What are VST Expression Maps and How to Use Them | Music Production for Beginners

This music production for beginners video looks at what are VST expression maps and how to use them. VST expression maps are important for making VST instruments sound natural in music production because things like, for example, a violin in HALion Symphonic Orchestra, have key switches which represent articulations like legato, tremolo, staccato and pizzicato - different styles and expressions that a good violinist would play. Using the key switches, it’s not always practical to play these live in Cubase while recording the instrument. So mastering how to use VST expression maps means you will be able to enter them after the melody has been recorded, creating really convincing, natural-sounding MIDI instrument recordings.

We hope you find this video entertaining and useful. If you like what you see, please leave a comment and tell us what you think. Thank you.
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[MyOwnWayMusic]

After years of using Cubase Pro I never knew about VX till today.. Pulldown Strings and Brass is great.. Thank you for a good tutorial.. It's a big thumbs up !!

[tonyodoherty]

This is helpful....but how about the good old phrase “have listen to what happens when I enter....etc, ” then play an example without talking over it? I thought there was too much talking without clearly audible examples of the actual part being used. It felt like a rather rushed explanation of expression maps...helpful, but not as helpful or clear as it could of been....

[chizzulwinduh]

It'd be easier to hear what you're doing if you didn't talk all over the music or it was at least louder.

[fingerhorn]

For those without the expensive full Cubase version (the lower versions do not have expression mapping) it is still easy: In your key editor, paint in the articulation key as illustrated in the sample's key array. For example in this video's loaded sample the articulations are triggered using the keys A-1 to A0. Paint a quaver or other note value just before the point where you want the articulation and that expression will sound. You can create a SEPARATE track with the same channel just containing the articulation trigger notes.

[alexjevincent]

I appreciate that you've called out the basics on this feature, but I think this conflating complexity with usability. I have made plenty of simple and complicated expression maps and it is in principle easy to understand, but the interface and user experience of editing them is the reason people don't use the feature it in my opinion.

As examples: the window is frustratingly small and doesn't scale correctly, especially the output mapping; the difference between direction and attribute is not explained; the layering of different articulations in up to 4 articulations is not explained; there is no ability to copy and paste; there is no explanation that the first articulation slot in the map is the default and is reverted to; the slot does not rename automatically, unless it is empty; that the output mapping window sends the MIDI data out in an unexplained order. Also what do the colours even do? There doesn't seem to be any reflection of setting them in the expression map in any editor.

The feature needs some love. It really needs to be using some inheritance and overrides rather than this method of defining the exact interaction of MIDI data for every combination.

Additional requests would be to define the length addition in ms, rather than % (which is really odd), adding more symbols.

[Aleksandr-youtube]

Talking too much, can't hear the example of expression in action

[phillipbowermusic]

This was VERY helpful. It was exactly what I needed to get my orchestral compositions a level further. Thank you

[joshouseymusic]

You just answered alot of questions i had regarding the use of expression maps in Halion sonic se, thanks heaps!!Keep these turtorials coming🙏

[anishmohant]

Do you have a problem letting us hear the music alone for a second?

[louisrmusic]

This is one of the many half baked features of Cubase.
We are supposed to be able to create our own expression “maps” (this isn’t just for showing the articulations in the key editor and switching them in a convenient way…), but unfortunately this is still not working in 2022.
In the Output Mapping section, we can set multiple articulation keyswitches for a single Slot, and sort them by velocity so that it plays a certain articulation between let’s say 0 to 20, another articulation between 21 to 50, etc. This is what the Data 2 column is for when the lane is set to Note On.
And for some reason this doesn’t work at all, only the topmost output lane takes effect regardless of the velocity.
And not to mention that the Expression Map window itself is badly made : super tiny add/remove buttons, text is cropped, value fields are buggy, and the output mapping cannot even be linked with the slots (create a lane with the same keyswitch automatically).
I’m sorry but to me this is currently one of the most badly designed part of Cubase, if not the worst. I hope this will be greatly improved in Cubase 13.

[sekritskworl-sekrit_studios]

Begin before the note?

Are you saying that "chase MIDI" functions won't work for key switching?

[largelysubatomic]

Feature only available in the Pro version of Cubase

[SamuelTornqvist]

Thanks for this vid. I have looked into VST expressions a bit, and I find that unfortunately it doesn't save you that much time and hence I don't use it. It does help with scoring though, if you don't want the keyswitches in your score. (if you use the midi data for the scoring, that is).
Otherwise the setup procedure, creating a map from scratch. and editing the midi track takes longer than just recording the keyswitches as you go. And a map mostly only works with one instrument anyway, because most patches instruments and patches are laid out differently, and even different maps has to be applied to different patches in the same instrument.

Another more advanced problem is that most high end samples don't work well when triggered exactly on the dot (grid), but often need to be triggered a bit before the beat. This makes it a hassle when using maps since they work better if they are following the grid, especially if you have a lot of quick changes. At least I don't see it a more optimized way than just using keyswitches.

I like the idea though, and have tried quit a bit to make it work. I am wondering how this could be applied in a better way so that it will help the workflow?

My solution is to map the keyswithes to a controller so that they follow a similar pattern, so that the controller is always laid out the same way, making workflow faster. Perhaps editing each instrument so that their keyswitches follow the same pattern in the expressions could be a solution. In any case, you need some work to set it all up.

[Ahmad-Mounir]

I find drawing articulation notes in piano roll is even faster than spending insane amount of time building expression maps for each library.

[FireFy]

Can you add the ability to switch articulations and all these expressions depending on the color of notes, like in the BRSO Articulate? Instead of having to paint in this huge expression map window. That would be 10 times more convenient!

[NeverBackMusic]

There is a way to do something similar with articulation when the instrument doesn't have keyswitch? By loading different articulation?

[Kongen]

So after hours of not getting this... is it because i have Cubase 11 elements? It just dont have the feature built in?

[LeeGee]

Very helpful, thanks. Can these be applied to multiple tracks at once, or at least copied-and-pasted?

[WarrenPostma]

Something this VIDEO DOES NOT POINT OUT is that there are already pre-built expression maps for most of the popular orchestral libraries out there.

Sadly UVI WORKSTATION's ORCHESTRAL SUITE is not among those, but building your own doesn't take that long.

[LindaMissad]

very cool, I wonder if this will work with EW Samples that have key switches