User manual

420
Expression maps (Cubase only)
Introduction
About articulations
Musical articulations, or expressions, define how certain
notes “sound”, i.
e. how they are sung or performed on a
given instrument. They allow you to specify that a string in-
strument is bowed (not plucked), a trumpet muted (not
played open), and so on. Articulations also define the rela
-
tive volume of notes (to play some notes louder or softer
than the others) or changes in pitch (create a tremolo).
Articulations can be divided into “Directions” and
“Attributes”.
• Directions are valid for all notes from the insert position
on, until another direction is scored. This means, they are
applied not to single notes, but to a continuous range of
notes, or even an entire piece of music.
An example for a direction is pizzicato, which means that the string in-
strument is plucked.
• Attributes belong to single notes. They are only applied
to the notes for which they are scored.
Examples for this are accents, where a note is played with an emphasis,
and staccato, where a note is played shorter.
Musical articulations in the Score Editor
Articulations and MIDI
When working with MIDI, i. e. when you are entering notes
via a MIDI keyboard, editing notes in the MIDI editors or
using VST instruments, articulations need to be realized
as different sounds. To trigger the necessary sound
changes, use the following command and data types:
Expression maps
When working on a project, you might want to audition a
composition including articulations. In Cubase, this can be
achieved using expression maps, which can be selected
via the Expression Map section in the Inspector for MIDI or
instrument tracks. Within these maps, you can specify the
sound mapping and characteristics for all your musical ex
-
pressions, using the methods described in the table above.
When you select an expression map for a MIDI or instru-
ment track, the articulations (sounds) defined in the map
are automatically applied during playback. Cubase recog-
nizes the expressions scored for the MIDI part and
searches the sound slots in the expression map for a sound
that matches the defined criteria.
When a matching sound slot is found, the current note is ei-
ther modified (e. g. reduced in length or played louder), or
the MIDI channel, program change or key switch informa-
tion is sent to the connected instrument (the instrument se-
lected on the Output Routing pop-up menu for the track),
so that a different sound is played. When no sound slot is
found that matches the articulations used in the part, the
“closest match” is used, see
“Groups” on page 426.
When you enter articulations in a MIDI part, you need to
set up an expression map in a way that the right sounds in
the connected VST or MIDI instrument are triggered (see
“Creating and editing expression maps” on page 424).
Expression maps also allow you to link your articulations
with remote keys on a MIDI input device and map these to
sounds that can be played by a MIDI device or VST instru
-
ment. This way, you can enter notes and articulations us-
ing a remote MIDI device and have these automatically be
recorded and played back correctly by Cubase.
Expression maps are useful in the following situations:
• When you want to enter musical articulations directly in
one of the MIDI editors, especially the Score Editor, with-
out having to record MIDI data first.
Option Description
Program
Change
Program Change messages can be used to instruct a con-
nected VST instrument to switch from one program to another.
Depending on the instrument, this can be used to play a differ
-
ent articulation.
Pizzicato Tenuto Accent Staccato
AttributesDirection
MIDI
channel
Multi-timbral instruments, such as Steinberg’s HALion, feature
programs, usually representing different articulations. These
can be accessed via MIDI channel messages.
Key
switches
Some software samplers, like Steinberg’s HALion Symphonic
Orchestra, make use of “key switches”, meaning that certain
keys are not used to trigger sounds, but to switch between ar
-
ticulations, for example.
Option Description