# The Colours of Cubase



## Sid Francis (Apr 16, 2016)

Hello everybody..
When I watched this video:

about the new cello from Orchestral tools my attention was first on the cello but very quickly on something different. I wondered which DAW they are displaying because I found the colours so utterly beautiful. I realized that it is just Cubase with a customized colourscheme and immediately started to build "my own" Cubase.
See: I always changed the colour scheme of a new Cubase version a bit to my liking but only the arrangement background and the track colours were slightly changed. I never had the idea to change the colours completely. This led me to the question:

How many of you did something similar? Changing the basic blue-grey of Cubase (which I like very much) to something totally different? Would you share your workspace with a pic or two? 

I do not dare to ask this in the german cubase forum (I am german), because I know from experience that everytime that topic rises, a lot of very ignorant people say a lot of very ignorant things though they don´t really care at all about the topic, an unpleasant experience. But V.I. is a place where a lot of people meet who also care about the more sensible aspects of music. Perhaps I find some like minded and interested people here?


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## Saxer (Apr 16, 2016)

I don't really know but I think the colours in the video are just postpro colouration.

I'm a Logic user and the colour palette is really ugly. I always try to find matching colors for all instruments. At the end I'm never really happy. Just imagine Barbie pink viola tracks... they have to sound like plastic! I tried different GUIs made by graphic nerds that replace every graphic file in the application package. Some of them look really nice. But you have to replace them with every update and you never know how compatible it looks elsewhere. I often do collaborations with song data exchange. So at the end I just get used to the standard GUI with the ugly colours.
I'd love to have a colour wheel to mix and select my own palette for tracks/parts and background that looks the same in every Logic. Easy stuff for programmers... I can't understand why this is not a basic function for all apps.


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## airflamesred (Apr 16, 2016)

In the meters -yellow at the bottom, red at -3db and white at 0db

I tend to go for the pastelly shades on the left of the colour picker.

btw - holding alt you can pick a colour from anywhere on the screen.


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## Sid Francis (Apr 16, 2016)

Saxer: fortunately in Cubase there are extensive possibilities to change the single components of Cubase and to save the result in a file. So I made my own "cognac-wheat-blood-red/brown" (organic colours that remind me of orchestral instruments) Cubase scheme but when I get tired of it or might notice by the time that it does not work for the eyes (or the mind) I can switch with a blink of an eye back to blue-grey. So no one keeps me from experimenting. But I so much would like see some different "viewing points" (colour-wise) from other Cubase users just to get some inspiration.
When I had a look at the latest DP8 Sequenzer promo page I saw that MOTU also has a heart for the more colour aware users: they provide really a LOT of schemes to choose from within DigitalPerformer. Nice.

airflames: Yes I also go for pastels colours. Thanks for the hint with the colour picking!


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## Jimmy Hellfire (Apr 16, 2016)

I have my own set of custom track colors and I can get very obsessive about that. I think it really influences the way I work on a subliminal level, and looking at the "wrong" colors for too long can mess up my instincts as well as my mood.  And there's something about a certain kind of spectral balance in the project window that for me intuitively translates into the aural domain - you take a look at the window and kind of feel if something works or doesn't; perhaps a bit like looking at sheet music, visually, and knowing if it's a well-arranged piece or not.

I've also adjusted the tone of all the panels a bit and changed the project window background from that gun metal grey to some matted bright canvas, similar to how it used to be in older Cubase versions and in ProTools. All this grey makes me grumpy and depressed.

Now if Steinberg finally got rid of that terrible bloated comic-book font and went for something more sleek and subtle ...


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## jamwerks (Apr 16, 2016)

I love DP's choice of not just colors for the gui elements, but also the complete different skins. That must be very easy to do. Wish SB would integrate some of those possibilities into Cubase!


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## Sid Francis (Apr 16, 2016)

Jimmy : you probably DO know that every single word you say corresponds in an "interesting" way with your forum name?  haha.. Wouldn´t have expected such words...no really: I couldn´t have said it better and sign every word of your contribution. That is exactly what I wanted to say but could not as a non native speaker. Thanks.
Yes, formerly I was also obsessive with my track colours but now I get the idea to expand this to the whole surface I am looking on for so many hours a day. It influences the way I think and feel so much.


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## Jimmy Hellfire (Apr 16, 2016)

Sid Francis said:


> Jimmy : you probably DO know that every single word you say corresponds in an "interesting" way with your forum name?



Haha, that's great - it really is kind of silly


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## playz123 (Apr 16, 2016)

Sid, are you aware of this? Very useful when creating your own color schemes or expanding the palette...and it's free.

http://www.dawlab.net/color-pack-for-cubase-inc-maschine-colors/


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## Sid Francis (Apr 16, 2016)

Frank: thank you so much, yes I was very pleased at first to see it. But as I wrote I am a pastel junkie and love the shades and nuances. Like my music that does not fit into any obvious drawer so do my colours not fit into that chart


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## Sid Francis (Apr 17, 2016)

So... I had 2 days of heavy composing and editing and have to say: I LOVE it to see Cubase with my personal eyes. I am brave enough to post a sample of my "organic orchestral Cubase"


https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B98lK66LN1DNV3EzdEExdnZxSmM/view?usp=sharing


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## Daryl (Apr 17, 2016)

jamwerks said:


> Wish SB would integrate some of those possibilities into Cubase!


At one point they did, but I think that some of the more outlandish skins featured in a few Web things that they thought brought the program into disrepute and stopped everyone's fun.


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## Jdiggity1 (Apr 17, 2016)

Sid Francis said:


> Frank: thank you so much, yes I was very pleased at first to see it. But as I wrote I am a pastel junkie and love the shades and nuances. Like my music that does not fit into any obvious drawer so do my colours not fit into that chart



For the track colours, you can reduce intensity and/or brightness to achieve a more 'pastel' palette.


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## muk (Apr 17, 2016)

Nice work, Sid. Looks neat and well rounded. Entirely not my taste colourwise, but I like the concept.


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## Andrew Goodwin (Apr 17, 2016)

Had no idea you could import colors! I spend a lot of time staring at this DAW, nice to have some new options. Thanks for the info guys!

http://www.dawlab.net/color-pack-for-cubase-inc-maschine-colors/


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## higgs (Apr 17, 2016)

I found a lot of interesting research out about eye strain being minimized when using dark backgrounds with colors shifted away from the blue's. The bulk of my time is spent in Logic, Premeire, After Effects, Photoshop, and Illustrator CC. When given the choice I'll setup darker schemes to have as much of the screen's/program's non-vital content (backgrounds, spaces between tracks and faders/knobs/buttons, etc) be as dark as is available. As for the vital content (faders, position markers, numeric values, track groupings & colors, etc), I try to be a bit gentle with contrasts between it and the background by not using the brighter of the color options particularly in the blue frequencies which I gather can be a bit harsh on the eyes for extended periods, >20 min at a time. I try to keep the vital content about the same brightness as the rest of the ambient lighting of the room. 

What I've read from a number of studies is that it's ideal to set brightness and colors of a screen in such a way that they appear (for lack of a better term) not illuminated relative to the viewing environment. That is to say that if the screen looks brighter than your surroundings, then it can be a strain on the iris to compensate when your eye moves around the screen -and more so if the surroundings and screen content are noticeably different in intensity. 

A screen full of content that is too dark can be equally as straining as one that is too bright, so it seems that striking a balance is crucial. Overall I prefer darker backgrounds that get out of the way. 
This helps to cut out glare, and though I'm not going to save the entire planet by doing so, it is more energy efficient. But the real benefit I've found is that darker schemes keep my eyes happier during longer sessions. In the Adobe programs, I'll use either black or the darkest grey option before straight black on the background. Logic is Logic, which is thankfully leaning towards the darker grey.

I guess it's similar to using your ears for extended periods of time. It's better to keep consistently lower volume levels if you're working for more than 20 minutes at a time.

There's lots of good info if you do a search for something like "ideal brightness and color settings for computer monitors and eye strain," or however you serve up your search-term chops. Since I came up with a formula for a color/contrast scheme, I see others and wonder what the appeal is, particularly with brighter settings. To each their own I reckon, but I'll advocate for the health of our ears and eyes since those things are vital for our cool VI community here.


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## Sid Francis (Apr 17, 2016)

Thank you Higgs for the extensive information. I second everything though the psychological aspect of the colours is equally important to me. I worked with a dark metal-grey-blue background in Cubase for a long time and it definitly changes my mood. Therefore I changed it to a pastel light one with minimal saturation which psychologically makes a positive difference with smaller impact on the eye than bright white (which I couldn´t work with too long)


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## muk (Apr 17, 2016)

Reading this thread I thought I should customize my Cubase a bit as well. I didn't stray too far from the original scheme, as I find it quite agreeable. Just a bit more color, really:


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Apr 17, 2016)

muk said:


> Reading this thread I thought I should customize my Cubase a bit as well. I didn't stray too far from the original scheme, as I find it quite agreeable. Just a bit more color, really:


Hey Muk,
While I don´t like that yellow locator array I like your icons on the left and the blue. Where did you get them exactly? I would also like to customize a bit my actual orchestra template. Is the implementation difficult? Thank you.


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## Maestro1972 (Apr 17, 2016)

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> I like your icons on the left and the blue. Where did you get them exactly? I would also like to customize a bit my actual orchestra template. Is the implementation difficult? Thank you.



You can get the icons from a couple of places...
http://www.chris-hein-shop.com/cubase-track-icons-1-253.html

https://poundsound.co.uk/products/orchestral-complete

And they are easily imported into your project...they have videos to show how to.


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## lucky909091 (Apr 17, 2016)

Wow, Andrew. Thanks. Very useful.


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## muk (Apr 17, 2016)

No happy yellow for you, Alexander?  As Maestro pointed out there are places where you can download track icons for Cubase. I didn't happen to care much for the ones that are around, so I created these myself. If you're interested, shoot me a pm and I'll tell you how I created them. It's not difficult, but it takes a bit of time.


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## higgs (Apr 17, 2016)

Sid Francis said:


> Thank you Higgs for the extensive information. I second everything though the psychological aspect of the colours is equally important to me. I worked with a dark metal-grey-blue background in Cubase for a long time and it definitly changes my mood. Therefore I changed it to a pastel light one with minimal saturation which psychologically makes a positive difference with smaller impact on the eye than bright white (which I couldn´t work with too long)


I agree that an all grey layout would probably be pretty dismal. The mood and psych elements are definitely worthy of consideration too! Looking at a few studies out about the impacts of color n mood, it seems consistent the greens, violets, oranges, and earth tones tend to be pretty positive for creativity in a number of arenas.

Blue is a color that seems to have quite a large range of associated mood/emotional connections which appear to be a mixed bag for creative juices. The Mayo Clinic advocates the use of light boxes for treatment of seasonal affective disorder, depression, and lack of energy. The boxes, about the size of a small tablet, are made by manufacturers like Philips and typically emit a specific freq range of blue said to help remedy the down moods and energy issues. The interesting thing is that the amount of exposure time recommended is limited to under 20 minutes or so, because of the possibility of inducing manic behavior. Anyhow, my screen, while typically darker in the background is filled with colors -though admittedly softer and darker than I see most other folks have setup.

I seem to be writing less of my previous staple sad-man-music since working on a color scheme... Maybe I'm doing something wrong


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## Sid Francis (Apr 17, 2016)

higgs: would you like to show your workspace to me/us?


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## higgs (Apr 18, 2016)

Just a screenshot or my workspace as a whole room? 

Screenshot wise for music it'd pretty much look like a standard Logic Pro screen with darker colored clips - nothing particularly special about it. You can't really do anything with Logic's UI colors - it just happens to live in the same visual neighborhood as what I set everything else to be.


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## dgburns (Apr 18, 2016)

higgs said:


> Just a screenshot or my workspace as a whole room?
> 
> Screenshot wise for music it'd pretty much look like a standard Logic Pro screen with darker colored clips - nothing particularly special about it. You can't really do anything with Logic's UI colors - it just happens to live in the same visual neighborhood as what I set everything else to be.



respectfully,LPX can be highly gui modded-see below I've highly modified tons of things in LPX,but you have to go through the same bs when they release a new version.

https://logicxinterfaces.wordpress.com
http://logicproxthemes.blogspot.ca

I think Cubase looks killer when darkened up with more saturated colours for midi and audio parts personally.Wish we could modify the track text style,preferred the c7.5 style.
light grey green background with light cartoon colour palette makes me a bit naucious.


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## higgs (Apr 18, 2016)

dgburns said:


> respectfully,LPX can be highly gui modded-see below I've highly modified tons of things in LPX,but you have to go through the same bs when they release a new version.


Awesome! Thanks for sharing that! I made the shift to Logic last year after some frustrations I had with Pro Tools for composing and mock-ups, and I liked the darker interface to boot. Seriously glad you chimed in, dg, imma start diving in tomorrow.


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## Will Blackburn (Apr 25, 2016)

Interesting thread. In regards to eye strain f.lux is a great little app. I think it gives Cubase a nicer tone too. 

https://justgetflux.com/


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