That’s indeed a workaround, though it takes up a good amount of space; I can’t do that on one of my 350-track scoring templates – yikes! 
I’m probably too late at this point for the feature request poll, but I’m seeing that some people don’t quite get what a significant improvement having at the very least volume and pan available (take a deep breath: we’d have it AS AN OPTION) on every track header would be. This might be because they’ve only used Cubase, but regardless:
I’m suggesting to implement (again at the very least), volume and pan controls exactly as they appear in respective automation tracks, with the same efficient behavior. Very simple, very small, and instead of having to first click on a track then move over to the inspector, possibly click yet again on the inspector, then find the volume or pan and adjust you would simply immediately and directly adjust right on the track header. Every other DAW out there has this for a very good, very smart reason. If for some reason you prefer to click and move your mouse around much more than necessary, it would be an option like everything else in the track headers already currently is in Track Control settings. Ideally we would also have I/O settings and inserts (see Pro Tools and Reaper and some others for brilliant examples of how this can be integrated, again AS AN OPTION) - the increase in speed when mixing and project construction can be very significant. Click-click-click-move-your-mouse-around-click-click-click is old, dated behavior, and this would be another great step forward in that regard.
When you see this in action in any other DAW and/or have used it yourself the difference in speed is inarguable, so I’m hoping people think about this for the Feature Request poll.
I can agree to this. I think it would be very useful.
A bump just to keep this fresh in everyone’s minds, and for future Feature Request polls.
+1
We are discussing similar things in this thread over there: https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=285&t=171067
The more people are talking about features like this the higher the chance to have it implemented some day!
+1
Sure it’s a lot less clicks for important controls, that are so often needed to be adjusted.
+1
Even though I never used protools, but after using Cubase for years now I know this would fasten up our workflows so much. It is kinda interesting, that this one is not a DAW standard already.
It’s not standard because I think it’s got something to do with track heights. If your going to hit a key command to zoom in on a track, you may as well open the channel editor or mixer. I know that I personally would not want to work with large track heights. It would create navigating issues. I like being able to see most of the project in project view. The time saved by not needing the mixer would be lost navigating the project. On my 32 inch monitor I can see 10 tracks @ 4 rows high, which is bare minimum for doing the copy inserts thing. In the mixer I can see 31 tracks. I really don’t see the issue with one key stroke to open the mixer or channel settings. If it’s that big an issue maybe get another monitor. Boom! Done. 
Here is an idea for ONLY 1 knob inside the track headers for controlling Volume & Pan:
Here an idea for insert slots on track headers:
https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=285&t=171286&p=914508#p914508
Another idea for track headers:
Idea for fast switching different views of track headers:
I tell you what the issues are:
- Its just not intuitive having 2 completely different looking and working windows
- You can not move around freely like in the project view, like using shift+scroll, you can only scroll with your mouse over the tiny scroll bar at the bottom, or have to use the arrow keys (good luck when having 100+ tracks). That alone is already the biggest time killer.
- You are forced into a 90° rotated track view, so you always need to reorientate when changing between the 2 main windows
- If you zoom out to the max to see a lot of tracks, the dB numbers are displayed too small (at least on 4k with hdpi), so if you want to actually see well what you are doing when adjusting the faders, you need to zoom in again. But then fewer tracks will be displayed, and more scrolling will be needed (which is not solved really well as stated above). Same thing for the plugin names which get cut when zoomed out.
- Changing between the two views does not feel fluid, it always takes some time to refresh the view, it gets worse with more tracks
- visibility PLE scripts react slower in the mixer view than in the project view
- lots of people prefer 1 monitor over 2, for various reasons
While the mixconsole may be a good thing for people working with max. 20-30 tracks, it is a mess for for people like me who have 100+ track in their projects.
I prefer having all my tracks on the minimum track height as well. But there are indeed possible solutions to display volume/pan/inserts/sends on tracks with minimum track height. That would imho be better than the mixconsole we have now. Check the thread “Vertical Mixconsole in left Zone” there are a lot of great ideas about that: https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=285&t=171067
To be honest: the whole concept of mixconsole-like views does not really make a lot of sense in digital audio worstations to me. Back in the days you had a mixer with channels from left to right, which was absolutely fine.
Nowadays nearly every DAWs main window is a project window with tracks from top to bottom, and events/audio and midi parts/etc. next to them. Why adding a second (mixconsole) window and not trying to implement everything you need in one main view efficiently?
My point is that there are no key commands at all with what I’m talking about: You can fit little volume and pan value boxes with pop-up faders in the tiniest of spaces on the track headers (just like volume is onVSTi tracks, inexplicably only there).
While I understand where you’re coming from, when I work on Pro Tools or Reaper or Studio One (and all other DAWs, it seems) it’s simply undeniable how much faster it is having track headers with mixer functions. In Pro Tools, highly successful editors and mixers I’ve worked with rarely need go to the mixer for things like panning, volume adjustment, insert opening and moving/copying/etc., and sends. And it’s all completely configurable in PT and instantaneously fast. No extra keystrokes, mouse movements, or new windows are necessary. One screen, two screens, it doesn’t matter – it’s the navigating somewhere else and/or having to hit buttons or keystrokes to get to other windows, which both slow things down significantly and hamper intuitive workflow.
I’m dearly hoping Cubase catches up with these other DAWs very soon and gives us the option to be much faster and more fluid in this way. While the mix console is nice in some ways and should stay, in modern days it’s really not as useful in many cases as getting it all done efficiently, immediately and smartly in the Project Window would be.
+1
+1
A refresher bump for those who might not get how this simple thing would save a lot of fluffing about in Cubase.
For those concerned about track height, you can use the preference “Enlarge selected track” (under Editing section) to have the best of two worlds. You can have single row track height for all tracks, but having selected track to expand on selection to any height (adjustable).
Anyway, it’s possible to squeeze just volume/pan even into single row track height, with small controls that expands to big popup controls at click.
I support this request, so +1.
1 Like
Sadly, nothing yet. Another bump for this year.