Steinberg Cubase 6 Manual

421
Expression maps (Cubase only)
•When you want to play/record music in realtime and 
control articulation changes while playing.
•When you open and edit projects from other users. By 
using expression maps, you can map the articulation infor
-
mation to a different instrument set or content library 
quickly and easily.
ÖYou can also use the Note Expression functions to 
add articulations directly on your MIDI notes in the Key 
Editor. This is described in detail in the chapter 
“Note Ex-
pression...

422
Expression maps (Cubase only)
Expression maps in the Project window
In the Inspector for MIDI and instrument tracks, the Expres-
sion Map section is available. This indicates whether an ex-
pression map is used for a track. It also shows the sound 
slots that are active for playback and for realtime input.
The possibility to monitor the active slots is especially use-
ful when recording articulations with an external device, 
such as a MIDI keyboard. This way, you can see whether 
the correct sound...

423
Expression maps (Cubase only)
•All articulations that are specified for the selected ex-
pression map are available on the controller lane. They ap-
pear on different rows one above the other. The order in 
which they are listed is the same as in the expression map. 
The different groups (1 to 4) are also reflected here, see “Groups” on 
page 426. They are separated by black lines. Articulations belonging to the same group are shown in the same color.
•Directions are displayed as bars in the...

424
Expression maps (Cubase only)
Creating and editing expression 
maps
Creating expression maps based on the key 
switches used in an instrument
You can automatically extract mapping information from 
your connected VST instruments and convert it into a new 
expression map. This makes it very easy to set up expres
-
sion maps for the instruments you often work with.
Proceed as follows:
1.Load the VST instrument you want to use and assign it 
to a MIDI or instrument track.
2.Select the track, open the...

425
Expression maps (Cubase only)
4.To create a complex articulation, made of several dif-
ferent single articulations, click in the other Articulation 
columns (Art. 2-4) for the sound slot and add the corre
-
sponding articulations.
For each new articulation, an additional entry is added in the Articulations 
section.
•Apart from creating combined articulations, the Articula-
tion columns also allow you to prioritize articulations, by 
sorting them into different groups.
When the program is looking for...

426
Expression maps (Cubase only)
Groups
You can sort the different articulations you define for an 
expression map into one to four groups. Groups can be 
used to combine directions and attributes in more com
-
plex musical expressions by choosing articulations from 
the different groups, for example to play a note arco AND 
staccato AND with an accent.
The groups themselves are exclusive. This means articula-
tions residing within the same group cannot be used to-
gether. Since some of the...

427
Expression maps (Cubase only)
3.On the Key Mapping pop-up menu, you can specify 
with which keys on your device you want to trigger the 
sound slots.
You can choose whether you want to use all keys on the keyboard as re-mote keys, or whether only the white or black keys are used.
4.Click OK to close the dialog.
Saving your settings
When you have made the desired settings, you need to 
save the expression map. To do so, click the Save button 
in the Expression Maps section of the window, specify a...

33
Note Expression (Cubase only) 

429
Note Expression (Cubase only)
Introduction
Note Expression offers a very intuitive way of controller ed-
iting in Cubase. As an alternative to working with controller 
lanes in the Key Editor, controller data can be viewed and 
edited directly on the associated MIDI note events in the 
event display.
With Note Expression, a note and its associated controller 
data are treated as a unit. When you quantize, move, copy, 
duplicate, or delete notes, all their associated controller 
information will...

430
Note Expression (Cubase only)
•If you want to listen to your editing, activate the Acoustic 
Feedback button on the Key Editor toolbar. 
Playback is triggered when you enter or change Note Expression data. 
All controllers that are present at the mouse position will be used during 
playback.
Note Expression can be used in the following ways:
•You can record notes live into Cubase while attaching 
some or all of the used controllers as Note Expression 
events to the notes, see 
“Recording” on page...