Porting Midi between Dorico and Cubase: Expression Maps

[jlucan]

Hi, I have seen videos and heard of friends enjoying the wonders of using Spitfire’s BBCSO in Dorico for playback and then being able to simply export midi, load it in Cubase and have it play back identically there as well with keyswitching active using the same expression map.

I have been trying to get this work in my Cubase template which has Spitfire Symphonic Strings (SSS) preloaded. Perhaps the issue is the complexity of my expression maps in Cubase. SSS has a ton of articulations so in my orchestral template each instrument, Violins 1 for example, has a Kontakt multi-instrument assigned to it with different midi channels specifying different sets of articulations. I also use UACC rather than midi notes for keyswitching because I like how you don’t have to playback a phrase before the key triggers. It works great in Cubase. No problems there.

I was hoping that I could simply load the same Kontakt multi in Dorico along with the same expression map. That didn’t work so then I built a new expression map in Dorico (using channel switching and UACC just like I do in Cubase) and got it working there. But now when I export that midi out of Dorico and into Cubase it doesn’t work in Cubase. The notes play but no keyswitching happens.

Do you think the problem lies in the channel switching or the UACC or both?Are those types of imported midi data not read into a Cubase channel when it has an expression map already preloaded? I’ve noticed in the list editor in Cubase that when you execute keyswitching with an expression map the switches are text commands like “arco” or “staccato” rather than midi specifications with channel and CC numbers.

Thanks so much for any help,

Josh

[ClendeningSound]

@jlucan ,

I’m very interested in doing this as well in Nuendo. Last I checked, it wasn’t possible, or fully supported, to import expressions maps from Dorico.

Dorico<->Cubase Expression Map Compatibility

MIDI and MusicXML are currently the only two options for transferring data from Dorico to Cubase. MIDI will include the keyswitches so that if you load the same plugin then it trigger the same articulations. However it won’t transfer the actual expression map. MusicXML won’t include any keyswitch data. If your workflow is to transfer to Cubase for general polishing up and mixing then MIDI is the best option. MusicXML is only worthwhile if you are transferring to another scoring package. Dori…

[jlucan]

Thanks so much for your reply! I guess the problem is the specificity of my expression maps and beyond simple midi note keyswitching the midi messages don’t map one to one from Dorico to Cubase and vice versa. Too bad! I hope they establish an interchangeable system at some point because the workflow would be so much faster for me.