There must be a way to make a flute sound natural without buying a new $$$ VST.
I want every long-lasting note to fade out instead of end sharply. Any ideas how I can do this without breaking each note up into its one area?
Draw in cc7 into the midi to fade out. You can do this in key edit at the bottom. Choose cc7 from the left drop down which will probably set at velocity. You can then draw in a fade.
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Or use expression volume (CC11) if you want the fade to be ‘relative’ to the master volume (CC7).
PS, you might also try using the ADSR controls in Sonic:
It is possible to right click these controls and ‘learn’ a MIDI CC to adjust them in real time with CC lanes in your tracks. It’s also possible to adjust them directly with VST automation lanes. Of course you can also do this for the other controls in the Plugin…plus the 8 quick controls across the bottom also have standard remote control definitions that should ‘always work’.
Alternatively, you can make multiple 'articulations in different ‘instrument slots’ for variations on attack/release/vibrato (mod wheel), etc.
To swap articulations just go to a fresh track pointing to the articulation you want. Or, set up an ‘expression map’ to channel bounce in real time.
If you spread it across different tracks, it’s not hard at all to later ‘freeze’ the track and move all the parts to a single track with the channel output set to ‘any’ (to channel bounce from a single track).
It’s also an option to just punch the stuff onto the same track, and later lasso passages/notes you want to use a different channel, and change them all together to a different channel by typing it in up in the event line near the top of the screen.
Also, if you use the score editor, it’s easy to set up ‘voices’ in a single track. You can change the voice/channel before entering the passage and it’ll use a different MIDI channel.
Another advantage to the score editor is hair-pin dynamics. You don’t have to keep drawing the basic shape (I.E. CC11 ramps and curves) over and over on controller lanes for sfz/gradual dymaics/etc. Use those symbols and Cubase can interpretively play them. You can also have the Score Editor ‘hard code’ those changes in CC form (an option somewhere in the main Score Editing Menu).
To teach Cubase to ‘interpret’ score symbols, like staccato, accents, slurs, hair-pins, etc…you’ll read up on ‘expression maps’. You can give those sorts of score marks ‘default behaviors’. Later have the Score Editor put in the actual MIDI events, disable the expression map, and then precision tune the CCs from there in the Key Editor.
For repetitive stuff, you can also tap into the Logical Editors. I.E. Increase the velocity on all notes living withing 20ms of the First and Third beats by 10%. Time shift all all the stuff near the upbeats for a swing feel, etc. The Logical Editor can save you all kinds of time when you want to do ‘conditional’ edits to lots of events in one pass (not having to do it all one note/event at the time via mouse).
I.E.
If event = note
insert a CC11 event at the same tick, with the same value as the note number.
Result would be: Passage gets a little louder as the instrument plays higher notes, gets a little softer as it plays lower notes.
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Wow, I had no idea I could do it this way. Thanks so much for your insight.
I’m surprised I wouldn’t choose CC2 for breath though.
You could try CC2 to see if the flute responds to it. I don’t think the Basic and Artist sounds for HALion SE do CC2 out of the box. There might be a way to force it to accept that in lieu or addition to CC11.
Again, if you keep MIDI Automation in the MIDI parts (as opposed to on VST automation lanes), MIDI/Logical Editor makes it fast and easy to quickly ‘convert’ or ‘copy’ a CC from one thing to another.
Say you’ve imported something from an old project that used an instrument that did use CC2, but now you want to use it for one that supports CC11 expression volume but not CC2. Just right click the track’s controls area in main project view, choose select all events (all the parts on the track get selected). Open MIDI/Logical Editor, and build a quick condition set to ‘transform’ all CC2 events into CC11.
You can also ‘transform’ stuff in real time as it comes into a track, or even post track with MIDI insert transformers. I.E. Say you have an actual breath controller that’s transmitting CC2 events on channel 4, but you need it to be sending CC11 on channel 1 instead. You could do it with the real time transformers. You get 4 global or local transformers per track (see track inspector where it can be toggled on/off and set up). You can also run an additional 4 MIDI Transformers per track as track inserts (again in track inspector). The condition sets in these work like the Logic Editors.
Oh no, I am not familiar with MIDI Automation 
Oh, I did forget that it’s not hard to copy and move it if stored VST lanes as well.
Can click to select the lane in the control area. Do right click, choose select all events.
From there you can ‘copy or cut’ and ‘paste’ it to a new lane.
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