Expression Maps V1 in Cubase

today we talk about

Expression Maps V1 in Cubase

hello everybody Andrew Blake from thedigitalaudiomanual.com today let's talkabout expression maps in Cubase butbefore we start I want to remind youthat there's a link below to the freecontent navigation guide which is aneasy to navigate webpage with links toall the content on this channel andbesides that in the near future I'mgoing to begin adding tips and otherbits of information that will only beavailable there you know things likesimple steps that will get you startedand up and running quick things that arein the videos but are written down insimple steps that serve as quickreminders when you need information downthe road if you're working with programslike wavelab or Cubase plugins or thecable guys shaper box and many manyother projects that are in the worksthen I know you're going to find justlike I have that this is an invaluablestudy Aid and the other thing I want tomake sure you understand is that this isnot a simple PDF this is a constantlyupdated page that has any informationthat is new or anytime videos arechanged really anything up updated andonce you have it you will always havethe latest information constantlyupdated so if you haven't gotten italready go to the link below click on itand save it to your favorites it's mygift to you and it's absolutely freeOkay so let's get started so we spent alittle time talking about nodeexpression and then there's this thingcalled expression maps and you wouldthink because they both have the wordexpression in them that they're kind ofsimilar really they kind of serve twodifferent functions the note expressionis something you can use to kind of likeadjust certain individual notes withthis expression data whereas theexpression map is more aimed towardswhat we call articulations right now I'mlooking at the expression map setupwhich is what you use when you're kindof creating these different Maps I'mgoing to close this down if we look overin the project we have the tab that saidthe node expression and we messed aroundwith that previously with other videosbut in the tab right above it it saysexpression map and it has a little dropdown and right now mine says no map andthere could be all kinds of otherchoices here or there could be nochoices here but let me put a map inhere real quick and give you a quickdemonstration of what articulations areand that'll help you understand as we godeeper into how to create these and whatthe use is so if we take an instrumentlike helium symphonic orchestra if Ilook in this window right here it saysExpressions which for our discussion isthe same as the articulations and whatthe concept is here if I play a regularnote this is like a violin note stringnote when I click on these various otherExpressions it still plays the same notebut it changes the way that node isbeing performed if I look down at thekeyboard I have some yellow Keys herewhen I click on one of these yellow keysif you watch up on the list it selectsone of these expressions orarticulations which allows you toactually perform it or change it in realtimeif you see with my mouse I'm going tohit notes up in this area to hear thesoundbut while I'm hitting this note up herein this area to hear the sound I'm goingto go down here and click this notewhich triggers this expression orarticulation at the same time and listento the difference it makes from thisoriginal same note here's the originalnotenow I'm clicking down on one of thesearticulations or Expressions hitting thesame notesee how it completely changes that tothat Trill type soundlet's try this one here I'm going tohold it downkind of a sharper note a real commonsound a Pizzicato soundand as with these key switches orarticulations or your Expressions allthese kind of words are interchangeablefor kind of the same thing and this isthe effect that they have so now we'veseen a little bit about these keyswitches or articulations and how theyactually can change the notes but let'stalk about what triggers these and thisis the key thing to our discussion todaywith these expression Maps again if westay with a symphonic orchestra for justa minute if I look in this column stillthere's a column here that says SW andthat stands for the switch As I lookdown this list it gives me a whole bunchof different notes and note numbers forexample at the very bottom of the listwhere it says Pizzicato it says a Csharp zero and if I move up to the onethat says tremolo it says c0 now Iactually have a midi keyboard connectedto my computer looks just like thiskeyboard here and when I push on notesit plays things from the synthesizer andif I go to the note that says c0 on mykeyboard and click on it it actuallymoves the screen up here and selects thenote that says c0 if I hit the note thatit says a negative 1 it it moves in thislist and hits the note a negative oneactually down here on the piano itactually shows this as well I'm notdoing this with my mouse I'm just kindof pointing at it with my mouse but whenI hit this note it depresses it on thiskeyboard right here if I hit the note c0that's right up here a little bitfurther and it's making that note godown so I can hit notes on my keyboardand it will trigger these switchesso when it comes to expression maps inCubase the main value is how it allowsus to trigger things just like I did onthe instrument but within Cubase andthen it offers a whole bunch of extrafeatures once we start doing that if Icome over here on the left to the tabthat says expression map again there'sone that says node expression we've beenlooking at that but this one saysexpression map and right now I have amap already loaded and as we go alongI'm going to show you how to load theseand create these and do all kinds ofthings to them but right now this isjust an example so you can see somethingand if you look up here see how theyhave some green lights up here as Istart pressing keys on my keyboard samething that happened on the instrument isthe same thing that starts happening onthis expression map see how the lightsare changing I'm pressing a key on mykeyboard and it's triggering the map tochange as well I can hit other keys andwhen I do other lights will come on it'sactually changing over here on theinstrument as well as I hit thesedifferent keys but this expression mapis kind of a Gateway that allows us tocontrol and manipulate the incoming mididata and then send it off to do thesedifferent articulations all right so thenext thing I want to show you is whathappens when you have a map or when youdon't have a map I'm going to go throughthis drop down list above my map hereI'm going to choose the option that saysno map now when I go to my midi partdouble click on it when I look in thearea that says articulations there'snothing here it's just a blank slate Ihave notes above it but I have noarticulations listed here on the otherhand if I go back up to this area underthe expression map and I select mydemonstration map which I have createdhere it shows up in this map area hereon the left and when I go to my midipart all of a sudden I have this extrainformation down here and on the left itshows the various expressions orarticulations that are available andthen in this area I can actually startdrawing some in and to draw some in it'sas simple as taking the draw tool youclick over the articulation you want andthe measure that you're looking for andwhen you click these in it just drawsthese articulations right in place now Iput some Legato and some Pizzicato inhere listen to what it does to the midinotesas they play[Music]this is the Gateway that allows you toadd some total realism to some of yourmidi performances now I'm using anorchestral example but this applies toother situations as well and we'll lookat some of those but the idea is onceyou have an expression map in place youhave such control over how you want toadd these articulations in and you canmove them around and redraw them howeveryou want you could put them on specificnotes if you wanted to there's an optionhere that says the expression map setupwe're going to get into this more nexttime it allows us to choose what kind ofnodes we want to trigger so there's justso much that's involved in having theseexpression maps and sometimes you'llhave an instrument that you'll get thatmay not have an expression map you maywant to have some idea how you couldcreate your own and we're going to getinto that as well all right it's goingto wrap it up for today as always be I'mgrabbed your navigation guide be sure tograb that from the link below this videogives you quick easy access to all thecontent on on this channel ever growingand free to use content is in orderbeing updated continually plus there'supdates in there for anything coming upanything that's happening pick it upkeep it close by and just use itwhenever you need it a lot ofinformation involved in a subject likethis but again it's one of those thingsthat you try to understand it or look atwhat's out there already well I can tellyou I've never found anything that'shelped me understand that I wind upbeing more confused than I started withevery time I look into it let's see ifwe can do better this time and that's itfor now as always it's great to have youguys here I'll see you on the next video