Please bring back channel type colors

You can colorcode the tiny space at the bottom of the channel strip → individual track colors are still there in C6.

But the color around the fader you used to have to identify whether it is an audio, FX, group, instrument, MIDI track seems to be gone (to be confirmed).

You have now to rely on the track name or the little color at the bottom to identify the track type. Which makes things harder.

Woah!!! I didn’t notice that. Steiny, what the heck are you guys thinking? I depend on those colors to help find my channels when I have high-track counts. COLORED CHANNELS PLEASE! The excellent fully-colored mixer channels are the few things that temps me to switch to Pro Tools. Do the programmers at SB actually ever use Cubase in real life? I hope Steiny does the intelligent thing on this.

+1. Reaper does this as well. But sadly not Cubase :frowning:

Hello,

We will have a look to this on Monday.

Cheers,

Chris

:open_mouth:
Good thing I sat down already when I read that, or else I’d fall over! :laughing:
thanx, though! :sunglasses:

PS if you’re lucky it’s only a setting in Defaults.xml :wink:

Well, ‘the oracle’ is knowingly a Steinberg insider / tester / employee / or CEO :wink:
So I’ll take it as fact.

bye, Jan

Thank you so much Chris, this is a great news.

+1 Yes :exclamation: :exclamation: :exclamation:

Thanks, Chris !
Good to hear.

As I said, I see the will to streamline the color management, with only one adjustable color for individual tracks / channels / parts.
But the second fixed color for channel types was a real help, navigating through dozens of channels.
E.g.: my color for drums is light blue. In my drum folder I have audio, midi and group tracks often with opened automation lanes or even subfolders. All parts are light blue.
But the tracks have their own ( 2nd ) color per type. So I can easily identify the group channels, for example.
This would be much harder if all tracks where light blue, only differing in the symbols.

bye, Jan

Thank you Chris. Now I will have a happier weekend. I really hope this can be resolved. The extra info gained from that extra little bit of colour is extremely useful when charging around the mixer.

One thing I love about Protools is the mixer and the way you can color code the mixer channels. It’s great for workflow and looks good too. Cubases mixer looks dark and clunky compared to PT. imo

wow, how awesome is that …

I sincerely hope some of this direct communication continues long after the 6 release.

+1. I like the PT method too, very clear. But even they’ve succumbed slightly to the dark style recently which is just the fad at the moment. Bigger and clearer icons and less ‘fancy borders’ would suit me. I’m less interested in the aesthetics more into being able to navigate around quickly with good visual cues. Someone in the studio said the other day that Cb5 wasn’t as easy to navigate as SX3 - I’d say personal taste, but I agree.

Mike.

+1

Haven’t got my C6 yet but anyhow; in C5 in the mixer the FX/GROUP tracks’ colors weren’t too distinctive. They should color up even the grey area in the bottom, where the tracks’ numbers are. OK ok, not a huge deal, but have sooo many times cried after that property. Would be better to have the color on where you have to click your mouse to. I remember at least Nuendo 4 having it that way…?

and what do you suggest should be in its’ place?

I respectfully disagree with folks who claim aesthetics don’t matter and then follow right behind with “what I want it to look like is…”
Looks are extremely important to software. The problem is that what people find pleasing is very subjective. I can’t use Reaper mostly because I can’t stand the UI. Same with Audacity. There are tremendous features in both, but they are aesthetically difficult to use. Cubase has a lot right in the interface (taking the old school windowing out of the equation). But, I agree that it can always use some tweaks to keep it “eye friendly”

+1 but there is an argument for a more generic track type that can be used for a multiplicity of operations, VCA fading and so on, linking to MIDI channels and so forth so I doubt this is the end of the discussion, merely it is the beginning of what will hopefully be a fruitful and positive discussion.

Nothing, … FX tracks and Groups tracks are just audio tracks. Even when they were first created they were artificial differences that are now gone. What do find different about them other than the icon and fader color? Off the top of my head I believe the only difference right now is the ability to record. That’s an artificial limitation that serves no purpose. Heck, that limitation may be gone in C6, I didn’t look.

So, if the only real difference left is the ability to identify the track type in the mixer, then give us a way to identify them. So, if you go read my suggestion you will see what I would replace them with. The ability to save track presets with fader background colors and have those available in the Add Audio Track drop down.

But you have to do that, manually …
OK, the ‘use for similar tracks’ option may help.

The main issue though, is, that the mixer channels are not reflecting that color
in an clearly visible way ( i.e.: completely colored background ).

bye, Jan

Hi dada

I don’t work with bands but have projects that have many tracks, and now with the new folder functions I can only assume that streamlining projects will be much easier.

The color strip at the bottom is more than enough IMV to identify tracks, as track type is more or less determined by function rather than an ad hoc feature such as for example auto increment/auto color.