I’m setting up a new master orchestral template and panning selection is missing for some instrument tracks. I’m building out all of the instrument tracks and some tracks are set to Stereo Combined Panner. However if I try to set them back to Balanced Stereo Panner, the panning choices are missing from the context menu.
I thought perhaps a plugin like Softube console or SSL 4k forced them to Combined, but even if those plugins are removed, I cannot choose Balanced, and some channels with the issue have never had an insert applied. The options are simply missing on some channels.
Creating a new channel and setting up the instrument again returns the choices to the menu, but there is nothing I can do to select balanced on those channels that are stuck in combined.
Both examples, combined and balanced are using identical VST instruments and routed to the same stereo bus. I’ve tried adding the SSL and Softube plugins to the new channel to see if it “broke” the channel, but it does not.
Is this a bug with the panner? How do I fix the channels that are stuck on Combined? or do I have to scrap them and build new ones?
I’ve uploaded an image of a channel stuck to combined with no choices available to switch. And an adjacent one where the choices appear. Both have no inserts, no sends, identical VST instruments. And interestingly both show balanced panner when the cursor is over them. However the inspector shows the channels with the missing options is in combined mode.
I’ve searched everywhere and can’t even find something close on how to fix this.
The option to select which panner you use is the issue.
In some channels, the option appears when you right click on the panner itself (either in the Inspector or in the channel itself in the MixConsole)
In the “Broken” channels, right clicking on the panner area shows the menu without the option to change which panner type you use.
I’m sure most people will try it and it will work perfectly fine on their machine and show the option to select (like in my second image). Most of my channels are not broken either and show the chooseable option. But some are broken (like the first image) and do not show the option to change panner types.
I would like to know how to fix the broken channels.
If you look in the menu in the images I provided between “Other Commands” and “Bypass” - one image shows a working channel with two choices. The broken channel does not. Both channels are identical except for the missing pan choices.
No, both channels are stereo, with stereo instruments and routed to a stereo bus. Duplicating a working channel produces another working channel. Duplicating a broken channel produces another broken channel.
Replacing the instrument VST in a broken channel does not resolve the issue. The only thing that seems to work is to create a new channel from scratch and attach a new instance of the instrument to it.
It feels like a bug, but I don’t know if those channels are stuck in some kind of hidden Cubase pan mode that there is a secret panel to get out of.
Here is a stripped down project file derived from my orchestral master. I kept one broken track and one working track. I also duplicated the broken track (D) and the working track (D) to demonstrate the duplicated channels retain the broken or working status. All 4 channels route to a stereo bus that uses Balance Panning and that bus routes to the output Master (Stereo).
Right clicking on the panner of each will bring up the context menu. In the working channels, I can select the panner type. In the broken channels those choices are missing.
I’d like to think it is something stupid I am missing, and you will see as soon as you open the file - but I cannot figure out what it would be.
It’s an odd one…note that it’s possible to fix one of the broken channels by copying settings from a working channel and pasting them but I just can’t see what setting is actually doing it.
I did try copying the panner settings specifically from a working one to a broken one, but while it seemed to make the panner Balanced, it never restored the broken context menu. I didn’t try copying the channel settings as a whole because ultimatly, it ends up being not much better than rebuilding the channel as I’d have to go in and put in the correct instrument anyway.
I think its a bug of some kind, but no idea what causes it. I’m just glad I found it before I spread it to other channels.
Thanks, did not realize it left instruments intact. I’ve really only leveraged duplicate channels for setup and never took advantage of channel copy. I’ll give it a shot on the next broken channel and see if I can figure out what it is resolving.
I’ll have to check. I haven’t updated since beginning the file, so whatever it’s on now will also be the origin version. I’ll get back to you later tonight.
It rings a bell a bit. I have a feeling, there was a bug like this in an older Cubase 14 release. So it might be, if the project has been created with the issue already, the affected tracks can’t be fixed.
Looking at the project file I’d say it is a 32bit project file, not a 64bit cpr (ie. created with a version before C14).
I might be reading the clues wrongly, though.
I have Cubase 14.0.10. build date Nov 25, 2024. Prior to switching back to Cubase I used Studio One for 5 years, so it is a new build on 14.
It did have some midi data that I imported that were exported from S1 channels. I suppose it’s possible that the import of midi data somehow contaminated the channels with Presonus cooties, but there isn’t a 1:1 relationship with channels that are broken and those with midi.
I’m trying to think of all the things I did when I started working with Cubase again. Played with multi-channel / Atmos, tried importing data from Studio One to Cubase via DAW project, added, duplicated and deleted hundreds of instrument channels, used both Kontakt 8 as well as Komplete Kontrol for VST instruments…
I believe the project those broken channels are derived from was a clean build, but it’s possible any of those above tested activities could have been in the file that contained the broken channels. Whether any of those would have an effect, I don’t know. And I couldn’t tell you if any of them were specific to a leftover channel that is now broken.
Of all those items, the one I would be most suspicious of would be if there was any channels that made it into the project via a DawProject import. I don’t think so as I was unimpressed with the DawProject import and trashed it. But I can also do a test later this week to import instruments from a S1 DawProject export and see what happens.
You did not have a Cubase 13 or 12? Well, that shows I cannot read the project files correctly and that my previous comment can just be ignored, please.
