Michael is correct. The role of Dorico expression maps are slightly different to Cubase expression maps. In Dorico the Map is the thing that translates between higher level musical concepts (‘instrument is playing middle C at dynamic ff’) and how that sound is realised for a specific sample library. So if a sample library has shifted the sound of a bass instrument up by an octave so that it’s playable on a 61 key keyboard, then that knowledge is stored in the Expression Map so that it ‘just works’.
In Cubase though, things are a little different because you’re at a lower level sending MIDI notes directly to a device at the pitch you want to hear. So if the sample library has the bass instruments one octave higher, then you have already compensated for that by making the notes in Cubase higher (or added a MIDI transpose insert). So in this case you want the score editor to remove that compensation by shifting the notes back down.
I think there’s another way you could do this though, (which is more Dorico-like) by creating an Expression Map with just one Slot that is set to transpose up or down by 12. Set the track to use this and it means that you can create the MIDI events and the score in the written pitch, and Expression Map will deal with the transposition for this specific library. This also has the benefit that if switch to a different library that doesn’t need the transposition then you don’t need to transpose all your MIDI events – just unset the Expression Map from the track.
