Please get rid of the Red Outline while selecting clips in Nuendo

Nuendo
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21

Hi Fredo! Thanks for replying.
I also work in “post”, but besides that I compose music and do game audio. Steinberg are currently promoting Nuendo 10 quite heavily towards game audio professionals, plus Nuendo has also got every single feature of the music platform we know as Cubase. So I’m unsure what you mean by saying that Nuendo “was made for” users who work in post when it is obviously marketed towards many different kinds of users. And judging from the crossgrade prices at this time - they encourage people to jump ship.

Apart from that, there are hundreds of thousands of professional post production people who use ProTools for their large scale work. When selecting an event in ProTools, the colour of the event gets inverted (well, not exactly inverted - the waveform colour stays the same but the background gets darker) just like in Cubase and most other DAWs. I can fully understand that what you’re saying is your personal preference, but other than that it doesn’t fully make sense.

My problem is not the inability to colour events red in Nuendo, but rather the whole “feel” of the program when working. I guess it has to do with what you’re used to in terms of visual feedback in your DAW for the tasks you perform thousands of times every day - like selecting events. The fact here is that Nuendo is surprisingly different from most other modern DAWs.

Interesting. Could you explain “incompatible graphics libraries” further?
To me it seems like - If they were able to put pretty much every other feature of Cubase in Nuendo, why would making this an option be such a tough one? But as always, I guess, changing seemingly simple stuff in softwares might be tougher than it seems.

1 Like
22

Look, I understand the arguments but the matter of fact is that a preference for having both is not an option from a technical point of view.
I trust the developers when they say that it can’t be done. (No matter if it is a technical or financial/resources issue)

Since it can’t be done technically, and since Nuendo was initially created for post users (regardless if they now want to attract new users), who “en masse” are used to working with colored events/red outline, I don’t see any reason why it should be changed.

Let me summ it up:

-Inverting the color of a selected event has exactly the same functionality as adding a red outline. It simply makes clear which event is selected.
-Inverting the color of the selected event has no added value over a red outline. (I.e. there is nothing “more” you can do with it)
-A red outline “breaks” nothing for the users who depend on using colored events. (Except when you use bright red tracks/events - but that is easy to “solve”
-Inverting the color DOES break the workflow for those who work with colored events. (And that is NOT solvable)

It’s simply a matter of making a choice; and from my point of view, weighing the pro’s and con’s as described above, it’s an easy choice.
Bring on the arguments and advantages that inverting colors adds to your workflow, and we can talk.
Any other “argument” is purely political, and I am longtime done with political discussions.

Fredo

23

  • Except it doesn’t, which is why you see a variation of this thread pop up every few weeks.

  • It has the added value that I can color my items any way I want instead of awkwardly avoiding red tones.

  • Your personal opinion that we shouldn’t use bright and saturated colors anyway doesn’t mean anything. They’re literally the factory default.

  • How does it change colors or break the workflow? In Cubase your yellow event will still have a yellow waveform and outline when selected. The only difference is that the outline is just the same color as the event, instead of a fixed red, and thanks to the background getting inverted you don’t have to squint your eyes to see a literal 1 pixel thick line to know you have it selected.

24

It would surely be interesting to have a dev explain why it “can’t be done”, given that Cubase and Nuendo share the exact same codebase and have done so for years. Tried searching the forum for any clues, but didn’t find anything. I wouldn’t suggest them to change it. Just to make it an option.

-Inverting the color of a selected event has exactly the same functionality as adding a red outline. It simply makes clear which event is selected.

True, except it doesn’t make it all that clear. To someone who’s used to the “inverted” approach, it’s a major annoyment. Again, it’s not exactly about inverting the actual colour, just swapping the colour of the waveform and the background when selected. Making it an option would therefore make sense.

To me (and presumably lots of other users as well), this:
cubase_selection.jpg
is simply much more clear and intuitive than this:
nuendo_selection.jpg

-Inverting the color of the selected event has no added value over a red outline. (I.e. there is nothing “more” you can do with it)

Again, it’s a matter of feel and user experience, which in the end affects your daily workflow. Making it an option would make the most sense for users coming from Cubase or ProTools or other DAWs.

-A red outline “breaks” nothing for the users who depend on using colored events. (Except when you use bright red tracks/events - but that is easy to “solve”

True, but there are lots of other stuff that don’t break stuff that they’ve chosen to add as options. As an example, I’ve noticed that the dreaded “Clicking locator range in Upper Part of the Ruler Activates Cycle” that has been an annoyment since Cubase 8.5 is now an option in Nuendo 10. It never broke anything, but many users were annoyed by it and felt that it affected their workflow.

-Inverting the color DOES break the workflow for those who work with colored events. (And that is NOT solvable)

… just like a red outline breaks the workflow in the exact same way for people who are used to the inverted approach. I, too, work with coloured events and have always done so. This is not anything unique for Nuendo users strictly working in “post” (whatever the exact definition of that is these days.)

Bring on the arguments and advantages that inverting colors adds to your workflow, and we can talk.

I hope the above arguments make some sense to you. It’s not about politics, only about creating a better user experience for more users in different fields of the business.

Best,
Robert

3 Likes
25

It’s a shame if it’s definitely not possible. You’ve made a good argument here for an option to be added, or a global change to the Cubase method.

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I 2nd this request. I have been using Cubase for over 10 years and just switched to Nuendo 10.3. I color coat all my tracks. Drums red, bass yellow, guitars green etc. The red on red is very very hard to see. If you guys want to keep the red that is fine. Just make it a option to change to Cubase type colors or similar so we can see them when using colors.

27

Make your reds darker, problem solved.

28

Coming from Cubase, I’d say that the red outline in Nuendo is not so good. As soon as you start coloring your clips/parts like yellow, orange and definitely red, than its really cumbersome. The way it works in Cubase is just so much better.

Since Cubase and Nuendo share the same code, as far as I know, than it should be possible to add the behavior from Cubase in Nuendo. At least as a 2nd option,so both camps can adjust to personal taste.

29

It’s fine when working on a few side by side clips at a time. Some of us have other needs:

When I’m scrolling through 200-500 tracks (my template is around 2000) to select multiple events to work on at once (say for a bounce, or to compare MIDI etc), the highlighted tracks have to visually stand out as much as possible. There’s just too much info to sort through for a tiny red outline to work

I’m sure there’s plenty of creative ways without annoying people who don’t do the kind of work I do–like an adjustable thicker outline, options to customize the color, give it a pattern… or add the Cubase style as an option?

30

+1

1 Like
31

This one deserves to be bumped. Sorry if it offends anyone. It would still be interesting to hear from the devs on this topic.

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32

my selected clips are black, inverted track color for labels

track color.PNG
track color.PNG989×468 47.3 KB

33

That’s because you’ve got Background Colour Modulation switched on. Only works for audio parts and not ideal if you prefer black waveforms rather than white.

34

I customized it that way to see when my clips are selected…
and I don’t care about the red outline

I don’t understand the fuzz about it

35

Agree 2,000%!!! I work in ALL mediums and this “feature” is annoying in all of them. I simply want to select a clip, and be able to see which one I’ve selected when I come back from working in another editor. Etc. This should be a user preference choice. Thank you for mentioning it. I thought I was the only one it bothered.

3 Likes
36

just want to keep updated about this issue

37

Ok so those of you that dislike the red border have to avoid quite a few red tones.

If Steinberg would choose the Cubase selection style that would result for us that use color to indicate certain things about certain events that we could never use any dark colors at all, as all colors get inverted/darker upon selection and thus easily mixed with other dark colored events.
And the changing color to indicate selection also removes the possibility for the user to be reminded of the status (actual color) of the selected event as long as it is selected as it then wouldn’t have the defined color it was given.
When using the inverted color for selected events the GUI will basically start flashing as you keep selecting different events in the project, and again as you do so, yes you may be able to see what is selected, but you can no longer see the color the events actually have.


Can you see the similarity between the different issues in use?
Can you see that the change to a cubase style selection causes more issues for some of us than it solves for some of you?

I fully agree that the simple red line/box isn’t optimum, but the Cubase alternative is worse for all users that work like we do.
Personally I’d welcome the option to choose either method.
I would also welcome for example a red outer line and a white inner line to indicate selection as that would improve seeing selected events with red color tints. Something that would improve on what we already have.

But switching to the cubase method would kill my workflow in post audio. So I do not want that method at all.

38

Yes - I’m sure we all can agree it should be user’s choice. Not all Nuendo users work mainly in post. A lot of us like myself mainly do music productions. I’ve been using Nuendo since 2004. The only feature I’ve hated all that time is that red outline. Especially since I am red/green color impaired. I love the Cubase method of black highlighted.

1 Like
39

I understand your issues with the Cubase method.

However, I still find it very difficult in some circumstances to see what is selected. I find myself looking twice to make sure I don’t perform some operation on the wrong clip. In some cases I can’t even see a selection, so I have to click in an empty space and then on the intended item just to make sure.

I think - in lieu of an option - perhaps your idea of some kind of BOLDER selection line might work.
That little red line is very thin.

Hugh

40

So, any news on this issue, now that Nuendo 11 is out?