Waveform Color in Ardour 6

Hi everyone!

In Ardour 5, when I set my waveform fill color to white, the regions’ waveforms in the editor are actually white. This is no longer the case in Ardour 6 since all waveforms seem to have some kind of default transparency applied to it, giving them a slight shade of the track color.

Since I use the editor with the “Region color follows track color” option enabled, this can result in a sometimes very low contrast between the region and the waveform and making the waveform barely readable. I played around with the Transparency tab in Preferences > Appearance > Color and found that reducing the “opaque region base” slider kind of helps. I had however hoped to also find a “waveform fill” transparency slider, but with no luck.

Is there no way to disable that default waveform shading completely? Or am I missing something?

Kind regards
kaffeeundsalz

Just so you can see for yourself, here is a quick comparison of how the same region is drawn with the default theme colors in Ardour 5 (left) and Ardour 6 (right). The track color is the same in both cases. I find the left version of the waveform easier to read.

Hi! I can confirm the same context in Ardour 6 in Linux. I also can’t find any decision using theming color&transparency tools.

By the way the similar problem I’ve found:
The parameter: Edit>Preferences>Appearance>Colors>Transparency>editable region - doesn’t make any effect to the editable midi region. In Ardour 5 I could make the editable midi region (in “E”-mouse mode) much more transparent, than in grab mode (“G”-mode) in order to differ during switching between the modes.
In Ardour 5 I could do such setup:


But in Ardour 6 this option doesn’t work//

Here’s an old topic about the midi regions transparency, links don’t work, but I used the same .gif file there:

Have you tried the 2 sliders in Preferences > Appearance > Theme yet ? Waveforms color gradient depth & Timeline item gradient depth.

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Yes, this is really better! Thanks!
waveform_contrast

But, I’d like to make a fully filled area (middle also). In Ardour 5 this has contrasting outline independently of gradient depth. I’ve tried to play in Ardour 6 with the Preferences > Appearance > Colors > Items > waveform outline - it looks has no effect at all. Nevertheless some kind of decision with gradient option helps.

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I have nothing to add to the waveform color discussion but I hope that brickwall limiting was either a deliberate artistic choice or the executive decision of a paying customer.

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Looks rather like an accident to me. Ardour 5’s style clearly wins.

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Since you have no clue what I use Ardour for, please assume that I know what I‘m doing.

Okay, but my question is: Is there any way to get that look back in Ardour 6? I cannot find a way to get a plain white waveform. There are numerous workarounds for the problem: I could just disable the „Region color follows track color“ setting, or I could introduce a faint gradient for the waveform, or I could lower the opacity of the region background etc. But none of these will give me the appearance that I like and got used to from Ardour 5. It‘s not that I couldn‘t live with a different color scheme if this a deliberate change in version 6. But maybe I‘m just missing something?

After hearing Death Magnetic I never assume anyone knows what they’re doing :slight_smile:

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The code has been modified to restore the “tips” colored with the “waveform outline” color.

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