Thank you for explaining this! I'm using a Cubase template with expression maps already set up, however I've never used expression maps before. I saw demonstrations that used Direction type and I had no idea why it looked so different in my session. Now it makes far more sense. Too bad that the feature feels unpolished! I saw another composer's video about how other DAWs have improved on expression maps compared to Cubase. Anyway! This was really helpful and I appreciate you making it. Much appreciated.
@@Composer1992 thanks for the feedback. Yeah, perhaps Steinberg will eventually do a overhaul on the Expression maps at some point in their updates. Glad that this video helped!
Having a full size keyboard I've always set the articulations in the Cubase editor (drawing them) . I know it wasn't that efficient and time consuming each time I wanted to experiment with different articulations. Until I decided very recently to use VSL libraries which have a TON of articulations (many many more compared to other libraries). VSL offers for free Expression maps for their libraries. That changed my composer life :) But I still needed to know how all this works and this presentation from Joshua is simply STUNNING. Being able also to create your own Expression Maps is so useful but I had never gotten into this before - not anymore thanks to Joshua. As always zillion thanks...
Awesome, glad that helped. This particular topic is a nuanced one and everyone has their own approach on it. In the long run, it's whatever works best for you and your setup. I really like this approach for myself but it still has some tradeoffs.
One thing I have been wondering about using Attribute mode is using it for long notes. For example, in your video, you have a few notes mapped with Leg attribute mode, would the legato sample transitions be triggered, when overlapping notes? An attribute decoration of legato for each note means that it is actually 2 keys being pressed simultaneously, as opposed to keeping the keyswitch key depressed and play overlapping notes. Hope that makes sense
Yes good question. As long as your notes are selected as legato each time with a attribute type AND notes overlap slightly, then it will behave as expected. Sometimes this will not work as well when going from a group of short notes to a group of legato notes. So for example, when you are going from Spiccato and change to a legato passage, then you'll want to pick a Sustain or Long keyswitch rather than a Legato keyswitch for that initial transition, then Legato thereafter for the rest of the passage. You know where to reach me if you have any other questions 😜
Funny after watching you compose so fast, I switch to the drop down menu and the attributes. I find that it’s wayyyyy better because I have so many articulations per track. Sometimes 20 or so with the spitfire sounds
attribute mode is more useful at least in my preference. However I wish that we can switch between articulation that we drew by dragging it up/down or with up/down arrow key at the bottom of the piano roll
Really nice Josh! I've been using direction mode for so long within Cubase/Nuendo because it was suggested by Junkie XL in his Key Switch tutorial. I think I may have to change all my Key switches to attribute mode for the added stability. Sometimes when rendering in direction mode, the key switches may not render along with the track. I definitely want to fix this; changing to attribute is one way. Thanks Josh!!!
Great video really clear explanations. And, yes, thank you for explaining Attributes. One thing I don't understand clearly is the Remote vs The "Note-on" Mapping. What happens if they are different? Do I even need to set the note-on if I dont want to?
Hey Daniel, my pleasure. To answer your question about the remote vs. "note-on" mapping, I would say having the remote set in the Expression map setup window is useful when you'd like to replace a keyswitched assigned note such as c0 or g8 (like for contrabass keyswitching) to a note that's not playable such as c-2 or c-1. It helps when you have a system setup for yourself to remember which note a "sus" or "trem" patch is assigned to (i.e. c-2 always equals "sus" or g-2 always equals "trem"). This makes it easy to remember when working with various sample libraries and their keyswitching. Other than that, you actually don't need to do assign a "remote" key as it will still work without it as long as you've assigned the "note-on."
Awesome work, thank you. Just to be sure : would you do the same process and make an expression map unique to each library ? So, one expression map for Jaeger, Nucleus and any other Audio Imperia product, then one expression map for every Cinematic Studio product, and so on, organized by "company" since they usually all use the same engine on their different product ?
@@salvatormundi5184 yes you'd have to essentially make new ones for every patch but if they are from the library, generally you can make one, save it and then load in the saved file and then tweak them for the new patches that have a different set of key switches. There is a company called Babylon Waves that has done a lot of work to make expression maps on many sample libraries for Cubase and other DAW's. However, if you go that route, my advice is to unify their labelling system to match a standard that you want. For instance, if you want a Key switch to say "sustain" or "sus" and you find one from a different library that says "long" instead, then I would change them to say "sus" so that they copy and paste over when you're composing and switching parts to different midi instruments (e.g. CSS to Spitfire).
Good evening, is there a method please to separate general listening "stereo out" and listening to the media bay? in other words I want to route the sound of the media bay separately in another audio track? I heard that it is feasible from the "control room" but it seems very complicated for a beginner A video explaining the procedure would be great
I haven't thought about that before. I can look into that and see how that would work, but do you mind me asking why you'd want to do that? Are you wanting the preview sounds to be coming out of a different audio output channel? Is that correct?
@@SohnCompositions I want to root the media bay in a separate output to insert effects and I don't want these effects to affect my main output. I have a sound card with only 2 outputs. thank you very much for your answer
Hi john...Acabo de ver ese video y si creo que nos ayuda mucho a la hora de trabajar pero me pg y te pg si el orchestrador podra ponerlo todo bien si yo pongo todo en solo una pista como legato pizzi spicc etc...sabes como va eso o si alguna vez tu orchestrador le parece ok de esa manera y no pasarle todo pista por pista? Saludos
Yeah good question, that depends on the orchestrator. Most likely, they would want you to separate out tracks by articulation, but if they have Cubase or the same DAW as you, then they might like to have it all on one track with the expression maps indicated with the text for their assigned articulation. Ideally, I'd like to work with an orchestrator that has capability to read it in Cubase but if I had to separate then I would duplicate the midi tracks and clean it up before delivering.
Pues me alegro que me confirmas tu tb que seria mejor o lo es...poner pista por pista y no ir programando diferentes articulaciones pq es mucho mejor si puedes presentar un trabajo limpio al orchestrador y no algo que le dara mucho mas trabajo...si esta bien bajo mi punto de vista para los que programan como junkie xl...pero como nosotros sabes tocar bien no creo que es tan necesario trabajar con expresion maps...pero es solo mi opinión. Un abrazo y cuidate mucho amigo!!!
So Josh creating attribute expression maps this way will still work if all your libraries are in VE Pro on a server computer? I know you have Ve Pro but I think yours is on one computer. I and I'm having issues getting this to work. Thanks a lot !!!!
Good question Isaac, in my eyes I think it would still work. Whether it's routed on the same computer or on a server, it shouldn't matter. Let me know if you've figured it out.
Highlight the notes and select in the drop down the exact same articulation. It will cancel it out to none. You can also alternatively open the Articulation lane in the Key Editor to delete them
@@riccardominelli2720 it's not so bad. It depends on how you work though. If you're quantizing everything then you'll need something like that where the delay compensation is on every expression map. I combat that by pulling or pushing over the notes according to the grid
Thank you for explaining this! I'm using a Cubase template with expression maps already set up, however I've never used expression maps before. I saw demonstrations that used Direction type and I had no idea why it looked so different in my session. Now it makes far more sense.
Too bad that the feature feels unpolished! I saw another composer's video about how other DAWs have improved on expression maps compared to Cubase. Anyway! This was really helpful and I appreciate you making it. Much appreciated.
@@Composer1992 thanks for the feedback. Yeah, perhaps Steinberg will eventually do a overhaul on the Expression maps at some point in their updates. Glad that this video helped!
Well done!…thank you for sharing your Cubase experience 😊
You're welcome!
Having a full size keyboard I've always set the articulations in the Cubase editor (drawing them) . I know it wasn't that efficient and time consuming each time I wanted to experiment with different articulations. Until I decided very recently to use VSL libraries which have a TON of articulations (many many more compared to other libraries). VSL offers for free Expression maps for their libraries. That changed my composer life :) But I still needed to know how all this works and this presentation from Joshua is simply STUNNING. Being able also to create your own Expression Maps is so useful but I had never gotten into this before - not anymore thanks to Joshua. As always zillion thanks...
Awesome, glad that helped. This particular topic is a nuanced one and everyone has their own approach on it. In the long run, it's whatever works best for you and your setup. I really like this approach for myself but it still has some tradeoffs.
What an awesome tutorial. Thanks for doing this!
Your welcome Paulie! Hope you like this workflow.
Best explanation ! Thank you...
You bet! Glad that it helped!
thanks for this :)
One thing I have been wondering about using Attribute mode is using it for long notes. For example, in your video, you have a few notes mapped with Leg attribute mode, would the legato sample transitions be triggered, when overlapping notes? An attribute decoration of legato for each note means that it is actually 2 keys being pressed simultaneously, as opposed to keeping the keyswitch key depressed and play overlapping notes. Hope that makes sense
Yes good question. As long as your notes are selected as legato each time with a attribute type AND notes overlap slightly, then it will behave as expected.
Sometimes this will not work as well when going from a group of short notes to a group of legato notes. So for example, when you are going from Spiccato and change to a legato passage, then you'll want to pick a Sustain or Long keyswitch rather than a Legato keyswitch for that initial transition, then Legato thereafter for the rest of the passage. You know where to reach me if you have any other questions 😜
Funny after watching you compose so fast, I switch to the drop down menu and the attributes. I find that it’s wayyyyy better because I have so many articulations per track. Sometimes 20 or so with the spitfire sounds
Hey, I'm glad that helped. Yeah, I learned this method from another composer and so just happy to pass on the knowledge.
attribute mode is more useful at least in my preference. However I wish that we can switch between articulation that we drew by dragging it up/down or with up/down arrow key at the bottom of the piano roll
Really nice Josh! I've been using direction mode for so long within Cubase/Nuendo because it was suggested by Junkie XL in his Key Switch tutorial. I think I may have to change all my Key switches to attribute mode for the added stability. Sometimes when rendering in direction mode, the key switches may not render along with the track. I definitely want to fix this; changing to attribute is one way. Thanks Josh!!!
Hey my pleasure Kerwin! Yes I think you'll find this one to be more stable for sure. Good luck and let me how it goes.
Thanks brother ^_^.
Great video really clear explanations. And, yes, thank you for explaining Attributes. One thing I don't understand clearly is the Remote vs The "Note-on" Mapping. What happens if they are different? Do I even need to set the note-on if I dont want to?
Hey Daniel, my pleasure. To answer your question about the remote vs. "note-on" mapping, I would say having the remote set in the Expression map setup window is useful when you'd like to replace a keyswitched assigned note such as c0 or g8 (like for contrabass keyswitching) to a note that's not playable such as c-2 or c-1. It helps when you have a system setup for yourself to remember which note a "sus" or "trem" patch is assigned to (i.e. c-2 always equals "sus" or g-2 always equals "trem"). This makes it easy to remember when working with various sample libraries and their keyswitching. Other than that, you actually don't need to do assign a "remote" key as it will still work without it as long as you've assigned the "note-on."
Awesome work, thank you.
Just to be sure : would you do the same process and make an expression map unique to each library ? So, one expression map for Jaeger, Nucleus and any other Audio Imperia product, then one expression map for every Cinematic Studio product, and so on, organized by "company" since they usually all use the same engine on their different product ?
@@salvatormundi5184 yes you'd have to essentially make new ones for every patch but if they are from the library, generally you can make one, save it and then load in the saved file and then tweak them for the new patches that have a different set of key switches.
There is a company called Babylon Waves that has done a lot of work to make expression maps on many sample libraries for Cubase and other DAW's. However, if you go that route, my advice is to unify their labelling system to match a standard that you want. For instance, if you want a Key switch to say "sustain" or "sus" and you find one from a different library that says "long" instead, then I would change them to say "sus" so that they copy and paste over when you're composing and switching parts to different midi instruments (e.g. CSS to Spitfire).
Good evening, is there a method please to separate general listening "stereo out" and listening to the media bay? in other words I want to route the sound of the media bay separately in another audio track? I heard that it is feasible from the "control room" but it seems very complicated for a beginner A video explaining the procedure would be great
I haven't thought about that before. I can look into that and see how that would work, but do you mind me asking why you'd want to do that? Are you wanting the preview sounds to be coming out of a different audio output channel? Is that correct?
@@SohnCompositions I want to root the media bay in a separate output to insert effects and I don't want these effects to affect my main output. I have a sound card with only 2 outputs. thank you very much for your answer
Hi john...Acabo de ver ese video y si creo que nos ayuda mucho a la hora de trabajar pero me pg y te pg si el orchestrador podra ponerlo todo bien si yo pongo todo en solo una pista como legato pizzi spicc etc...sabes como va eso o si alguna vez tu orchestrador le parece ok de esa manera y no pasarle todo pista por pista? Saludos
Yeah good question, that depends on the orchestrator. Most likely, they would want you to separate out tracks by articulation, but if they have Cubase or the same DAW as you, then they might like to have it all on one track with the expression maps indicated with the text for their assigned articulation. Ideally, I'd like to work with an orchestrator that has capability to read it in Cubase but if I had to separate then I would duplicate the midi tracks and clean it up before delivering.
Pues me alegro que me confirmas tu tb que seria mejor o lo es...poner pista por pista y no ir programando diferentes articulaciones pq es mucho mejor si puedes presentar un trabajo limpio al orchestrador y no algo que le dara mucho mas trabajo...si esta bien bajo mi punto de vista para los que programan como junkie xl...pero como nosotros sabes tocar bien no creo que es tan necesario trabajar con expresion maps...pero es solo mi opinión. Un abrazo y cuidate mucho amigo!!!
@@gabrield.cstoica1832 Cheers my friend!
So basically these maps engage different sets of samples of an instrument?? Right? Thnxx brother ❤
Yes they trigger a different keyswitch that is already created in the patch of the sampler engine.
So Josh creating attribute expression maps this way will still work if all your libraries are in VE Pro on a server computer? I know you have Ve Pro but I think yours is on one computer. I and I'm having issues getting this to work. Thanks a lot !!!!
Good question Isaac, in my eyes I think it would still work. Whether it's routed on the same computer or on a server, it shouldn't matter. Let me know if you've figured it out.
Hello, how can I erase the articulations without erasing the notes? Thank You
Highlight the notes and select in the drop down the exact same articulation. It will cancel it out to none. You can also alternatively open the Articulation lane in the Key Editor to delete them
@@SohnCompositions Thank You
I think that expression Maps are useless as long Steinberg won’t improve the possibility to add a single pre Delay for every articulation
@@riccardominelli2720 it's not so bad. It depends on how you work though. If you're quantizing everything then you'll need something like that where the delay compensation is on every expression map. I combat that by pulling or pushing over the notes according to the grid
@@SohnCompositionsI think I will do a map for long and o e for short articulations