Appearance
Mode Bar
The Mode Bar runs down the left edge of the window in Orbit and Orbit Pro. It's the quickest way to switch how you're looking at a file — try a different mode and settle on the one that suits you or the content you're working with.
The modes

Top to bottom, the bar holds seven view modes:
- Overview — the default working layout: Scene, Activity, and the Inspect sidebar in one view. The right mode for a QC pass.
- Playlist (Pro) — the album home: every track in the session as a full-width waveform lane, played through in order.
- Timeline (Pro) — the multichannel and spatial waveform timeline, laid out for scrubbing and spotting across the whole programme.
- Video (Pro) — audio synced to picture, with the multi-lane video timeline.
- Monitor — the speaker plan, with per-speaker solo and mute.
- Analyser (Pro) — a full-page, customisable grid of analysis modules: spectrum, loudness journey, Comet, Topology and more.
- Structure — the file's programmes, groups, folders and tracks in an outline and a table, with an inspector. Free to read; editing ADM metadata there is Pro.
New in 1.6.0 (beta)
Playlist, Analyser and Structure join the bar, and Monitor is now available in every edition.
Every mode is also one ⌘K away: open the Command Palette and type its name.
Pinned separately at the bottom is Settings — Orbit's preferences, kept out of the mode stack because it's not a way of viewing the file.
Clicking an icon switches the whole main view instantly, keeping your loaded file, playhead, and sidebar state in place:
While the Analyser is showing, two more buttons appear above Settings: Customise the Analyser and Open the Instruments window. See Analyser View.
Availability
Overview, Monitor and Structure are available in every edition. In Orbit Standard, creating a custom speaker group on the Monitor page is Pro, and the Structure page is read-only; everything else there is included.
Playlist, Timeline, Video and Analyser are Orbit Pro modes. In Standard they show a small grey lock; clicking one opens a short note about Orbit Pro instead of switching.
See also
- Overview, Monitor View and Structure View — available in every edition.
- Playlist View, Timeline View, Video View, Analyser View — the Pro modes.
- Preferences — what Settings opens.
