I feel like they should’ve kept everything same as 12 but add those new stuff. I guess they’re trying to improve the work flow for Cubase users…
Actually, the inspector in C<13 versions was severely unfunctional since countless years. I invite you to look more closely at this thread and one of my posts in it : it should give you another way of seeing things.
On my end, I prefer a million times the new inspector implementation than the old one :
- Things are displayed in a more sober and compact way.
- no more endless list of empty inserts/sends slots.
- no more Clrl keypress needed when opening or closing a given inspector section without closing all the other ones.
- No more sub sections in the Instrument one, as these were not pinnable. A workflow nightmare. And we even have the Expand Sections exclusively option for the old behavior nostalgics…
- The channel pane is a godsend : it allows me to separate all what is audio related items from MIDI / Routing ones for a given instrument track. Additionaly I have everything immediatly visible when selecting one : that wasn’t the case previously.
The only thing that is probably missing is an additional toggle option in the contextual inserts menu that could be something like View Post-Fader Slots to be able to see them directly without the Pre-Fader ones. Otherwise, it’s almost perfect as it is.
@devs : please, do NOT change anything and use your available resources for other fixes/needs. We finally got what I and many others wanted, after so many years, in this department, and it’s a true wokflow enhancement.
Nope.
We need to be able to show all inserts and sends if we want to.
Without this being an option, it is flawed.
5 Likes
As an option, OK, why not ?
But I persist : I do NEVER want the C<13 inspector crippled behavior back again…
You obviously work on a very small screen (laptop?) because he new channel / inspector setup is an utter waste of space for large monitor users.
I used to be able to get everything I needed into the inspector on its own. Now I need both open to get the features I use, which leaves tons of unused wasted space in each.
In my view, the only way they can fix this mess is to allow ALL features to be available in each left hand panel, and let the user see in them whatever they want.
2 Likes
Wrong guess, sorry : I have a 2560 x 1440 display, using a 32"" monitor. And I would like you to show me where is the “utter waste of space”. FWIW, here is what I get with an instrument track :
Thats yours here is mine
As you can see I don’t use Notepad nor EQ nor Quick Controls nor… Instead of having Inserts fully visible that I use a lot i have empty space on my 1440p(~2k) Monitor. I assume on 4k I would have so much empty space that I can put some furniture and fridge.
Looking again on your screenshot isn’t that fader on channel slot a bit big? Don’t you agree that insert slots can be visible instead having big fader? 
I’m using a 4k screen - even with a foot long fader I still have unused space in the Channel!
In the Inspector I now have everything I might ever want to use opened up and there’s still loads of unused space.
I could have everything I need in 1 panel - but Steinberg in their wisdom won’t allow that.
That’s your problem : on my end, I do use the Pre section, as well the Strip one and usually, the Notepad : to each his/her own…
Precisely it isn’t, and for a good reason, I think : it allows me to precisely adjust the fader without having to use the Shift key. This is a workflow related thing. And I still don’t get in which way, additional empty inserts/sends slots could be more useful…
All on point indeed. But my point isn’t less relevant than yours that’s the thing, so we need option for both needs.
It’s exactly what I stated 11 hours ago…
As explained in this thread, mixing big sessions where consistency is important, where people use one particular effect on lets say slot 14. To get there you have to move it manually there, instead to just insert it on slot 14. Using Same effect for different approaches (multi FX for ex) you can visually get around if its on slot 5 its used for one purpose if its on slot 16 its used for other purpose, lot of people get used to have that visually, the other benefit is that you can select multiple channels /q-link and bypass all same fxs for “particular purpose”.
I get used that my duck sidechain compressor be on slot 13, so i don’t get confused which compressor compressing or ducking if i have 2 same compressors on the channel.
Using PatchWorks by bluecat audio for parallel channels gets more useful by viewing all inserts, I exactly know where I put parallel reverbs/ parallel compressions/ parallel mambo jumbos and have them on eye thorough whole project cause obviously the fx is the same name. The main thing is CONSISTENCY and ORGANISATION with 70-80 stems you desperately need that.
And on the other hand some folks have various OCDs Steinberg should have understanding for them 
1 Like
cubic 13 - Interesting seeing your channel strip.
Do the Track Versions and Midi Inserts boxes not irritate you in the same way by not auto expanding?
Those two will probably get little use at all on many midi / instrument tracks, very rarely will they ever be fully populated, and yet they take up lots of screen space in your Inspector…
I’m bashing your balls a bit here (sorry!), but there’s an inconsistency and dictated workflow that’s unnecessary.
OK. Have you ever thought of using the Channel Edit ? It’s a two step process (in the following example, I put, as you, a compressor in the 13th insert slot) :
- I open the Channel Edit Settings window.
- Scrolling in the Insert > Insert list, I set the compressor in the 13th slot.
Result following - I have all the insert slots automatically visible in the Channel inspector until the 13th one, which contains the chosen compressor :
And I have checked the inspector itself (beside the ‘Channel’ one) : it has exactly the same behavior. So again, where is the actual isssue ? 
Their behavior could have been made in a more consistent way, I admit.
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For the track versions area, it is easily ‘scrollable’ with the mouse wheel, so no true nuisance, at least for me. But I acknowledge that there is a consistency issue…
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For the MIDI inserts, yes, it could have been done in a more sober way : there is too much space wasted on this precise section…
You’re seriously incredulous about this issue? I’ll tell you what’s wrong with this view, it’s hot garbage. This is the type of stuff that makes me want to file a charge back on my credit card.
I literally do it all the time, I leave gaps in my inserts ALL THE TIME. Why? Because it’s part of the work flow. I know there’s a slight chance I might want to use EQ Analyzer to see how my curve is being affected by inserts I’m using and that requires space before AND after those inserts and I don’t always want to analyze every single insert so I tend to always want a blank slot right in the middle of my insert chain so I can move them around and put the EQ analyzer’s first instance where it needs to be.
This is a bad change that provides no benefit to anyone. The sections are already collapsible so why do you further need to conserve vertical space? You can just collapse sections you don’t want to look at.
Meanwhile it has become a horrific chore to rearrange your inserts and even to insert post-fader inserts (Instead of just being able to do it, now the whole feature is locked behind a context menu!).
I’ve been a software engineer for almost 15 years; sometimes you have a really cool idea and everyone hates it because it’s actually not a good idea, it was just fun to create. This is one of those times and Steinberg needs to roll back this little rose bud because it’s a complete stinker.
THIS is the real, true, actual issue. I wasn’t aware that anyone had ever complained about the empty slots just absolutely ruining their whole workflow and yet here we are, with changes that make no sense and solve problems nobody ever had.
They already made the sections easily collapsible so why isn’t that enough? If you are bothered by a few empty insert slots you can just collapse the view.
The real solution would be to just have a preference for how many slots show and be able to customize it the way you can customize the track layout. I’m sure they’ll do that for Cubase 14 and act like it’s an innovative new feature so everyone can pat their backs and throw more money at them.
Hey all, I know I’m late to the conversation, but I found this thread searching how to get the view of all my empty insert slots back and now I see it is intended as “a feature, not a bug” to remove that functionality from the Inspector and Channel tabs. Bummer 
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Like many others who posted here I, too, prefer adding inserts further down to leave the first few slots open for additional plugins. I also like to add plugins with a space between each other, so I’ll add plugins every other slot. This has been my Cubase workflow for literally 20 years because I always hated having to move plugins around one at a time to make space for new ones, like if I decide I need a plugin to go between two existing ones, for example.
In any case, I hope Steinberg hears our voices and brings back that feature. In the meantime, I guess one other workaround I will look into using is setting up a macro to instantly add a VU meter plugin in the last slot. Since I mix with VU meters in the last slot of every track anyway, this will be a doubly useful workaround, but still… I agree: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!!!
1 Like
At least add this as an option…please, Steinberg!
After months of use I still cannot get happy with the new one. ‘Displaying all slots’ is just handier when I recognise what plugins are going to sit at the bottom of the plugin chain before further processing, which is often the case when I am doing sound design.
Hi Martin,
Displaying of fixed number of slots (e.g. 6 pre + 2 post) has the following advantage:
I created a routine of putting EQ VST on 2nd slot and Volume gain utility on 6th slot etc.
It should not be hard to implement following options to Cubase Preferences:
a) have choice of showing only used plus one empty (as in C13) and showing fixed number (C12)
b) have default number of VST slots (6+ 2 for me as I am used to it from Cubase Elements)