Split Project Window Selection Options OR Pin tracks

Cubase
,
1

I love and use the split window all the time. Maybe not exactly the way it was intended and maybe there needs to be a better way to do this, but I use it more like pinned tracks…

Chord, Markers, tempo,reference tracks etc.

It’s just the issue where the project window keep things in the upper window selected while also selecting bottom window items.

I guess what I am asking for is an option to automatically fully switch between windows and treat the upper window as the same window so multiple things are not selected.

A better way might be to just create pinned tracks instead of split window.

Too many times I am dragging stuff in the upper window and it scrolls all the way off from the tracks and then I need to scroll back up to get the tracks to show again.

Thank you Steinberg!

2

This is an interesting thought. I tend to use the top window more or less as headers – markers for song sections (and start and end of the mix), the chord track mostly for reference for when I’m arranging/tracking (so basically like a chord chart), and time signatures (only if they change over the course of the song). I’d prefer them being fixed, “headers”, kind of like in the case of a freeze panes thing in Excel, where you can still edit the cells above (and/or to the left in Excel) the freeze, but they maintain their size and position, and you don’t really have to worry about scrolling within the frozen areas.

I came to Cubase (starting around 9.5, though fully at 10.5) from Cakewalk SONAR, where there were only markers, not a marker track, and they were at the top, as part of the timeline if I’m remembering correctly. I think time signature changes also got displayed up there, though I don’t recall for certain. They didn’t have a chord track (at least at that point – the new version of SONAR has a lot of enhancements, but I only use it for checking file compatibility for stuff I’ve generated in Cubase).

I also do end up having the issue of accidentally scrolling in the top pane, and I keep it very narrow (e.g. no reference tracks up there, just the “header”-type tracks).

I don’t use it for reference tracks, and that’s mainly a vertical space issue – that’s the biggest thing I run out of in Cubase as it is. In fact, I keep reference tracks i a folder below the Stereo Out, with all except one disabled, going to Cue Sends, rather than the Stereo Out to make it easy to switch quickly between my mix and whichever reference track I’m using at the moment in Control Room.

I might actually prefer reference tracks to be in a separate pane that could be toggled open or closed since I tend to only need to access those when switching between reference tracks.

Just thinking out loud with respect to pinned tracks, I think I could see that working for the header-type uses. The split pane we have now doesn’t really make as much sense for those, even if it largely works (i.e. if we ignore scrolling frustrations).

I can also see potential uses for the split pane that I don’t use at all at this point, like if I want to see two tracks at once (e.g. MIDI for drums and whatever I’m working on at the moment), but those tracks are too far apart to conveniently see them without hiding a bunch of tracks in between. But maybe even that sort of thing could work with pinned tracks, as long as there aren’t too many pinned tracks taking up vertical space. That is one area where I can see how having the scrolling top pane could be useful, if wanting to see different things at different times up in that area.

In case it’s not obvious, most of my comments here are just “thinking out loud”.

3

Or maybe an option to add markers to the ruler area…across the top?

Not sure about chords. That just might be better as a pinned track.

4

I definitely could use that, but one difference between SONAR (at least back when I was using it regularly – not sure if they’ve changed anything since then) is that there was on one set of markers, whereas Cubase can have multiple marker tracks. While my main use is the song sections thing, I have also occasionally used an additional markers track to flag something needing work, for example where something needs some correction, where I can’t do it when I encounter the issue for one reason or another, so I add a marker, probably with some note on what is needed. (I have no clue how others use markers in general, especially in the case of using more than one marker track – I suspect the most frequent use of a single marker track is for song sections, at least in standalone music production. Maybe hit points in video/film scoring? Or maybe that’s a key area for using multiple marker tracks with musical divisions on one and hit points on another?

Personally, I’m not too fussy about how something might be addressed, but it would be nice to find some solutions to make current uses of that split pane for “header-type” tracks or other elements be able to be up on top without having to worry about a short pane scrolling as in the scenario you described in your original post (and I see all too frequently, probably mostly due to “user error” in the sense of doing something like editing something on a marker track or chord track then using the mouse wheel, intending to scroll the musical tracks vertically but having it scroll the top pane instead.

One thing with Cubase in general that I’ve found is a lot of “user error” due to focus changes, be it between zones (especially project part versus lower zone for key editor or some other editor) and MixConsole, which I always have full-screen on my second monitor, and the project window on my main monitor.