It replicates most of the features of inspector and takes up screen. Now we have another tab that doesnt show things inspector does and the channel tab shows lots of things the inspector does. These two things need to be unified in my opinion
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Hi,
This has been requested by users for some time.
Lots of users were using MixConsole, which showed just a single track. They placed this window on the left side, next to the Project window. This is the Channel tab now.
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its a nice option to have the channel visible and accessible without fiddling with tabs in the inspector
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I get it, but not the way it was implemented.
Why not let us have a full featured inspector?
There are things only available for the channel tab, but I donây need two tabs with a bit of stuff in each;
I need just one, showing me all the features I want.
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Yes, it is very nice to have them on the screen at once. Of course, we could split hairs over one or two dozens of beers about whether itâs the same thing to have a Channel Tab and an Inspector, or to have a single Inspector that can show two or three tabs at the same time. 
beer i can accept anytime, about splitting hair, not much left to split (maybe in next self maintenance update)
anyway, it was possible to pin tabs in the inspector, so those tabs will stay open all the time, but its not that convenient and take lots of space
Not THOSE tabs, the other tabs. Like visibility, track, editor, etc etc⌠Iâm not going to complain, itâs a good addition.
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Exactly. Inspector had no access to Strip, Pre and a few other areas of the mixer. Why not add thos optional tabs to Inspector and call it a day?
Now the channel strip and inspector overlap on 50-60% of items
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So all that was needed to be done was add âstrip, VCA, Preâ to the inspector and the next left channel tab would have never been necessary to implement. The customizability of the inspector would have made this work for all users.
In my opinion, this is a valid argument concerning the standard Left Zone Inspector but it probably misses the essential design principles of the new Channel Tab. The new Channel Tab is an optional element which replicates a single mixer channel and it can do this in a very narrow horizontal space (resizeable) to the left of the Project window. It gives convenient access to the mixer channel at all times for the currently selected track.
A lot of users had been asking for this for some time. Depending on workflow the Channel Tab liberates the standard Left zone Inspector for other tasks - such as Visibility, Track and Editor displays and for specialised sections in the Inspector.
Aspects of the Channel Tab which could easily be overlooked are its pop-up window functionality for the Equalizer Curve and Strip sections which are very practical alongside the standard pop-up functionality of the Inserts and Sends.
Of course, for those who donât need it, the Channel Tab can be de-activated on the toolbar.
I quite like the left channel strip. Iâve found myself often either splitting my screen with the mixer window for easy access to all the inserts, sends, and routing in one view, but then loose real-estate. Or I use the mini-mixer view in the editor window at the bottom, but constantly have to switch between inserts and sends. Having a single strip on the left is an efficient user interface that relies on the same user interface as the mixer window, but makes more use of the screen real estate.
I can see that folks who never use the mixer window at all in their workflow might find this point less. But for others, it makes complete sense. One a bigger film mix with 200+ tracks, there are times where you need the mixer view, and there are times when you need the edit view. This provides a nice convenient bridge between them that creates efficiencies.
Itâs also familiar to folks that use hardware controllers with a single fader (e.g. Avid Dock, FaderPort, etc.), so itâs not an odd way of working.
(updated: as pointed out below, both strips can be configured to have desired sections, my oversight)
But didnt you have access already to Fader, EQ, Inserts, Sends and routing in the inspector?
Yes, but it was cumbersome and and not in muscle memory, when you are used to the mixer strip. I never used it, just opened the mixer window instead.
(see edit in my post, that there would have been a better way of doing it though).
Inserts and sends are available in both the Channel tab and the standard Inspector.
Not quite getting this. Itâs configurable right?
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Ah, you are correct. You have to setup the sections. Which I had forgotten about⌠That may not be obvious to each user in the interface though⌠(your post reminded me of them mentioning that in the presentation).
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Absolutely. When you right click on either of the Inspectors you get the set up sections menus and here you can not only change what appears in the Inspector, you can also change the order in which they appear by dragging the elements in the menu.
âExpand Sections Exclusivelyâ is also pretty good for the Channel Tab since it saves vertical screen space if that is an issue.
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Like other have said, we already had that in the Inspector.
I would also like to repeat that several people have continuously asked for what Pro Tools has which solved your problem above that I highlighted:
By adding insert and send slots and i/o, volume and panning horizontally to each track you have fast easy access to them all without having to first select a track to adjust. In some cases this is very usable. It obviously eats up a lot of space but so does having two panes open on the left.
The Inspector could have been modified to do all of that I would think.
I agree with this, conceptually. However, I think it could maybe have been solved with either a key command to select or toggle between zones in the one Inspector tab.
I donât think anyone is saying this new function gets in the way of working, itâs probably great once people start using it. Itâs just that compared to some other feature requests it seems like not much âreturn on investmentâ. In other words why not develop other things first?
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What I donât know if this current implementation is due to some techical compromise thatâs been made. Maybe it was easier for Steinberg to add another âzoneâ than to make the inspector modular? The inspector would have to support at least two freely-resizable and customisable âcolumnsâ, that would also be able to scroll vertically, etc etc⌠before it could do the same thing we can now do with the new Channel Tab. But on the other hand, one could have both visibility AND the track inspector simultaneously with the âmodularâ approach.
Just guessing and thinking aloud. 
I suppose if people need the track visibility to be shown at the same time as the inspector the new panel is a solution: Simply have channel settings in one and the visibility tab selected in the other.
But then again, once you start losing that amount of horizontal real estate I personally would prefer Pro Toolsâ way of adding things. Just add more stuff to the track âheaderâ. Could be laid out horizontally to lose the same or more space in that direction, or vertically below solo/mute etc. That way youâd have all of that available for all tracks. And each function could be a pop-up, just like both PT and Nuendo does it in some areas; hover or click on the send/insert/EQ/volume icon and a slider/window opens up for tweaking. No need for selection.
I too have always liked the ProTools design but it does take up a lot more screen estate.
On the subject of âwe already had all this in the Inspectorâ - yes we did to some extent but in my opinion the design and functionality considerations are a lot more subtle than this. A lot of the sections of the standard Inspector would simply not fit into the narrow width of the Channel Tab and nor would you want them to. It is extremely narrow at its narrowest setting. The standard Inspector has more width to suit a wider variety of elements so it couldnât really have been adapted to meet the narrow width demands of the Channel Tab. In effect the Channel Tab is a specialised zone for a single mixer channel - itâs not primarily a second standard Inspector although it can be adapted to be similar. All just my two cents.
In my opinion, the Channel Tab takes up very little horizontal screen estate and itâs always within reach while you make any changes to other parts of the GUI. Personally I find it quite a good design choice. It wonât suit all workflows but then you donât have to use it, and in this case you can just hide it.
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