On mac: swipe four fingers up (mission control) or place mouse in corner (also mission control) and select desired window.
The poll really should be extended to offer more options because under that ‘other’ category, there are quite a few common methods to go about windows management in CuBase…
If I’ve got a lot of things open that I’ve not gotten around to making key commands (or MIDI remote control) for I just keep a CuBase windows manager (Window\Window Manager…) on the screen so I can easily top anything at will. If that is getting in my way then I’ll just go to “Window” and choose the thing I want to see from the drop down menu.
If I haven’t got that up, it’s also super easy to just hover over the CuBase Icon in my windows OS start bar, and click on the image of the window I want to bring up front.
To change an entire viewing setup, I just use the Workspaces.
For the most part I try to keep things closed I don’t need to monitor visually or work with at the moment though. Why waste resources doing UI screen draws? If I’m not needing to actively monitor or directly use it, I tend to close it. My ears are a more important guide for ‘most things’ I do with plugins than visual meters anyway…
Using multiple screens help out as well. More room to spread stuff out so I don’t have to worry about things I need getting hidden. The majority of the time I just keep stuff in its default ‘always topped’ mode, and move it to a different screen until I’m done with it.
Another thing that helps me is using advanced mice and keyboards with lots of extra programmable buttons, and taking advantage of the CuBase Generic Remote Maps to do alot more stuff with my MIDI Controller(s). I’ve forgotten what it’s like for users without these…but the gist of it is that I can turn a lot of multiple click and hover, or wacky three key combo + click issues into a one click thing…
I’ll have to go back and read more carefully in this thread as to what is ‘wrong’ with CuBase window management, but out of ALL the apps I have (music and otherwise, other than HALion 5/6 and Blender[a 3d object rendering app]), Cubase seems to be the most robust and flexible of them ALL when managing window topping and placement. To get any better on windows, it’d have to start looking more like HALion 6 or Blender, where we can build, arrange, and sort individual window frames and dock-undock anything we like inside the windows as we like.
I’d love to see CuBase adopt alot of the UI ideas we get in HALion 6. A lot of users might find that much user-centric UI power confusing and get totally lost in it, but for me personally it would be excellent!
As for the e icon ‘closing’ the UI of an open plugin when left clicked a single time (It’s a sticky-toggle icon that changes color when active/inactive)…it seems to me like that is exactly as it should be. I would not advocate ‘getting rid’ of that behavior. I can see adding a key-combo click to the present icon, having ‘options’ in the app settings, or adding a totally new icon for ‘topping’ the window…but changing the way the current icon behaves by default would be asking for trouble in my humble opinion. People are used to it working this way, and have built work-flows around it. Adding new options to workflow is fine, and usually more than WELCOME. Taking away, changing, or otherwise ‘forcing’ people into a different work-flow (that has always worked before) is very irksome for users…to say the least.
I’ve assigned the middle mouse button to change to win 10 task view screen (same as win+tab, you see the complete living gui of every opened plug in, don’t know the correct name of the screen).
There I can choose the right plugin - it’s done in a second - really comfortable.
And no special Cubase feature is needed for that, just a simple setting in win 10.
I like this idea, a lot. I’ve literally never seen this window before. On a small 13" laptop it doesn’t make too much sense, but glad to know of it.
I AM curious to know how many people ever click on the “e” to close any window (versus clicking the x on the window itself). My sense is that it is likely the rare user, though I dunno. Your point is taken about adding vs. taking away.
I do use it, but then again I’m on a multi-screen set-up.
Scenario:
Analysis plugins that mostly display information and don’t typically require a lot of ‘interaction’ get placed way out on the edges of some screen somewhere. If one is working with the mixer and wants to open/close it, it’s a short mouse movement…not a 3 screen away movement.
Cubase does a pretty good job of remembering where you like things placed from session to session. So for us multi-screen folks, the little “e” really is nice to have, the way it is currently implemented.
I will admit that my first inclination for anything showing up on the same screen as the mixer is to click the little X in the corner of the plugin though 
Hmm… I see. I suddenly realize I know so little about multi-screen setups. 
And even Cubase, I guess. I presume you’re closing these windows to save resources? Otherwise you’d leave them open? And what happens when you eventually run out of screen space? (doesn’t everyone?)
My idea of making the window FIRST revealed from behind (with the click of the “e”), THEN closed with the second click, wouldn’t change the workflow much, would it?
Sometimes it is to conserve resources, but more often it’s to make room for something else, or to reveal other things that might live ‘behind it’. Rather than trying to isolate something that lives behind it and top it (which could mess up an established cascading hierarchy of windows that are using the ‘always topped’ mode), I just click the e to put it up or take it down when needed. I never have to leave the Mixer screen with my mouse, even though the plugin might be displayed 3 screens over. Keep in mind, I’ve probably already tied some remote faders/pots to drive the controls in the plugin, so I’m probably not going to go anywhere near it with it with the mouse…I just want to visually confirm what I’m doing.
What happens when you have two windows that are both set to always top? The last one opened lives on top right? So…we just use the “e” to bring it up when needed, and again to get rid of it.
Yes, even with lots of screens one can run out of space. Particularly if you like to keep some things like maybe HALion or Kontackt in a full screen mode somewhere. On a large project, just a single Mixer window can span across several screens…
Your idea isn’t necessarily ‘bad’. It’s just a ‘change’ that can throw off established work-flows. So, yes, it could mess up work-flow designs that are counting on a ‘toggle icon’ approach to open/close plugin UIs. People with large set ups do tie in remote controllers and build key-board commands, macros, and other such things of that nature; so any ‘change’ can really mess up hours, or even years of work in an overall professional DAW-centric ‘studio setup’.
I think your idea is a good one for single screen users…it’s just that it should be some sort of ‘option’ or ‘additional’ work flow enhancement that people can ease into the work-flow in order to take advantage of it. NOT a ‘default replacement’. If there is room, just add another icon. If not, make it a key+click thing, and establish in the app preferences if you’d rather change it to a single click (and put the old way under the modified click).
Example…
Imagine that you’ve created a ton of Project Logic Editors that get launched by a key combo. Some of them are nested in ‘macros’ that are all about opening a particular set of plugin UIs, and closing others. Messing with the way those hooks work could destroy all those Logic Editor presets…and some studios literally have THOUSANDS OF THEM. They have things connected to pedals on the floor, on MPC pads, to buttons and faders on various mixing consoles, and the list goes on. For the sake of any of the remote or macro stuff that depends on the “Remote Maps”, “logic editors” (or any other sort of scripting subset)…backwards compatibility needs to be maintained where at all possible.
Scenario…
Imagine you have 12 pedals on the floor. You can stomp the first one, and all the stuff you need for your drummer flys up on the screen. A few bars later you want to work with the vocals, so you stomp it again, and all the drummer stuff closes, stomp a different pedal, and your vocal stuff pops up. Someone behind the glass starts pointing at his ear-piece and wants more reverb in his ‘monitor’, so you stomp another pedal and the plugins you’ve got those monitors going through pop up, already ‘topped’ and ready to go…stomp it when you’re done and they go away, your last vocal setup is still living where you last left it. (Note: Typically when we want to launch macros with a remote control in CuBase, we first make a key-combo of it. From there, we can bind a MIDI command to the key-combo via “Remote Device Maps”)
If such a scenario were designed by a studio engineer based on the ‘toggle icon’ concept…well, a major change in this could break significant portions of his ‘system workflow design’. He did not design it to ‘top’ windows. He designed it to ‘open’ them when toggled ‘on’, and ‘close’ them when toggled off. That can be a big deal when working with remote controls…
So…‘additions’ are fine. ‘Changes’, not always so fine.
I can understand that it could disrupt current setups by changing that behavior to only ‘top’ the plugin window. Whenever I need to close a window I just hit X.
Maybe then an option in preferences to apply more predictable (and less mouse clicks) topping behavior.
TBH I think the whole mixer currently should be scrapped to bring a much better one, with more optimized layouts and better scaling capabilities.
All the changes since V6 has been downhill IMHO (talking about mixer UI).
Today, the issue was I couldn’t enable the plugin from the mixer because it was set to bypass… Old mixer never had that issue. Why did they remove the bypass button anyway?(from the mixer)
The old mixer is overrated imo. I went back and didn’t like it.
I’m not sure what problem you had with bypass from that explanation.
I agree on better scaling, user choices of fonts/colors, etc…cosmetics need to be adjustable…some folks sit inches from their monitors, others sit many feet away. Some need dark skins to cut down on glare or excessive light bleeding (I.E. an open mid-theatre setup with audience sitting behind you). Others need bright and glaring GUIs where various things can be highlighted and drawn into focus (collaborative sessions). A good GUI allows us to tweak to need.
There’s rarely any objection on adding fresh new ‘options’ and features that engineers can begin adding to their current work-flow.
Any talk of ‘scrapping things’ and ‘starting over’ will just keep bigger studios locked to older versions for longer periods of time. Heck, if it’s a really radical change they’d might as well also start considering competing DAWs, because they’re going to have to redesign the entire work-flow (how all the remote controls on all their consoles are implemented) and retrain everyone on it anyway.
If all the old macros/remotes/etc. are still compatible with the ‘new and improved’ GUI, then it’s not as much of a problem. If it’s drastically different, and none of the old key-combos/macros/etc. work anymore, then they can’t use it without months of adapting and changing their entire ‘system’ work-flow.
In our little home studios we work with a few tracks and plugins at a time. It’s no big deal to go through opening and closing them one by one, or bothering with which window tops what others, etc.
Big studios take advantage of all the goodies that home users rarely ever look at. They don’t have time to open plug ins one by one, or grab a mouse and go across 5 screens to click the X on a plugin to close it. They need solutions to open and close GOBS of them with a single command. Push a button, or stomp a switch, and they have it…stomp it again, and it’s gone. Simple, predictable, reliable, and easy to set up a “Remote Device” for. CuBase can currently do this and more. It is one of the reasons why those are ‘toggle’ on/off type icons.
Home users can also take advantage of logic editors, macros, and remote controls. It’s not hard to plan out a really nice work-flow for yourself before you start a project, and tweak that as needed to get instant access to the plugins you need when you need them. Even with nothing more than a single fairly modest MIDI Keyboard controller. A few will listen when pros offer to share tips and start explaining how they’ve been managing dozens, or even hundreds of tracks and plugins in REAL TIME mixing/recording situations (along with monitoring systems for the musicians) without a problem, but then the forum crashers start complaining, “But DAWs X, Y, and Z do it this way!” instead of learning how to make CuBase do what they want TODAY.
Again, there’s nothing wrong with adding enhancements for different types of users in mind. There is nothing wrong with ‘progress’. It’s just important to maintain backwards comparability for as long as possible. If the change is ‘too radical’ and at the ‘wrong time’, then you’ve mostly discouraged big players from taking on your upgrades without more strongly considering competing options in the process. If three full time system engineers have to start over from scratch setting everything up and designing a work-flow…they’d might as well go ahead and look at ALL the DAWs on the market when it’s time to ‘be progressive’. If having a full time union guy come in and spend a week fixing ‘one little glitch’ that an update/upgrade caused in the studio test-bed…they’re more likely to post-pone upgrading at all…many successive postponements like this in a row means when they do make a move, it’ll eventually be a big one, and maybe toward some ‘other competing’ system. So not only would you miss the revenue from their ‘upgrades’, you might also lose them totally to a new competitor when they finally get around to ‘making a move’.
Exactly why I think Cubase changes over the years have not at all been warranted. Many changes were implemented to adapt to the new options of multi-monitor systems being more accessible. Introduction of scaling (partially).
GUI changes are usually not that hard to adapt to, and very commonplace in any software that is interested in staying ‘current’.
Very insightful, though.
Brian, excellent posts and comments. I think your observations are spot on.
I was getting tired of clicking e-e every single time so I wrote a simple autohotkey script. It is not perfect but it is something.
~$e:: ; "e" modifier for Channel Settings in Cubase
IfWinActive, ahk_class SteinbergWindowClass
{
IfWinActive, Channel Settings
{
Send, {SHIFTDOWN}e{SHIFTUP}
WinWaitClose, Channel Settings
WinActivate, ahk_class SteinbergWindowClass
WinWaitActive, ahk_class SteinbergWindowClass
Sleep 50
}
else
{
IfWinExist, Channel Settings
WinActivate
else
{
Send, {SHIFTDOWN}e{SHIFTUP}
}
}
}
Return
!e:: ; ALT+e toggles between normal "e" and the hotkey
KeyState :=! KeyState
Hotkey, e, Toggle
If KeyState
MsgBox,48, ,"e" Modifier Key OFF, 1
else
MsgBox,64, ,"e" Modifier Key ON, 1
Return
You just need to change “e” with “shift+e” in Key Commands to make it work. The downside now is that when you are typing “e” in a SteinbergWindowClass (i.e. when you want to rename a track or save presets), to every “e” is now added a “E”. To avoid this I added another hotkey (ALT+e) that disables the first one.
I would like this suggestion added, but shouldn’t this be in feature requests instead?
What would be nice is if the edit window simply stayed on top always as long as it’s open, then there wouldn’t be any problem. Alt-tab is simply too crude.
Thanks for this. I’ve never heard of this option. Trying to imagine how it works…
So you are no longer using the mouse for the e-e click, and are simply pressing e on the keyboard? Or no…
All plugins are always on top, so I never have this problem.
Enable the option Preferences > VST > Plug-ins > Plug-in Editors “Always on Top”
Hey,
Thanks for the tip!
Hallo!
After reading the posts here, I tried to use “e” to open or close hidden windows.I get no results of this, nothing happens.Any ideas???
I´m on Elements 9.5