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Template Tutorial Series [Expression Maps added]

Mihkel Zilmer

Senior Member
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EDIT: September 2019

It's been two years since I made the template tutorial videos in this thread. Here is a little 2019 update - a fair bit has changed. The rest of the videos still contain useful ideas for anyone wanting to build a large orchestral template, but you should definitely watch the update first and find out what has changed in my personal workflow since 2017.


Original post below:

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As some of you know by now, I've been working on a series of videos that explain my approach to templates, and look at how I go about using Cubase, Lemur and VEPro. These videos have been turning up on my YouTube channel very-very slowly over the past few months, as I've not had much time to produce them over the summer. However, in the next couple of weeks I'm aiming to finish the entire series - there are 10 videos planned in total.

Disclaimer: Ultimately, workflow preferences are highly personal. I'm not advocating the "best" approach here, just some methods that I personally consider to be very effective. I hope that my approach can provide other people with a starting point for designing their own templates. Where possible, I also talk about alternatives to my choices.

Thanks for watching!

You can download my Lemur project here (mk19, Nov 2017):
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1fE9M8tiNLK-nDF5B24DzubUTZ97jR80E
Included articulations lists: Spitfire Symphonic Strings, Spitfire Chamber Strings, Cinematic Studio Strings, Berlin Strings Main Library, Berlin Strings Exp. D, Spitfire Symphonic Brass, Berlin Brass Main library, Spitfire BML Woodwinds (only partially updated for SSWW), Berlin Woodwinds + Exp. A, B, C, Spitfire Percussion, Berlin Percussion Main Library + Exp. A, all of the Spitfire Albion libraries, Metropolis ARK 1 and a few others.

You can download my Expression Maps here (mk21, Jan 2018):
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kPHuqNy1wcLVOw_9_EkFsMxw56Y5cpti
While most of these use the most recent version of these libraries currently available, I think there might be a few in there that I've forgotten to update, so they might be missing some patches. Spitfire libraries use UACC, so all Kontakt instances share the same MIDI channel. Orchestral Tools libraries have variable MIDI channels, so the Output Mapping section of the Expression Map might need editing to match your setup. For a list of the libraries included check post #43:
Template Tutorial Series [Expression Maps added]











 
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Looking forward to checking these out. No matter how long one has been doing this - there is always potentially 'a better way'. Schedules are not getting more relaxed. If you don't want there to be a drop off in music / production quality - a solid template is where you can make up the difference. Thanks again.
 
Thanks Rob, hope you can find something useful in there! Please let me know if you want me to elaborate on anything or otherwise wish to discuss certain aspects - I'd be happy to do so, and am always looking to learn more about it myself!

I've just add a new episode to the original post - #7: VEPro Setup. Next up, Lemur - that'll be 2 longish ones because there's a lot to cover..
 
Just started watching these as I'm always interested in watching how others work. Really like how the Articulations show up on your Lemur Template when you select a Track in Cubase. Looks really slick! If I could make a request, could you do a tutorial on Lemur? I'm currently using Metagrid as I thought I would give it a try and loving it so far but do own Lemur and may venture into using it more soon.
 
Just started watching these as I'm always interested in watching how others work. Really like how the Articulations show up on your Lemur Template when you select a Track in Cubase. Looks really slick! If I could make a request, could you do a tutorial on Lemur? I'm currently using Metagrid as I thought I would give it a try and loving it so far but do own Lemur and may venture into using it more soon.

Thanks! Will do - track selection following & articulation switching is coming up next, in video #9 - should be online in the next few days.

Meanwhile I've just uploaded #8 - Lemur: part 1. This video covers MIDI over USB, CC faders in Lemur and setting up Visibility buttons using Lemur, Project Logical Editor and a Generic Remote device.
 
I've just watched them all. Bravo !
Your tutorials are really great, well done and everything is explained in details.

Thank you very much !
 
Just a quick question about https://www.midimux.net (Midimux).

In the https://www.midimux.com/downloads/StudiomuxManual.pdf (manual), they say :

"Installation on Windows

Before installing the Studiomux server make sure, that you have installed the NET Framework 4.5 or higher "

Is it still true ?

On the windows webpage, they only write about Windows 7 and 8, nothing on W10. And it seems not needed for 8, though. The date (2012) of this package is also really old.

Do you have installed it or is it now included in Windows 10 by default ?

Thanks in advance.
 
I've just watched them all. Bravo !
Your tutorials are really great, well done and everything is explained in details.

Thanks for watching, glad to hear it has been helpful!

Regarding NET framework - I am 99% sure this is included in W10. You can check your system - just open Windows Features ("Turn Windows Features on or off") - .NET framework will likely be the first entry in this list.
 
These videos are great! Thanks a lot for doing that, Mihkel!!
Looking forward to more! :)
 
I decided to remove video #9 and re-record it. All the excellent feedback I received made me re-think a couple of things about my approach. I've changed to using Program Changes, improved FPS performance and changed the track identifying method to enable moving and copying tracks without messing up track order.

The new video is now online! I talk about how to set up Lemur to respond to track selection changes in Cubase and how to store, display and activate different articulations with Lemur.

 
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Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge Mihkel! I very much appreciate your videos! :thumbsup:

Best,
Mat
 
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this videos are a treasure, I don´t think I could program all that stuff in lemur but it is very helpful keep it going

thank you for your hard work!

(Edited to keep the thread on topic)
 
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I took my previous Lemur part 2 video offline because 3 excellent comments were made:
1) The FPS performance was sub-par
2) The Generic Remote system I used previously was found generally not flexible enough because changing track order would mess up the articulations displayed
3) Using floating keyswitch values seemed unnecessarily complex to most people

For the new version regular NoteOn keyswitches got swapped out with Program Changes so that they wouldn't ever clash with instruments any more.

FPS performance was improved by using a different project structure and different kinds of objects for storing articulations.

For track selection I realised I could have every track send out the same message via Generic Remote when they were selected - that quickly lead me down the path of using transformers to identify each track, as it would mean I could move & duplicate tracks freely and they keep their settings, always sending the same MIDI message out.
Also, thanks to @rgames! His post on the Steinberg forum helped me figure out how to delete any unnecessary outgoing MIDI.

I've learned MIDI Kinetics also uses a similar, although actually even more clever way of using MIDI transformers to identify tracks like this.
 
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@Mihkel Zilmer

I've learned a shit ton from your template tutorial series and am very grateful for you taking the time to share your valuable knowledge. I can't imagine how many hours of work it must of taken you to put together the lemur/cubase templates and the videos. Cheers!
 
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