Pro style TCP Layout option
- Create Vertical Pan Slider Track Layout Options (knobs suck!)
MCP Mixer
MCP Master Mixer
- Add Vertical Pan Slider option layout options
- Make Meter=Peak+VU currently in Layout options as DEFAULT Layout
MENUS/WINDOWS
- Customize menus and contextual menus to be more like Vegas Pro (started)
(Blinding Bright White Annoyances in darker environments)
- Change Contextual Menus Background and Font colors to Grey/White (unavailable through Reaper theming capabilities)
- Change Main Menus Background and Font colors to Grey/White (unavailable through Reaper theming capabilities)
- Change FX Window Background and Font colors to Grey White (unavailable through Reaper theming capabilities)
USER THEME ADJUSTMENTS
- Create a single adjustment for both TCP and MCP fader colors to match and maintain continuity of TCP/MCP fader colors
TOOLBARS
- Create Custom Toolbars to provide easier access to Vegas and Acid right click options
- Create Custom Toolbar for Vegas docked Toolbar
MIDI
- Revise MIDI theming colors
KEYBOARD SHORT-CUTS and MOUSE CLICKS
- Remap Keyboard short-cuts to match Vegas/Acid KB Shortcuts
- Redefine Mouse clicks to perform actions similar to Vegas/Acid (started)
DISTRIBUTION PACKAGE
- Need to figure out a method to create a simplified package for distribution purposes which will provide full intended functionality. May need to create a custom .EXE installer package
1. Reaper and Extension Modified INI files (Include Custom Toolbars)
2. Include custom images which aren't included with .ReaperThemeZip package such as track_icons, and toolbar_icons
3. Include any Extensions/Scripts used and necessary to maintain intended functionality
4. etc.
1. Unable to identify a method to have Transport Margin X Offset position move with TCP.Width adjustments.
In my rtconfig.txt file I have the tranport margin set as such.
Code:
set trans.margin [225 2 2 2]
If I alter the "225" X value, the offset of the transport will adjust as expected. However, I wanted to replace that X= 225 pixels to the tcp.width and make it a variable adjustment with the thought the X margin offset value would therefore adjust when the user adjusted the width of the TCP area.
Therefore I tried this but it didn't work.
Code:
set trans.margin [tcp.width 2 2 2]
Trying figure out a way to accomplish this, any suggestions? Is this possible?
Would like to get similar functionality as this in Vegas/Acid.
2. Unable to identify a method to Rename tabs in docker (Menu Customization Renames do not match) [SOLVED] Made use of Reaper Language Packs to rename tabs.
Using the Action "Menu customize" inside of Reaper, I'm able to alter the names under the "View" menu. However, the tab names that get displayed remain unchanged. I've looked through every Reaper INI file searching for "FX Browser" and "Media Explorer" in an attempt to identify where the text are stored for the names which go on the tabs but did not find anything. I further attempted to alter the names in the toolbar customize which also did not change the text on the tabs.
Therefore, I now have View menu names which do not match the tab labels when selecting to show/hide these items which kind of defeats the purpose of customizing the menus if the menu names don't match the actual items. Anyone know where/how these tab label names can be changed?
Looks great, will definitely try it. I like the Commala theme with but one gripe...the size of the mixer. I do almost all of my editing directly on the mixer and Commala is not wide enough. A nice, big mixer where we can see and manipulate the FX parameters easily, would be great.
Thanks!
Looks great, will definitely try it. I like the Commala theme with but one gripe...the size of the mixer. I do almost all of my editing directly on the mixer and Commala is not wide enough. A nice, big mixer where we can see and manipulate the FX parameters easily, would be great.
Thanks!
Thanks for the comments. I haven't gotten to the Mixer section yet, so will definitely take a look into that when I get to there.
Since you're familiar with the original Commala theme, maybe you could confirm? What I noticed recently is that the transport buttons seemed to be a mix/mash between Commala and a Reaper Default theme and the arrangement of the transport buttons weren't consistent when switching between the default/small and Large transport options. So been busy fixing that lately while updating some of those transport buttons. I like consistency in my transport button arrangement layouts.
Default Commala small transport buttons (kind of dislike this layout of the REW and FF buttons being on opposite sides of the transport)
Default Commala Large transport buttons (looks borrowed from a Default Reaper theme)
My recent updates for "Commala in Vegas on Acid" for Transport selection options
small transport - Modern button arrangement
small Transport - Classic Tape Machine button arrangement
Large Transport - Modern button arrangement
Large Transport - Classic Tape Machine button arrangement
Large Transport buttons activated (now better matches small and default Commala theme transports)
The reason I'm inquiring about a possibly larger mixer is that I've come to make channel strip type mixers with all necessary parameter controls accessible. It would be great to have a mixer wide enough to embed an analyzer plugin and be able to see it and edit.
Thank you!
DAMN!!!! But that invert colors in time selection isn't possible as far as i know the way you drew it, or is it??? I have been begging justin for this for like 10 years
DAMN!!!! But that invert colors in time selection isn't possible as far as i know the way you drew it, or is it??? I have been begging justin for this for like 10 years
It's totally real. Took me awhile to figure that one out. The default themes use a grey selected background .png file for selected items. The theming blends 3 different colors. 1. Bg Png color 2. Tweaker selected color 3. Tweaker Track lane color combined with an Alfa blend adjustment.
I had to make the bg .png file transparent and set the alfa blend to "Normal 1.0" so it ignores the track lane color.
I'll post a link for the theme here very soon so you can play around with it and check it out but still have many things I'ld like to adjust.
DAMN!!!! But that invert colors in time selection isn't possible as far as i know the way you drew it, or is it??? I have been begging justin for this for like 10 years
Here's a post I made when I originally ran across the problem you described. Didn't receive any responses but have since solved that problem.
Absolutely. That's what I was trying to achieve. Haven't seen Radar.
I wasn't getting anything close until I swapped out the item_bg.png and item_bg_sel.png image files for transparent ones and then I used this "Dodge" alfa combo in the theme tweaker to provide that time selection inverted color look.
With the grey item_bg.png and item_bg_sel.png files like which are used on the default themes and this original Commala theme , I was getting either a bunch of black or washed out white of the events within that time selection area with those same settings above. That grey background image file really seems to mess with the colors you're trying to achieve in the theme tweaker settings.
Can't wait!!! How are you going to deal with stretch markers?
Haven't looked at them yet LOL! I'm currently tidying up a bunch of stuff in the rtconfig.txt file in regards to transport layout configurations options right now. Spent a lot of time today creating a bunch of transport buttons since the original Commala theme seemed to have decided to punt on creating Record Region, Record Time Selection, and FF/REW to Marker buttons. Once I get done with this transport stuff, I think I'll be ready to upload a v.1 release for some initial feedback. Let me know what the problems are in the stretch markers area and I'll check to see what I can do for improvements.
Should have that upload ready by tomorrow at the latest.
I think my biggest challenge will be implementing Pan Sliders for the TCPs and MCPs. I don't know about you but I really dislike Pan knobs, where most of the recent themes I looked at don't have any Pan slider layout options. I'll keep the pan knob user selection options available for those who like them, but definitely want some Pan Slider options as well.
If anyone tries this theme out, I would be interested to hear your feedback of how the transport layout displays.
I did a test today and had 2 different experiences in regards to transport arrangement layouts.
The good news is that I had the same experiences with the Default Reaper themes as well, so I don't feel there's anything wrong with my theme.
Here's the scenario. I have 2 separate Reaper portable installs on the same system.
Portable Install #1= Started off as a Reaper v6.32 fresh install and has recently been updated to v6.34. This install I have been using to create Reaper personal customizations and develop this theme.
Portable Install #2 (virgin install)= Reaper v6.34 fresh portable install, no personal customizations.
For install #2, I wanted to use it as a test case to verify what others may experience when installing my theme to eliminate any of my personal customizations.
Here's what the 2 different installs are showing for the transport layouts. Same Reaper v6.34 installs, on the same PC. Both Portable installs.
Install #1:
Default 6 theme transport layout
My Commala in Vegas theme transport layout (displays as intended)
Install #2:
Default Reaper 6 theme transport layout
My Commala in Vegas theme transport layout
The Install #1 is how the transport arrangement is suppose to look currently. For install #2, both my theme and the Reaper default theme, the transport controls have been shifted to the far left, not as intended.
Did you happen to tweak some things? Noticing that light blue background behind the audio peak waveforms in your drum tracks, which isn't what I intended but hoping it didn't some how just load up like that.
I'm currently updating many of the icons in the TCP and MCP. The Commala theme looks pretty cool with the inactive black on black buttons, but just too much eye strain on my old ass eyes. LOL! So I'm adding a little more color to make the inactive buttons pop out a little more.
Here's a preview, need to figure out what I'm gonna do with the phase and track folder buttons yet.
I'm using spectral peaks which may throw things off some sadly, but I think there may be ways around it. If you get the chance, put on spectral peaks and see if you can think of some tweaks. Some of the spectral data may be too close to the red or blue, but I could maybe draw an edge on them
Cool thanks! I definitely need to check out those other view options to see what's going on in those instances and see if some tweaks could improve things.
I also noticed your track label strips were a different color, and there's an option to have waveforms match track colors in the preference settings. Those track label colors may get saved with the project which I hadn't considered but makes sense that they would get saved with the project. There's so many options in Reaper, it's difficult to keep track where things are coming from and where they all get saved.
Really cool project!
I like the Commala DARK Theme very much and will follow this thread.
Will try your version for feedback later.
Good luck !
Thank you!
I've currently been working on the Commala MCP (Mixer) and TCP selection options and should have an updated release ready here this week for some input. While I like options, 65 different MCP options which were all very similar seemed a bit overkill of a list to go through in the original Commala themes. To me anyways.
Hope nobody who's familiar with the Commala theme minds but I'm removing the envelope button on the MCPs. Clicking on that envelope button in the mixer section seemed a bit disjointed since the automation envelopes are in the track view. I've been replacing it with a track Phase button on MCPs that were missing a phase switch button.
Ive been using this exclusively since the download. So far even the stretch markers seem pretty smart. I'm trying to remember how items in time selection looked and I dont remember the vegas track panels being so dark but its been a while
I can tell that's an older version of Vegas. It has the track icons that I actually prefer....LOL! Someone from Magix must have thought a Microphone icon for a record and some non common envelope icon were better track record enable and phase invert buttons for the Vegas video user crowd. LOL! That's what Magix does for new version releases. They swap out some icon buttons and provide some different color options, bundle it with some 3rd party plugins and call it a new version release. LOL!
Anyways, Vegas now has 4 different theme color preferences. I'm using the Vegas "Medium" color preference as my reference for building this theme since it seems to be most commonly used. Using that "Medium" Color preference setting, I'm essentially taking screen captures of Vegas and importing them into photoshop and using the dropper in Photoshop to get the actual RGB values and entering those RGB values into this theme for Reaper. Most of it should be pretty exact. However, the time selection is slightly off but I do somewhat prefer what I have currently over what Vegas is doing in that area.
Here's some current cross comparison reference images. Hopefully, by the time I get closer to finishing up this theme, it will be pretty close to the Vegas Pro we always wanted.
Vegas Pro 18 reference image
Current Reaper: Commala in Vegas on Acid Theme cross reference
In regards to selected track control panels being colored in Vegas. I haven't dug into that part enough yet. I believe there's a selected and unselected background image that gets used in the Reaper theme. So I don't believe you will be able to get the TCP panel to change color to be the same as the waveform when selected as you have shown in that Vegas image. Definitely, try to see what you can do and let me know what you find.
Currently, I believe the theming is limited to being able to change the scribble strip color area of the TCP and have the waveforms match that color via a preference setting but I could be wrong. I'm learning as I go along. LOL!
I wonder if I could overflow the record button to make that colored square like vegas has
So far this is the best I could come up with. Setting the Track Label colors. I just updated the Track label background image so they can match the track waveform colors.
Release Highlights:
- Buttons on the TCPs and MCPs have been updated to provide more color and more overall contrast (ie inactive buttons are easier to see).
- TCP and MCP Layout options got some major overhaul improvements such as button arrangement and the Layout menu options have been reduced with better naming descriptions.
- MCP Mixer Default layout has been changed to a better MCP (much easier said then done).
- More Vegas Pro theme additions in arrangement view added.
- A few Fixes of things I found were broken in the Original Commala theme when adjusting the height of the Mixer section with certain MCP layouts.
- Phase Buttons added, and Envelope buttons removed in MCP layouts.
Overall, I feel I've completed most of the changes for things I felt could use some improvements from the original Commala theme and will now start focusing on customizations to make things function/look more similar to Vegas and Acid Pro. Hoping those who like the original Commala theme will like these changes after comparing the updated images in post #2.
I like the Commala theme with but one gripe...the size of the mixer. I do almost all of my editing directly on the mixer and Commala is not wide enough. A nice, big mixer where we can see and manipulate the FX parameters easily, would be great.
Thanks!
Hi Rodulf, I looked into this. In the original Commala there are a couple MCP Mixer layout options. In my theme I renamed these to "Side-By-Side" and FX Rack.
Here's what they look like.
In Commala there were 65 different MCP Mixer options to sort and choose between with pretty vague descriptions. I widdled these down to 10 with better descriptions. So at this time I'm unsure if these options already in Commala are more along the lines of what you're after or if there's something different that could be done. Please describe further details if you're looking for something else.
What my current plan listed in my tudo change list is that I would like to take that Side-By-Side Mixer layout option and add additional functionality similar to this, so the FX/Inserts rack can have a mouse click expand/collapse option.
I also don't believe an analyzer can be included as part of those MCPs. If you know of any other themes which have done this I would be happy to look into it and add what they've done into this theme. Reaper theming seems to be limited to VU and RMS metering being displayed on the MCPs.
Sorry, I forgot to mention. That will likely have to be part of my final package which will include other Reaper configs outside of the theme. I had to setup an sws extension to do that. I'll also check and see if I can do something similar in the tweak adjustments in the meantime.
This is essentially what I did for those track colors, where I entered in the 16 different Vegas specific track colors where in Vegas you right click and select that track color, so should function similar to Vegas once I get closer to a final release package but unfortunately requires the sws extension and configuration to be present.
I appreciate your reply and effort.
The only theme, so far, that does what I need is "Smooth". The "B" mixer, set to 32-64 channels, expands out hugely and lets me embed plugins that I can actually see and use.
I appreciate your reply and effort.
The only theme, so far, that does what I need is "Smooth". The "B" mixer, set to 32-64 channels, expands out hugely and lets me embed plugins that I can actually see and use.
The one in the forum discussion is a v6 HiRes theme and Commala is a v5 theme. If there's an older version that does what you like, I would prefer to use that in hope it is also a v5 theme. That would likely reduce the chances of incompatibilities and having to do more changes than necessary to add an MCP layout.
Post a link and I will download it and check out what they did and see if it can be added to this theme. Since I'm currently focusing most of my efforts on TCP and MCP layouts, it's a good time for me to add something like this. Sounds like a pretty cool feature!
No promises since I'm definitely not an expert but have learned while plugging away on this theme that adding different MCP layouts is pretty simple. Where things tend to get tricky are in the code lines to make the MCP shuffle the buttons around when you resize the MCP. Battling with some of that currently while adding pan sliders to this Commala theme.
I added these pan sliders to an MCP.
Looking good and working great here.
But then you decrease the height of the MCP...now those pan sliders not looking so good. But it's currently better than when I first added it..that pan slider use to jump on top of the FX's rack.