I just upgraded to 7.5, and I am confused by the VST Instruments window.
It appears that every instrument now takes up a huge space within that little window with it’s own little GUI. All I want in the VST Instruments Window is a simple list of loaded instruments. The new look seems really bloated… I miss how simple it was in earlier versions of Cubase.
Hm, have you tried renaming the instruments in the rack? That’s a thing now. It’s a very good thing that solves a lot of organization issues present in previous incarnations of the rack.
Just hide all the quick controls, and if you need to find a specific instrument in a huge list, use the magnifying glass to search, which is now a ton easier thanks to custom naming. In light of this, the size hasn’t really bothered me, heck, the rack is actually useful to have open now, rather than just being a big list I look at once and forget about immediately after loading a template.
Normally, I hate to complain too much, but I have to say, I really hate the new rack. I very much prefer the old one. The new one is just too slow to use. I am constantly scrolling up and down or searching. With the old rack, I could very easily see 12-14 instruments instantly and open the editor for any of them with a single click. Now, I scroll… I search… It is so much slower to use. Very frustrating.
Here is an example. Imagine a project where there are 10 virtual instruments. You happen to be scrolled all the way to the bottom of the “VST Instruments” window. Let’s say you then decide you want to add another “rack instrument”. How do you do it? You have to carefully click to grab the tiny little slider on the side of the window, drag it all the way up to the top. Then click on add rack instruments - at which point it opens another window. The other window it opens is the old window that used to open! At that point, you can then type in your instrument name. I’m sorry, but this is not efficient workflow.
That’s not my experience with it.
So I have like 20 rack or track instruments loaded, right? Say I want to add a new Rack Instrument, my options in this huge list are, from least to most efficient:
A) Go to Devices → VST Instruments, use the mouse wheel to scroll to the Track / Rack instruments divider (somewhere in the middle of it all) and right-click it, then select “Add Rack Instrument…”
Could also double-click on the “Rack Instruments” text in the divider to do the same.
B) Press F11, right-click on a blank part in the header at the top of the UI, select “Add Rack Instrument…”
This works because the header part of the VST instrument rack doesn’t scroll with the instruments. You can even just click the “+” piano button there.
Let’s say I want to add a Track Instrument instead:
A) Go to Devices → VST Instruments, use the mouse wheel to scroll to the Track / Rack instruments divider (somewhere in the middle of it all) and right-click it, then select “Add Track Instrument…”
Same story as the other A. That’s the most roundabout way I can imagine doing it.
B) Same as the other B.
C) Use a shortcut.
Bind “Add Track → Instrument” to a keyboard shortcut. Seriously, it’s handy.
I don’t like it either. Hard to navigate in, very sluggish too - takes like 10 seconds for it to appear vs the instantly available old rack.
Oh well.
I think they have gone bigger on the rack because bigger gui’s are popular at the moment & lots of vsti’s really benefit from it. Also with more & more features, just giving us more & more knobs, whistles & bells! But I think they have to be careful not to shoot themselves in the foot & make things more confusing & less easy to use.
I do like things about the new rack but it seems to have gone this way a little & I think if you had the choice to cut it down in size & simplify it like it was then that would sort out any problems 
A +1 to having a proper collapsed view.
I suspect it will come. One of the great benefits of Cubase in general is being able to work with very narrow tracks - the new VST Instruments window looks horribly anomalous and kiddie at the moment. What is needed is a kind of Kontakt toggle between 3 states - expanded with quick controls, regular (as now) and narrow - just the header info.
Err…I can’t even find the VST instrument window…humble ask for help…
This.
Additionally, the fact that the width is fixed means I lose even more monitor space: something that has happened with the last 2 versions. My workspace has now become considerably more cramped.
Push F11 my friend
You may have to even push it twice.
Or you may have to wait 10 seconds as I just found out by reading this thread tonight. 
Yes, the 10-15 second open rate is tons of fun. Especially since the switch acts like a toggle, so if you press it again during the 15 second load window it will toggle off as soon as it appears.
Ok, so it’s not just me then.
Earlier tonight, I tried the 10-15 second wait option but nothing happened.
I have to basically press F11 twice now, but then it does appear right away - no waiting time.
yes vst instrument window is way to big for nothing more than before.
when you need to tweak a vsti you will open it you won’t go to those awful remote control buttons that are whatever you do always poping up !
last least in ood windo having the icons on one single line made it super fast to visualise one parameter you want to focus on vertically though all vsti
now you have power / e / freeze
then below : R/ W
then a row of button i’ll probably never use making your eyes searching around for the info (and again while scrolling)
Ok, so it’s not just me then.
it’s 1sec to me 
dam 10 sec ? how can that be possible ? we almost have the same configuration. you have enough space on C ? + revent defrag ? update graphics and all ?
Yes - lot’s of space on C drive.
Recent defrag of free space only.
No - haven’t updated my graphics.
It has only started happening recently.
It may have to do with me recently trying the Cubics Blender 3rd party app that didn’t work.
It is a Cubase window finder/organizer/locator. I think it might have been because of that, because it [F11] use to work right away & with just one try.
I’ll be sincere. The new VST instrument (T)rack 2.0 is a disaster. Even its name is confusing. Some veteran users of Cubase fail to get it right. It occupies a lot of space and essentially does nothing at all. If programmers were more humble the next 7.5 update would return to the old one or the would radically change the new.
Nothing would happen. When someone makes a mistake (big on this particular case) he can rectify. We are Cubase lovers 
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Well, not quite - naming VST instruments is about 10 years overdue, so that’s an improvement.
All we need with the new rack is a collapsed mode really - but that is essential. One character height.