Since upgrading from Cubase 5, there’s still so many things I’m trying to get my head around in 8.
Note Expression.
If I draw a curve (CC1) in the Note Expression box for a particular note, will the final value of that curve apply to all subsequent notes until another change? That’s the behaviour I’m seeing, although I can’t seem to find anything on that point in the manual.
Also how do Note Expression and Controller Lanes relate to each other?
If I set a default CC1 at, say, 65 at the start of each track, what will happen if I then draw a Note Expression curve for a note that specifies different values?
Similarly, what if there’s nothing in the controller lane, I draw a few CC1 curves in Note Expression for a series of notes, and THEN I draw a broad CC1 curve in a Controller Lane over the same sequence of notes?
Yes, it will continue. You need to add an end point (zero) at the end of that Note Expression window. I think I put in a request for a command to accomplish that automatically… have to wait and see if it ever happens, though
Also how do Note Expression and Controller Lanes relate to each other?
If I set a default CC1 at, say, 65 at the start of each track, what will happen if I then draw a Note Expression curve for a note that specifies different values?
Similarly, what if there’s nothing in the controller lane, I draw a few CC1 curves in Note Expression for a series of notes, and THEN I draw a broad CC1 curve in a Controller Lane over the same sequence of notes?
Thanks!
For MIDI CCs as Note Expression, it is really only the graphical interface that is any different from using “regular” MIDI CCs… the data is still just an ordinary MIDI CC (i.e. it will play back the same as if the Note Expression were on the regular CC lane). Therefore, if you do also have that same CC in a regular CC lane, it will combine with whatever is in the individual Note Expression windows…
So, for example…
If at the start of the MIDI Part, you have a CC#1=65 event in the regular CC#1 CC lane, and then, sometime during the next played note (let’s say, after that note has been playing for about a quarter-note), you enter some CC#1 as Note Expression data (let’s say that curve starts at CC#1=0), then the note will start with CC#1=65, then, after that quarter-note length, it will jump to CC#1=0, when it reaches the start of the Note Expression curve.
So you’re saying that the CC information in Note Expression takes precedence over Controller Lane values?
I’m guessing that because in your example there would be a point where Note Expression is at 0 yet simultaneously there is the Controller Lane level of 65, and you say the note will jump to 0.
Am I understanding you correctly?
How then does that behaviour combine with my other point about all subsequent notes being at the level last specified in the Note Expression curve?
Using your example if the Note Expression is 0 for its full duration, will subsequent notes be at 0, or will it jump back to the Controller lane level of 65?
I think we first need to clarify one point …
A CC# event has no length… it is a single event, whose value will be maintained until another value of that same CC# takes its place.
I was saying that the CC data (i.e. the individual CC#1 values) is read sequentially, wherever it came from
If you didn’t write any Note Expression data until a quarter-note into the note in question, then the CC#1=65 would be active until that first Note Expression data (presumably, zero).
If, for example, that CC#1=0 were a “one off” event (without following it with a curve), and then, a quarter-note later than that, you had another CC#1 event (let’s say CC#1=32) in the CC lane, then the CC#1=32 would take over from the CC#1=0.
Ah, of course - they’re single events. A timely reminder - thanks Vic.
But this raises a detail you briefly mentioned earlier - the graphical interface.
Because as it is, and in light of your above clarification, in can be a bit misleading.
You can input a CC1 value of 65 in a Controller Lane right at the start of a project. It’s a single event but will display a graphical representation of that value’s continuation - the coloured horizontal bar. Any new subsequent inputs on that controller lane will then show a continuation of that new value.
But if you subsequently enter new CC1 data in Note Expression, that new value - though being active and audible - will not necessarily have any visual representation in the Controller Lane which will continue representing the last value entered there even though it no longer applies.
That is quite correct, and, far from being obtuse… acute!
But if you think about it a bit further, the representation in the controller lane is probably most useful as it stands now… it won’t change if you then delete a note that carries some Note Expression… and, if you really need to see what is current, just make sure you can see the controller lane and the note’s Note Expression window simultaneously (a “straight line” in the controller lane, without any extra points on it, means there’s nothing new happening there )
