Expression Maps for Cubase
These are some Cubase expression maps (articulations) I put together for myself for Vienna Symphonic Library.
VSL has official expression maps that you may want to check out first. I am still making my own because I am more ambitious in that I am making an effort to cover huge amounts of articulations such as are found in the Full presets of Solo Strings (aside from scale runs). Note that this can result in so many articulations that in Cubase you either need a vertical or 4K monitor in order to be able to work with the articulation maps in the Key Editor, or else drag to expand and contract the key editor every time you want to view/edit articulations.
These are time consuming to make so if I can help others avoid having to do this, I am happy to share with no strings attached. If you're really grateful for this, you can buy me a coffee.
Mostly for programmers at this point, and it is still partially a manual process and only automates a few things, like mass-transposing, or automated articulation names: cubase-expression-map-editor
More or less done enough for me: BBO, VI SE. My next focus: Solo Strings, Strings Pro, Elite Strings, and any BBO I'm missing.
I've done more than this status table indicates, but best to assume the worst.
| Series | Instrument | Size | Status | Test % | Comment/Priority | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SY | BBO Altair | (Delete all but one slot in 1st column) | ✅ | |||
| SY | BBO Andromeda | ✅ | ||||
| SY | BBO Andromeda Con Sordino | ✅ | ||||
| SY | BBO Black Eye | 0% | ||||
| SY | BBO Capricorn | |||||
| SY | BBO Dorado | ❔❔❔ | ||||
| SY | BBO Eridanus | |||||
| SY | BBO Fornax | |||||
| SY | BBO Ganymeade | ✴ | ||||
| SY | BBO Hercules | Low brass | ✅ | |||
| SY | BBO Izar | ✴ | ||||
| SY | BBO Jupiter | ✅ | ||||
| SY | BBO Kopernicus | ✅ | ||||
| SY | BBO Lyra | ✅ | (needs group conformity) | |||
| SY | BBO Musca | ✅ | (needs group conformity) | |||
| SY | BBO Neptune | |||||
| SY | BBO Orion | Flute | ||||
| SY | BBO Orion | Oboe | ||||
| SY | BBO Orion | Clarinet | ||||
| SY | BBO Orion | Bassoon | ||||
| SY | BBO Phoenix | |||||
| SY | BBO Quasar | |||||
| SY | BBO Regulus | |||||
| SY | BBO (S through X) | (See Strings Pro instead) | N/A | |||
| SY | BBO Ymir | Children's choir | ✴✴ | |||
| SY | BBO Zodiac | 1st Violins | 30 | ✅ | ||
| SY | BBO Zodiac | 2nd Violins | 26 | ⇧ | ||
| SY | BBO Zodiac | Violas | 20 | ⇧ | ||
| SY | BBO Zodiac | Cellos | 22 | ✅ | ||
| SY | BBO Zodiac | Double basses | 14 | ✅ | ||
| SY | BBO Zodiac | All Strings | 112 | |||
| SY | BBO Zodiac | Horns | 12 | ✅ | ||
| SY | BBO Zodiac | Trombones | 9 | ✅ | ||
| SY | BBO Zodiac | Epic Legato | ✅ | |||
| SY | Brass | Trumpet I, II | 1 | ✅ | ||
| SY | Brass | 4 Trumpets | 4 | ✅ | ||
| SY | Brass | 6 Trumpets | 6 | ✅ | ||
| SY | Brass | Horn I, II | 1 | ✅ | ||
| SY | Brass | 6 Horns | 6 | ✅ | ||
| SY | Brass | 12 Horns | 12 | ✅ | ||
| SY | Brass | Tenor trombone | 1 | ✅ | ||
| SY | Brass | Tenor trombones | 4 | ✅ | ||
| SY | Brass | Trombones | 9 | ✅ | ||
| SY | Brass | Bass trombone | 1 | ✅ | ||
| SY | Brass | Low Brass: 5pl. (4 BTb+Tu) | 5 | ✅ | To setup: delete inapplicable articulations in first column | |
| SY | Brass | Low Brass: 5 players + CTu | 6 | ✅ | To setup: delete inapplicable articulations in first column | |
| SY | Brass | Low Brass: 6 player clusters | 6 | |||
| SY | Brass | Low Brass: Reg FX clusters | 6 | |||
| SY | Brass | Cimbasso | 1 | ✅ | ||
| SY | Brass | Bass tuba | 1 | ✅ | ||
| SY | Brass | Giant tutti brass | 28 | ✅ | ||
| SY | Duality Strings | 1st Violin | 14 | 0% | ||
| SY | Duality Strings | 2nd Violin | 12 | ⇧ | ||
| SY | Duality Strings | Viola | 10 | ⇧ | ||
| SY | Duality Strings | Cello | 10 | 0% | ||
| SY | Duality Strings | Double bass | 6 | 0% | ||
| SY | Duality Strings | Tutti compressed | 52 | 0% | ||
| SY | Duality Strings | Tutti full | 52 | |||
| SY | Duality Strings | Octaves | 52 | |||
| SY | Elite Strings | 1st Violin | 6 | 92% | missing some sustains | |
| SY | Elite Strings | 2nd Violin | 5 | ⇧ | ||
| SY | Elite Strings | Viola | 4 | ⇧ | ||
| SY | Elite Strings | Cello | 4 | ✅ | ||
| SY | Elite Strings | Double bass | 3 | ✅ | ||
| SY | Elite Strings | Tutti compressed | 22 | 90% | needs slur | |
| SY | Elite Strings | Tutti full | 22 | |||
| SY | Elite Strings | Octaves | 22 | |||
| SY | Strings Pro | 1st Violins | 14 | ✅ | ||
| SY | Strings Pro | 2nd Violins | 10 | ⇧ | ||
| SY | Strings Pro | Violas | 8 | ⇧ | ||
| SY | Strings Pro | Cellos | 8 | ✅ | ||
| SY | Strings Pro | Double basses | 6 | ✅ | ||
| SY | Strings Pro | Tutti full range | ||||
| SY | Strings Pro | Tutti compressed range | ||||
| SY | Strings Pro | Octaves | ||||
| SY | Drums | Bass Drum - Lefima 28 | 1 | ✅ | ||
| SY | Drums | Roto Toms | 1 | ✅ | ||
| SY | Drums | Taikos | 1 | ✅ | ||
| SYd | Solo Strings | Violin I F | 1 | 98% | 14% | see notes‡ |
| SYd | Solo Strings | Violin II F | 1 | 0% | ✴ | |
| SYd | Solo Strings | Viola F | 1 | 97% | (needs review, missing CC3 vibrato support) | |
| SYd | Solo Strings | Cello F | 1 | 97% | (needs review, missing senza/con sordino, missing CC3 vibrato support) something is occupying C4 | |
| SYd | Solo Strings | Double bass F | 1 | 97% | (missing CC3 vibrato support) | |
| SYd | Woodwinds | (all) | ✅ | |||
| SYd | Woodwinds | Alto flute | 1 | ✅ | ||
| SYd | Woodwinds | Flute ensemble | 3 | ✅ | ||
| SYd | Woodwinds | Bass flute | 1 | ✅ | ||
| SYd | Woodwinds | Oboe d'amore | 1 | ✅ | ||
| SYd | Woodwinds | Oboe ensemble | 3 | ✅ | ||
| SYd | Woodwinds | Heckelphone | 1 | ✅ | ||
| SYd | Woodwinds | Clarinet Eb | 1 | ✅ | ||
| SYd | Woodwinds | Basset horn | 1 | ✅ | ||
| SYd | Woodwinds | Clarinet ensemble | 3 | ✅ | ||
| SYd | Woodwinds | Bassoon ensemble | 3 | ✅ | ||
| SYd | Woodwinds | Contrabass Clarinet | 1 | ✅ | ||
| SYd | Dimension Strings | Violin | 8 | 50% (wip) | ✴✴✴ | |
| SYd | Dimension Strings | Viola | (violins first) | |||
| SYd | Dimension Strings | Cello | (violins first) | |||
| SYd | Dimension Strings | Bass | (violins first) | |||
| SYd | Appassionata Strings | Violin | 20 | ❔❔❔ | ||
| SYd | Appassionata Strings | 2nd Violin | 20 | |||
| SYd | Appassionata Strings | Viola | 14 | |||
| SYd | Appassionata Strings | Cello | 12 | |||
| SYd | Appassionata Strings | Double bass | 10 | ✅ | ||
| SYd | Appassionata Strings | all | ||||
| Smart | Smart Hits | |||||
| Smart | Smart Spheres | |||||
| SYd | Special Edition Plus | Orch. violins | 14 | ❔❔❔ | ||
| SYd | Special Edition Plus | Orch. violas | 10 | ❔❔❔ | ||
| SYd | Special Edition Plus | Orch. cellos | 8 | 60% | up to tremolo articulation | |
| SYd | Special Edition Plus | Orch. double basses | 6 | 0% | needs transpose from cellos | |
| SYd | Special Edition | T'bone c-bass | ❔❔❔ | |||
| SYd | Special Edition | ... | ||||
| VI | Special Edition | Trombone Ensemble | ❔❔❔ | |||
| VI | Special Edition | ... | ||||
| SY | BBO Andromeda Free | ❔❔❔ |
Not supported:
- Scale runs (not worth it?)
- VelXF: change from CC2 to CC1
- Legato: change vibrato control from CC1 to C0 (whole notes)
- F - Full (for solo strings, as opposed to basic)
- SE - Special Edition
- SY Synchron - recorded for Synchron player
- SYd Synchronized - recorded for Vienna Instruments and converted for Synchron player
- SYE - Synchron Elite Strings
- SYP - Synchron Strings Pro
- VI - Vienna Instruments
It can be tricky and there are tradeoffs.
I use only use directions, no attributes.
I try to be complete with articulations so that there is a one to one mapping between Cubase articulation and VSL articulation, even though this is a very large number of articulations. Exception:
- Dimension strings: player selection
- (primary articulation or articulation family)
- long
- short
- attack
- normal (TODO: rename all normal2's to normal, since there is never any normal in group 1)
- release
- layers
- fff
- without fff
- soft
If you want to discuss, contact me via email, create a github issue, or start a thread on VSL forums.
- My standards shifted a bit while I made these. So standardize my names for articulation/direction and slot names. (Look at VSL's names.)
- Order all the directions in a sensible way (use the typical ordering within Synchron Player)
- My Cubase version: 12.0.40