I found it much easier to understand what parts I was editing in Cubase 14 than the new color system in Cubase 15. Hopefully, this can be added back or a preference option to adjust the contrast?
I use different shades of a color for individual instruments of a section, so lighter pink would be high strings, to darker pink would be low strings etc. Cubase 15 now just makes everything so dark, compared to how it originally was in Cubase 14 and previous.
Cubase 15:
Cubase 14:
Cheers,
Dillon
I completely agree. When displaying multiple MIDI parts, the MIDI notes in inactive parts are noticeably darker. It might be harder to notice this issue when using the dark theme instead of the light theme, but even so, a comparison shows that the previous versions of Cubase had better visibility.
Visibility is crucial when displaying multiple MIDI parts simultaneously for orchestration work. To make full use of the Multipart Editing feature introduced in Cubase 13, I would greatly appreciate it if you could improve the visibility of inactive parts or add a function that allows users to adjust their contrast.
After finding this information in a different topic, the issue was resolved in my environment.
I’m using the Key Editor with the dark theme, so I’m not sure how this behaves with the light theme. Also, since this setting seems to have been introduced in Cubase 13 or later, you may already be aware of it. Still, it might be worth trying.
Similarly, on a dark background, they appeared in a “darker shade” to blend subtly.
However, in Cubase 15, inactive notes are displayed in a “dark color” regardless of the background brightness. Even when using a light background, the notes remain dark, which significantly hinders visibility and makes it difficult to distinguish between active and inactive parts.
I believe this is a bug where the inactive note color fails to adapt to the background settings. My reasoning is as follows:
Within Preferences > Event Display—MIDI, if I change the “Event Display in Editor” setting to “min.” while the Key Editor is open, the notes temporarily revert to the “thin and light” appearance seen in Cubase 14. Unfortunately, this state is not persistent; the rendering reverts to the problematic “dark color” as soon as the Key Editor is closed and reopened.
As highlighted in the quote, visual clarity is vital when managing multiple MIDI parts simultaneously. I would sincerely appreciate it if the team at Steinberg could look into this rendering behavior, as resolving it would greatly help maintain the smooth and efficient workflow that we value in Cubase.
Thank you for your time and for your continuous hard work on the platform.
I am having the same issue on Cubase 15.0.30 on a Mac Mini 2018 running Sequoia.
The weird part is if I go to settings and “apply”, it goes back to normal behaviour. However, the moment I leave the MIDI editor and come back, the issue rueturns.
Here is a video of the issue:
This is a significant issue for my workflow. Inactive parts are very dark. If I make a selection in the active part, it turns the same colour as the inactive part. It’s hard to tell at a glance what’s selected vs what’s in active, or what’s selected in an inactive part, because it’s too dark.
It’s also difficult to tell what velocity notes in the inactive part are because they’re all dark. I want to see the velocity.
I’ve been working in Cubase Pro 12 again because of this colour issue. Cubase 15 has made my workflow a bit harder compared to my previous version. I’d really love it to behave the same way it did in Cubase Pro 12.
This same issue is happening to me. Key editor shows darker background midi notes, and it reverses back to normal behavior once you open/apply preferences. Comes back once a new Key Editor window is opened. It only seems to affect certain users. I’m on a Windows 10 PC. Haven’t been able to properly upgrade from Cubase 14 because this is too much of a workflow stopper for me.
