I’m getting back to using expression maps after not having used them for some time. It’s humbling that the old brain has to go over territory that it navigated before.
I’ve read all the post about expression maps and altho I didn’t find one with this exact question answered, I believe they do cover this point. But I just want to confirm it in case I’m missing something:
I would like to use maps with Kontact multis, where a number of related instruments (eg, various Chris Hein Horns) are loaded in one Kontact instance and use different MIDI channels. What I believe I am finding is that this config and all the horn parts in a single instrument track will not work with a single expression map with no MIDI channel specified. The map seems to default to MIDI channel 1 and works for that instrument but not the others.
I saw a raino post that suggested to me that if you want a single map to work for this, you must enter each artic with all every desired channel specified. This make the map pretty long but I guess the alternative is to use multiple Kontact instances?
Am I understanding this correctly? Than you!
Yes, you set the midi channel per keyswitch/articulation in the output section. If I’m understanding you correctly.
Yes, except there is a tool folks here created that makes building complex maps much easier. I don’t have the link at hand, but search the forum for it.
Thanks Mahlon. On the assumption that was the needed approach I went ahead and built a big expression map with the same set of artics duplicated for channels 1,2, etc in the output section, as you describe. But interestingly when I tried to use it on a Kontact player instrument track with the combined MIDI data for the various horns in the multi, it wouldn’t work. Can’t figure out why, as the data fires the multi instruments fine with no map loaded, but when I load the map, only the channel 1 instrument sounds. Maybe I need to split the parts into separate MIDI tracks routed to Kontact? Anyway, that’s not your problem to solve, so don’t sweat it. Happy music making!
KHARMA
Ken Anderson
Yes found that tool, thanks. If I understand it correctly, it appears to export as xml. Is that format the native one for expression maps or do you have to convert somehow?
Yes, they just load as xml files. Most things in Cubase are xml.
@KHARMA do you want to use multis because the different articulations of one instrument is spread out accross multiple different patches?
Or do you want to use this for polyphonic writing? So that you have 4 times the same Horn patch on one Instrument Track, so you can play chords, and then decide, using the Midi Channel of each note, which Horn gets to play that note?
In case you’re trying to do the latter, I would advise you to not attempt to fix this using expression maps, but with a Kontakt multiscript instead (though you need the full version of Kontakt for this).
Hey Joshua,
Thanks for your input. Sorry I’m not really following your question, but it may be more the latter, tho unfortunately I only have Kontact Player anyway.
With Chris Hein Horns I can load four different horns in one instance of Kontact. They all use the same keyswitches for their various artics. Based on input raino and others have provided, I’ve built a single expression map with each horn’s artics assigned a separate MIDI channel in the output section. I can specify any artic for any horn using this one map. I like this approach because I can see all the horn parts in one track and don’t have to separate them either by instrument or by sustain, staccato, etc., articulation, as is common for some classical libraries. Your approach may well be a better option, but this does work for me.
Hey thanks for this and the earlier reply. You’re such a great help to so many people on the forum. I built the map I had in mind for 4 Chris Hein Horns and it’s working great. I have my horns in a Kontact multi, all my parts in one instrument track by MIDI channel, and can freely assign any artic to any note.
The problem I’m worried about, is that Cubase Expression Map will only output CC data on one channel at a time. So if you have 2 notes (on 2 different midi channels) playing at the same time, only one of the instruments that are playing will get the relevant CC information.
This might not be a problem for you, depending on how the VSTs works and how you intend to use them. But be aware of this.
Thanks for the alert on this possible problem. Expression maps have such theoretical potential but the more you work with them the more it feels like they need a thorough overhaul.