Hello, dear developers. I have a big request. Please add the ability to change the interface theme to the new version of DAW, for example from 12 Cubase. I’m updating the program to new versions, but I’m forced to work in 12 Cubase because when I open the 14 or 15 Cubase mixer, I want to gouge my eyes out; everything is too cluttered and unreadable, it’s a huge distraction from work. I don’t really understand why people redesign a program every year? Look at FL Studio, Ableton, Studio One; these programs are 10-20 years old, and they have the same interface, and everyone is happy with it. It’s a good program, my favorite, and I really hope you do something about this; I’m probably not the only one who’s really starting to get annoyed by it. Thank you all the best and have a nice day. 
Guys, don’t pass by, leave a comment too, thanks.
I’m all for flexibility. If you prefer the old interface, maybe they can find a way to make that available. Me, personally I like the new visuals. But having more GUI options is always nice to have.
I am the first to criticize the GUI changes since C13, especially the lack of contrast and tiny fonts, but by now it should be clear that the C12 design is not coming back.
I and other people here have pointed out concrete examples of where the “new” design, especially in the mix console, has objective issues (like bad color choices and lack of contrast) and even made constructive suggestions for improvement, but so far it just gets ignored.
I would suggest that anyone who feels the same not just comments here but opens a support ticket and describes precisely where they have issues. Not just “I don’t like the look”, that is subjective and irrelevant, but things where you really have problems with, like the tiny fonts and texts, which are really hard too decipher on higher screen resolutions especially if you don’t have perfect eyesight anymore.
They’ll never bring back the old design.
Just do like me and open the mixer only when it’s the last resort 
It’s really sore for the eye. While I got used to the interface everywhere else (no choice anyway in C15), the mixer has simply one of the worst GUI designs I ever saw. It reminds me my old university where programmers were presenting their own prototypes an you could immediately see the “programmer doing GUI instead of a designer” style
That’s why I want to propose an idea to the developers: "Don’t delete the new theme and revert to the old one. Just make it possible to choose which interface theme the user wants to use, the old one or the new one. I don’t think it’s that difficult to organize. Look at Reaper; there are a million of these themes, and they all change in two clicks, which is very convenient. Some people like the new 14 and 15, but there are also those who find such GUI interfaces uncomfortable to work with, and I’m one of them. So, for me, there’s no point in these new updates, which include drum machines and division into stems, if such an interface is uncomfortable to work with. I was waiting for version 15, hoping for a miracle. I downloaded the trial, looked at it, and closed it. Please make it so that the user has a choice: the new interface or the old version they are used to and are happy with. Thank you all the best. I understand that you can’t please everyone, everyone is different, but please create a compromise so that there is a choice: don’t like the new interface, choose the old one; don’t like the old one, work in the new one. Thank you all the best.
Compare for yourself guys, I set up 14 as best I could, no other color settings help.
I am so with you on this. I actually paid for the upgrade to 13, but still using 12. Haven’t even registered it yet because my eyes can’t stand the clutter and chaos of the GUI … once my demo was done I went back to 12. Your images here display it so perfectly. In 13 and beyond, everything is so bold. The read write buttons for example all have huge fonts in white. The old version blended in nicely and actually made it easier to see. The new way is so cluttered it just looks like a bunch of letters. I think the biggest thing for me is the fader/meter area. The background to the fader and meter both look the same. It’s like my eyes interpret it as 2 channels when it’s actually just 1. The old way was so much easier for the eyes to separate each track because the background to the fader and meters were different. Other thoughts - the font in 12 is way more elegant and easy on the eyes, and it’s so easy to notice the track number which also helps separate tracks. The new way makes the track number look like it’s just another “button” - actually, they don’t even look like buttons as to my eyes it just looks like a bunch of letters rather than the old way where you can see the outline of the buttons. Even the little circle/light that shows when inserts, etc., are engaged or bypassed looks way better than the weird symbol in later versions. And finally, overall, there’s a more 3 dimensional/dynamic feel of 12 which makes things easier to see.
I think the issues with cases like these are that it’s that its very hard for upper management to admit when they’ve made a misstep.
I think the start of the UI overhaul was having to deal with super high-res monitors, but the decisions that they made visually are poor from a technical “Good UI” standpoint.
I think it’s great for them to try new things. I also think it’s fine (better really) that if they try something new, that it’s ok to admit that it didn’t work and go back to what they had or fix things.
I think we’d all be fine with it, actually.
But then someone would have to admit that they spent a whole lot of money on an initiative with a negative outcome, and very few upper management types would be willing to do that.
Look how long Apple stuck with the butterfly keyboard, spending even more to try to make it work, until eventually admitting it was bad and moving on to a different solution. It would have been so much cheaper and better for customer relations if they just admitted it as soon as it was discovered.
But, Humans are gonna Human.
I agree on all points. In v13 and beyond everything looks the same with hardly any separation. A monochromatic clutter. It’s one reason I’m still on 12.
I wish Steinberg would swallow their pride on this one and contract a UX design expert.
So many people come here and write something like this. Never mind which feature request, they all think it is easy to program stuff.
What I can tell you, without knowing you, is that you are completely clueless in this regard.
Reaper was designed with customization in mind from the start. That is the same approach its developer took already with WinAmp. Cubase was not designed like this. That means major parts of the software need to be re-written. It is difficult to do that, no matter what you think.
There seems to be a lot of work to do for Steinberg, if they want to stay on the market.
The GUI has to be 100% flexible - and resizable! The unnecessary clutter of the “too much” has to be simplified at all costs - no matter what.
Okay, guys, I’ll let you know that it’s not as easy to do in Cubase as it is in Reaper, but something still needs to be done. This problem really doesn’t allow me to focus on working with the mix properly. You still need to come up with new features for each new version, and thank you for that. The ability to choose an alternative GUI interface would be a huge update, and many users would be very grateful for it. All the best, best regards, Paul
Dear developers, please understand that we are writing to you not because we wish you harm, but because Cubase is a truly excellent DAW, and we simply want it to remain good and convenient to work with, and to become even better.
I don’t think “themeing” is necessary or even good for a software, and the majority of (DAW) software don’t implement it for good reasons (reaper is an exception as in general it is targeted to users who like to tinker and it’s concept is to outsource a lot of things that are usually done by the vendor to the community - like UI design).
For the majority of people it doesn’t really bring any advantage though, quite on the contrary, imagine this forum when people having a problem, post a screenshot, and members who want to help out now have to first work around a completely different looking interface what they are used to. Or a simple instruction like “hit the ‘constrain delay compensation button’ on the top left of the info bar” with a screenshot wouldn’t work, because it might not be there or look completely different…
(I don’t consider color customization “themeing” though, that is fine and could actually be expanded in Cubase to allow for proper light and dark UI)
All that being said, this would of course require more care in UI/UX design and execution to begin with… which is traditionally not Cubase’s strong suit.
somewhat OT, but as we are talking about bad design… I just installed iOS 26 on my iPad, and now I have this nonsense named “Liquidglass” to deal with. Luckily, you can mitigate the worst abominations in the accessibility settings, but boy, what a useless re-design. But hey, you can get used to most stuff over time, even if it is a PITA at first.
But it seems like the “flat design” trend of the past is now officially over, maybe Steinberg will notice it in ten years time or so, fingers crossed 
Just to put some balance here - I like C15 the way it is and GUI is defnitely not disctracting me nor preventing me from working in any way. I made only a few tweaks here and there and I am happy with how it looks.
(I use Cubase since Atari ST days)
100% this. And Cubase is HUGE! To the user, it looks like one program, but it’s really hundreds of sub-applications in a trench coat. And they’ve been coded over many years with slightly different approaches, so they’re not all “one thing”.
It would be a challenge to allow theming for the whole package, but I think most of us would be ok to have the mixer enabled for that and other parts that would be updated over time.
Not ideal, but if SB is open about it, most would be ok with it.
This issue, especially with Mixer, needs to be addressed. We can’t simply ignore users and move on as if nothing happened. If you can’t get Cubase 15 GUI to work properly, then make it possible to select the GUI theme from the old version 12. No need to invent anything new; you’ve probably still got the work done. All the best!
If you read through this forum regularly, you will see that quite an amount of users are desperately waiting for finalizing buggy features in some areas since major versions.
For them, it surely was a pain to see Steinberg capacity consumed by “unnecessary” GUI updates since version 12, just because this aforementioned “upper management decision”.
Can you imagine how it would feel for them, if Steinberg would waste even more capacity (the software developers in this topic know that this is huge effort) for a useless feature like “themeing”?
Guys, if you need that so inevitably, please use Reaper. (I am sure, we’ll meet some of you back here in a few years)