Let me ask this…is your articulation keyswitch above the instrument range or below? Either way, I think VST Expression may be trying to nudge the keyswitch slightly ahead of the actual note it’s associated with to make sure it is recognized, yet at 1.1.1.0, it has nowhere to go.
The problem here is that MIDI can only send one message at the exact same time. This goes back to the MIDI standard. If you know a little about electricity, you’ll understand why two MIDI messages cannot exist on the same MIDI wire at the exact same time, though with a modern MIDI standard built around modern technology there might be a way around somethng like this. MIDI is something like 30 years old. To work around the non-simultaneous-note restriction, even if notes are on the same exact beat, or exact same point in MIDI, in Cubase the note-on messages of lower notes occur before upper notes, just very, very slightly.
It has always been that in Cubase, if you play a key switch above the instrument range at the same time as a note in the instrument range, the note will not recognize the key switch, because the keyswitch occurs very slightly afterwards. I think it’s even the reverse in Reaper, where the upper notes occur first. Every host that has to send MIDI probably has to do this. Certainly hardware expects this, and I wouldn’t doubt that VST instruments are coded to expect MIDI notes never to be exactly simultaneous.
Before articulation maps, keyswitches that occur above the instrument note range had to be physically placed before the actual notes they would affect. Pain in the rear.
Along came articulation/expression maps in Cubase 5, and this nearly took care of the whole problem. When your articulation is associated to the note, it takes care of playing the keyswitch a little before the note when the keyswitches occur above the instrument range. The only problem is when you have a note at 1.1.1.0. Cubase can’t nudge it forward and play the keyswitched note before that point, so the articulation does not trigger.
The real answer to the problem here is to never start a song on 1.1.1.0.
I never do. It can be problematic for a number of reasons other than this IMO, many involving negative delays or offsets like this.
Select all, including a tempo track, if you have any changes. Slide everything right a couple measures. You’re done.
Oh, also, when I export, I never export starting exactly at the beginning of the song. I’d expect similar issues in that case, though I can’t be sure, since I’ve literally never tried it.