What Pixel Size Do Our Custom ICONS need to be Exactly ?

Thx Jamie,

I will endeavor to try out a converter app for changing my current icon sets from 300 x 300px > down to 60 x 60 px , and the 40 x 40px  .., as you recommend - and see how they go.
- cheers.




RE; My preferred use of Icons, Ideas , and suggestions - and discussing the Icons topic in general ...,



I have stacks of icons for every occasion, , drums , guitars , orchestral, ethnic, percussion, foley,  etc ..,

I find that since adopting the Raven full time  (ie; from the original protools viewing experience without the using Raven)
..., The icons have now become are really important part of my workflow , especially in projects with higher track counts.

This of course becomes more noticeable when flicking through tracks quickly , like when you need to hit that +-24 tracks button a few times.

Now I also find that when time spent to locate a track takes me longer than a instantaneous quick ' semi- unconscious glance' ..., it will slightly derail my workflow, and even hinder the creative reason of why I am are looking for that track in the first place
(eg ; balancing quick minor EQ adjustments on the fly)  



Those Icons I recently purchased from Chris Hein are great (www.chrishein.net/web/Cubase_Track_Icons.html) 
..., but I also made many other custom icons for myself from .png screenshots on my mac (by using Cmd+ Shift + 4) 

Some favourites are ones ripped the screenshot method & opening SampleTank3 - loading instruments in one by one (into ST3) - then clicking the info tab  (to show the instruments picture in Hi res - with a black background) 
The black background really highlights the instrument and is easy on the eyes. _{( disclaimer; these ripped icons / artwork are only used 'strictly' for my own personal projects ,  and are never shared or handed out in a project file)}



Another thing which I find really useful  ..., is having lots of icons of different colours , but similar in theme.

EG ; 2 identical trumpets ICONS side by side in a track (but playing a different trumpet line) - but one trumpet is gold / brass in appearance, but the similar themed ICON (same shaped trumpet) is silver in it's appearance - I dont need to read any text to know what these are  

Or if those 2 (different) trumpet tracks are playing the same thing ,
     - the gold one may point left while the silver points right - depending on the panning ? ..., But as a group , lets say it is Brass , then they will all have black backgrounds and this makes the group stand out.



Next to them might be the strings section .., and those might have white backgrounds (to easily separate them as a group from the Brass  with it's black background)  


Another EG : I am currently working on a hi track project with about 20 different guitar tracks spread throughout, and each are adding different things as the song weaves and progresses , and others are just for layering .

I have say layered recorded guitars (that play the same thing) showing the exact same ICON layout of a Strat , but the Strats are different colours in for different  section of the song to identify the different recored takes (example one might be the verses , and the other for the choruses)

- this reinforces the HUI limited text we now get in the Raven - and now in the 1st chorus  for my guitars .., I might  see :  GTc1 (with a white Strat icon - black background ) next to GTc1 (with a blue Strat icon - black back ground) to define those 2 guitar tracks ..., again no words needed , but as I flick through the tracks I know what they are at a seconds glance due to the Strats being different colours.


 ....,  This all might sound 'pedantic' ..., but when I layout my project any different I am always slowing down as I double check / or squinting , to locate whats-what on my smaller screened MTi when quickly flicking through those many tracks.


More guitar examples might be ..,
- Next a BC Rich shape guitar showing a short metal lead burst, Or a Les Paul showing a Rock Riff etc .., and in another section a guitar with a red/yellow/green motif playing a reggae chugga underneath, or an 2 identical acoustic guitar icons side by side (ie; acoustic guitar recorded with 2 mics -  on 2 separate mono tracks panned L-R) I have the left channel icon the neck angled to the left , and the right channel icon with the neck angled to the right (ie: mirror reverse) to show the stereo panning of those 2 connected tracks .., again at a quick glance in a big project I know exactly what they are.




My eventual goal is to have all my icons as above .., BUT to also have the background colours showing the colours that I usually like my instrument groups to be in ...,


(eg; my guitars all sharing my favourite 'pro tools' green background , basses in Blue , synths in Purple etc )...,

I would love to have my Icon's backgrounds showing in the exact same Customisable colours that we would have previously selected for as our track colours ie ; those colours we previously selected BEFORE we owned our Ravens.



I do know it is possible to crank up the colour saturation level for all my tracks to make them more distinguished .., but I personally find that way too bright to look at for long periods (or when working at night) .






One last word .., (a friendly comment / suggestion on the current Raven Icons functionality)

I think Ravens own icons need a bigger range .
I am not too keen on them .., except for the drums where IMO they are along the right idea IMO because the backgrounds are dark and do not distract from the icon itself . This also makes to text easy to read , and they all share a similar theme ..., except there are not enough of them - just look at a full "all mics on'  potion in toontracks superior drummer mix to get an idea of what should be available IMO , often i will convert individual audio tracks , and want icons to group and reflect all those tracks.


..., and also I wish we could utilize all the different tabs in the icons panel for our own icons - and not just the customs panel

- if not , then at least allow folders to be stored within the customs tab - where I can separate my orchestral/ percussion/ ethnic /keys etc , and please also allow folders to be loaded into the customs window rather than loading the icons one by one - this is so tedious .

- Alternatively , another possible method is to also include this option simultaneously .., ie: Look at how cubase handles their custom ICONS . Right click in the empty icon square in the DAWs GUI In cubase the icon loads directly from any folder on your drive .



Cheers Guys , just throwing some ideas out there . it'll be good to hear other opinions on the subject also and how you use / or would like to use  Icons  to make things run more smoothly for you  

Ok, I am seeing this when opening the default icons from Raven.

Internal Mixer
Size 67 X 38 Pixels

Image DPI 72 pixels/inch

For External Mixer they are 80 X 80

Here are a couple if you want to look at them.  



 

But how  Raven  Loads an Icon for each Mixer: external and internal Mixer? when  both mixes have 2 different PNGs sizes?

what you have to do? or what you  need to create the icons to have Raven opening both at  once?  how is the Trick?

Same Icon name in 2 different folders??

Where are the Folders?

As you see is not that  1 icon is stretched in size to fit in both Mixers,   check the Pics  and the fonts,  these are 2 different PNGs,

Thanks