I’m not doing orchestral compositions etc.
I only have 1 group. I would like it to open automatically to avoid an extra mouse click.
I thought I found a solution tonight, but I had to leave my studio.
Expression maps for me are simply articulations for bass guitar, guitar etc. Nothing that takes more than 1 group. For me it’s easier than key switches in Kontakt.
Except when I open Hollywood Orchestra…
Oh I’m not suggesting you need more than one group. But you don’t have to expand the group to use it.
Let me try to make this more clear.
I do need to expand Group 1 to set up my articulations. I do realize I don’t need to expand the group once the articulations are set up.
I have the Key Editor open. There are no controllers visible i.e. modulation, velocity, sustain showing at the bottom of the Key Editor.
I have a Key Command to open articulations at the bottom of the Key Editor.
When I open articulations…it looks like the first pic above. Then I must click on Group 1 to open what you see in the lower pic.
What I want, is when I use the Key Command to open Articulations, it immediately look like the bottom pic. No moving my mouse over the Group 1 icon to open it.
This is what I mean - you don’t. The group in collapsed state isn’t only for looking at what you’ve done. You can change articulations on notes and add articulations to notes with the group in collapsed state without having to expand it at all. You can create entire tracks that make heavy use of expression maps without having to expand a group even once. I just wasn’t sure if you realized that, many people do not.
No, I did not know I could add articulations to notes with a group collapsed and never having to expand it in the Key Editor. I have watched a few videos, but apparently have not seen what you are addressing? I’m well aware of collapse/expand and show/hide.
Tell me more…
Hi,
So you can add a new articulation into the collapsed lane with the pencil (draw) tool, which can also be temporarily activated from the object selection tool by using the ALT key on Windows or probably CMD on MacOS. Click in the collapsed group at the right spot to add the new articulation.
This will of course probably not add the exact articulation you want (because you can only choose the group when collapsed, so it will make a guess of which articulation you might want from the collapsed group), but there is a drop down menu for each articulation when in the collapsed state on the right hand side that lets you change it to any other articulation.
Clicking on the left edge will open that menu and let you change the articulation to something else.
Adding a new articulation (which will be wrong) and changing it to something else can be done pretty quickly if you get used to the dance of ALT-click to create a new articulation and then click once more without ALT to activate the drop down to change it to the one you want.
You can also use the scroll wheel of the mouse to change articulations when in the collapsed state without activating the menu. This is not typically useful for large groups with a lot of options but can be useful for smaller groups.
In Cubase 15, I’m basically working 100% of the time in the new way, with the groups collapsed and never expanded.
Thanks for the tip. I googled a few C15 video tutorials including Dom explaining Expression map improvements, and no one mentioned the draw tool working this way. If you know of any tutorials explaining this, feel free to send a link because there could be other little gems I don’t know as well.
I think my issue about always having to click on the group, once I open articulations with a KC was a configuration issue on my end. I re-created the configuration in the Controller Lane Set Up, and now with Metagrid, it’s working like it should.
Hi everyone,
I’d like to join your conversation and add a few minor things. But first let me express my gratitude to the Steinberg team for making the expression maps more convenient. Some additions really are a blessing!
Now, I’ve been wondering about a few things so obvious to me that I keep asking myself “What am I missing?”. So if someone has any pointers for me I’ll much appreciate it. If not, here are my suggestions;
is it possible to have that small “sound-slots” lane on top with any other CC lane below? Like Modulation for instance?
what I miss a lot from Cubase 14 are those columns in the expression map editor
Because it gets pretty messy pretty quickly. Especially considering that the added articulations aren’t shown in the order of their respective groups but in the order I’ve added them to that specific sound slot. Like shown in this screenshot:
I also miss the possibility to make the expression map editor “always on top”. Which I find very annoying, tbh.
When working with add-ons instead of creating a sound slot for everything, I think it’d be nice if the names of the add-ons would be added in that small sound slot lane. Like this:
I’m aware that it could get messy quickly. So I believe it’d be best to have the option to choose if those add-ons are added or not.
Also it’d be great to have the different user defined articulations sorted by groups when adding them to a specific sound slot. Right now they’re sorted alphabetically:
So, that’s it for now. I hope my explanations aren’t too messy. And again, I’m very grateful for any pointers in case I’m missing something. I’ve actually just started getting to know all these new functions.
Thanks and cheers to everyone
Pierre
I don’t necessarily fully agree with this personally. Now in Cubase it is pretty much like how it has always been in Dorico. Yes, it may seem a bit unorganized, but I view articulations almost like “tags” where you select a sound slot by choosing what tags you want and it narrows it down to a specific best match sound slot from the list. The same way in which tags are unordered, articulations should be as well, and are only given orders by placing them in groups at the bottom. And you can have a large number of groups, for some VSL maps I’m looking at making around 10 or 11 groups, so having 10 columns could make the window too large.
I do however agree that it could make sense for them to sort differently, since the order of selection makes no difference at all. In Dorico they are shown lexicographically rather than in the order you’ve added them to that slot - the order you’ve added them doesn’t matter, so perhaps it could at least be the same here. I agree that the order they were selected in makes very little sense, since the selection order doesn’t have any practical impact.
In Dorico the lane this is based on doesn’t show the addons right in the name. However, it shows up in the tooltip when you mouse over. This information is not currently in the equivalent tooltip in Cubase but I did request this be added so that it matches the Dorico functionality.
I’m not opposed to also showing the addon names in the sound slot lane name itself visibly as an option, but if this was done, I’d also want this to be done in Dorico so they matched in functionality in this way.
A trick that might help you with this would be to use the search box in the articulations list to find multiple articulations at once, this can be done by using the vertical bar (aka “pipe symbol”) as an OR operator. So you could easily limit your list to just Largo and Norm attack by typing:
Largo | Norm
In the search box. It doesn’t exactly address your suggestion, but you might find you no longer need that by using the search. At least, I’m guessing you might not know about the | for “OR” since it is not obvious.
Also as another hint, in Cubase 15 you can now simplify your map design by not needing to define things like “regular” and “norm attack” at all. Instead, you can use the new special direction called “Reset” for this, since it lets you get back to an unset state for a group. This will simplify your lists. Each group can have an unset state as a “default” in which it doesn’t contribute any articulation name to the stack. This was always the case, but before there was easy no way to return to this unset state, but that’s what Reset gives you. So you can leverage this to make simpler maps.
As an example, “Normal attack” could be considered the default for its group and then you don’t need a lane for “Normal attack” - just don’t enter any attack, or if you are currently at a non standard attack like Slow attack, use “reset” to return to Normal Attack once again. You only need lanes for things that are “not normal” and use “reset” to return a group to normal.
This strategy for map design has some advantages in that it needs fewer slots since there are fewer permutations to handle. It also needs fewer articulation lanes. The only downside is for each group you might have to remember what the “default” is, but in most cases this can be decided in a predictable way, by deciding something like “anything that is regular or normal or sustain will be a default”.
The other advantage is that will help with your first issue (the “clutter” of not having the columns), by meaning you need fewer articulations in most cases. Everywhere you have “Norm Attack” or “Regular” or “Sustain” would disappear. So your list of sound slots that consistently has 3 articulations throughout would often drop down to just one or two, by leveraging this ability to use unset as a valid group state, resulting in a significantly cleaner list.
Using this new strategy for map design is also most compatibile with Dorico best practices for map design, allowing you to use similar strategies in designing maps that work in both programs without changes (at least, once we get a full featured map import from one to the other).
Hi and first of all thanks for your input!
I meant that as an option. I’m a VSL user myself (big fan actually). But due to the fact that the number of groups was limited to 4, I now have a system that works for me. I might add a fifth group now that it’s possible (for the new ostinato patches) but that’ll be it. Actually I don’t want that many groups. Would make the articulation lane too cluttered for me.
Plus, there are a lot of non-VSL users out there who don’t need more than 3 or 4 groups.
Thanks, but that’s not what I was going for. That list of user defined articulations shown in my screenshot (number 5) is sorted alphabetically. I believe it would make sense to have them sorted by group. Or at least to have the option. I mean, you’re adding groups one by one. Why not sort them by groups?
The way it is now it’s easier to miss a group. To make mistakes. Plus, it’s more tedious when you have a lot of articulations; scrolling down and up and down, typing in names, aso.
Or, as mentioned before, they bring back those group columns. Right click on a sound slot and choose an articulation from that specific group and that’s it.
That sounds like great hint. But I couldn’t find what you’re talking about. Can you help me with one or two screenshots please?
You can see it in this screenshot above higher up in this same thread:
When activating that context menu you see “Reset” as an option.
Ah thanks. This one slipped by me
Curious if we may see any more Expression map improvements soon in an update in Q1 2026.
New Cubase update released. Just started to test Expression Map Setup again for improvements.
Still no Fader control extra input option only keyswitch OR program change input option available
No global input option, all input settings that reverted to keyswitches with Cubase 15 release still has to be changed back MANUALLY for EACH expression map because of this. Wonder if it will the same issue with Cubase 16. Terrible situation.
Anyone found anything else lacking/missing which should be fixed in the Q1 26 Cubase updates?
@StefanFuhrmann it has been a bit quiet with the updates after the January fix update.
Is there any more expression map updates planned in Q1 and Q2? Any hints?
Cubase just made a bigger update 15.0.20.
No new expression maps features added.
There are still features needed like:
Curious if we may see additional legato settings too.
