Pier
Senior Member
Yeah but OTOH these trackers were extremely simple and had a fraction of the features of Cubase.
The complexity of software increases exponentially as you add more code to it.
Silly question but... How do you make cubase more aesthetically pleasant?
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The complexity of software increases exponentially as you add more code to it.
Pier
Senior Member
I don't miss the aesthetics personally, but UIs back then could afford the luxury of being very simple.
dylanmixer
Senior Member
I miss the event gradients.
muk
Senior Member
Maybe you can find some inspiration in this thread:
Cubase 13 - colors scheme customization thread
As a spinoff from the Cubase 13 thread lets have one to focus on the customization of the coulors scheme. @48khz posted an example that looks great: I must say... with a little tweaking... I really love the new GUI more and more. a good-looking one in lime style: why not. I am trying to...
vi-control.net
I changed the meter colors to different shades of bordeaux red, instead of the lime green theme in the thread I linked to. It's not a huge change, but I enjoy it.
You merely adopted ugly trackers. I was born in it, molded by it.If you think that's ugly look what I used before Cubase
I spent years with FastTracker which was essentially a rudimentary sampler with a sequencer.
wing
Active Member
Interesting, it's definitely all subjective. I think FL is the most dated looking of all DAWs I've ever seen. Looks like a 90s Windows online video game app, so extremely dated, which I guess is "cool" now by happenstance of younger users into that kind of thing, lol.
Same with Reaper, I think it looks so old. (Reminds me of Sonic Foundry Acid from the 90s if anyone remembers that?)
Ableton is pretty flat and dated to my eyes, too. Some have referred to it as looking like an excel spreadsheet which I agree with. There's some nice UI elements, and the skins can be fun, but most of the plugins have a blandness across the board. However, I'd say it looks more "modern" because I think flat and colorful is in.
Logic is perhaps one of the nicer looking DAWs and I've used it for years, but sometimes it's a bit too... bubbly and Web 2.0 gloss.
I actually like how Pro Tools looks quite a lot. Very utilitarian. I just don't really want to compose in it.
I'm slightly new to Cubase and I didn't absolutely love it at first, but it's totally grown on me. Now I think it's rather nice looking, with the exception of a couple UI menuwindows which look pretty much like Windows 95. I was watching a video of the producer Ian Kirkpatrick who is a notable user of Cubase, and he said something to the effect liking the way Cubase is kinda utilitarian and not overly aesthetic - because as a creative, his mind is already filled with all kinds of ideas and distractions, so having a DAW which isn't too "aesthetic" allows him to focus more on his music. Not everyone will agree with that, but I kinda dig it.
Either way I feel like Cubase 13 is matching my vibe these days. I like the colors and UI simplicity.
I think these are all really pretty, and personally easy for my brain to quickly spot what is what (color coded channels and channel types). But to each their own!
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richiebee
Active Member
You don't.
Edit:
I also think Cubase is kinda fugly but I don't care honestly. You get used to it. And it looks so much better than the first version of Cubase I used back in 99-00
All those colours! My first version looked like this (btw I do miss the IPS).You don't.
Edit:
I also think Cubase is kinda fugly but I don't care honestly. You get used to it. And it looks so much better than the first version of Cubase I used back in 99-00
Wayne
New Member
Wow!!! the memoriesYou don't.
Edit:
I also think Cubase is kinda fugly but I don't care honestly. You get used to it. And it looks so much better than the first version of Cubase I used back in 99-00
Sean Linge
Member
Funny enough, when my choice of DAW was narrowed down between Studio One or Cubase, I settled on Cubase because I preferred the way it looked. (And also found its GUI to be much more intuitive.)
To each their own, I suppose.
Anyway, I do use this custom color set I prefer over the default palette:
forums.steinberg.net
To each their own, I suppose.
Anyway, I do use this custom color set I prefer over the default palette:
Sharing my 128 custom color set
Sharing my 128 color set for Cubase 10 and 11. This was inspired by a company called Dawlab. I wanted to buy it from them but that day, their site wasn’t working. This made me work on it myself and customize it to my liking. In case someone is wondering about that neon green, I use it for...
forums.steinberg.net
I used Cubase since SX and Nuendo since v2 and put up with the UI, but lost my patience (mainly for too many mouse clicks). The UI design is hard on the eyes for some of us, and one of the weaker points of Cubase/Nuendo. I have N13 and there will always be a lot I really like about Cubase/Nuendo, but the UI is a big negative. Some may be individual differences in vision, or just preference, but it matters at the end of a long day.
My advice is to create a more subtle color palette for tracks/events and overall theme in prefs. With N13, I use a darker overall theme, subtle grid lines, with around 100-120 color palette for more subtle shades (too much contrast makes it hard to scan a large project). Not much to do about the glaring white borders, lines and text.
Objectively speaking, it does need a design overhaul, not just graphically but general user interaction for more consistency visually and functionally (dialogs, text fields, etc), though that will never happen.
Features are not everything. If a DAW is hard on your eyes after 10 hours (or just 1) then you aren't going to be productive.
My advice is to create a more subtle color palette for tracks/events and overall theme in prefs. With N13, I use a darker overall theme, subtle grid lines, with around 100-120 color palette for more subtle shades (too much contrast makes it hard to scan a large project). Not much to do about the glaring white borders, lines and text.
Objectively speaking, it does need a design overhaul, not just graphically but general user interaction for more consistency visually and functionally (dialogs, text fields, etc), though that will never happen.
Features are not everything. If a DAW is hard on your eyes after 10 hours (or just 1) then you aren't going to be productive.
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I gave up on studio one and reverted back to cubase years ago just because i couldn't stand it's depressing ugly blueish Gui!! But Cubase 13,while a functional improvement in workflow, is definitely a letdown in the graphic department...Get Studio One, that's what I did...
(Though the aesthetics were not the main reason, just for the records)
I think for the rest of the Cubase UI you just have to live with it. All those inconsistent borders and 90s looking hodge-podge elements you will just have to live with. Make some good music, then it's an easy thing to dismiss...
dpasdernick
Senior Member
Cubase is beautiful inside and out. Best piece of software I have ever owned.
I love Cubase and have been using it since the 1990s, but I do think its UX is a bit more dense or "noisy" and dare I say visually fatiguing compared to most other DAWs. I'm accustomed to its utilitarian complexity, but for people more inclined to get decision paralysis or feel overwhelmed when presented with millions of options, I totally get why it might not be for everyone. I'm just glad there are so many diverse options on the market these days to accommodate everyone's taste and workflow needs.
True for some perhaps, but options and complexity don't bother me in the least (I use DP most of the time and love it, though I don't like its UI look on Windows, where on Mac, DP is good).
It is specifically the high contrast, visually competing graphic elements that make scanning through tracks and sidebars tiring. No DAW is perfect in this regard, but other limitations are less troublesome. After all these years, most should have developed a design aesthetic that considered longterm daily use. More annoying are the many instances of unnecessary mouse clicks that should have been streamlined 15 years ago. It adds up over the years. I still really like Nuendo, and will continue to use it from time to time. It is a stellar program otherwise.
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Eclipse.SoundWorks
www.eclipse-sound.com
Custom Fader colors and Custom Meter colors
My one longstanding complaint with Cubase's interface over the years is how small so much of the text and UX elements are, especially on a 27" display. Unless I run my desktop at 1080p to scale everything up, everything feels slightly too small compared to almost any other program on macOS. I wish it had its own built-in application scaling because 110% would probably be just about right. An alternative would be for me to get a new 32" monitor, which should achieve roughly the same result.
resonate
Active Member
Yeah, me too! I was very fast with the keyboard then......yes, a PC keyboard, not a midi oneIf you think that's ugly look what I used before Cubase
I spent years with FastTracker which was essentially a rudimentary sampler with a sequencer.
Did you participate in the demo-scene Pier?
