Different look for MIDI TCP v audio TCP

[Jon-gtr]

I suspect this may be a dumb question, but I'm currently having some fun designing my own theme - without having done much actual recording yet! - and it occurred to me that it might be good to be able to have the TCP for midi tracks look different from those for audio tracks. After all, they record very different kinds of information, and would seem to need at least some different options on the TCP.

Is this possible? (I have all the Walter reference material if you can point me.) Or is it just not something that anyone has ever found useful before? Everything I've seen so far on theme design treats all TCPs the same - just differentiating between selected and non-selected, and colours and so on.

I know I can save tracks as templates, I'm thinking more about the controls/buttons on the TCP - choosing different set-ups for audio and midi depending on which controls are most useful for either one.

[synkrotron]

what you have to remember that, with REAPER, a track is a track is a track

meaning, a track can be anything you want it to be and even a track that has audio on it can also have a MIDI item

so all you are doing is making the track in the TCP look different and, yes, with WALTER it is possible to do that

personally, I don't bother with having different looking tracks for each type of function

[Rednroll]

You can make tracks look different however you want by creating different layouts in theming. Different controls present, different colors, different faders, knobs, etc.

[akademie]

Or ... assign a MIDI tracks its MIDI track icon for TCP/MCP

[Jon-gtr]

Thanks all! I now understand (a) how to do it, (b) why it doesn't seem worth it, and (c) why it doesn't make a whole lot sense anyway.

Few online forums IME present this much value so fast and so succinctly!

[akademie]

Anyway, you can prepare few "types of the track" as a TrackTemplates (complete with icon, color, layout selection, and all track's settings).

Then when you need to insert track for your MIDI recording, insert track from template, select your MIDI track template.., if you later need record vocals, insert your "vocal track template".. all will have its properties already preset (again, the color, the height, icon etc.)

[elcalen]

If you have SWS installed, you can use the SWS Auto Color/Icon/Layout feature to automatically change the look of tracks. It could be based on the track name, but there's also a few meta options that include features such as whether the track has an instrument fx, or whether it has audio or midi inputs. Using these it should be fairly easy to make midi tracks always have particular layouts or icons.

EDIT: I think these instrument/input filters for SWS auto color may have been added since the most recent stable version, so you may need to use a pre-release version to use them.