AmpGUI DP Themes (now at AMPGUIMODS.NET)

[amplidood]

A cool hack could be to draw small triangles at the exact same spot but on the glare file or on the counter window file...

I'd have to adjust the colors of the actual triangle graphics. They move around dynamically depending on what data is being displayed.

[Dwetmaster]

My bad... At least I tried

[amplidood]

Sleek is closing in...

[tripit@earthlink.net]

Dang Amp, you're cranking them out. Nice work. I just used Aqua one for while, rebooted up now and trying Jade. Looking forward to new one, looks cool.
Thanks for the work.

[Shooshie]

Jade is a huge success for me. Everything is visible; nothing gets covered up or masked by the interface colors, though certain choices of track-color schemes are certainly less effective than others. That's true for any interface, though.

Complimenting Mods with Color Sets
I keep 25 DP color schemes at the ready using QuicKeys' double-entry keyboard shortcuts (called "sticky keys") which enables me to use the same shortcuts over and over for different purposes. Thus, I can use the entire keypad for colors, then use it again for window sets or more colors, and so on and so forth, like having an endless number of modifier keys. This makes it fast and easy to audition the 25 color schemes that I picked to handle any situation. Here are 16 of them on my "cheat sheet" which I keep in a holder by my monitor.

I've found that in each of The Dood's GUI mods, there will be 3 or 4 DP color schemes that work the best. Plus, I've found that what works best for the Tracks Overview may be less effective in the Mixing Board or MIDI Graphic Edit Window. So, a quick keystroke or two gets me the scheme that works best in those windows.

The Beauty of Working in GUI Mods
This has to be the epitome of being spoiled. Having luxuriously beautiful interfaces with instantly switchable track and data colors makes for a workspace that practically is a work of art in itself.

Jade and Gold are my absolute favorites for working. Night is a favorite for playback. Were I on tour right now as music director of a concert or show, I'd be using the Night Mod. It's very unobtrusive on a monitor onstage, backstage, or in the pit while being refreshing to look at and quite clear in its control. (Amp. has several dark mods now that would be great backstage) The ONLY drawback I can think of for actual working in the Night Mod is that in the Sequence Editor some of the Continuous Controllers can get lost against the background. (It is possible to change the color of some controllers, and it's possible to set a range color for ANY and ALL continuous controller data.) But if you're not working on controllers in the Sequence Editor (and I usually work in the MIDI Graphic Editor), Night Mod should be fine for actual work, and not just for playback. Here is an example of Night Mod in action on my system.

Finding the Right Color Set For Each Mod
Once again, I emphasize finding the right color scheme for your tracks, so that they compliment the GUI colors while remaining as functional as possible. Below, I'm linking to three pictures of the Jade Mod with a set of colors I made for it. I call the set JadeSpecial. I'll probably make another called "GoldSpecial," if the JadeSpecial doesn't work for Gold, too.

Here's the problem one faces in finding a color scheme: what looks great in the Tracks Overview, or perhaps classy and beautiful in the Mixing Board, will often be very hard to see in the MIDI Graphic Edit Window. One doesn't want to have to hunt for notes or events that are nearly blending into the green background (or gray, or white, or anything else). So, I kept having to modify the color set until it covered all windows nicely, and all my MIDI notes practically jump off the page. Here are the screenshots of each of those windows, just to demonstrate that JadeSpecial really does work in all three:

Tracks Overview in Jade with "JadeSpecial" color set
Mixing Board in Jade with "JadeSpecial" color set
MIDI Graphic Editor in Jade with "JadeSpecial" color set

And an example of color set that doesn't quite work in any window:
Tracks Window in Jade with "*Sigh*" color set

Using the Color Editor in DP
That should be enough to convince anyone that color sets are essential in optimizing your favorite Mod for actual use. Now here's a screenshot of the colorset I am using:

And a link showing how to make it in the DP Color Editor.
Note that for interfaces that start off less than MOTU's bright white, it is beneficial to keep the start-color and end-color of each row fairly bright. DP fills in the color cells between the outer two columns and scales their colors appropriately. It's fairly easy to make one, but MUCH easier if you start out with a great saved matrix on your color wheel. These show up in every application, by the way, so the better you make them, the better your color choices in any situation throughout your Mac:

the OS X Color Wheel - Set It Up With a Rainbow of Presets


Sorry to overwhelm with information, but The Dood's great color mods need fine color schemes to go with them, and since each window presents its own problems, it takes careful honing of the options in the color sets to produce one that compliments all the windows.

DP's Existing Color Sets That Work in Jade
If you don't want to make your own, the following work pretty well with Jade Mod, "as-is" from MOTU:
Pastels1
New Mexico
Cartoon
Ensure
These may also work in other GUI Mods. One last time: QuicKeys makes it easy to audition color sets if you come up with a system for your keyboard shortcuts. Starting from scratch, what I've done here would be a little overwhelming, but I already had all these systems in place, so it was a breeze to do this, really. Still, there's no time like the present to realize the value of easy access to the color sets, and to get organized to make it happen.

Ok, I'll mercifully stop now!

Shoosh

[amplidood]

Shooshie, your real world experience and wisdom are invaluable in this process. Thank you for the validation.

Wouldn't it be amazing to separate the color settings for all those different edit windows. In a perfect world, I guess...

[amplidood]

Some new ways to spice up the experience...

AmpGUI CP Background Collection Gold 1.0...DOWNLOAD

[dgraf]

Quick question. I have been using Dark with DP 7.01. I would like to install the update to 7.02 - will dark still work, or am I limited to the newer mods? Thanks for all the great work. You have brought new excitement to DP for me!

[amplidood]

Quick question. I have been using Dark with DP 7.01. I would like to install the update to 7.02 - will dark still work, or am I limited to the newer mods? Thanks for all the great work. You have brought new excitement to DP for me!

The graphics files will be fine, just don't move the xml files. I don't know if there were any changes in 7.02.

[dgraf]

Thanks for the quick reply!
DG

[amplidood]

Sleek 1.0...

[bdr]

Thanks for all your exciting mods Andy! Really brightens my desktop and experience of using DP. I really like Sleek. Can you possibly darken the automation on arrows in the TO? Or is that doable with one of your fantabulous guides?

[amplidood]

Thanks for all your exciting mods Andy! Really brightens my desktop and experience of using DP. I really like Sleek. Can you possibly darken the automation on arrows in the TO? Or is that doable with one of your fantabulous guides?

Better automation arrows... works with Night too...

Download

[bdr]

Thanks!

[amplidood]

Coming soon...a Tempered viewpoint...