Thanks!!!
Hi @alin89c,
good that you mention this.
No, that gradient option is not the same anymore in Cubase 11 and 12.
Track events currently use 2D flat design, which now - instead of 3D appearance combined with that color brightness gradient effect - allows quite some selective color customisation (plus “Colorizing Selected Events or Parts” → “Colorizing Events on the Fly”):
- either by using the tool bar color tool (“Click to Colorize Event”), or
- the inspector, or
- the per-mixer-track color setting option, or
- the Project Colors Setup Dialog, as well as
- globally via: Preferences → User Interface → Color Schemes .
Regarding this topic, there’s a lot of information in the Cubase (Pro) operation manual:
https://steinberg.help/cubase_pro/v12/en/Cubase_Pro_12_Operation_Manual_en.pdf
Short excursion (open by clicking “Summary”):
Summary
There’s still that small detail of which I think as a rather sad thing:
with Cubase 11, the former main skin color spectrum had been restricted to 4 predefined (yet reduced) color picking spectra - which used to be more or less open to “free” configuration up to Cubase 10 / 10.5.
One of the main reasons is that the GUi designers probably came to the conclusion that the additionally implemented track / event coloring system, which can be very useful to differentiate things visually, would perhaps collide too much in color contrast(s) and overall visibility if some extreme GUI colors were used in a project, at the same time.
On the other hand, overall GUI customization has become much more flexible and even at times very likeable with Cubase 11 and 12 (loooong story…), like track colors, or hiding specific stuff and zones while working on a project, etc.
In February 2023, there was another lively discussion about some Cubase GUI aspects, where at some point I made a few screenshots regarding the reduction of the implemented main skin coloring schemes / styles since Cubase 11:
Greetings @all,
Markus
P.S.: “just for the record: eye candy mode” 
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Thanks for the very thorough explanation! This really clears things up and is an interesting read.
This is closest I got to the old colors,
I like that I can switch between dark mode and now this light theme I made, it’s very refreshing.
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Hi @konokoknk,
thanks, and you’re welcome!
Well done! To me, your color setup looks really good, with its rather relaxing / non-distracting color combinations.
Cheers,
Markus
I only use dark mode but how do you switch themes? you have to switch Preference presets?
Hi yes, I created a preferences preset, I don’t think there’s any other way to switch themes as of now
Sadly, the bug of Cubase altering any custom color scheme after every restart is still there.
Link please?
I’ve seen many comments about this problem in the past. It started with Cubase 10.5. Up until version 10 custom color schemes kept the changes, but now, after every restart Cubase makes the colors a bit darker every time.
I don’t know if it happens to every Cubase user, but it happens to many people. Wanna try?
-
Set your custom color scheme to RGB 60 100 136, to match the nice theme Konokoknk posted a few comments above. It doesn’t matter if you save it as a preset, or just click on Ok and exit.
-
Close Cubase
-
Launch Cubase. and check if the color values are exactly the same.
You might need to repeat the process a few times to see the issue.
If the colors are the same after every restart, you are lucky.
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@konokoknk what were the color preferences settings you used to make this theme? (if you are willing to share).
@konokoknk - by the way you can upload the xml file without zipping. If you saved using Saved marked preferences only the preset should only contain the checkmarked settings.
These are not the values used in the preset. You still have to set the Hue, Saturation and the V value, which is the vertical “brightness” value.
I don’t care if the colors are not 100% the same as his theme, that’s not my point.
The thing is, the custom colors will change after every restart of Cubase. It’s been a problem in Cubase since version 10.5.
I screenshoted the first picture and used an eyedropper in photoshop on on different parts and played around wtih values
I think I might of dropped it a slight bit to make it darker blue,
I didnt mess with mixer yet lol
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Sorry, I have not seen that.
I’d be happy to report a bug to the devs, if you give me something to reproduce.
Maybe this is helpful:
I just confirmed the problem myself. I thought my UI was looking more greenish than blue (my original layout)
The colors slightly change on every cubase restart and it doesn’t matter if you’ve saved preferences.
from right to left
1.
2.
3.
The values were also different in cubase each time I went back
Seems like the only real way is to input the custom values yourself everytime you restart cubase
I think it may be coded in a way where it selects a percentage of color instead of exact color?
I started here
upon three restarts it went to here
edit// just to prove im not nuts I tried restarting 5 more times
right to left
seems it slightly changes eachtime
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Yep, after 4 or 5 restarts it becomes noticeable. It’s the main custom color scheme only, other colors like project area background or editor area background don’t have this problem.
I just don’t bother with it anymore. I use the default dark (color 1), and switch to the light blue (color 3) if I’m in the mood for a “light” theme.
Yes, I think it’s something like this as far as the RGB values go. Also, the interface limits the colors that can be chosen, so it’s not an actually a regular color wheel.
I don’t need to relaunch Cubase to the the RGB values change, it suffices to edit one, hit okay, and reopen the color picker.
What happens if you use the Hue, Saturation and Value settings instead of the RGB values? Is it stable over quit-relaunch?
I’m not sure but it’s such a minimal problem I don’t really mind either, I was just curious if it really was changing. I think it probably stays within a range percentage of color seeing how numbers go back and forth in the screenshots (something like 1%) maybe they coded like this for optimization
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Exactly my feeling as well.