Looks like it still hasn’t been resolved yet. Is there any way we can click on a vst plugin or instrument parameter to quickly show that automation lane?
Hi,
Right-click the parameter > Show parameter_name Automation Track.
It doesn’t work on third party plugins
This is one of my complaints about Cubase/Nuendo. In Studio One you just click a parameter in any plugin and then press a keyboard shortcut and the lane pops up.
@stux.io , there is a little trick in Nuendo - not sure if its in Cubase though, but worth checking
Assign the “Preview” button in the Automation Panel to a keyboard shortcut, let’s say Alt+A.
Any parameter you want to see the lane for, including 3rd party plugins, do this:
1.Press Alt+A first
2.Click the parameter. Automation lane will pop up!
3. Press Alt+A two more times. This turns preview mode off (have to press it 2 times, first time turns it to “locked”, second time turns it off).
It works perfectly. Not as good as Studio One but it only takes like 1 second longer.
Again, not sure if this is possible in Cubase though. Does Cubase have the Automation Panel?
Unfortunately it doesn’t have the preview option in cubase pro 12. What I have been doing is arming write automation, wiggle parameter randomly to get the lane, delete recorded automation but keep the lane.
It does work on some third party, but most of them chose to override the default right click behavior for their own purposes, and then there is nothing Cubase can do.
I guess this is one of those cases where SB says “this is the correct way do do it”, but the rest of the world doesn’t care, because it is not practical or applicable to all the other hosts out there.
The pragmatic approach would be to offer another solution, like the S1 example here.
Hi,
VST3 standard offers this option, but most of the plug-in vendors don’t use it.
Right so if they don’t use the right click option, there should be another way to make it work without relying on plugin vendors to implement. Ableton has it where you just click on a parameter in the plugin and the lane shows.
Hi,
Steinberg prepared this option for the right-click in the VST3 specification. But the plug-in vendor doesn’t use it, so Steinberg should find a workaround in Cubase. Sorry, this doesn’t make any sense.
Let me take it a step back.
Use case is that user wants to automate a parameter on a 3rd party plugin without having to menu dive or having to record random automation and then delete it to get the automation lane.
Vst3 has solution, but requires 3rd party devs to implement it, but it isn’t enforced.
End result is that the use case is, in most cases, not solved.
There should be another way to accomplish this that doesn’t require all 3rd party devs to opt-in to implement something, or enforce it as a requirement so they all have it.
Hi stux.io.
There is nothing Steinberg can do. If the 3rd party devs’ do not implement it during the writing of “their” software, then the feature simply does not exist. It just isn’t there. There is nothing in their software to communicate to. All onus is on the developer of the software to implement it.
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There is nothing they can do specifically for the right click menu, you mean.
All Steinberg has to do to fix this is make a “show last touched parameter” key command where you click any vst parameter, press the keyboard shortcut, and the lane pops up. This is how it works in Studio One and Reaper as well. Seems to me like a simple feature to implement.
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Yes, you are correct, that is what I was referring to.
Is this on any Plugin? Sorr
yep! Any plugin - stock, 3rd party, vst2, vst3, etc.
Sorry, my response was interrupted.
This is how I’ve always worked it in Cubase. Didn’t know that other DAWs’ had a workaround.
Maybe the fact that Steinberg invented the VST and have already financed it, and put in place a certain structure for developers to adhere to, in order for the plugins to be fully functional with all features, as intended. The devs’ not doing their jobs properly.
I think that, asking Steinberg to find a workaround because devs’ are too complacent, seems unfair. Also I believe, that other DAW companies that feature a workaround for this, are doing the progression of the VST3 Plugins format, no justice. All this does is aid the devs’ and their laziness to not write the software as it should be written. Further more, Steinberg have already invested in their VSTs’ format, so expecting them to further invest in an already completed project, because some developers are too lazy, doesn’t seem fair either.
I fully understand your frustration, but that should be directed at the Plugin developers, personally.
It’s not a workaround, it’s a quality-of-life feature that has existed in other DAWs for forever. You move a knob, press a key, and the lane pops up. Ableton even does this automatically without needing to press a key.
When you move a VST knob in Cubase, Cubase knows exactly which knob you are moving, all they have to do is allow us to be able to see that lane. I can’t imagine it a difficult thing to code (although I don’t know much about coding).
It’s already sort of possible in Nuendo as outlined in my post at the top of this thread…so the functionality is basically already there. They just need to make it 1 step easier.
This is an example of why you constantly see people bringing up Studio One on this forum. It’s so difficult to do simple things in Cubase. Something that should be 1 click or 1 keyboard shortcut takes like 6 steps in Cubase.
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Steinberg can insist on being technically right and having dissatisfied customers or implement a feature that competitors already have and that works very nicely for their customers.
Sometimes you are right but life doesn’t care.
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aka “the story of VST3” 
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Right, now I can see how this is beneficial.
Working the way I do in Cubase for soo long, and not knowing other DAWs’ implementations’, seems to have left me lacking on what to expect, since I’ve had nothing to compare it to.
So my understanding is this.
It is not a feature within the Plugin, as I was thinking. It is not a right click function on the Plugin to display the authomation lane for the tweaked knob.
It is a “shortcut”, one touch, to display the automated lane, so one can quickly make adjustments’.
I get it.
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Yep that is correct! It’s a DAW feature, not a plugin feature