I was just thinking what could make my mixing easier in Cubase. One of the annoying things about mixer window is that I would end up scrolling sideways all the time on larger sessions.
Say, if you had a session with :
a multi-miked live drum kit
bass & guitars (2 mics on each part)
a live string section
a bunch of shiny synth stuff
vocals with a lot of layered background parts
a bunch of send efx channels.
(not that anyone should do such a bloated overproduced stuff, but just as an example)
Imagine if you could assign each section to a user created tab, so that only those channels you are working on would show up. This would keep the number of channels showing at once to a manageable level. If you wanted to tweak the synth stuff and then wanted to come back to the drums, you just switch the tab, no scrolling. Just like switching tabs in your web browser for multi-slacking.
I have been doing a lot of orchestral stuff lately with VSTi’s, and I think it would be so cool if I could just flip through tabs for jumping around between sections instead of scrolling left and right all the time. I think film scoring guys with very large VSTi templates would love such a feature.
Since we already have folder tracks on the project window, use those folders in the mixer. Essentially, the same thing, just calling a “tab” a “folder”, etc. The ability to “group” channels already exists, they just need to carry it over to the mixer. When you click on the “folder” or “tab” in the mixer, those channels open up.
Good idea.
J.L.
This is a great idea and would really set Cubase apart from the pack.
Re-purposing folder tracks to do this while a big step in the right direction would introduce some limitations that a true tab environment can provide. When I use tab groups in Firefox (which is closer to this proposal than just plain firefox tabs), I move tabs between groups a fair amount and sometimes want the same tab to exist in multiple groups. I’d likely want to use a tabbed mixer in a similar manner.
I use folders to organize the entire project. The way I prefer to organize my projects does not correspond one-to-one, or even loosely to the way I would organize a view in the mixer. If I were to structure my folders so they met my needs in the mixer they would end up not working at all for how I organize projects. Better to optimize each tool for its own task rather than create a limited hybrid.
Doesn’t the existing ‘Channel View Sets’ feature (bottom left corner of the mixer) already do this essentially? (Without losing screen real estate to tabs)
1) Yes it does and there are also the other two mixers, which can be assigned to KCs to make them easier to access. If the mixer sets were extended so that they showed as tabs, rather than a menu (or both/either) that would probably end up being what folk are asking for here.
I think they would be a help. I use mixer sets a lot, precisely for the reasons stated above - to split the mixer up into manageable chunks - but it’s not as quick changing between them as I would like when I’m in full flow [Edit: actually, thinking about it, I’m not sure that hunting for a tab would be any quicker).
2) I would also support the other request here, which probably should be given its own space in a separate thread: that of having different track orders for mixer and project. As others have pointed out, what is a logical arrangement for editing, isn’t always appropriate for mixing.
but meanwhile I use the ‘Channel View Sets’ as mentioned above and I like them more for every minute!
I just recently rediscovered them and they’re great, so don’t overlook them!
Channel View Sets actually worked beautifully - thanks guys for pointing this out! I didn’t realize that “Can Hide” setting could be different for each view sets. Just spent some time setting up a template.
However, the concept does not seems to gel with many. One day I might mock up a web page to demonstate how it would work, so that people would see how natural it would be.
Also, as in the thread linked to above, some similar functionality could extend to tracks inputting to groups being collapsed when a group within a folder is collapsed.
There are so many things that could be done to make virtual mixers much more flexible, and use up much less screen real estate, but I think that many are still bound to thinking of virtual mixers as if they had to be confined to the limitations of physical mixers.
I use digital performer alot, and recently started using cubase for work
This is actually something I really like about DP, you have a sidebar which lists all of your tracks and you can freely select them to make them appear in the mixer like so
I too would like to +1 this functionality in Cubase!
