I’m sure it’s just the way the various visual preferences are set, but Cubase 8, without any tweaking of the display after install, is very hard on my eyes. I can’t seem to make it any better. I’m using two 42" monitors, so you wouldn’t think it would be an issue…But it is. I’d be curious as to what others are using as far as visual preferences. If anyone could upload or PM a template(s) for me to try on my system, I’d greatly appreciate it. My system:
Win 7 Pro 64
AMD Radeon HD 5750
Two 42" monitors (LG) running at 1920x1080
If it’s necessary for this conversation…i7, 32g of RAM
Primarily, the color scheme and trying to focus on the fonts is just hard on my eyes. I’ve always found Cubase to be a bit harder on the eyes than some other DAW’s I’ve used, but it seems to be worse with 8. That being said, even with the visuals, Cubase is still the best overall DAW I’ve worked with, and I’ve worked with darn near all of them.
I have been thinking about the same thing. I have a 50 inch 4k running at 3k and I love it for just working. The new 8 really feels like thick boarders and drab colors. It has been more 7.5 for now because I can get my layout right. I have only experience with Studio One - which has a nice layout but worse colors/contrast. What I don’t get is these forums are filled with very detailed solutions and every release is just 17 degrees off course. I wish I had customers who would be so articulate.
I forget if it was Cubase 4 or 5 that changed from the really nice pastel track colors to the annoying new neon colors. I don’t understand the appeal, I keep an old template that I made in SX3 or C4 to just import the colors into a new version of Cubase and set them as defaults.
I also make sure to change the background/window colors from that depressing dark blue to the old grays and whites that are easier to look at.
I can work for hours in C8P and the stock ‘colour’ scheme just kinda disappears.
I don’t even think about it.
In fact, yesterday after a 4 hour session, I was thinking about starting a thread here
about how nice on the eyes C8P is; and then I read this thread.
I guess it is: ‘diff strokes’ for ‘diff folks’.
YMMV
One thing I did discover in C8P is:
You can no longer choose Track Colours by the numbers.
You now have to ‘mouse around’ the colour pallet till you find the shade you want to use.
One thing I did discover in C8P is:
You can no longer choose Track Colours by the numbers.
You now have to ‘mouse around’ the colour pallet till you find the shade you want to use.
And that’s a pity because choosing the same colour as the previous track by number is much quicker than deciding “is this shade the same as the track?” each time.
It’s funny because I have always though Pro Tools was as dull as ditch-water to look at and operate - almost Soviet era design aesthetics. Of course Cubase is very easy to customise - lighten or darken - use of colours etc. By and large if you don’t like it you can change much of it. I happen to like the way it looks.
I was told by the Steinberg rep that the colors have been researched and that is why they were chosen.
That being said, it seems to me they should just give you an ASCII color chart and let you pick/customize your own colors for tracks, etc if you don’t like the default colors. Then everybody lives…
There is full control over the colours. You can change or add to them all you want.
For track/event colours; click the arrow under the Color Tool, select Project Colors, then Options, and there you go. All the customisation you could need.
For just about everything else; Preferences > Appearance
That’s only a little more resolution than the laptop computer I’m writing this on! Do you have to sit a long way from your computer screens? It sounds like you’re using TVs as monitors? You can spread a finite number of pixels over too MUCH space, you know!
That’s exactly what I’m doing. Two HDTV’s being used as monitors. I frequently work on large projects, and the extra screen real estate makes all the difference in the world. Not only from a visual standpoint, but a lot less scrolling back and forth as you’re working on tracks. I have several DAW’s. For me and what I do, Cubase is the best of the bunch, but also the least friendly on the eyes.
If you are working on large projects you should be working on high resolution monitors. Screen size means nothing, it’s all about resolution. You should be looking at 3 or 4k monitors.
1080p at 42" is pretty limited, and even then, only makes sense if you are sitting about 6" away at least. You aren’t gaining anything over using say a 21" monitor at 1080p.
Do you have good values for the contrast and background lighting checked on you 42"monitors?
Also just saying that the screen may be bigger but the resolution still is the same as an HD resultion for a 22 "inch screen.
I use a Dell 27 inch monitor with a resolution of 2560x1440, ideallicaly I want to use 2 of these
As far as the colour scheme of C8, I still prefer the darker scheme as the whiter schemes tend to get to flairy after hours of usage, it’s tiring my eyes so to speak.
But then again this is how it affects me, could be complete different on somebody else, just try to lower the contrast and backlighting values to see if it’s getting easier on your eyes.
I make sure to keep everything softer, since I prefer the lighter colors. The way I have it set up lets me work on a project for 12-18 hours straight without getting worn out, but a lot of that is also the monitor settings too. It really kills motivation and morale to take a 20 minute break to check email and having the bright white browser backgrounds burning holes in my brain, causing me to have to take a real break and take aspirin.
Similar here. I don’t really ‘see’ much of the interface while working with it. The default design doesn’t annoy me at all, I think that’s one of the best things a design can be asked for.
Colors are pretty customizable too, so everyone should be able to find something making him happy…
I too long for the earlier versions of SX… which started out ‘paper-white’ and gradually went more ‘gun metal’. Saying that Cubase colours are ‘fully customisable’ is somewhat misleading.
A design is a coherent ‘thing’. The overall design of the UI was -meant- to be dark. If you like ‘dark’, it’s OK. But you can’t expect to simply change the darks to lights and have the ‘design’ continue to work well. And in fact, it doesn’t. To my eye, it gets crappier.
Why? Well, it’s all the things you -can’t- change. For example, in PT, the ENTIRE track description in the Arranger is the colour you select. In Cubase? It’s just that tab on the left. So my eye is constantly darting back and forth… I don’t connect the track -colour- with the -track-.
And the rules between tracks in MixConsole? It’s this 1pixel gray thing. AND it doesn’t flow. It stops with each section. So, again, my eye is constantly darting from top to bottom because I CANNOT CLEARLY SEE WHICH TRACK GOES WITH WHICH FADER FROM TOP TO BOTTOM. But, you can’t alter those rules (or make them continue) so there’s nothing you can do about it.
There are dozens of little things in the UI that make ones eye move a LOT more than it should and it’s easy to think that it’s the ‘colour’ that is the problem. But it’s really not.
I also think this is an =empathy= thing. It would be interesting to note the age and overall vision of users who complain. The older one gets, the more this kind of thing -matters-. One’s tracking (which is what the above is all about) becomes more difficult. Just a fact. Hard to get younger people (or the small minority of older people who bypass this) to ‘get’ that, but it’s -really- annoying.
I’ve given up on having the mixer strip follow the track color. That’s pretty much the only “feature” from Pro Tools that I’d like in Cubase. But if we’re gonna talk about appearance and all that, no other DAW can even come close to Reaper. All it takes is a simple 3mb file (that can be applied instantly while the session is running) and Reaper can transform into Pro Tools or Cubase or any other DAW (at least in looks… good luck getting Cubase functionality in there).
