# Cubase Expression Maps Generator



## Marius Kappes (Jul 3, 2022)

Hello everyone.
As a long-term Cubase user that never created a full template because creating expression maps is soooo tedious, I finally came around and created a fully functional webpage for creating expression maps.






Expression Map Editor / Generator


An online tool for creating and editing expression maps for Steinberg Cubase



expressionmaps.soundsinabox.de





Make sure to check the help page to get started

*Some features*


Unlike Cubase’s own editor with this tool you can assign triggers (key/cc/pgc) to articulations!
Slots are then generated from these articulations, combining the articulations’ triggers.

You can assign increasing triggers to multiple articulations with just a few clicks. Just select multiple articulations, press the “+++” button and each articulation gets its own trigger, either increasing chromatically or just white keys or just black keys
Override any value in the generated slots
Enter values, 
with your keyboard (“C#-2” or “1”, “D-2” or “2”)
with a visual midi keyboard (see 2nd screenshot) 
by just using an actual midi keyboard (works for keys, CC and velocity)

*The webpage is available in*


English
German
French
Italian coming soon
and was tested for expression maps with over 4000 slots.


----------



## ed buller (Jul 3, 2022)

My goodness this looks awesome. Will check it out. Thank you !

best

e


----------



## Vonk (Jul 3, 2022)

Well done! When individuals can come up with something like this, it really shows how poor Steinberg have been about improving this neglected feature of Cubase.


----------



## devonmyles (Jul 3, 2022)

Good grief. What an outstanding contribution to the Cubase/Nuendo community..!!
Thank you very much.


----------



## blaggins (Jul 3, 2022)

Wow this is great @Marius Kappes. I've thought about creating something like this as a python utility (haven't done it of course) but you really took it to another level with great UI features and turning it into a website so anyone can easily use it. This is a fantastic community contribution.

Totally agree with @Vonk, Steinberg should be embarrassed at how long it takes (and how many inefficient clicks it takes) to create expression maps within Cubase.


----------



## glyster (Jul 3, 2022)

As an engineer myself, kudo for a well thought effort. It looks amazing!


----------



## NuNativs (Jul 3, 2022)

Wow!


----------



## AndrewS (Jul 3, 2022)

Is there a way to import previous expression maps we've already made for editing?


----------



## Marius Kappes (Jul 3, 2022)

tpoots said:


> I've thought about creating something like this as a python utility


Yeah, it started as a wpf project but I realized more ppl could benefit from it being a web page. 



glyster said:


> As an engineer myself, kudo for a well thought effort. It looks amazing!


Thank you! 


AndrewS said:


> Is there a way to import previous expression maps we've already made for editing?


Unfortunately no. Two reasons:
1. My workflow is based on triggers attached to articulations. This cannot always be recovered from the final expression maps
2. The .expressionmaps format sucks. It has a lot of redundant data and clearly wasn't veery well designed. Extracting the necessary data is more work than exporting to it. I also figured that creating new maps should be much faster now. So do it once, keep the files forever. I'll make sure they're backwards compatible, should I add new features.


----------



## AndrewS (Jul 3, 2022)

Marius Kappes said:


> Unfortunately no. Two reasons:


Ah, that's a bummer. At least now there's a way to make new expression maps more intuitively. Many thanks for your hard work!


----------



## Richard Bowling (Jul 4, 2022)

Thanks for your hard work and for making this available— let’s all make sure to use that “donate” button.


----------



## Marius Kappes (Jul 5, 2022)

Added two new features:

Set triggers for “empty” articulations (screenshot 1)
Remove all slots (screenshot 2)
Fixed a few bugs


----------



## signalpath (Jul 5, 2022)

A splendid contribution to the Cubase/Nuendo community.


----------



## DynamicK (Jul 7, 2022)

Wow, Thanks for this awesome utility. Making expression maps was always a PITA, and I've done quite a few for my libraries in the past.
This will make things a lot easier.


----------



## Byrial (Jul 7, 2022)

Marius Kappes said:


> Hello everyone.
> As a long-term Cubase user that never created a full template because creating expression maps is soooo tedious, I finally came around and created a fully functional webpage for creating expression maps.
> 
> 
> ...


You divine man!

MB


----------



## samphony (Jul 7, 2022)

This is really impressive. I just wish steinberg would wake up and finally implement a way to add, delete, rearrange multiple expession maps at once.


----------



## Marius Kappes (Jul 8, 2022)

samphony said:


> I just wish steinberg would wake up and finally implement a way to add, delete, rearrange multiple expession maps at once


Yeah. Even with ready-made maps it's still too many clicks to assign everything. :(


----------



## Marius Kappes (Jul 11, 2022)

Added possibility of an "all empty" slot, requested by some of you


----------



## YaniDee (Jul 12, 2022)

Amazing! I thought I heard mention of a youtube video..is that available?


----------



## Marius Kappes (Jul 12, 2022)

YaniDee said:


> Amazing! I thought I heard mention of a youtube video..is that available?


Not yet. I'm bad at video editing or don't have the right software, I don't know. I'm playing with the idea to ask Guy Michelmore to make a video as he's using Cubase.


----------



## Marius Kappes (Sep 1, 2022)

Hello everyone, I updated the webpage with a new feature.
If you have instruments of the same library, e.g. strings and they have the same articulations but the placement of key switches is different (below register for violins, above register for celli) then this new button let's you shift key switches of specific octaves up and down.


----------



## ravez (Nov 16, 2022)

hi! any reason why we can't use program change as remote keys instead of notes, like in cubase expression map editor?


----------



## Marius Kappes (Nov 17, 2022)

ravez said:


> hi! any reason why we can't use program change as remote keys instead of notes, like in cubase expression map editor?


If you're referring to the screenshot below, then that's because it's not part of the expression map. You can either use keys or pgc for *all* expression maps.


----------



## Marius Kappes (Nov 17, 2022)

@ravez That being said, if you're concerned with how it's displayed in the editor, I made some changes.
You can now select the display style. Doesn't change anything in the output, though.

I also realized that program changes range from 1 to 128 (at least visually in Cubase) instead of 0 to 127. If fixed that so PGC in Cubase match my editor.


----------



## ravez (Nov 17, 2022)

thanks! that's exactly what i wanted!
also it would be great to be able to reset the remote on selected slots, currently you'd have to go one by one


----------



## Marius Kappes (Nov 17, 2022)

ravez said:


> thanks! that's exactly what i wanted!
> also it would be great to be able to reset the remote on selected slots, currently you'd have to go one by one


Alright, there you go. I also adapted the single slot panel to show programs instead of keys


----------



## ravez (Nov 17, 2022)

there seems to be a bug, in that once you save out the map you can't open it back in the expression map generator, but it works great in cubase, keeping all the assigned remote triggers as i wanted.


----------



## Marius Kappes (Nov 17, 2022)

ravez said:


> there seems to be a bug, in that once you save out the map you can't open it back in the expression map generator, but it works great in cubase, keeping all the assigned remote triggers as i wanted.


My bad, it's fixed now


----------



## ravez (Monday at 5:05 PM)

Another suggestion, when changing the notes in the trigger key section it always changes the order, which messes things up when you have many notes and have to find the last one you edited and then you change it again by a semitone for example and again it changes the position in the list.
It would be nice if the notes stay in the order you choose instead, with 2 buttons that can move them up or down as needed, just as the articulations


----------



## YaniDee (Monday at 6:10 PM)

When I went to the site just now , Firefox asked if I wanted to install an add-on..I guess that's necessary for the page to work?


----------



## Marius Kappes (Yesterday at 12:27 AM)

ravez said:


> when changing the notes in the trigger key section it always changes the order, which messes things up when you have many notes and have to find the last one


I can only reproduce this when selecting a key from the virtual keyboard. do you experience it, when entering a note name/value as well?



ravez said:


> It would be nice if the notes stay in the order you choose instead, with 2 buttons that can move them up or down as needed, just as the articulations


Unfortunately that's not possible because there's no definite order when selecting multiple articulations.



YaniDee said:


> When I went to the site just now , Firefox asked if I wanted to install an add-on..I guess that's necessary for the page to work?


No, this is definitely not needed! In fact you could even save the page (nobody does that anymore) and use it offline. Can you DM me with the add-on that wants to be installed?


----------



## YaniDee (Yesterday at 7:43 AM)

Marius Kappes said:


> No, this is definitely not needed! In fact you could even save the page (nobody does that anymore) and use it offline. Can you DM me with the add-on that wants to be installed?


It doesn't say. However I tried it with Chrome, and Firefox on another computer and there was no issue..Maybe it's my pop-up blocker..In any case, I downloaded the page, and will use it off-line.


----------



## Marius Kappes (Yesterday at 7:46 AM)

YaniDee said:


> Maybe it's my pop-up blocker..


There is no external content, so even popups are a non-issue. Weird.



YaniDee said:


> In any case, I downloaded the page, and will use it off-line


Alright. The thing is more or less feature complete anyways.


----------



## ravez (Yesterday at 3:43 PM)

Marius Kappes said:


> I can only reproduce this when selecting a key from the virtual keyboard. do you experience it, when entering a note name/value as well?


Never used the virtual keyboard, it happens sometimes when inputting manually and always when using the semitone arrows


----------



## YaniDee (Yesterday at 4:36 PM)

Marius Kappes said:


> There is no external content, so even popups are a non-issue. Weird.


Actually I found out what it wants to install it says:
"this add-on will give soundsinabox.de access to your midi devices"


----------



## Marius Kappes (Today at 7:00 AM)

YaniDee said:


> Actually I found out what it wants to install it says:
> "this add-on will give soundsinabox.de access to your midi devices"


Oh yes. You can use midi devices to enter notes/CCs. Totally forgot about that


----------

