# Expression Maps and Selecting Current Keyswitch



## Moquan (Jun 11, 2018)

I am testing the waters with expression maps and I got them to work great while in the MIDI Editor.

Here's what I was hoping to be able to do:

Click/double-click over on the side bar (see image) or somewhere to set my active articulation while I'm noodling around. I don't have a tablet or a keyboard that uses the C -2 to D -1 of let's say the Spitfire Chamber Strings Ensemble patch.

I chatted with Steinberg this morning it is 'simply not possible'.

Any ideas for a workaround? In advance, I appreciate your wisdom and insight!


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## tack (Jun 11, 2018)

Moquan said:


> Click/double-click over on the side bar (see image) or somewhere to set my active articulation while I'm noodling around. I don't have a tablet or a keyboard that uses the C -2 to D -1 of let's say the Spitfire Chamber Strings Ensemble patch.
> 
> I chatted with Steinberg this morning it is 'simply not possible'.


That's interesting. The "noodling around" use case is surely a very important one?

I know this doesn't help you at all, but I wrote an articulation management system for REAPER where this kind of capability is front and center. It has a GUI where you can select any articulation available on the track, and I also have the most common articulations (legato, sustains, staccato, etc.) accessible from a control surface.

So in Cubase, expression maps are only mainly useful in the piano roll?

Watching this space with interest (and ideas to steal ).


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## Moquan (Jun 11, 2018)

tack said:


> So in Cubase, expression maps are only mainly useful in the piano roll?



As far as I can tell, this appears to be the case!


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## agarner32 (Jun 11, 2018)

Two suggestions- buy a cheap small keyboard for key switches or change the key switch assignments so that they are in the range of your keyboard, but out of the range of the patches. Possibly a controller app for your phone?


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## Tfis (Jun 13, 2018)

Just a guess: 
Did you try using the virtual keyboard?


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## Moquan (Jun 13, 2018)

Tfis said:


> Just a guess:
> Did you try using the virtual keyboard?



Oh... my...  Why didn't that even cross my mind!? Thank you for the suggestion!


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## robgb (Jun 13, 2018)

Moquan said:


> I chatted with Steinberg this morning it is 'simply not possible'.


That seems odd to me. What's the point of expression maps if you can't switch while you're playing?


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## Jerry Growl (Jun 13, 2018)

You can map any key on a smaller keyboard (if you can spare some keys) to these 'lower octave' note keyswitches. You don't have to hard press the far left keys on a 88 key grand piano controller. You can map keyswitch "C-2" to any key you like using the top right menu in the same expression map setup screen (under "Output Mapping" See image , under number 3).

One more thing: 
Do keep in mind Cubase calls the 'middle C' : C3
So usually there is an octave offset needed. Don't ask me why.
If you want to read more about this: https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=10795


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## tack (Jun 13, 2018)

Jerry Growl said:


> Obviously Steinberg didn't understand your question.


But the OP was asking for a UI driven workflow not a MIDI one: "Here's what I was hoping to be able to do: Click/double-click over on the side bar (see image) or somewhere to set my active articulation while I'm noodling around." Probably that's what Steinberg was focusing on in their response.

Sounds like the virtual keyboard idea from Tfis fits the bill though.


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## Hywel (Jun 13, 2018)

Am I missing something?

Surely if you are just noodling around the best place to select articulations is in the GUI of the instrument itself.

Incidentally I have found it irritating in the past (but have got over it) that you can't click on the articulation list in the Cubase Expression Map in the Inspector column to change articulations on the fly.

Hywel


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## Jerry Growl (Jun 13, 2018)

Even 'noodling around' can do with a bit of learning curve. Why not noodle precisely the same way you would record?


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## rudi (Jun 13, 2018)

Yes, I too had the same experience. I recently upgraded to Cubase Pro 9 and was amazed to find that you can't use the GUI to switch articulations on the fly... it would have been a great to be able to use the GUI to do so in addition to using a MIDI keyboard!


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## robgb (Jun 13, 2018)

rudi said:


> Yes, I too had the same experience. I recently upgraded to Cubase Pro 9 and was amazed to find that you can't use the GUI to switch articulations on the fly... it would have been a great to be able to use the GUI to do so in addition to using a MIDI keyboard!


I often get chastised for mentioning Reaper (because I'm such a fanboy), but Reaper with @tack 's Reaticulation scripts allows you to do exactly that. And it works like a friggin' charm.


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## Moquan (Jun 14, 2018)

robgb said:


> That seems odd to me. What's the point of expression maps if you can't switch while you're playing?



You 'can' switch while you're playing but you need to have a remote trigger, as they call it. I assume this is some device that can communicate via MIDI. I was hoping to be able to click the UI elements - for instance where it says 'Long CS' to switch to that. I didn't have an additional external device to trigger it, just a single pretty basic MIDI keyboard.



Hywel said:


> Am I missing something?
> Surely if you are just noodling around the best place to select articulations is in the GUI of the instrument itself.



Agreed, that works. However, I actually had SCS running on a VEPro instance on a old remote computer. It's somewhat cumbersome to switch between Cubase and an RDP session to change these settings, but doable for sure.



tack said:


> Sounds like the virtual keyboard idea from Tfis fits the bill though.



I tried the virtual keyboard approach - at least the one in cubase. It only goes down to C0, which is 2 octaves too high for Spitfire's default mappings.

In order to not get too hung up on a problem, I ended up giving Metagrid a go. I was able to create a few octaves of buttons and it works just fine for the time being.

I really appreciate everyone's thoughts and opinions on this matter!


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## borisb2 (Jun 21, 2019)

Setting up expression maps for CSB at the moment - Just found this old thread.

Is there any word from steinberg that this might be changed in the future?

Why should you not be able to click on an articulation in the inspector? Isnt that the whole point of the inspector, tweaking an instrument?


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## VinRice (Jul 15, 2019)

Yes I was amazed that this wasn't possible in Cubase - seems to be a completely intuitive way to control things doesn't it? It is what it is unfortunately. I too went with a Metagrid/iPad solution.


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