Sound On Sound says it all: Too Dark

If I’m not mistaken, software is not a wild animal. To strain the metaphor, it’s a dog that I should be able to train to serve -my- needs… not the other way round.

Cubase is getting -harder- to use. Which is ironic, since many of the UI changes were meant for ‘keyboard navigation’. In fact, it’s =harder= to navigate in C7 than in C6.

It would be interesting to do a series of ‘time studies’… create a list of common tasks and time/video people performing these operations. Look at not only the length of time it takes, but also the amount of -movement- — shifting hands from mouse to keyboard, taking eyes off screen, obvious lapses in concentration. My guess is that C7 is much clunkier than C6 and regardless of snappy paint job that’s what matters.

Conversely: I would -sincerely- be interested in a list of tasks that people can honestly say go -faster- in C7 than C6. Maybe there’s something I’m missing.

—JC


You’d have to be a programmer for that to work the way you want.

Given that Paul White is a Logic user it does not follow that he is talking about Cubase.
My issue is about the size of the text in much of new software given that most people have their monitors a little way back.

+1
Don’t look back! Sumthin’ might be gainin’ on ya!
—Satchel Paige
{‘-’}

Maybe it is time to think about selling your Cubase license, as it would fetch a much higher price now than were you to wait for things that may never take place.

I seem to remember somewhere between SX3 and some version of C4 there was a flurry of the usual nonsense on this very forum about how “dark” the product had become. It was around the time everyone was changing from older CRT monitors to newer LCD/LED flatscreens, and those with the newer monitors had no problems; clearly, the developers are working with cutting-edge quality and the rest of use are expected to follow.

Even if we all have reasonably good monitors in the meantime, any photographer will tell you that we’re a long way away from anything like neutral color representation. In addition, almost all monitors have some means of adjustment and I would ask whether users have ever even investigated what’s available in the setup/options menu of their monitor?

Another major factor is ambient light … if someone is working in a dedicated studio area, the likelihood is that thought has been given to the fact that almost all audio recording today utilizes some form of LCD monitor and it is unlikely that people are working with a fluorescent tube overhead, or with sunlight streaming through a window behind them.

My opinion is that, yes, the Cubase GUI has become darker over time, but with a decent and properly calibrated monitor running at native resolution, I really don’t see any problem; and, my overall preference would be something like the color scheme of Cubase 5 (with a few personal tweaks).

He’s commenting on an overall trend in music software (or should I say more -Euro- design.) Frankly, I think it’s about 10 years behind the times and is strongly influenced by Gamer culture. (Can you say ‘Matrix’?)

But if you look at where the -design- community is at, the trend has been towards lighter and brighter… Apple, Microsoft, Google… the trend is uniformly in those directions and -away- from ‘gun metal’ and ‘imitating a real mixer’. And not just because it’s the trend du jour. Countless studies have shown that lighter, simpler interfaces are (surprise!) EASIER TO READ and MORE SELF-EVIDENT.

So, since yer so opinionated, who makes a good UI, JC?

This guy makes -great- UIs: http://www.valhalladsp.com/

And… lest we forget. I still say, Cubase SX and SX2 were much more readable.

http://media.soundonsound.com/sos/aug02/images/cubasesxsurround.l.gif

http://media.soundonsound.com/sos/nov03/images/cubaseproject.l.jpg

—JC



LED vs LCD: LED vs LCD - Google Search

From my reading of your posts, it seems Cubase (7) and probably onwards will never suit your needs, so is it not an appropriate question to ask?

Who are you again?

I don’t know if it really matters being an international forum and all and besides if you really want to know who I am, why not write me a PM?

What’s the misery in using Cubase 6.5 and Nuendo 5.5?

The misery seems to be all yours, but please in your collaboration, please do not preach to users about how they should feel about change.

We do but it was you who said you were going to take time out from using Cubase 7 in the first place due to the downsizing of your music recording studio and that you’d be contributing more towards development of Nuendo in the future.

God morgen.

I am in no doubt either that 6.5.5 is an excellent, properly supported DAW, that will work well into the future on Windows systems (up to 7 at least) but what I can’t work out though, is if you are feeling disenfranchised by having purchased the software in the first place.

:question: … mmm …some kind of territorial marking going on here so I’m gone … bye bye!

But if you don’t like the “direction” the software is taking as you have previously indicated, then why bother to learn about it at all?

Overall I’m quite pleased with Cubase 7 but I find myself agreeing with the ‘too dark’ gripe: I tend to get persistent afterimages in my eyes when reading light text on a dark background and I’ve noticed the same issue, although not quite as pronounced, with Cubase 7

What a lot of hot air and ego-puffing in this thread.

We are all individual people, with individual requirements.

Instead of adopting the policy of “one size must fit all”, SB should provide more controls for the user to customize the display elements to their liking. What’s so difficult to understand about that?

You mean like skins, perhaps? Reaper leads the way in that respect, though I’m not overly fond of it myself.

codswollop .
oldfecker is right ,we all have our own individual needs … if you like reaper hedshaker you know what to do cause I for one don’t want Cubase to turn into anything like reaper !

I don’t want it either but, from Cubase 6.5 to 7, we have lost :

  • the normal and efficient cursor for a horrible white masked one, which requires me to wear glasses to view it clearly,
  • all the settings in the preferences ‘Appearance / Work area’ page which has completely disappeared : no more display tweaking of the three different levels of vetical grid lines, as well as the horizontal ones, among others,
  • all the settings of the ‘Appearance / General’ one : no more tweaking of the display of some UI components, especially the buttons. You have to open the defaults.xml, find the related line and manually edit it.
  • the normal behavior of the R/W buttons of the group/FX tracks which no longer behave as the other ones when narrowing them,
  • the normal background of the overview line, which has become plain white, no matter the color settings you do beside this.

This without talking about other previous regressions, such as the imposed ‘3D/shady’ events/parts display, the removal of the transparent events, the oversized info line with its brand new font…

So, as you said, we all have our own individual needs, but I don’t think that Cubase 5.1.1 had anything to do with Reaper and there has been regression after regression since, and in an imposed manner. IMO, new versions are supposed to bring more features and customization, not removals of what was existing, useful and perfectly working. And I still think that there must be a middle way between Reaper skinning and all the recent Cubase feature losts…

cubic , if new reasons were being mentioned then there would be something to write about but surely you all must be getting bored with writing the same old complaints over and over again , no new issues just the same old complaints that have been mentioned at least 100 times .
Im happy with c7 , it does what I need it to.
All these posts of the same old things are in my eyes getting rather boring as in the great immortal words of pink Floyd your "running over the same old ground " .
If your not happy with the route Steinberg are trying to take then there are other softwares because now Steinberg are a part of Yamaha I don’t think you and another couple of hundred people complaining are going to make the damn slightest difference . NOW THAT IS THE DOWN SIDE of Steinberg - Yamaha and when the integration happened in 2006 I held my head in my hands knowing it was going downhill but im still here for the ride but when it doesn’t suit me any more im not going to moan till im blue in the face to a major corporation i’ll just spend my money else where .

Congrats for your musical reference… But if it’s so boring, don’t feel the need to react. I feel the right to complain about the way things evolve simply because it doesn’t suits me and I’m a regular user of Steiny products. If nobody ever complain, there would have even been more issues and regressions, since. No matter what you say but there have been several examples in the past where Steiny changed things again after several complaints here, in a more positive way : to just name a recent one, remember the mixConsole settings and .vmx files ?

So, I’ll continue to moan, having paid 150€ for an upgrade that I don’t use : admit that the situation is rather unsatisfying. But, indeed, lesson taken : I will probably end here any Cubase paid upgrade in the future, unless there are really good surprises and/or fixes in them.