I’m coming back to Cubase after 3 or 4 years or so, and I can’t remember how I got around this frustrating problem of not being able to easily move around the mix console, especially without changing values when I use my mouse wheel and I think I’m scrolling up or down but instead I’m changing a value.
I see I can sometimes make things scroll with keyboard arrows. Is that the best way, and if so can someone give a quick pointer on how to easily/quickly get the focus where it needs to be for the arrows to work?
Thank you!
PS: The old posts on “similar topics” according to search engine were either really old or in German, so I thought it would be best to post a new one here, apologies if incorrect and mods please feel free to move as needed
I am using a FHD monitor and thinking to switch to a QHD monitor to avoid this issue. It’s not a serious problem for me but I guess less is scrolling is more productive!
I am with you here. My navigation is terrible too. When I want to go to the sends, for example, and they are hidden I must scroll and I end moving some other knob.
Best investment I ever made years and years ago was a Kensington track ball. They Even make them wireless. I still have the same one, and it’s the most used piece of equipment in my studio, and a lot of professional studios.
As it turns out I just bought and have been recently using a big old Kensington track ball!
How are you using it to get around the Mixconsole navigation difficulties?
(Also, I have to look up how to increase the amount of scrolling per “revolution” of the scrolling ring … sometimes I have to make multiple full circles to scroll to where I need to be!)
If you go to the Kensington website you will be able to download software that lets you personalize the trackball. You could reverse the scroll ring, speed it up I believe if you like. I love it because you can put the pointer where you want and operate the scroll ring without interfering with any of the settings. When I scroll back and forth I scroll on either of the buttons areas on the bottom of the mix channel either above or below the fader. You should also be able to scroll up and down on the far right there is an open area.
that I’m having a problem with … sometimes it’s hard to know where exactly the right place to put the pointer is, but even when I find it, it’s hard to get the pointer exactly on the scroll bar (there is another topic about “angel hair-sized” scroll bars that I don’t want to relitigate here, I’m just looking for alternatives ).
If there were a quick and intuitive way to assign Cubase’s focus to the right part of the Mixconsole so I can use my arrow keys to “scroll”*, I would be very much interested in that.
Thanks!
Until/unless I update to Cubase 12 which I have heard has larger scroll bars
Yeah, landing on the scrollbar can be a real pain. The best and easiest place I’ve found to park the cursor for scrolling in the Mixconsole is the space between the middle & right Zones. It took awhile, but eventually it has become a habit
I have been using the FHD (1920-1080) monitor for a long long time. However, ever since Cubase introduced the Lower Zone and mix windows that has foldable mid-section, my monitor started feel kinda small because it is simply not enough to show everything I want on the screen.
I was thinking a 4k monitor because it shows almost double the screen contents compared to the FHD. However, the screen size is a little tricky because I use computer monitors about 2 meters away from where I sit. If I want to use it just like the 27-inch FHD one, I realized that it must be within 1 meter to read the screen clearly. Otherwise, the screen size needs to be more that 32-inch…
To me, a QHD monitor (2560-1440) has a ‘negotiable’ pixel size for a 27-inch screen. It has quiet less screen real-estate compared a 4K screen, but it is spacious enough for my needs. And 27-inch is not bad at all for the resolution to read texts!!!
I just bought a 27” QHD, coming from a 24” HD, and i have to say, lots of things are getting a bit hard to read for me, some texts and labels are really small, and some plugin windows are small now (a lot of them are scalable now, but e.g. not Cubase’s own (boooh!)).
I haven’t the best eyesight though, and am at an age where I have to wear special glasses for computer work now.
I never really had scrolling problems with the mix window tbh. I like to use the mouse wheel and I know which areas I can use it, and only every needed it for horizontal scrolling through the channels anyway (I use key commands to quickly show hide the mixer sections so I don’t have to scroll horizontally at all)
yes this is a big problem with CB design…the devs think too much in vertical. Everything should be more horizontal, like in Ableton…You need a bigger monitor to enjoy Cubase, since the lower zones. 4K (32" or bigger i would say), unless you wear glasses or have crazy eyes that never get tired. If you dont have 4K, you will see a lot of fuzzyness and unclear details in small fonts and plugins…I use a 4K 53", but its way too big…its on the wall and my desk is almost 2 meters from it.
Im thinking of getting a 32" 4K now…so its in between my monitors on my desk.
You could always use the channel settings window, you know the little e on the mixer. There’s also the ability in preferences to make all your tracks accorded to the color so one is highlighted it is a lot brighter than the others. A lot of stuff to make things more visible is in the preference menu, if you have bad eyesight there’s even a high contrast theme I believe. It’s not ableton, logic, pro tools or anything else. It’s cubase. If people don’t like its features they can choose another daw.
thanks man, please dont get me wrong…i LOVE cb for more than 25 years.
im just saying that since the lower zone, its crazy hard to see on non 4k monitors because of the lack of screen real estate…or 4K screens that are too small…specially if you run big projects
i will look into another scheme and options to try to make it more clear for me:)
Some years ago I started using 4 x 27" regular monitors. Not really enticed by 4K yet. Seems like I’ve got enough square-inches of screen space and don’t want stuff getting any smaller.
If anyone is tempted to try some mouse with horizontal scroll wheel, I have tested the MX Master 3 mouse and the horizontall scroll does not work… specifically in the MixConsole. Although it works in the “normal” window… sad (CB Pro 13)
great tip! I usually use just 2 zones, but found out that the “hole” is bigger when using 3. So I just created a dummy audio track (hidden in the main window) and put that to zone 1 (left). Probably will end up using this trick
EDIT: the MixConsole seems to re-render everytime I re-open it, so actually the hole between the zones shrinks every time oh boy
oh boy