In Project window, reorder tracks, as one often does for clarity and workflow. Note that each track’s number does NOT change. Whether that’s a bug or feature might be debatable, depending on whether you want that behavior, e.g., as a GUID. However, it seems directly responsible for the definitely-a-bug behavior in MixConsole: channels are always sorted by track number - and there’s no way to reorder them, afik. Channels are thus in what’s essentially a random order, instead of the structure and order you just arranged in Project.
I’ve seen older posts about this, and the workaround seems to be to create a new, blank Project and then import all of the tracks from the “broken” Project. What a PITA! Is this still the only way? Or did I manage to bump some setting that’s doing this? (I’ve used Cubase for decades, but this is on a friend’s computer and I don’t have access to mine at the moment to compare. ) Given all the other handy options to sync the Project and MixConsole(s) views, I’m hoping I’m just missing the right setting to sync order.
This did not seem consistent with my experiences, so I just made a very quick test with my current project (in its relatively early stages, so not as full or as organized as it might be later in the game). I started out with the current state of the project after just opening it. Here is the project window showing track order and numbering:
I decided to change the order to drag the three electric guitar-related tracks up higher in the project window order, yielding the following project window track order:
Based on your post, I was expecting the moved tracks would have the same numbers as before in this shot, though that had not been my experience, and, in fact, the track numbers have changed to the same order as their positioning post-drag.
Basically, identical to the project window state, except for the tracks I’d explicitly sent to the left and right zones, which are the same as they were originally (and I didn’t move those, so that is expected).
Maybe there is some more specific recipe for reproducing what you’re seeing? (I should note I’m on Cubase Pro 13.0.41 on Windows 10 in case there may be some issues in earlier versions or on Mac or Windows 11.)
Further, if I add a new track under, say, “Crunchy Rhythm” (#13, above), the new track, “test” gets #14 (as expected) and tracks with higher numbers, e.g., “bass” and “bass DI” are renumbered to make room for it. i.e., “bass” is now #15, and so on. But for some reason, Cubase refuses to renumber all the tracks to be in the expected numerical order.
Yet, if I create a new, Empty project and then import all the tracks from the “broken” project, above, the new project has the expected order, and reordering tracks renumbers them, as expected.
FWIW, I’m on Mac, Cubase 13 Pro, Version 10.0.40 Build 251.
I’m continuing to play with this to see if I can pinpoint the moment it breaks and the numbers don’t renumber. So far I see the effects, consistently, but haven’t found the smoking gun, as it were. In any case, I’d say it’s definitely a bug!!
Ha! Found it: Turn on “Divide Track List” which I often use to keep, say the Marker track and Chord track always visible at the top of the Project window. But turning that on instantly renumbers tracks in some bizarre order, causing the MixConsole channels to be out-of-order relative to the Project.
It wasn’t obvious from my screen shots, but I always use divide track list, including in the project whose screen shots I posted. I had both a markers track and chords track in that part of the project window. Sometimes I also put a tempo map up there, but this project didn’t have one.
One key thing I noticed with yours is that the tracks with out-of-order numbers appear to be at different levels in folder tracks, which made me wonder if that had something to do with it. I’m probably not likely to have Cubase up today to try any experiments, but that was something I thought about trying after seeing your screen shots. (I do frequently use folder tracks, especially later in my workflow for a project, but this one isn’t using them yet – it definitely will at some point.)
I should note that, when I’m using divide track list, the tracks I put up there would already be up at the top of the project as I tend to make a markers track to lay out the structure of a song early in my workflow, and, if I’m using a chords track at all, that is also likely to come along fairly early. I would typically be dividing the track list after having created at least the markers track without the division as I mostly only need to start using that when my top tracks will be scrolling, and I typically am not starting from a template with lots of tracks pre-configured as most every song is different, even when I ultimately end up with similar instrumentation (but possibly different virtual instruments to implement that instrumentation).
I’ve never seen anything like that. I often use folders and a divided track list, but the tracks are always numbered sequentially, no matter how I move them around. Perhaps there’s an obscure preference that somebody knows about that affects this, but what you’re seeing is definitely not normal behavior.
I would guess it has something to do with folders. What did you do to get a track number out of order?
Thanks, Paul and Glen. Sounds like our usage / workflow is similar - we use Divide Track List and Folder tracks. I have those in my Project Templates. I often use nested Folder tracks, too, tho usually not more than 2 deep.
I’m not sure how this particular Project came to demonstrate what appears to be a track reordering bug, but I did find a workaround: I temporarily moved all non-Folder tracks to the top level, i.e., flattened the layout. I didn’t delete or otherwise modify the Folder tracks, I just temporarily moved all the Audio, MIDI, etc., to the top level. Shazam - all the numbers are fine, even when enabling Divide Track List. Moreover, they retained this correct behavior when I moved them back into the Folder structure that I had. I can now move tracks all around, in or out of Folders, above or below the Divide line, etc., and it’s all good.
This can be a major PiTA for Projects with a large number of tracks, but it’s not the worst Cubase workaround I’ve seen Clearly, Cubase is sometimes confused RE track numbering, in the presence of Folder tracks and Divide Track List, but at least there seems to be a way around it.
FWIW, this particular Project is the result of bouncing down stems from the main Project, such that I can take the stemmed project to another studio for recording other instruments, without having to have all the same plugins, VSTs, etc., and CPU power there. So there’s been a fair amount of Import Tracks from Other Project and Export Audio to Create New Project going on; somewhere along the line Cubase got a bit confused, apparently.
Clearly, Cubase is sometimes confused RE track numbering, in the presence of Folder tracks and Divide Track List, but at least there seems to be a way around it.