Arrange page vs. MixConsole

Cubase
#1

Hi,

Lets post your Cubase 7.01 screenshots. I take mine and attached below. In my opinion left screen is perfect place to work. If there will be dockable windows such as Key Editor it will be beyond perfect. Right screen is a mess. My eyes are hurts and Im tired after few hours work with MixConsole. I have a problem to recognise witch channel I’m actualy working. No separation between channls. No color, no border. I’m focusing eyes on inserts, sends. Sorry but old mixer graphics was better. Maybe Steinberg change graphics of MixConsole. What is your opinion ? Please post your screenshots, your MixConsole here. Thanks.
Arrange vs. MixConsole.png

#2

My opinion is that the general layout is much improved, with double-click as the default option to access things fine however I would say that while the drop-down list is ok, it would be nice to have a right-click option to access parameters or some kind of point-with-key press to activate the context menu instead.

I agree more needs to be done to designate particular areas while on the whole the idea of closing and opening sections of the console I think is a good idea but the fader area should be separate from the fader label, since more screen real estate would be available for open panes.

#3

Hi again,

I know that is not PT forum. I don’t have PT. But lets face it. If I need to chose with mixer is good to my eyes and workflow, it would be this from attached picture below. Can we expect from our music production software, producers choice - Cubase 7, separate channels and not tired eyes mixer like in PT ? I don’t need resizeable or zooming options in mixer channels. I need simple and ergonomic view for my channels. Look close to my first screenshot it this topic and then that one from PT mixer. Witch mixer graphics you feel to better work with it ?
PT Mixer.png

#4

It’s early days, so any comparison is likely premature.

In the end Mixers like what is being shown here will be unworkable due to their fixed nature so again in the end Steinberg will inevitably win the war for DAW supremacy.

#5

If you situate the images (that you have posted) side-by-side instead of two images of the C7 mixer and one of PT mixer, it is easier to compare. To me, the PT mix view shown, only have a few inserts and sends used, whereas on the C7 mix view a many more inserts and sends are present.

I think that the image of PT selected has a lot of unused area and needs more compared to other. If you also were to hide, say the Pre section on the C7 (which would yield a bit less used slots) compared to the other. My point is that to compare, you would have to set up a somewhat similar informational view. Otherwise you could hide all slots in C7 and make the PT into a mess too.
C7-PT Comparison.png

#6

Wow. Everything you state is true. The new Cubase 7 Mixer is a nightmare. The Arrange Page is perfect.

#7

Actually, there not a huge difference between the new C& and PT mix console concept, apart from the colours, and desirable distinct outline of channe s, whilst of course, you can collapse and hide elements of the C7 console, which is a godsend as the eq’s and strip sections are not used here, prefer the 3rd party plugins. The mix console grows on you by the day, it’s really a good design, far superior to PT and just so easy to use, it’s rather excellent apart from thwewell talked of flaws in these and othe forums. There’s no doubt they’ll all be addressed quickly.

The console would be almost perfect if the fader section could be locked to a height that’s suitable for the user so it does not jump to 17" sun bed metering when you choose set slots to exclusive and off, horrible

All they’d need to do then is just a few simple changes that enhance it’s user friendliness.

  1. is change the colour of the buttons from all blue or green to introduce a “state” colour, say yellow or orange as well as the black/grey to show it’s off, on or bypassed, that would be simple to do and it would give a really good overview of the mix state to any one else who sits in the chair, especially when the channles are fully zoomed out, which is just a preference hear.

  2. Remap the clickable area of the send/inserts to a bigger sizes so someone doesn’t have to fiddle around trying to click exactly on the tiny little on-off button or drop down chevron, just these little things that would make it SO much easier and more intuitive.

  3. Give the slots a standby colour so it’s easy to see that channels status, blue for on/orange for standby etc. Good for quick channel over view and good for some one else who jumped into he hot seat to see at glance what’s what.

  4. Make all the sends, pans, knobs etc clickable so they don’t move until actually selected, it’s all to easy to mess a finely tuned mix up by accident, just by moving the mouse around the console, if the wheel moves in the wrong place, it gets all messed up!

  5. Bring back user vmx files so you don’t have to start from scratch building the mixer as you want at the start of a new project. It take’s time to set up good settings/views and other things, taking away the vmx files was stupid.

Arrange 1.png
Mix Console.jpg
It’s defo heading towards touch screen control though, but Sonar have beat them to it with their just released X2

#8

God I hate that PT mixer, truly 80´s and not in a good way. The whole software is a mess, you can get quicker results in Cubase. :mrgreen:

#9

Nothing is ever a mess, only organized chaos.

#10

I agree with Serenity. I prefer the look of the protools mixer as shown (even though it is ‘older’ looking). Everything is much easier to see, there is separation between channels, everything seems to have a delineated aspect which works for the eyes. Sonar is somewhat like this (or was, haven’t used it in a while).

One of my small pet peeves in the ergonomics of the C7 mixer is the dang triangle that superimposes over text when you’re opening a menu (like clicking on inserts, or when you click in a channel name box). It just looks like someone didn’t finish programming. That, and the terribly thin font used in the channel strips. I don’t mean offense to the programmers, though. The interface as a whole has a powerful overall impression.

Not my favorite, but I can live with it. Just wish they’d go for less Star Trek look and more of a, well, a DAW look.

Mahlon

#11

I believe the more superficial aspects of the MixConsole will be rectified, as has been demonstrated time and over in the many refinements over the years in arrange.

#12

Infinitely more flexible than PT one would think, and while I personally have never used it (don’t want to nor intend due to up-front costs) I can see the benefit of a visually scalable mixer in which only SB can provide.

#13

Actually Reaper has had a vastly superior scaling mixer for ages. C7 mixconsole is a joke in comparison. Cubase just has a lot of editing and MIDI features that are superior. Now, if they work out the crappy video performance, fix the scaling of the channel elements, make is so we can have a narrow view instead of current FAT version even when scaled fully out, add keycommands, fix the fonts, fix the saving of channel configs, fix the agents up a bit, make the synching between project and mixer work again, fix mixer 2/3 so that they don’t have to display huge amounts of extraneous border data just to have them show meters, etc … etc… etc… we might have something.

#14

So you’d not be afraid to declare your love for SB? :slight_smile:

In any case SB is about software, not hardware as it’s only their name that is printed on the cases of various Yamaha inventions, and the dev team(s) likely interact but are still separate.

That said, pro-tools have ASIO drivers anyway, and being new, would probably be ASIO 2.2 and are therefore stable.

#15

Hmm PT…looks abit clearer, but this is basically a color/font preference.

I am sure steinberg will add more color variations in the future.

#16

Sorry, but my opinion is that the Cubase Mixer is now like he should…before Cubase 7 i never worked with it…now everthing is perfect to me…you can see everything,make fast adjustments etc…

I hope that Steinberg makes the "option"to have a OneWindow Workstation(Sequencer,Keyeditor etc) cause i work much on Macbook, and now i have a 27 inch 2560x1400 Display on my desktop…
This would be perfect!!!

#17

That nails my impressions pretty well!

#18

The key word here is “option”. There are plenty places where options would make Cubase a DAW that could be configured to a personal liking and make 95 % of the users happy! I’m getting angry when I feel forced to adapt a design or workflow idea that’s praised as a big progressiv feature but simply won’t work with me :wink:

#19

On the end of day, I like C7 MixConsole. Great functions helping work, but needs little graphics enhancements for beter separation, clear look. Maybe inserts/sends/routing/pre should look as PT mixer ? For less clicking : maybe one click should enough to open plugin ? Allways visible option to remove plugin ? Etc, :slight_smile:

#20

Hi Pawel,

I had the same issue with not being able to clearly see which channel/track was selected in the mix console. If you adjust the color settings in preferences / Appearance / General / and make sure that the middle slider for color lightness is more to the right so that it is lighter - then it lightens the words and gives a higher contrast to the highlighted or chosen track. If you add “notes” option as an element on the mixer console that turns much lighter as well making it easier to see.
Would help if they make the lettering larger or adjustable !!!
Good luck,
Tristan