cubase 15, expression maps

Cubase
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Bug Report: Expression Maps Reset to Default Articulation During Playback

Cubase Version: 15.0.21
OS: Windows
Setup: Cubase 15 → Vienna Ensemble Pro (VEP) → Orchestral Libraries (Orchestral Tools)

Description:
Expression Maps randomly and consistently reset to the first sound slot (default articulation) during MIDI playback. This makes orchestral composition with multiple articulations completely unreliable.

Steps to Reproduce:

  1. Create a MIDI track with an Expression Map assigned (using keyswitch triggers)
  2. Write MIDI notes with different articulation keyswitches across the timeline (e.g. Long, Legato, Spiccato)
  3. Press Play
  4. Result: After triggering any articulation, Cubase resets back to the first sound slot (default) within approximately 1 second, ignoring all subsequent keyswitch events written in the MIDI data

Additional observations:

  • The issue occurs regardless of playback position (beginning or middle of the project)
  • The issue occurs both during playback and when stopped (manually triggering articulations from a physical MIDI controller also resets to default after ~1 second)
  • The issue affects ALL Expression Maps across ALL tracks in the project
  • Latch Mode is enabled in the Expression Map editor
  • The MIDI track is empty (no conflicting MIDI events)
  • The problem does NOT exist in Cubase 14 with identical Expression Maps and setup
  • The issue persists after updating to Cubase 15.0.21

Important distinction:
This is NOT the known issue related to external controllers sending Note-On without Note-Off. The keyswitches are written directly into the MIDI data of the project itself, and Cubase is ignoring them during playback.

Expected behavior:
Articulations should remain on the selected sound slot until a new keyswitch event is read, exactly as it worked in Cubase 14.

Impact:
This bug makes orchestral composition with Expression Maps completely unusable in Cubase 15.

2

Many have reported this bug for years, one way to work around it is to add another articulation as default, drag it to the top and don’t have any note or cc associated with it, I learned that fro Art Conductor.

3

Your reproduction steps do not reproduce it on my end, which I’m not surprised by because I would have noticed this before. If this problem you are experiencing was widespread and was such a broad easy-to-reproduce bug there would be a lot of reports about it.

The slots resetting to default even when stopped and you just trigger the slot and it goes back to default one second later after triggering it sounds like it might be some kind of MIDI issue where you have note-on’s coming from a different source on your system, triggering the default slot. Or a malfunctioning control surface of some kind. Or perhaps you somehow have duplicate MIDI data being sent. The new multi-client functionality in Windows 11 allows multiple applications to use the same MIDI devices simultaneously, which opens up possibilities for potential loops if conditions are right. I would try to simplify your setup and eliminate MIDI devices or MIDI loopbacks as possible causes.

It is supposed to return to the default slot after an articulation of type “attribute” if no other lanes in other groups are active and another note is encountered. With directions it should remain on the direction, unless a manual “reset” was added which is probably not the case here. Also this shouldn’t happen by itself after a one second delay when things are stopped and you trigger the articulation and one second later it goes back.

Although I don’t know what you mean by “keyswitch event”. You shouldn’t have loose keyswitches in the MIDI data when you are using expression maps. It is an either-or thing, either you are using expression maps to send keyswitches or you aren’t using expression maps at all and you have loose keyswitches instead.

There’s also a new behaviour to be aware of where expression map slots have a toggle behaviour. Sending the note-on note-off combo as a trigger will turn the slot on, but then sending it again will turn the slot off and go back to the default one. So if there is for some reason a duplication of the MIDI messages that activate the slot, the second one would toggle the slot off causing a return to the default slot.

Can you upload a simple project that illustrates the problem?

@Vicken no that’s something different, and it is not a bug, although there were some bugs with the expression maps in previous Cubase versions where things were not always happening the way they should. The maps have always been supposed to return to the default slot when no notes have any other applicable articulations (ex. you have an attribute articulation and then you have a note that doesn’t have one). A lot of people incorrectly assumed it was a bug over the years because the first slot wasn’t really well documented as the default slot and as special. There were some actual bugs in previous versions with the handling of the default slot that have been fixed in 15.