I personally would favour colouring the current row differently when in record mode.
IIRC, FastTracker2 coloured the VGA screen border when editing/record is active. (you cannot see that in DosBox).

Yes, coloring the current row when in record mode sounds fine to me. May be overkill but, the ability to choose either one of the three mentioned methods choosable by the user in the Setup, would be something that you can't do in other trackers and would left me impressed! :D But one of the three, preferably highlighting/coloring the active row, would be amazing.

Thos would be very great to see it in one of the next OpenMPT versions! :)

*thus (can't one edit one's own posts in the bug tracker after they're posted, btw?)

Any updates on this? I don't know if nagging in the notes for updates makes things going faster - or rather makes the coders angry? ;)

If you're talking about LIVE-recording, then +1 on this. (It seems superfluous if the record mode you mean is edit mode -- y'know, step by step).
I think just displaying a different "play row" highlight would do the trick. I can see using a bright red row highlighter while recording to one or more channels. And then it turns normal during record playback when the overdub is done.

Whether it's superfluous or not depends on your workflow, I guess. manx' suggestion of adding a new colour for the active row seems like the easiest way to achieve this, and it would work both in live and step recording mode.

Yes, superfluous is really in the eye of the beholder. I often jam with the current instrument and forgot I'm in record more - thus plastering the whole pattern with unwanted notes! I would not do that if the color of active row would be red or highlighted! So you would make things, at least for me, much easier :)

Btw - I somehow like the idea that LIVE recording and EDIT (step by step) both have THEIR OWN coloring / highlighting (different color) of the active row! What do you think, guys?

Btw2 - you could make it a hidden feature. So for guys who think that is vital, can turn that on. For all others - it's hidden. Simple as that. :)

I bet implementing is as easy as:

if in step-by-step mode, change active row color to: user preset a,b,c.
if in live-record mode, change active row color to: user preset d,e,f.

So lets do this, peeps! :)

I don't think there would be a necessity to make it a hidden feature, since it's easy to add new user-definable colours to the colour setup in the Display settings. The more complicated part is actually applying the colouring in the pattern editor. ;)

Aha ok :) Then we don't have to actually make this a hidden feature, which is fine with me. :)