Once in a while I’m bumping into this weird concept of Nuendo’s key commands which are window-focus-dependant…
For instance:
I work with 2 displays: 1 with my Project Window, and another one with the Mix Console-window.
Now, when I’ve selected 3 tracks in my Project Window (on my 1st display) and I’d like to permanently Q-Link them by means of my key command “Control+Q”.
I know (but I hate it) that doesn’t work, because this “Control + Q” is a mixer key command, and you first have to activate the focus on the Mix Console before this key command becomes active…OK, I think it’s silly, but I have to deal with it…
In all these years I haven’t found a way to manually change the window focus from my Project Window (which is on my first display) to my Mix Console (which is on my 2nd display).
Yes; there is “TAB” which cycles the focus through all the different windows within a display…but I can’t see a way to move it to my other display, and vice versa?
Do I need to use my mouse to move the focus to my 2nd display?
Or is there a key command which I’ve overlooked all these years?
I hope so…?!
Any suggestions welcome!
Cubase user here, but it’s all the same pain. Has been for years, since the overhaul of the mix console. Really hope this will get adressed anytime soon. Until then the ‘best’ quirky solution is indeed to click the window you are going to apply a key command on - which is counteracting the concept of key commands to a certain extent…
Thanks Chris,
unfortunately not; a workspace only saves the window-positions, zoom settings (quite annoying too), track layout (another frustration) etc etc, but it doesn’t let you switch the focus from one display to another…
I brought this up years ago when this first happened. Not too much traction then, and if I remember correctly zero comments from Steinberg.
To me this is one of the fundamental problems with Steinberg:
Think up a really good feature (keycommands, macros, etc)
Develop a first version that is very ‘light’ on features and has bugs
Fix bugs add some features, may still have bugs
Change something else maybe
Abandon feature set instead of making it all it can be
That to me is it in a nutshell. Key commands and macros are a great example of this. Some of us spent a looong time setting up both and then there’s an update that effectively breaks a large part of that. Rather than then go back and take this feature which was promoted as a great benefit back in the day (which it was) they just ignore it and leave it half-assed.
The need to actually navigate all the time in order to be able to trigger the key commands is just a huge wrench in the key-command-wheel. Heck, even when visibility agents were introduced at some point I realized not all of the same ones were available on both project/mixer pages. It’s as if one team was working on one page and a different team on the other.
The inability to allow channels to belong to more than one link-group/VCA is another bummer to me. I frequently group tracks as a whole and then as a subgroup in PT. It allows me to choose the larger set later in the process and I work with the smaller set earlier.
There’s a limit to how many workarounds one can use since the whole point of a lot of features is that they’re faster and more convenient than the workarounds.
… Perhaps the next version will prove me wrong on this, but I really doubt it.
I’m with you on the feeling that it is annoying that some developments aren’t positive developments, especially with tools that you use every day.
I’m also with you in the doubt that the next update will solve all these tiny omissions on which Nuendo is built upon…
I think it will be marketing only (again): buy me, buy me, buy me…it’s amazing!
Thanks Dolfo,
but no: f3 (twice) only toggles my Mix Console off and on again. It moves the window-focus to the Mix Console though (thanks!) but there is no way to manually set the window-focus back to my Project Window unfortunately…I still have to use my mouse…quite silly.
However;
now that we’ve found a KC that returns our window-focus back to the Project Window, there isn’t such a KC for moving the focus to the Mix Console, or any other window which is on another display, and so not reachable by “TAB”.
If I were a programmer @ Steinberg, responsible for this whole (silly) KC concept, I would have implement it for all the possible windows.
Never realized there is something like “Project/bring to front”.
Now that would mean, I’m gonna try, that if we make each and every keycommand a macro with project/front before the actual command for commands that work in the project window and twice F3 (close/open) before a command that works in the mixer it should at least work for everyone who has project and mixer open at the same time, classical dual monitor setup!
^^^
Experimenting with it: simple commands turned into macros with ‘project - bring to front’ in front of the actual command work.
Literally my whole keyboard is crowded with keycos, so whenever I realize a command doesn’t bring an action because of ‘wrong’ focus, I’ll make it a macro. So over time I should get the crucial ones transformed and independent from current focus - doing them all in advance would be work for a whole day I guess. Now that’d be something Cubase should care of itself anyway.
Thanks @PeterGx for noting that ‘to front!’-command which I hadn’t been aware of as a long time Cubase user!
Wouldn’t it just be easier if Steinberg made the mouse cursor contextually aware ? If it’s in the mixer done all key commands are for that. If it’s in the project window all key commands change to that ?
I have two screens with the MixConsole on the left and the Project Window on the right.
I wanted to have two key commands that swapped focus between the Project Window and the MixConsole (F9 and F10 in my case). I found the above solutions required two presses of the ‘Focus to Project Window’ command before I could swap back to the MixConsole. The solution I found that worked was to:
Create a Macro called ‘Set Focus To MixConsole’, assigned to the key F9:
Devices - Mixer
(I know F3 does this, but I wanted two keys together).
Create a second macro called ‘Set Focus to Project Window’, assigned to the key F10:
Project - Bring To Front
Edit - Mute
Edit - Mute
The toggling of ‘Mute’ allowed the F9 key to bring focus back to the MixConsole without the need to press F10 for a second time.
There is software like Macro Commander from Softutils.
This allows individual windows in Cubase / Nuendo to be clicked, send mouse clicks and keystrokes. Highly complex automations can be created. I’ve been using this for several years.
With one hotkey you can set the focus to every window.
But it costs $99 / Windows only
