V5 Theme - Help me understand the improvement

[Luxmaji]

Greetings,

I'm having trouble understanding how the new V5 theme is an improvement over V4. I'm grateful that I have many wonderful choices yet I truly want to better grasp how (based in my two attached examples) V5 is a step forward. As with many things in my life, it's not unusual that I'm missing something obvious, so I seek the wisdom of wiser people to help point the way.

In the V5 example, just glance at the Mute and Solo locations. As a person that uses different panning configurations, you can see how things get messy real quick. Yet in the V4 example things stay put - much better on the eye and the location of things makes sense.

I'll keeping using 4's theme, but am I missing something by doing so?

Many thanks!

L

[Lokasenna]

Really the only thing you're missing if you stick with an older theme is the new track coloring - it's easier to actually get the color you selected, rather than a weird blend.

Also, if you're willing to do some reading, the v5 theme was built to be easier to edit for people who, like yourself, have some issues with how things are laid out. The full documentation isn't out yet, but the stuff covered here may well help you sort out your M/S buttons wandering around: http://www.houseofwhitetie.com/reape...dit_def_5.html

[Luxmaji]

Thank you, that's useful info.

The issue is that the responsiveness pushes elements to the next line depending on width of the TCP. You have some control, yet you'll always have elements drop down a level. The pan_width will push elements to the right and that will cause an unevenness. This then will prevent you from (for example) selecting Mute and dragging up or down to select/unselect other tracks Mute because it's directly above or below.

The solution I see would be to not only have "glue" as an option, as shown in the link you kindly provided. But to have a "sticky" that will keep say Mute/Solo from ever lowering to the next level. Or have the ability for elements to "stick" to the far right side of their row in the TCP.

Otherwise the responsiveness is a nice idea but it leads to inconsistencies and overall sloppyness in the TCP on large track projects. It's all over the place for me.

L

[bluzkat]

Also check out the other track layouts, you may find one you like better.

Enjoy.

[RobU]

On a similar theme (pardon the pun)...

When the mixer is docked at the bottom of the window in the v5 default theme, changing the height of the mixer also changes the height of the tracks in the TCP... me no like...

Does anyone know how to modify the config file to prevent this from happening ?

Cheers
Rob

[Lokasenna]

Are you talking the height of the individual tracks, or how much of the track panel is shown?

[RobU]

Originally Posted by Lokasenna

Are you talking the height of the individual tracks, or how much of the track panel is shown?

The height of all the tracks changes; they stretch vertically much in the same way that the width of the TCP stretches horizontally when you drag the edge of the TCP.

I'm not at my audio pc at the moment, I'll post a licecap when I get back to it

[RobU]

Originally Posted by robu_23

The height of all the tracks changes; they stretch vertically much in the same way that the width of the TCP stretches horizontally when you drag the edge of the TCP.

I'm not at my audio pc at the moment, I'll post a licecap when I get back to it

[RobU]

Some testing..

Using the Small, Medium, or Large track size options from Track/Send defaults, the stretching always happens.

If track size is set to Current and saved as a Custom size, the tracks do not stretch vertically while resizing the docked mixer.

However, as soon as you apply any manual vertical zoom, the stretching behaviour resumes, until you manually zoom back to the exact Custom height...

Ok, same things happens in 4.8 so it's not a regression in 5.0, but I only just noticed it -- and it's still annoying; How do I disable that and get the tracks to stay at the height I choose, manually zoomed, custom sized, or otherwise ?

[Scir]

I would also like to know the answer to robu_23's question about unwanted tcp stretching. And, in addition, I'd also like to stop unwanted mcp vertical stretching as well (I want everything at or below the mcp track name to stay the same height, and only add/subtract FX slots to fill the available space). Once I set the height of the mcp fader area, I don't want it to change.

Any help would be appreciated. I looked in the rtconfig file, and while the horizontal stretch parameter for individual tcp elements is clear (I disabled it), controlling the vertical stretch for the tcp and mcp "track size" is still fuzzy to me.

Is there any way to disable GUI stretch globally, just for kicks?

By the way, this topic is hard to search for, because any search with "stretch" is flooded with stretch marker topics.

[Win Conway]

There is no improvement other than the mentioned correct coloring.
White tie makes a new theme for each full version, this is his new theme, nothing more nothing less.
There have been no improvements to the UI from the developers, he can only work with what he has.

[Lokasenna]

Well, the color tinting is a new addition, and I imagine a number of other WALTER things as well.

[Nystagmus]

I'm thankful that the good old reliabe v4.0 is still available.
The v5 theme just doesn't look right to me, and since I'm not used to it at all, I prefer the v4 which has good aesthetics and makes sense "ergonomicly"

[Fergler]

Originally Posted by Luxmaji

The pan_width will push elements to the right and that will cause an unevenness. This then will prevent you from (for example) selecting Mute and dragging up or down to select/unselect other tracks Mute because it's directly above or below.

Just to correct something here, the drag mute/solo function actually works as soon as the mouse touches the next track area, it doesn't have to go anywhere near the other track's buttons, so their placement doesn't matter.

[Icchan]

Originally Posted by robu_23

How do I disable that and get the tracks to stay at the height I choose, manually zoomed, custom sized, or otherwise ?

As far as I know, you can't. It's something I've already complained about few times and there's a very old FR about tracks not keeping their relative sizes when zooming.

We can only hope devs get this issue fixed (unless I'm missing something after years of using the program and getting irritated about that )

[Lokasenna]

Just for the record, I can't seem to reproduce this TCP stretching issue. No matter what size I set my tracks to, either manually dragging them or using ` ~ and !, they stay where I put them.

[RobU]

Originally Posted by Icchan

...and there's a very old FR about tracks not keeping their relative sizes when zooming.

Yes, that's another irritating quirk in the UI. I read in another thread earlier that the FR forum is now deprecated, so this is the only place to shout about it (or dstruct's casa de nitpicks, perhaps..)

Originally Posted by Icchan

...unless I'm missing something after years of using the program and getting irritated about that

Options / Preferences / Appearance - Allow irritating vertical stretch on tracks [x]

Originally Posted by Lokasenna

Just for the record, I can't seem to reproduce this TCP stretching issue. No matter what size I set my tracks to, either manually dragging them or using ` ~ and !, they stay where I put them.

Licecap of a portable install of v5.01 x64, no configuration other than adding audio device, and then some tracks... The track height change is even more disturbing when the docked mixer is switched on and off.

[Icchan]

More this theme is advancing, more and more I wonder what the heck was WT thinking when creating the current default theme.

OK, the Devs are also to be blamed a little for not adding stuff to the GUI code that would allow better implementation of these things.

I hope they'll fix these officially some day.

I do think themes are mostly about usability and rarely about bling.

Many of these are important usability issues that have been fixed int he Nitpicky Edition in some way:

• Background tinting helps you to quickly see what track is what, depending of how you color your tracks.
  
• Separators give your eyes easier time to see where one section ends and other starts.
  
• To be able to easily see monitoring status even in high DPI displays and further away is important for avoiding mistakes.
  
• Adjustable meter colors give you better understanding by quickly glancing the meters about what the level is. Even if you can't see the text.

Etc.

[Nystagmus]

I find that the v4 Theme is a testament to good GUI design.
v5 looks like it's trying to look like some kind of faceless minimalism. But I like having the pan control labeled and stuff like that. I hope they choose somebody else to design the GUI next time or just leave it as is.