I think we have a misunderstanding here, cc121 is not midi continuous controller 121, it’s this nifty device:
@Audiocave: I have no experience with S1, but from your experience it sounds like selecting a track shows a window that contains all plugin UI’s of that track?
Yes, all plugin UI’s are universal in that regard, to the track or bus anyway, the entire chain. You can turn on an option to have the plug UI follow the track selection. If you don’t want that to happen, turn off the option. Same with instrument plugs, the UI is universal. When you open the UI for any one instrument you have tabs for every instrument in the song in the same UI.
So his FR for that wouldn’t really work in Cubase because all of the plugs aren’t there. So that FR doesn’t currently apply, doesn’t fit, wouldn’t work anyway.
Thanks for the gif, that explains it. Looks good, especially if you can place that window wherever you want. Can you still have more than 1 plugin of the same or different tracks open?
Yes. If you want one to persist (stay on the screen) just pin it down. There’s a sticky pin on the top right hand corner for that. For example, I typically pin down my master meter plug, TT Dynamic Range meter, in the master chain and leave it visible on screen. If I double click another plug in that chain… it opens in a new window.
Ok cool, I’m convinced 
Thank you, Audiocave. You put it perfectly, and the video example…thank you. That is what this forum is about: making Cubase better and better.
The video is cool.
Audiocave: Perfect…that is exactly what I am talking about.
Look guys… what happened with Studio One and Reaper in particular is that they were able to improve some UI methods by studying what’s subjectively wrong with the classic applications like Cubase or PT or whatever in that regard, making some things better. When you write a brand new app you can do that. It doesn’t mean they’re better applications, that’s a personal choice, but the improvements are real, and practical, … they’re not illusions or nitpicks, and Cubase will certainly benefit from those ideas or methods in the future.
Cubase has already started doing that actually, copying some of those methods … see the new automation shaper thingy and the right click to call an envelope diretctly and the right click to pack tracks to a folder directly. They’re not done yet… there’s a lot more to go… and vice versa… Studio One and Reaper have lots more Cubase and PT and Logic feature ripping to do… especially in the midi department.
Some people need to relax and not be so sensitive about it all.
wait!
the “channel settings window” in cubase always shows all inserts/eq/sends of the currently selected track - and the → channel´s eq displays up to date (!) - for mixing situations more important than constantly edit an compressor, e.g. I love that the eq is always visible.
Am I right?
And if you want to edit an effect in S1 you still need to switch (!) the tabs.
Hardly less mouse clicks…
Nope. 
But it would be silly to argue about it… it being a personal perspective and all that. I can respect your perspective without having to prove it wrong.
I think the phrase is “agree to disagree”.
Preferences (that big dialog in Cubase with various preferences?) exists for one reason… because people don’t prefer the same things, behaviors, etc. This one thing, which again, wouldn’t even apply to Cubase in it’s current form anyway, is (would be) just another preference setting among the others, that’s all.
If we all preferred the same things, we wouldn’t need it… the preference dialog. I think the premise of creating such a thing is the idea that people probably won’t agree on a lot of those behaviorial things… and will turn some on or off. 
Ummm…if that’s all you’re hanging on for, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but I doubt Steinberg uses their own mp3 encoder. It’s probably either LameEnc or Fraunhoffer…probably Lame, since its free. Not sure, don’t export mp3’s out of Cubase, ever.
One bit of suck that’s built into Reaper is that if you want to group tracks in a folder, it also has to act as a group channel. I’d just as soon have an option for that.
They all have their nuances.
True. It actually doesn’t “have” to act as a bus (you can turn the master send off on a folder track) but you will have to go through another bus to get to the master bus if you don’t use it as a bus. They’re all built a bit differently and Reaper’s folders are basically group channels, though you can still build ordinary group busses without using folders.
I’m not a big fan of those either tbh… Reaper’s folder tracks. OTOH, you can easily show/hide anything in arrange so it’s not a major problem as relates to general housekeeping.
S1’s folders are either/or, storage folders or group bus + folder so that (imo) works a bit better, gives a choice. They’re pretty much exactly like Cubase’s except for the S1 folder bussing and for Cubase’s group track collective editing, which is pretty great.
PT, otoh, doesn’t have folder tracks at all (iirc)… so they’re all built a little bit differently. I get to use most of them, getting mix projects submitted in PT, Reaper, S1, Cubase, etc. Not PT so much anymore, not currently installed.
They all have their flaws, that’s for sure. But the relatively newer ones tend to have better UI methods (in general)… imo… mmv. I mean, to me, mmv, Groove Agent and Beat Designer work much better in practice in Sequel 3… because of the UI design and methodology of Sequel. I do think Cubase is actually heading that way.
DP uses LAME. I believe that Cubase mp3 is Fraunhofer.
Try it. Export an mp3 using Cubase set at 66 bit, and try Studio One at 64 and DP at the same.
Cubase mp3 export will blow it away. And it is NOT free. You have to pay for it as an add on to the basic cubase packages, but it is included with the full version.
It sounds great, and the files are small. It works for internet playback. Sounds like full quality AIFF files.
In a perfect world, one program would have it all, audio parts, good mp3 exports, automation on top of the track…
Until then, we have the forum. Thanks guys for listening !!!
Sorry, but that bitrate is not something that I use. I use 192 or above, mostly 256, and that’s only after it’s mastered, so it’s not an mp3 export from Cubase. In other words, this scenario does not matter to me.
Still, if what you are saying is true, it’s not Cubase, but the Fraunhoffer codec that’s doing this, so I don’t see why Cubase is the lynchpin here for you. Good luck.
Best,
Jay
Yes, Fraunhofer is much better in the lower bit rates than Lame. Still, it seems like tremendous overkill to have such a complete recording program as Cubase to just export to low-quality mp3s.
Nevertheless, we don’t really need too many preferences, so that we totally have to customize our DAW. Then we spend more time doing that than making music! As far as automation parameters over the track, yeah, that’s all we need to fill up the space on our track (not the events). One reason I think that Cubase is respected for its friendly UI, is that the track’s aren’t crammed with tiny parameters to change and everything is rather spread out, which makes it nice for both the beginner and the seasoned users who require more features. Look at another DAW’s project window, on the tracks and inspector you see all these tiny little buttons and features about the size of the tip of your mouse’s pointer. Everything in Cubase seems to be right at your fingertips. And really, if one click to hide/show automation is cramping our styles and has become worth a feature request, maybe we really have become lazy.
But, who is to say that this isn’t needed? It doesn’t benefit my work flow, but it seems that it will yours. Many times, I think that every producer needs his own custom built DAW. 
I do the website for our church. We track our worship music in 18 tracks, avg 4 min per song and mix it after the service. The pastor’s sermons are 40-45 minutes long. A small mp3 file that still sounds good is important to me.
The mp3 files that I produce sound almost as good as aif or wave files 10x their size.
Love Cubase for that and other things.
I’m sure the developers have a keen eye on this sort of ui management. At least I hope. But in the meantime I find the best way to show and hide my plugins is to use alt + shift and click the main e button on the desired track. This automatically opens all plugins for the track. Shift and click the e button to close.
Works like a charm on both mixer and arrangement page.
Kev,
I will try that. I am open to all kinds of suggestions here. I wasn’t aware of that short-cut. Here’s is what I would like to be able to do as well: I would like to use the window sets/ workspaces to be able to choose which tracks remained open for automation in the arrange window. The workflow of show/hide automation with the control key click, and then having to enlarge and shrink the spaces just seems like a lot of steps to me. Maybe I am doing something wrong here, in just not knowing some of the shortcuts.
I am open for any suggestions that you (or anyone else) may have for me. I just can’t seem to let go of Cubase, even though I have frustrations about it, maybe it is because it has been my primary for most of the past 20 years. When I say that, I really can’t believe that I am old enough to say that and that I still am passionate about this kind of stuff; like a teen-ager with his first serious keyboard. I just LOVE it.
I stopped using Cubase on a regular basis after VST 32. Although, I keep buying the upgrades. I started Cubase again with SX3 and have purchased the upgrades ever since, and I now have Cubase 6. I mostly used Digital Performer during the past decade for my music projects although Studio One is becoming my go-to for most things because of the ease of use.
Even though I own Logic, Studio One and Digital Performer I still can’t let go of Cubase. I keep it now (as I stated in previous posts) for creating mp3 files for my website as they sound so good, almost as good as a regular size aif or wav file.
This old dog is open to new learn new tricks. Share as many as you will.
Thanks, guys !!!
